Mary Kate gave us excellent directions to the apartment, and she even stayed to greet us, despite our flight being delayed. She was immediately welcoming and told us the essentials, including some great tips about the neighbourhood. The apartment suited our needs and was just like it is in the photos, and Mary Kate was kind enough to leave us fruit, water and coffee/tea. The only negatives we found were the lack of a toaster/grill - with us not being the kind to have cooked breakfasts every day, this left us with just cereal. You also hear a lot of noise from people walking around in the apartment above, and we noticed people using the washing machine at 11.30pm which is just outside the apartment's back door so you can hear it quite loudly! 

Jamaica Plains is a very quiet neighbourhood, and if I'm honest, perhaps a little too quiet for what we wanted. That being said we had one of our best meals on the holiday at Tres Gatos, a brilliant tapas bar (where you must order the tortilla!) which is about a 15 minute walk away, thanks again to Mary Kate for recommending it. Whole Foods and the main shops are a good 15-20 min walk, and there's City Feed, a great little shop where you can pick up essentials and more about 5/10 mins away. Don't use the corner shop at the end of the road - we went once and everything we bought was out of date!! There are some great places at the local brewery, but unless we had been told about it we probably would have missed it! Jamaica Plains is a lovely quiet place to stay, but remember it is about 15-20 mins on the subway into downtown Boston which can become a bit tiresome when you have to make that journey over and over again. Having the subway station a mere 2 minute walk from the apartment is fantastic, though you can also hear it there too, but it didn't bother us too much. 

We had a great time in Boston, and Mary Kate and Javier's apartment served us well, and is exactly as described. I'd definitely recommend it if you're after a quiet place away from the bustle of the city.