What to See and Do
It is impossible to describe the many things to do and see in Boston and Cambridge. Among these highlights, you'll discover some of the city's most family-friendly attractions and activities. The Greater Boston Convention& Visitors Bureau Web site (
City Tours
For first-time visitors to Boston, a tour that provides an overview of the city's sights is a must. If you are traveling with older children, a walk along the Freedom Trail is the best way to experience Boston. If you are traveling with younger kids or have only a short time, several tour operators that will help you see the city's landmarks efficiently. Already familiar with Boston? Consider one of the specialty tours that will allow you to experience a unique aspect of the city.
The Black Heritage Trail
14 Beacon Street
617-742-5415
For a look at the history and life of Boston's nineteenth-century African-American community, walk the Black Heritage Trail, which features fourteen sites primarily in the Beacon Hill area. You can venture inside two of the sites, the African Meeting House and the Abiel Smith School. For a self-guided walking tour map and guide, contact the Museum of African American History. The National Park Service offers free guided trail walks daily from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend.
Boston By Foot
77 North Washington Street
617-367-2345
The city's oldest walking-tour company offers a variety of tours May through October including Boston By Little Feet, designed to accommodate young walkers, and Boston Underfoot, a look at Boston's subways, Big Dig, sewers, and other subterranean engineering feats. Reservations are not required.
TRAVEL TIP
Want to sightsee outside Boston without a car? Brush Hill Tours (781-986-6100 or 800-343-1328,
Boston Duck Tours
617-267-DUCK
If you want to see Boston's sights but aren't sure you have the time or the stamina to do a lot of walking, waddle over to the Prudential Center or the Museum of Science and book yourself on a Duck Tour. You'll tour Boston's roads and waters in a World War II-era amphibious vehicle — a “duck.” Your captain will point out famous landmarks as you motor through the streets of Boston and, once you've plunged into the Charles River, he might even let you take the wheel. Duck Tours are available from late March through late November.
The Freedom Trail
Information booth on Boston Common at Tremont Street
617-357-8300
Each year, about 3 million people follow the red line that links the sixteen most significant sites related to Boston's role in the American Revolution. If this is your first visit to Boston, walking the Freedom Trail is likely one of the first things you'll want to do. The trail can be blitzed through in about an hour if you're in a real hurry and don't plan to actually stop and look at anything. Your best bet, though, is to allow three hours or more to walk the trail at a leisurely pace and see all of its Revolutionary War landmarks.
FAST FACT
Seven of the sites along the Freedom Trail are part of the Boston National Historical Park (
While technically you can pick up the trail at any point, the best starting spot is the information booth at Boston Common. Here, you can pick up a map and brochure describing the trail sites. The two and one-half-mile trail is not a loop — it begins at Boston Common and ends in Charlestown at the Bunker Hill Monument. Admission to the sites along the trail is free with three exceptions: Paul Revere House, Old South Meeting House, and the Old State House. If you'd like to tour the Freedom Trail with a costumed guide, the Freedom Trail Foundation offers ninety-minute “Walk into History” tours daily from April through October; tickets may be purchased at the Boston Common information booth or online.
Old Town Trolley Tours
Ticket booth at Central Wharf and Milk Street
800-213-2474
Old Town offers hop-on, hop-off service that allows you to see major Freedom Trail sites, the New England Aquarium, Cheers Boston, Chinatown, and other attractions at your own pace. You can board at any stop. Old Town Trolley Tours is also famous for its Boston Chocolate Tours (
Family Amusements
Don't think for a minute that Boston is boring. It's not just a city teeming with museums and historic landmarks, it's a place to see lions, whales, and Swan Boats, too. When you're ready for a taste of adventure, these family attractions await.
Boston Bike Tours
617-308-5902
This tour company offers a number of casually paced, family-friendly guided outings. Bikes, helmets, and water are included in the cost of the tour.
Boston Harbor Cruises Whale Watch
Long Wharf
877-SEE-WHALE
Grab your binoculars and sunscreen and head out to sea from April through October on a memorable three-hour voyage, narrated by researchers from the Whale Center of New England. Whale sightings are guaranteed; if you don't see whales, you'll receive tickets for a future trip.
Boston Harbor Islands
617-223-8666
Hadn't thought of Boston as an island getaway? The Boston Harbor Islands, thirty-four islands off the coast of the capital city, were designated a National Park in 1996. Several of the islands are open to the public during the summer months and accessible by ferry from Boston's Long Wharf or South Boston's EDIC Pier. Ferry service is also available from South Shore departure points. Ferries are operated by Harbor Express (617-222-6999,
Boston Public Garden
Along Charles Street adjacent to Boston Common
617-723-8144
The Boston Public Garden is America's oldest botanical garden. Images of the pedal-powered Swan Boats (617-522-1966,
Franklin Park Zoo
One Franklin Park Road, Dorchester
617-541-LION
Lions, giraffes, and zebras call a seventy-two-acre park in Boston's Emerald Necklace park system “home.” Founded in 1913, Franklin Park Zoo is open year-round, although some animals are off view in the winter.
New England Aquarium
Central Wharf
617-973-5200
Watch three species of penguins at play in the 150,000-gallon Penguin Pool, see a whale skeleton, participate in hands-on activities at the Curious George Discovery Corner, visit a coral reef without donning scuba gear, see a colossal IMAX movie, and more at this popular family attraction. If you don't want to pay the aquarium's admission price, you can still see the free, outdoor harbor seal exhibit.
Tomb Boston
186 Brookline Avenue
617-375-9487
Located near Fenway Park, Tomb is an interactive adventure that's great for families with teens or tweens. Join a forty-five-minute expedition inside the Pharaoh's lair, where you'll need to work together to solve puzzles … or face the consequences.
Museums
Boston is home to museums that rival those found anywhere else in the world. Whatever your interests, you're likely to find a museum you'll want to visit.
Boston Children's Museum
300 Congress Street
617-426-8855
Founded in 1913 and renovated and expanded in 2007, this museum inspires the imaginations of young visitors through hands-on activities, live performances, and changing exhibits that focus on science, culture, health and fitness, and the arts.
Harvard University Museums
Harvard University in Cambridge is home to a bevy of museums. Start with the historic university's three art museums (32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, 617-495-9400). The Arthur M. Sackler Museum houses collections of ancient, Asian, Islamic, and later Indian art. Treasures include Chinese jades, bronzes, sculptures, and cave paintings; Korean ceramics; Japanese woodblock prints; Greek and Roman sculpture and vases; and ancient coins. The Busch-Reisinger Museum is the nation's only museum devoted to the arts of Central and Northern Europe, particularly the German-speaking countries. The Fogg Art Museum is Harvard's oldest art museum, focusing on Western art from the Middle Ages to the present. Among the high-lights are impressionist and post-impressionist works and the Boston area's most important collection of works by Picasso.
FAST FACT
Free campus tours of history-laden Harvard University leave from the Events & Information Center (Holyoke Center Arcade, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, 617-4951573,
While art museums may not be appropriate for young children, Harvard also has a Museum of Natural History (26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, 617-495-3045), comprised of a Botanical Museum, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Mineralogical and Geological Museum, where kids will be impressed by everything from the world's only mounted Kronosaurus — a forty-two-foot prehistoric marine reptile — to meteorites that they can touch.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
Columbia Point
866-JFK-1960
This museum celebrates the legacy and leadership of one of America's most celebrated twentieth-century presidents, Boston native John F. Kennedy. It is an ideal place for teenagers to learn about the 1960s through the words and deeds of America's youngest elected president.
MIT Museum
265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
617-253-4444
This museum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is home to the world's largest collection of holograms and other fascinating exhibits of science, technology, and the potential of the human mind.
TRAVEL TIP
Save money and see six of Boston's most popular attractions. Boston CityPass is available for purchase at any of the six participating locations: Harvard Museum of Natural History, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Science, the New England Aquarium, and the Skywalk Observatory. The CityPass price comes to about 50 percent of what the combined admission prices would be. For more information, call 888-330-5008 or visit
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
465 Huntington Avenue
617-267-9300
The Museum of Fine Arts is the largest art repository in New England. Its holdings include the largest collection of works by French impressionist Claude Monet outside France. Intriguing special exhibitions add to the museum's draw. Weekends are the best time for families to visit; look for the Family Place cart, where you can pick up art activities for kids ages four and up to take along on your museum tour.
Museum of Science
Science Park
617-723-2500
The city's most visited cultural institution has more than 550 interactive exhibits, an IMAX theater, and a planetarium. Each year, the museum also hosts phenomenal traveling and special exhibits that engage visitors of all ages. Allow at least a half-day — a full day if possible — to allow your children to explore everything from the human body to the solar system.
Shopping
Faneuil Hall Marketplace, aka Quincy Market, is probably Boston's best-known shopping area, and its location right on the Freedom Trail makes it a natural stop for visitors. Upscale fashion purveyors dominate the more than seventy-five shops, and you'll also find dozens of carts where you can buy eclectic souvenirs.
When you're ready to get off the trail and do some serious browsing and buying, head for one of the city's other hot shopping spots.
CambridgeSide Galleria
100 Cambridgeside Place
617-621-8666
This urban waterfront shopping mall is home to more than 120 stores: everything from the Apple Store to Yankee Candle Company. A free shuttle runs every twenty minutes from the MBTA Kendall Square T Stop to the CambridgeSide Galleria.
JUST FOR PARENTS
Charles Street on Beacon Hill is the city's premier hunting ground for antiques. Among the more than forty antique shops here is the Boston Antique Co-op (119 Charles Street, 617-227-9811,
Copley Place
2 Copley Place
617-369-5000
This shopping mall in the Back Bay has more than 100 stores including glamour leaders such as Neiman Marcus, Gucci, and Tiffany& Co.
Filene's Basement
426 Washington Street
617-348-7848
If you're a bargain stalker, you won't want to miss the original Filene's Basement at the Downtown Crossing. Nearly a century ago, Edward A. Filene devised a clever scheme to deal with unsold merchandise from his father's department store: He moved it to the basement and automatically discounted it every few weeks until it sold. Today, the Basement is often mobbed with shoppers, and yes, the store admits that especially good deals have ignited tugs of war.
Newbury Street
Along the Back Bay neighborhood's Newbury Street, which stretches from the Public Garden to Massachusetts Avenue, and, to a lesser extent, Boylston Street, a block away, you can drift in and out of fancy boutiques, clever gift shops, high-end jewelers, and galleries. Don't miss Kitty World (279 Newbury Street, 617-262-5489), a shop dedicated to all things Hello Kitty.
The Prudential Center
800 Boylston Street
800-SHOP-PRU
From 1965 until 1976, Boston's tallest building was the Prudential Center, or the Pru. Still one of the most recognizable landmarks in the Boston skyline, the building offers extensive shopping options on its bottom floors and, fifty floors up, a Skywalk Observatory (617859-0648,
Quincy Market
Off State Street
617-523-1300
When you reach Faneuil Hall on your Freedom Trail tour, visit neighboring Quincy Market, also known as the Faneuil Hall Marketplace. This always lively indoor/outdoor market is home to more than seventy-five shops, souvenir and flower carts, seventeen full-service restaurants and pubs, forty food stalls offering the flavors of Boston and the world, street performers, and even a Build-A-Bear Workshop (617-227-2478,
Sports
In Boston, sports are not a pastime; they are an obsession. While you're visiting the city where Bobby Orr skated, Larry Bird dominated, and the Curse of the Bambino was finally eradicated, try to tour a legendary sports venue or catch a game.
Fenway Park
4 Yawkey Way
877-REDSOX9
Completed in 1912, Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, is the oldest active baseball park in Major League Baseball. Guided tours are available daily on an hourly basis; tickets are sold on a walk-up basis at the Souvenir Store across Yawkey Way.
FAST FACT
You can use a credit card to purchase up to eight tickets for any home game by calling the Red Sox twenty-four-hour Touchtone Ticket System, 617-482-4SOX. Tickets can also be purchased online and printed at home or bought in person at the Red Sox Ticket Office, 4 Yawkey Way, weekdays from 10 A.M. until one hour after game time, or until 5 P.M. on non-game days. Many games are sellouts; purchase tickets well in advance.
Gillette Stadium
One Patriot Place, Foxborough
508-543-1776
Located south of Boston in Foxborough, Gillette Stadium seats 68,756 fans when the NFL's New England Patriots and Major League Soccer's New England Revolution are at home. The stadium also hosts other concert and sporting events. The ticket office is located in the northwest corner of the stadium; tickets for stadium events may also be reserved through Ticketmaster (617-931-2000,
The Sports Museum
TD Banknorth Garden, 100 Legends Way
617-624-1234
Remember great moments in New England sports as you view memorabilia at this museum, located inside the TD Banknorth Garden. There is an admission fee, and hours may vary based on events at the arena, so call ahead.
TD Banknorth Garden
100 Legends Way
617-624-1000
This 19,600-seat arena built in 1995 is home to the NHL's Boston Bruins and the NBA's Boston Celtics and hosts a variety of other sporting, music, and family events year-round. Purchase tickets via Ticketmaster (617-931-2000,
