Boston is loaded with family friendly activities, and these sites were helpful in choosing what to see: (I’ve updated these links as of April 2019; we traveled April 2014)
- TripAdvisor’s 3 days on Boston by Marina K. most helpful, with pics and ratings
- Santorini Dave’s: Boston with Kids: The 2018 Guide My favorite itinerary
- Smart Destinations: Boston Itinerary: 3 Days in Boston For First Timers
Our Top Things to do in Boston with Teen & Tween:
- Having a Tour Guide!!
- The Freedom Trail
- Mike’s Pastries
- Pellino’s Ristorante
- Museum Of Science
- Blue Man Group
- Harvard Square
- Walking Around
FAVORITE PLACE – NORTH END
Freedom Trail, Mike’s Pastries, Pellino’s
“Everything Cool is in the North End,” Cool Teenager.
The North End does rock and was our favorite, besides Cape Cod, but that’s not really Boston. North End includes a section of the Freedom Trail, including Paul Revere’s house, several churches, and many many plaques with historic info. But, what is most fun about North End is all the great food.
Our Favorite Food in the North End:
Lunch & Dinner: Pellino’s Ristorante
We ate here twice and really enjoyed the soup and the lobster ravioli!
Delicious! It’s also very close to Paul Revere’s House which is charming and informative.
Treats: Mike’s Pastry
Mike’s Pastry TripAdvisor Page
Excellent Lobster Tails! All is delish!
Freedom Trail
A big chunk of the Freedom Trail is in North End. You can walk it, bike it, take a cab. But the best way to see it is walking with a private tour guide. We hired a guide for 2 hours, which was NOT EVEN CLOSE to enough time.
There are several guided tour companies to choose from and while we waited for our guide to arrive, we saw several guides from different companies in the same place.
Some guides dress the part and some don’t.
Our guide, Andrew, dressed the part. He was very good. He asked what we wanted to accomplish in our time together, and we mapped out what was possible and most efficient.
Andrew started with several graveyards, and some fun info about President JF Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, and bought some hot roasted almonds.
The place of the Boston Massacre was interesting and Andrew explained many things we didn’t know about the area, the buildings and the Massacre, which wasn’t much of a massacre.
Oodles of History in Boston
The best advice I can give for an outsider coming to visit Boston: hire a guide! Per hour. Several days in a row. $65/hr. Next time I will plan a 6 hour tour with a guide.
It’s worth it. I’m not kidding, nor am I loaded with extra cash.
There’s oodles of history in Boston. Oodles. A plethora. Books and books worth.
In 3 days, we missed some of the most important sites on our “Must See” list. If we had hired a guide, we would have seen everything, we would have known at what we were looking and why AND had extra time to eat more cannolli in North End at Mike’s Pastry.
Our Favorite Indoor Fun – Boston’s Museum of Science
This museum was awesome and was requested as a SECOND DAY by our teen and tween!! That’s a HUGE endorsement!
Plus, they have reciprocity with our Natural History Museum so we got in FREE!! You can’t beat that!
There is lots to see here, so you can really dig in. The second floor was our favorite.
The giant GrassHopper exhibit is amazing, and the hands on options make this museum fun to kids and adults alike. I learned much I didn’t know, which is one of my favorite things about museums in the first place.
The Museum of Science is easy to find and quite close to the North End and the T or Boston’s subway.
If you are cold, the Museum of Science is a good place to be. The food was a solid B, which was also nice.
Blue Man Group
One night, we took the T and got to see the Blue Man Group. This was sooooo fun!! We got front row tickets, which I highly recommend. We got there a bit early, and sat down.
Because of where we were sitting, and because we were early, they chose us to be a part of the show, and gave me a purse to hold and hand to them when they asked. My kids were scared of what that might mean, but I agreed and happily played along.
It was a great show, very fast moving, energetic, funny and interactive. My kids were cracking up and smiling the entire time.
Later in the show, with a very gross part, they motioned for “my purse” and proceeded to throw up in it, then give it back to me. Yum. It was very funny, and my kids were just tickled to death MOM had to take the purse back. I would recommend this show!
We really enjoyed most of our family trip to Boston. For what we didn’t quite dig… see this other post How NOT to Visit Boston with Family.
