Quite a few good things to do in Boston with kids and if if your kids like the outdoors and just running around letting off some steam, they’ll have a good time here. Indoors, probably one of the best things to do in Boston with kids is the Boston Children’s Museum. Remember to check out Toucan’s Map of Boston for all the locations below.
Boston Children’s Museum – Wasn’t expecting much here but was pleasantly surprised and our only regret was not going earlier as we arrived at 3pm on our last day and it closed at 5p.m. This was, by quite some way, one of the best things to do in Boston with kids we did, at least indoors. It’s massive, three floors of things to do, but probably only one floor of excellent stuff including one room dedicated to bubbles and another for rolling golf balls down pipes and neat courses. There’s load to do here, but if you’re looking for things to do in Boston with kids, don’t miss out on this.
New England Aquarium – Grobbler was a massive Jonathan Bird fan and he’d filmed some of his videos at the New England Aquarium. For this and other reasons, I was somehow expecting this to be one of the best things to do in Boston with kids but we found it a bit stink. Perhaps it’s because we’ve been to almost every aquarium in Asia and some of those are huge. Regardless, I thought it was quite small with not that many animals in there. Grobbler thought it was ok but we were done in about an hour and headed to the IMAX next door. We had a re-entry stamp to go back in but he didn’t want to. I guess if you’re in Boston you have to go, but I wouldn’t get too excited about and you should be fine. Most kids will be happy there and you could spend a few hours I think.
Boston Imax at New England Aquarium – We went to two of these shows, thankfully, because the first one – Great White Shark Encounter was disappointing to say the least. We went at 10am and there only about 5 people in the whole theatre! (Awesomeness!) This was like going back to the 80’s and watching your very first 3D movie. It wasn’t very 3D at all. The movie/documentary seemed old and instead of capturing some proper live footage, they tied a fake seal to the back of a boat and dragged it alone to get the Great White to jump out of the water and attack it. Compared to something like Blue Planet, this was rather amateurish not even considering how poor the 3D effects were. In the afternoon Grobbler wanted to go back to see Galapagos 3D. This was way better, but still missing a number of animals from the area and as a documentary, was pretty mediocre. The 3D was much better but still not the latest technology. Unless you’re really struggling for things to do in Boston with kids, there’s no need to rush here. The best thing about it is there’s not many people. For a rainy day it’ll be fine to waste an hour.
Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park – Small park near Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Not sure why it gets such high reviews. When we went early on a weekday morning there were quite a few homeless people in it. There’s a small playground for kids with a sand pit, some grass areas and not much else. If you’re passing by worth a quick look but unless you’re staying in the area, it’s not really worth going to. It’s near the Aquarium and Duck Tours so I guess if you have some time to waste check it out. There’s no need to put this on your list of things to do in Boston with kids
Boston Commons & Boston Public Garden – Boston Commons is a nice, but nothing that fantastic, park. There’s plenty of grassy areas to have a run around, picnic or lie down, walk the dog or whatever. Frog Pond is not much in summer, just a shallow (about a foot) depth and on Saturday they have a few dog and pet stalls around it. Loads of squirrels that let you get pretty close to them and that is probably the highlight for kids. Boston Public Garden across the road is also nice without being that fantastic. Lots of the grassed areas were closed with signs saying keep off. Not sure if that was temporary or permanent. This is where the Swan Boats are, but you can’t ride them yourself. Instead, about 20 people sit on while some poor bugger drives you around with pedal power. A lot of people waiting so we didn’t have a go and didn’t look that exciting anyway. If you have kids in need of running around, this is one of the must-do things to do in Boston with kids.
Boston Museum of Science – Yet another one of the top rated things to do in Boston with kids that was in all honesty pretty average. It’s old, in need of a renovation and doesn’t have that many exhibits or things to do inside. Grobbler gave it a 4/10 and said it wasn’t worth going to.
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