Top 5 Kid-Friendly Activities in Boston

You may not know it, but Massachusetts’s most populous city, our beloved Boston, has plenty of kid-friendly activities that mean your kids can spend a whole day learning new things while having the time of their lives. And, based on our experience, these activities are also fun for us adults, meaning they offer a perfect adventure for the whole family. In today’s post, we share our top five favorite kid-friendly activities in Boston, though be aware that choosing only one place to visit is nearly impossible.

Boston Children’s Museum

Located in the Fourth Point Channel and founded in 1913, the Boston Children’s Museum is the place to be if you want your kids to have a day filled with unlimited fun and tons of educational activities. The museum features a vertical maze called New Balance Climber, and your kids’ mission is to crawl and balance through this impressive two-story structure.

But that’s just the beginning, as one of the most famous and visited exhibitions is the bubbles room. As the name suggests, this is a room for kids to explore the wonderful world of bubbles by either trying to make a big and soapy one or surrounding themselves with a bubble wall. Other equally impressive exhibitions include the water playroom, where they can enjoy all sorts of water play activities; the kid power, a place where they can test their strength and perform major work; and the ramps room, a perfect exhibition to test gravity.

The best thing about this museum is that toddlers can also have supervised fun, as there’s a new room with all the necessary safety measures, cushions, and soft building pieces to entertain your little ones. Don’t forget to grab a snack at the Hood Milk Bottle, by the way.

New England Aquarium

Take a day with your family to enjoy the beautiful scene of Boston’s breathtaking waterfront at the New England Aquarium, home to over 8,000 aquatic creatures, including small sharks and playful penguins. This aquarium has been operating since 1969, and, as one of Boston’s main visitor attractions, it is no surprise that an average 1.3 million people visit it every year. Exhibitions and activities are age appropriate, meaning children, teens, and adults can all find something to interest them.

The aquarium’s main point of attraction resembles a mangrove area — a 25,000-gallon tank with sharks and rays, surrounded by shallow edges and full-length windows for a surreal experience. Alternatively, if you want to learn more about sharks, the aquarium’s latest exhibition, Science of Sharks, will help you dive deep with lots of educational resources, including inspiring videos, underwater footage, and real-life experiences.

Other activities include the aquarium’s family programs (the list of classes is always changing, so be sure to check the website before your visit); the Simons IMAX Theater, which showcases animals too big or too exotic to be at the aquarium using IMAX and IMAX 3D technology; and whale watching activities (from April through October).

Legoland Discovery Center

Legoland Discovery Center Boston by walknboston is licensed with CC BY 2.0

If you’re looking for the ultimate indoor playground experience for you and your kids, the Legoland Discovery Center is your best option. This playground is located in Somerville’s Assembly Row shopping complex, so it’s perfect for when it’s too hot or cold to spend the day outside. What’s more, the center allows kids to play with millions of LEGO bricks all day and also has a 4D cinema, with several other activities for the whole family.

You can start your journey in the MINILAND exhibition, which features an impressive miniature LEGO replica of Boston’s most iconic landmarks, including the Freedom Trail, Boston’s historic district, Boston’s Common, and the Bunker Hill Monument. Or, if you’re after a more realistic experience, go straight to their 4D cinema and enjoy the hyper-realistic wind, rain, and snow effects. Other attractions include the Kingdom Quest and Merlin’s Apprentice rides, the LEGO City Play Zone, and the LEGO Race VR Experience. Most attractions are for kids aged three and up, but the cinema and rides aren’t age restricted.

There’s also a LEGO store and cafe at the center, so you can grab a few snacks and gifts on your way out.

Codzilla

As proud Bostonians, we can’t get enough of boating and sailing activities, but we must admit that they can sometimes get a bit old, especially because of the boats’ speed — or at least that’s what we thought before taking a ride on Codzilla, Boston’s only high-speed thrill boat ride.

You can believe the company’s promise of making the ride monstrously fun because it’s true. It’s the perfect activity for you and the kids if you don’t mind getting a little wet while sailing on a boat that speeds off at approximately 40 miles an hour.

Boston Museum of Science

Full of mind-expanding activities, the Boston Museum of Science is a solid choice for the whole family, offering over a hundred exhibitions and programs for everyone to learn and have fun. It opened its doors in 1830 and, nowadays, is one of Boston’s most beloved landmarks.

Popular activities include trying to find solutions at the Investigation Station and watching IMAX movies and planetarium shows. If you can’t try your hand at all the activities, please don’t skip the musical staircase Soundstairs or the Science in the Park, an interactive playground where you can learn about harmonic motion, momentum, and mechanical advantage.

The museum also has age-appropriate and family-inclusive activities, so whether it’s just you and the kids or the whole family, you’ll have a really good time.

So, there you have it: our top five favorite kid-friendly activities in Boston. Of course, trying to do justice to all the fun activities Boston has to offer in just one post is impossible, but we tried our best. Please, don’t forget to schedule an appointment to check your car’s health before letting your family get on board. Like always, Botch Chevrolet is here for you. Find us at 1601 Sublette Ave #2, St. Louis, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.