Brooke Tucker-Reid, momstown Contributor
Thinking about where to take your next family holiday? We recently traveled to Boston and found it to be quite the family friendly town.
Travel Logistics
If you plan to fly, we found flights for just over $300 through Porter. Public transit is pretty easy to navigate in Boston and it’s free from the airport. Don’t mind the drive? It’ll take you about 7.5 hours from Niagara Falls.
We stayed in Boston’s Bay Back neighbourhood in Copley Square. If you don’t stay at The Fairmont Copley Plaza (room rates can be a little pricey), you should definitely check it out. In my experience, Fairmont hotels have treated families and children well. To that point, the Copley Plaza has two resident canine ambassadors, Catie and Carly Copley, both black labs. Kids are excited to leave their rooms in the morning so they can pet them, or even book a walk with them.
Good eats
There was no shortage of good restaurants to try. One of our kid friendly faves was Max Brenner, a chocolate shop/restaurant with good food (mmm bacon mac ‘n’ cheese) and a fun vibe. There are tons of great Italian restaurants in Back Bay and the North End like Limoncello’s and Piatinni’s, and if your kids like seafood like mine does, I recommend Luke’s Lobster or Atlantic Fish Company. b.good’s have started to trickle into Ontario, but there are a bunch around Boston too. They’re pretty good for a smoothie or quick bite to eat that’s fairly healthy. Kids meals are served with a side of yummy sautéed broccoli.
Sightseeing
Bostonians will tell you that the best way to see the city is to go on a Boston Duck boat tour. Not only will you get to check out many of the city’s neighbourhoods in one tour, but kids will love going from land to sea as the boat splashes into the Charles River. A few other fun things to do in Boston:
- If you’re visiting between May and October, make sure you check out The Lawn on D. It’s an outdoor park as well as puppet showplace theatre – the kids will love it!
- Fenway Park has a great children’s area if you have time to catch a Boston Red Sox game.
- Quite possibly the largest library I’ve ever seen, the Boston Public Library has a new children’s area. The free programming schedule is packed with yoga for tots, puppet shows, bilingual story time, and baby dance parties. Great stop for a rainy day.
- You could make an afternoon of walking Charles River Waterfront and exploring Boston Common. There are more than enough playgrounds and picnic areas and you can even take a swan boat ride around the pond.
- Boston’s New England Aquarium and the Boston Children’s Museum are also fun tourist spots.
Have you been to Boston on a family holiday lately? What were your favourite spots?
