MA budget trip questions - Help OT!

[trinchick]

Lots of great suggestions above, but I'll add one more. If you're going to be near the waterfront, across the street on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, there is a really fun fountain that the kids play in. My DD could spend an hour there with no problem, and I think she thought it was the best part of her day.

However, I can't really recommend the aquarium. I think it's smelly, too crowded, and way overpriced. Plus, it takes our family less than an hour to go through the whole thing (and we're the type to read all of the information at each exhibit, not just breeze through).

If you go over the Constitution, you can take the MBTA water shuttle. It's a really cheap way to take a little harbor cruise.

And I'll second the suggestion to visit The Butterfly Place. We went there last fall and DD had a blast. I was really surprised at how good it is there. And there's a picnic area in the back if you're interested. Like the PP suggested, we went to Kimball's afterward for ice cream. There are also pony rides and a petting zoo there (as well as mini golf, go carts, batting cages, etc.).

This is south of Boston, and it sounds like you'll spend more time in the north, but Plimoth Plantation was a lot of fun. In addition to the Pilgrim stuff, there's a Wampanoag Native American Village run by authentic, modern tribe members, which was really informative. We also visited the Mayflower II and learned a lot.

 

[Evi]

There are tons of low cost free things to do in the city. I'd say you can have fun on the cape for one day lol I know everyone else says no but I do go to the cape for a day trip on a regular. It all depends on when your going. You can do it you just need to drive down super early. Drive down to Hyannis pick up a bagel at Brown Bag bagel then hop on a 9 am Hyannis whale watch you can get back in around 1 or so and then head towards the cape cod potato chip factory the tour is free and you can buy some chips at the end of the tour to snack on later. Pick up a boxed lunch at any number of shops and then spend a few hours on the beach. Around 3 or 4 head to pirates cove mini golf in Yarmouth. After mini golf drive to welfleet and pick up dinner at Arnolds and take it to go. Head towards Wefleet drive in and enjoy dinner and a kid friendly double feature (must have popcorn). In a nut shell you've done a lot of the cape did you go to p-town no but you saw a lot of other family fun things in the cape. Your movie will start around 7:30 and end around 11-12. It all be a bit of a ride back so I recommend finding a hotel for the night somewhere just outside of Boston maybe plymouth. You'll save money on hotel rates and then you can drive North the following day.

If you stay in plymouth you can take your daughter to Plymouth Plantation for the morning and have a thanksgiving like lunch. Then drive north into Boston for the rest of the day. I think the children's museum is fun but definitely recommend Franklin Park Zoo if you've never been and your going to have a car its really a nice zoo and its not overly large so it could be a half day trip.

I would then spend the rest of the day in Boston. Drive into a boston public Transit lot that has all day parking and is in the direction your going to head after the day and save money by paying 4-6$ for the day. Then take the MBTA into town. You can walk both the public Gardens and the Commons in a short time. Then either walk or hop back on the T to Faneuil Hall lots of fun shops and street performers. You can then have dinner at any of the take out counters or walk into the north end for a sit down italian dinner. After dinner you can walk along the harbor and play in the park and walk back over to the Aquarium and see the seals outside.

I think you have lots of options but I know the ones above are some of my local summer fav's. I hit the drive in a few times over the summer and go whale watching 1-2 times per season. I visit our zoo at least 2x a year and love just walking though the north end and Faneuil hall and the north end.

 

[msmama]

Holy Moley, you people are AWSOME!!

Why didn't I ask for help earlier!! Seriously, you can find out anything on the Disboards!!

Thank you, Thank you!! I think I'll probably plan on NOT doing the Cape for now (I'm still not sure how many days we have), though if I do THANK YOU Evi for planning my day!! (Regardless, I'll skip p-town for now, which I kind of guessed).

I was already thinking of hitting Mystic on the way back (or another time in the summer) so I think I'll skip the Boston aquarium and do that one instead!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

(Oh, and if anybody has it, keep the advice coming!)