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10+ Things to Do Near Faneuil Hall

How to spend some time on the waterfront and the North End in Boston
By Katie Sagal

One of Boston’s most famous areas, Faneuil Hall, attracts visitors in droves each year. It's located right near the Waterfront and historic North End, so it's easy to build into a larger Boston itinerary.

There’s a ton to do in this vibrant area, so understandably it can be hard to figure out what are the best attractions and activities. Whatever you choose to do, we are sure you and your family will have a great time in Boston. We put together a handy guide about things to do near Faneuil Hall during your trip, featuring the best local activities and attractions, including...

  • New England Aquarium
  • Whale Watch
  • Boston Duck Tours
  • Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Tour
  • And more!

Save on admission to Faneuil Hall & North End attractions

Planning to visit lots of Boston attractions? With Go City® you won't miss a thing, plus with a pass you can save up to 50% compared to buying individual entry to everything you want to do - winning! 

☀️Compare Boston passes☀️ – 🌏 Explore other destinations 🌏 –  ✈️ Buy a pass ✈️ 

Things to do at the Boston Waterfront

New England Aquarium

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Visit this lively waterfront aquarium for a chance to see all your favorite sea creatures, from playful seals to friendly penguins and colorful tropical fish. Their penguins in particular are quite famous locally, so don't miss out on a chance to pay them a visit!

A particularly popular exhibit is the shark and ray touch tank exhibit, which kids and adults of all ages love. Your visit also contributes to their conservation efforts, including research, and other important marine science developments.

Getting In: New England Aquarium tickets are included on all Go City® Boston passes.

New England Aquarium Whale Watch

Do you never want your aquatic experience to end? Then hop aboard a New England Aquarium Whale Watch for the ride of a lifetime. Head out to the Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary, where you’ll find whales, dolphins, and plentiful sea birds. The entire experience is narrated by professional researchers from the Whale Center of New England, so you know it’s bound to be educational, too.

For more information about whale-watching in Massachusetts, check out this post.

Getting In: Boston Whale Watch is separately ticketed.

Boston Duck Tours

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When you’re exploring a city with such a vibrant waterfront culture, you know you need something a little bit beyond your standard tour bus. So check out a Boston Duck Tour for a truly unique way to explore the city by land and by sea. It’s the perfect way to tour Beantown!

These iconic vessels are such a part of Boston culture that you may recognize them from various victory parades of the Celtics, Bruins, Patriots, or Red Sox.

Be sure to check out our guide and tips for taking a Boston Duck Tour before your visit. 

Getting In: Boston Duck Tour is separately ticketed.

CityView Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Tour

Another great option for exploring more of the city at your own pace is a hop-on hop-off sightseeing tour. This charming trolley option gives you the flexibility to explore at your leisure and hop off when something interests you. Of course, you always have the freedom to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the whole route. The trolley makes 9 stops including:

  • The New England Aquarium/ Shuttle & Ferry/ Quincy Market/ Faneuil Hall
  • Paul Revere House/ Little Italy
  • North End/ Old North Church
  • USS Constitution “Old Ironsides”
  • North Station/ TD Bank Garden Sports Museum
  • Old State House / Faneuil Hall/ Boston Massacre Site/ Government Center
  • Boston Common/ Public Garden
  • State House/ Beacon Hill
  • South Station/ Convention Center/ Children’s Museum

As you can see, the trolley can take you to a number of top areas throughout the city, so it's a good complement to larger plans. 

Getting In: Hop On Hop Off Boston Trolley tickets are included on the Go City® 
Boston All-Inclusive Pass only.

USS Constitution Cruise

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The USS Constitution Cruise is a perfect opportunity to incorporate historical sightseeing with waterborne fun. Sail out to Old Ironsides, one of the city’s best-loved historical treasures, and scope out the Bunker Hill Monument and a Boston Tea Party ship. The tour itself is fully narrated and takes about 45 minutes. You'll enjoy informative background information on the sites you're sailing past, as well as on Boston's history and culture. 

Getting In: USS Constitution Museum tickets are included on all Go City® Boston passes, but the Constitution Cruise is separately ticketed.

Quincy Market

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This eclectic shopping district is a must for those visiting the bustling neighborhood. Faneuil Hall is located smack dab in the middle of Quincy Market, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. In addition to your favorite chain stores with extensive offerings, you’ll also find quirky boutiques including a store run by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

There are also plenty of delicious dining options, including the iconic New England pub Durgin-Park Restaurant. Another one of our favorite food options is the lobster roll sold at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace (the center building). You'll also find great ice cream and chowder, among scores of other New England favs. 

Getting In: Admission to Quincy Market is free.

The New England Holocaust Memorial

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This inspiring and thought-provoking outdoor space is a somber memorial erected by Holocaust survivors who moved to Boston. It’s designed to honor those who lost their lives and to educate new generations about the history of the Holocaust. School groups in particular tend to visit this site. 

Getting In: Admission to the New England Holocaust Memorial is free.

Things to Do in the North End

Paul Revere House

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All American school children learn about Paul Revere – now’s your chance to visit his historic home! This National Historic Landmark provides insight into the way eighteenth-century people lived in Boston and is a popular tourist destination for those interested in the history of Paul Revere’s famous Ride. A visit to the Paul Revere House is one of the top things to do in Boston's North End, not just for history buffs. 

Getting In: Paul Revere House tickets are included on all Go City® Boston passes.

Boston Bike Rental

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Want to explore the city more creatively? Hop aboard two wheels and get pedaling! Boston is a very bike-friendly city, with frequent bike lanes on major roads, as well as bike paths and trails throughout the city and along the waterfront. So feel free to paddle on the big roads or the waterfront trails. Use it to get around like Bostonians, or just for fun and exercise. You can't go wrong! 

Getting In: Boston Bike Rental tickets are included on all Go City® Boston passes.

Old North Church

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A great companion attraction to the Paul Revere House, the Old North Church is Boston’s oldest surviving church building and is among the city’s most-visited historic sites. The church itself has charming historic architecture, and there are other fascinating buildings on the campus as well. 

Getting In: Admission to the Old North Church is separately ticketed. For more information, please visit the attraction website.

Things to do Nearby at the Seaport District

Boston Children’s Museum

This attraction is incredibly popular with local and visiting families. A kid-specific attraction filled with tons of interactive and traditional exhibits, the Boston Children’s Museum is a must for those with young kids.

Don’t miss the Science Playground exhibit! Families love this option among the many things to do near Faneuil Hall. The Boston Children's Museum also hosts many special events and family programming year-round, including play-dough sessions, art sessions, poetry workshops, and much more. 

Getting In: Boston Children’s Museum tickets are included on all Go City® Boston passes.

Institute of Contemporary Art

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One of the city’s best art institutions (and that’s saying something in a city with the Boston Museum of Fine Arts), the ICA is immensely popular with art lovers. The gorgeous exhibit space is filled with inspiring art in both permanent collections and temporary exhibitions. They also have a top-notch gift shop. 

Getting In: Institute of Contemporary Art tickets are included on all Go City® Boston passes.

Save up to 50% on Boston attractions

Discover our full line-up of Boston attractions including the USS Constitution Museum, Salem Witch Museum, Paul Revere House and more. 

🤩 >> If you want to see and do as much as you can, our All-Inclusive Pass  is for you.   

😎 >> If you want to pick just a few attractions and visit at your own pace, our Explorer Pass is the perfect option.

Katie Sagal
Go City Travel Expert

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Large Pride rainbow flag flying
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Things to do in Boston for Pride Day

Boston’s Pride For The People parade and festival is one of the biggest, brightest and most beautiful in the States, pulling in several thousand participants and around a million spectators for its week-long celebration of love, diversity and inclusion. Baked beans, the Boston Red Sox and that bar ‘where everybody knows your name’ ain't the only thinks to get excited about around these parts: there are also some fine, buzzy ‘gayborhoods’ to explore, like South End, Jones Hill and Jamaica Plain, all of which transform into oceans of rainbow flags and lights for Pride. The week promises all manner of events across the city, from burlesque nights to brewery cookouts, fashion shows and queer cinema. Raise your rainbow flag and dive in for our guide to all the best things to do in Boston on and around Pride Day… Pride Parade, Block Party & Festival There will be oodles of fun LGBTQ+ events taking place in Boston through Pride Month, with the majority happening in the days leading up to the parade and festival. We’re talking movie screenings, drag brunches, community events, queer walking tours, picnics, bar crawls and much more. The top of the iconic Prudential Tower will light up in rainbow colors to kick off Pride Month and again on the day of the parade, in support of the LGBTQ+ community. Check local listings for further info and tickets on all June events in Boston. The big day usually lands on the first or second Saturday of June, when revelers line the streets of the South End to catch a glimpse of outrageous floats, flamboyant drag queens, marching bands, stilt walkers and all manner of other extravagantly garbed participants and performers. The Boston Pride For The People Parade kicks off late morning at Copley Square, painting its celebratory rainbow across the South End before landing up at Boston Common for a top-notch family festival complete with DJs, drag queens and international headline acts. The festival is free and runs from around midday until early evening. Meanwhile, over at City Plaza, there’s a slightly more grown-up vibe at the free Pride Block Party, which runs for a couple more hours after the Boston Common festival wraps up. This one’s for 21+ attendees only, and promises rather more risqué entertainment in the form of foul-mouthed drag kings and queens, pole dancers and more. New England craft breweries provide the lubrication and DJs spin the party tunes until around 8PM. Top Tip: Boston Pride for the People recommends Arlington St and Boylston St subway stations on the green line or Back Bay Station on the orange line for the best Parade-viewing opportunities. But get there in plenty of time as it does get extremely busy! Find about more about the next Boston Pride For The People event here. Boston Pride After Parties Fear not: the end of ‘official’ festivities does not mean the party’s over. Far from it, in fact. Indeed, Boston’s Pride after parties are the stuff of legend. Hit up South End stalwart Club Café on Columbus Avenue for some of its legendary cabaret and late-night dancing. The fabulous Liberty Hotel – an utterly transformed former prison in Beacon Hill – usually has a number of events running through Pride Month, including brunches, fashion parades and more. That there will be DJs and live acts playing into the small hours on Pride Saturday is a given. Try the lively Midway Café, a well-established dive bar in Jamaica Plain with regular live music, or mosey over to Dorchester dBar for craft cocktails and all-night dancing at one of Boston’s best-loved LGBTQ+ clubs. It’s the morning after the night before, so what better than a rejuvenating drag brunch to help brush those cobwebs away? There will be dozens of these running across Boston during Pride Month, with local favorites including South End Mexican restaurant Cósmica, the Boston Summer Shack over in Back Bay, and the aforementioned Liberty Hotel. Bloody Marys and mimosas naturally come as standard. Again, local listings are your friend for the latest info on all Boston club nights and brunches. LGBTQ+ Culture in Boston Something of a trailblazer, Boston is one of those places that’s very much *steeped* in history. Not only the birthplace of the American Revolution, it’s also the capital of Massachusetts, famously the first US state to legalize gay marriage. Go Boston! As a result, there’s plenty of queer culture to explore, and this is brought to the fore during Pride Month, where museums, walking tours and even castles get in on the action. The Freedom Trail comprises 16 historic Boston monuments and locations that, between them, contain the entire history of Beantown. There are walking tours of the route – which includes Boston Common, the 17th-century King’s Chapel cemetery and Paul Revere’s House, year-round, many with guides in period dress. Pride Month sees the addition of an excellent ‘Rainbow Revolutionaries’ option, highlighting key players in Boston’s LGBTQ+ community (and their fight for liberty) through the ages. For something a little (ok: a lot) more light-hearted, pop on your heels and hop aboard a drag-tacular trolley tour of Boston’s most significant female and queer landmarks. However, we’d recommend flat shoes for top Boston LGBTQ+ walking tours like this one. It’s also worth a day trip out to Hammond Castle and museum up the coast in Gloucester. Founder John Hammond is something of an LGBTQ+ Massachusetts icon so it’s no surprise that there are several special events running here throughout Pride Month, including exhibitions, readings and film screenings. Visit Boston’s Top Attractions If you’re in town for a few days and fancy fitting some serious Beantown sightseeing around all that drinking, dancing and drag-brunching, the Go Boston pass is your friend. Choose an Explorer or All-Inclusive option, depending on whether you have specific attractions in your sights or simply want the freedom to visit as many as you’d like over several days. The pass can save you up to 50% on standard entry prices for Boston tours, activities and attractions and includes: The View Boston Observation Deck, up top of the iconic Prudential Tower. A tour of Fenway Park Stadium, home of the legendary Boston Red Sox. A ride on the famous Boston swan boats. The absolute treasure trove of art and artifacts that is the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. A sunset cruise of the Charles River Basin. A guided tour of the charming clapboard farmhouse in nearby Concord, where Louisa May Alcott wrote (and set) American literary masterpiece ‘Little Women’. ...and much more! Find out more and choose your Boston attractions pass here.
Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak
Child in a science museum
Blog

The Institute of Contemporary Art or Museum of Science

Boston has always been a forward-thinking kinda town, its role in the American Revolution being the stuff of legend. That rich history is writ large through the city streets, much of it effectively an open-air museum devoted to that era. But the progressive spirit lives on. It’s there in the fantastic street art and futuristic city skyline, dominated by soaring skyscrapers, among them One Dalton and the space-age John Hancock Tower, New England’s tallest building. Beantown institutions like the Museum of Science and Institute of Contemporary Arts also keep the innovation alive, with eye-popping exhibits and interactive installations that will blow your mind. We took a look inside to find out what to expect from the ICA and Museum of Science, including the highlights of each, plus how to get tickets. Museum of Science: the Lowdown Vital Statistics: Every great city deserves a great science museum, and Boston is no exception, boasting one of the best in the world. Initially founded as a scientific society in 1830, the MoS began morphing into a museum in 1862, eventually growing into the beautiful butterfly that spans the Charles River today. And it’s quite the whopper indeed, with more than 700 exhibits, plus a planetarium, IMAX theater and zoo.  The Museum of Science in Brief: This mind-expanding hub of innovation contains exhibits galore, with opportunities to explore the wonders of the prehistoric world, the human body, outer space and beyond. We’re talking a near-complete triceratops skeleton, indoor lightning bolts, an AI-powered robotic dog, and optical illusions that will boggle your mind. And that’s just for starters! Join live interactive presentations throughout the day, get involved in engineering design challenges, and say hey to the 100+ cute critters that call the Live Animal Care Center home. You can also immerse yourself in wraparound movie experiences at New England’s only IMAX theater, and experience eye-popping space visuals in the epic Charles Hayden Planetarium. Family Friendly? A fine day out for curious kids young and old, this one is very family friendly and attracts something in the order of 1.5 million science-hungry visitors every year. Getting in: The exhibition halls at Boston’s Museum of Science are open 9AM-5PM daily. General admission is included with a Boston pass from Go City. The pass includes access to stacks of Boston activities, tours and attractions, including the Museum of Science, plus the Museum of Fine Arts, the Freedom Trail walking tour, Paul Revere House, a sunset harbor cruise, and more. Find out how you could save up to 50% with the Boston pass, and get yours here.  Note that shows in the theaters and planetarium require additional tickets, which can be purchased direct via the MoS website. Museum of Science Highlights If you have even a passing interest in how the human body (yes, yours!) works, then the Hall of Human Life is for you. Find out what’s really keeping you awake at night and test the efficiency of your gait across multiple interactive exhibits. Hair-raising fun awaits in the Theater of Electricity, where you can see the world’s largest air-insulated Van de Graaff generator produce its own lightning bolts. Electric! Young minds will be blown in the AI exhibit. Meet the museum’s robot dog and get the chance to interact with AI-generated art. No visit to the Museum of Science would be complete without saying hey to the 65-million-year-old resident of Triceratops Cliff. One of only four near-complete triceratops fossils on display anywhere in the world, it’s sure to keep the kids talking for weeks afterwards. The Charles Hayden Planetarium combines stunning starscapes with music by some of the biggest names in rock and pop – Prince, David Bowie, Rihanna and more – for a multi-sensory experience that’s out of this world. Institute of Contemporary Art: the Lowdown Vital Statistics: Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art has been around since 1936, and in its current home – a striking industrial-style building in the Seaport District – since 2006. Previously an exhibition space only, the ICA has spent the last two decades amassing its own permanent collection, adding hundreds of sculptures, paintings, prints, photos and installations to its rotating roster of visiting exhibitions and performance art. The museum also acquired and renovated a nearby exhibition space (the ICA Watershed), which hosts a different artist takeover every year. The ICA in Brief: Displayed in an extraordinary cantilevered building that seems to hover over the waterfront, the ICA’s permanent collection includes visually stunning works from established and emerging artists. Expect to see signature pieces from the likes of Cornelia Parker, Nan Goldin, Taylor Davis, Marlene Dumas and Laylah Ali, to name only a few. Check out the ICA website for information on all current and forthcoming exhibitions. Family Friendly? Art-lovin’ grown-ups will be in clover here, and there’s enough to keep the kids entertained for a couple of hours, too, thanks to the institute’s visually arresting exhibits and installations, plus gallery game cards that allow the little 'uns to experience the space as a ‘thinker, maker, explorer, or performer’. Families of four (with maximum two kids aged 12 or under) go free on on the last Saturday of each month. These Play Date Saturdays include hands-on art-making, performance, films, and more. Getting in: The ICA is open 10AM-5PM Tuesday-Sunday, with late opening until 9PM on Thursdays and Fridays. General admission is $20, with free admission after 5PM on Thursdays – advance booking for free tickets and events is highly recommended. ICA Highlights The ICA’s cantilevered harbor building is every bit the contemporary art space, all bright, intimate galleries and glass corridors that appear to hover over the water below. Don’t miss Eva Hesse’s gravity-defying minimalist 1960s piece ‘Ennead’, or Cornelia Parker’s signature ‘Hanging Fire’, a mesmerizing kinetic sculpture made from carbonized wood pieces. There’s also a thought-provoking collection of photographs by Boston’s own Nan Goldin.  The ICA Watershed is open from spring to fall for a single artist takeover every year. You can visit for free – just hop on the ferry from the ICA for sculptures and art installations on an epic scale inside this former warehouse. Previous exhibitors include John Akomfrah, Diana Thater and Guadalupe Maravilla. Museum of Science or Institute of Contemporary Art: Which is Better? In truth, you should put both of these venerable Boston institutions on your must-see list. Because anyone who has an even vaguely curious mind or takes joy from thought-provoking visual stimuli will find plenty to enjoy at both attractions. No question though: the Museum of Science is the superior choice for families, thanks to its many interactive exhibits, mind-expanding live presentations and epic theater shows. The ICA is a rather more grown-up affair, designed for quiet contemplation and harborside walks, ideal if you’re traveling as a couple. Reminder: you can visit the MFA with a Boston attraction pass from Go City, and the last Saturday of each month is free for families at the ICA so, if you happen to be in town at the right time, go right ahead and do both! Save on Attractions, Tours and Activities in Boston Save money on Boston attractions, tours and activities with a pass from Go City. Check out @GoCity on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.
Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak
Things to do in Boston in fall
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Things to Do in Boston in Fall

Autumn is when Boston and New England really comes into its own. World-famous for trees that transform into a riot of color and bursting with festive activities around every corner, Boston is the perfect place for a fall vacation.
Katie Sagal

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