We were lucky again to have caught the live musket demonstrations -- we watched two of them - once…read morebefore we climbed the inside of the Bunker Hill Monument and once after we climbed down. The park rangers were both ladies dressed as men. Loved the progressiveness of this. Both so knowledgeable and well spoken. Answered questions from large crowds. Fired these tricky historical muskets like professionals, of which they are! I was surprised that the musket balls don't go far. They didn't have to clear the park of people walking. They were unconcerned of the condo windows on the other block shattering. It was a bit of a mental disconnect and so interesting. The climb up the interior of the monument was tiring but relatively short. Tiny windows at those top for a wee view. I had lived here but never done the touristy stuff like this. Great to have done it now!

This was a little underwhelming…read more The information center was adequate, although I got yelled at for taking my water into the museum area Some of the facility seem a bit dated, and I think some upgrading would be called for There is a meat layout of the battle and an audio that goes along with it, but it wasn't always easier to follow The monument itself with something that we couldn't climb due to being absolutely tired from walking there But it was pretty cool to be on top of Breeds Hill

The church crypt tour and the bell tower tour are well worth it if you can get tickets. I highly…read morerecommend! This church played an important role in American history with the famous story of Paul revere. Our tour guide gave a really spirited retelling of the story! A few notes for visitors: the steeple tour involves climbing two flights of very steep and rickety stairs. Those with knee or mobility issues should avoid. The crypt tour is not gross out or problematic for squeamish folks but if you don't enjoy the thought of being among skeletons then maybe avoid. The bell tower and church in general is also not really air conditioned so it can get hot in there on a hot day. Overall this was a really fun and educational thing to do on the Fourth of July!

Built in 1723, Old North Church is the oldest church in Boston. It is of historical importance…read morebecause it played a role in Paul Revere's famous midnight ride on April 18, 1775 by illuminating two lanterns in the steeple, alerting the Patriots that the British were coming. (I admit, I knew none of this prior to my visit to Boston, and I love that I learn history when I travel.) The church is along the Freedom Trail, and tours of the church are available, although we didn't go on a tour. However, we did stop at the church to use the washrooms that were available for public use. A major historical landmark and free public washrooms -- this church is extremely important! [Yelp collections: Boston, MA 2025; Pee for free!]

The manager of The church in the museum of African-American history is a hidden gem within this…read morehidden gem. He educated us, with an hour long lecture, about Boston's rich African-American history. I don't know how he doesn't lose his voice every day teaching us all... The museum it's so is relatively small. The lectures are downstairs. The church is upstairs. The top floor houses one room of artifacts. THE DEAL: this is the perfect place to take a group tour. Every local school should visit this Boston museum!

So I'm going to write this review for the meeting house as well as the museum, because they are…read morereally the same thing. There also seems to be a little confusion on whether this site includes the state historic site run by the National park service (which I couldn't find because it listed this address on Joy street). This is not fancy. It's not flashy. A lot of it isn't original. But it's important history that matters, and the site manager, Tobias, is passionate and knowledgeable, and really bumped this experience up to five stars. The museum asks we don't photograph things (but you are allowed photos in the meeting house). There was some art and photography by black artists. A war uniform. Some original documents such as bills of sale for the enslaved and letters from Frederick Douglass. They have rotating exhibits, and this time around it was jazz. You get half an hour to peruse the small museum. Then you meet back up with Tobias, who spends a lot of time telling you about how black people sued for the freedom and won, how they built a vibrant black community on Beacon Hill, the Abiel Smith School, and the fight for desegregation. He's a great speaker and very passionate, but also down to earth. In the meeting house itself, much of it is rebuilt, but there are two original pews and the floorboards are from the 1700s and original to the house (the boards were bought before the house was built). I think my ticket was 10 dollars. They have three daily sessions and do have limits on numbers of tickets sold. Edit: I think what's listed as "Boston African American National Historic Site" is just a collective term used for 15 structures important to black history in Boston, including the meeting house. There is a tour the rangers run in warmer months and a year round audio tour year round.

The guided tour of Otis House really worked for me; when I took it I felt as if I'd been…read moretransported back to the time when this was the Otis family's Boston home. Our tour group was comprised of only a few people, and that made it easy for my friend and me to ask the guide multiple questions as we went along. She not only didn't mind the questions, but our obvious interest caused her to focus the ongoing tour on some of the things we asked about. One of the things that's very different about touring Otis House vs. many other historical houses in Boston is the fact that visitors are not confined to an area encircled by ropes. Instead you're allowed to walk around freely in the rooms, get close to the furniture, and really absorb the splendor of the house. I highly recommended that you take the time to pay a visit here!

My wife and I had the Boston Go card and the Otis house was on the card so we took a trip to Beacon…read moreHill and entered the house of the third mayor of Boston. My wife and I love to take historical house tours because they are usually pretty interesting, and it usually gives us an excuse to have a date without a lot of people talking during a movie or bothering us in general. The house was fairly large and about 2/3 of it was accessible to the public. It stared off with about a 15 minute slide show of old time Boston, which was very interesting. There were three other women on the tour with us and the tour guide was older and seemed to love what she did in her retirement years. The house was furnished with wallpaper that matched what the family had and furniture from that era. The area use to be the red light district of town, kind of the bottom end of Beacon Hill towards the North End of town. They actually moved the house back a little when they widened the road. Otis left the decorating to his wife, which was out of character for the time, and she did a wonderful job. There were a lot of sitting rooms and a huge dining room because they liked to entertain. They had a few false doors to make the rooms look even and mirrors in a lot of rooms, because it showed wealth at the time. The upper levels were more extravagant because at the time there was a great deal of dust on the street and the lower levels got a little dark. A very interesting 45 minute tour, we over head the tour guide say to another worker "They didn't ask any questions." Small complaint, if we didn't ask any questions, how about fill some of your speaking points with previously asked questions? Fun part of the day though.

If you do the Freedom Trail while in Boston, you'll see the Massacre Memorial on your brochures and…read moremaps. It was easy to find, it's located right in front of the Old State House, on the ground, a circle on the ground. For me, doing the Trail, gave me the opportunity to dig deeper into US history since Boston has so much to offer. The Monument commemorates the deaths of five colonists, part of a crowd who stood up to the Bristish army, fedup by occupation and taxation by attacking them suddenly with rocks on March 5, 1770. One of the victims was Crispus Attuckus, an African American. The victims were buried in the Granary Burying Ground cemetery, also a part of the Freedom Trail. The site's marker is located at the intersection of State and Congress Streets in the Downtown area, not far from where the actual Massacre took place. The Massacre site has been moved twice, so there are many interesting details and layers to the story. Definitely a great historic spot. Lots to learn!

So this memorial is not the actual site of the Boston Massacre. It actually happened across the…read morestreet from this memorial. The 5 pointed stars represent the 5 people who were massacred. The 6 bricks surrounding the star represent 6 people who were injured. And the 13 lines of bricks that extend out of the star represent the 13 colonies! A really cool site that you are bound to pass on a journey throughout Boston. Might be hard to get a photo though since there are a bunch of people trying to snap one.

Visit the Battle of Bunker Hill Museum, which is directly across the street from The Bunker Hill…read moreMonument. It's a smaller museum, which is nice to be able to learn about the history of this battle during the American Revolutionary War within 30 minutes. It's worth visiting and getting a restroom break before exploring the other spots like the USS Constitution ship and the museum and the Paul Revere midnight landing sight.

PROS: This museum was free and the staff was nice. They were clean inside and everything was…read moreorganized CONS: They lacked inventory cause they only had less than 20 items on display. Meanwhile a good amount of those items were replicas. Scarce street parking as well OVERALL: I like the fact that it was free and it did have some cool stuff but it's lacking a lot in order to be considered an interesting museum to see

Jeff provided a very thorough and entertaining guided walking tour along Boston's fascinating…read moreFreedom Trail. His experience as a college professor clearly showed as he shared uncommonly known facts about the American Revolution, both its origins and its leaders. I highly recommend visitors take advantage of this opportunity to go beyond the history books through the Boston Town Crier's memorable tour.

THIS experience was... WONDERFUL!!! FYI... DONALD WATSON is THE MAN! Was investigating Boston…read moreFreedom Trail tour options online and was given a link on bostonusa.com after being redirected from thefreedomtrail.org site, while preparing for our first family visit to Boston, MA. Apparently COVID-19 has suspended all Freedom Trail Foundation led tours at the moment (summer 2021) so was looking for something to engage our kids' interest while we walked Boston's Freedom Trail. Let's face it... just walking and looking at the Freedom Trail will be absolutely boring to most kids. Tour guides in normal clothes & just talking to us... PASS! Donning historically accurate clothing and talking with an accent, and website claims of "good at engaging young people"... HUZZAHHH! Winner, WINNER! Setting up the tour over the phone was not difficult at all. Phone calls were returned promptly. Donald Watson was the point man for organizing the details of our jaunt on The Trail. We were even allowed to alter the start time to facilitate additional commitments later in the day. Flexibility! Thank you!! When the Freedom Trail day arrived, we finally met Mr. Watson in person, and he was quite the cheery chap! Donned in clothing that was circa 1776 and sportin' an accent that was easily understood. He took the role of Sons Of Liberty member James Otis. Allowed us some time to finish our on the run breakfast too, before starting our tour at the Boston Common Visitor Center. We confirmed everyone was COVID-19 vaccinated, so... Everyone ready?!? YES! And off we went! Good pace to the walking tour, never felt rushed, always waited for everyone to catch up before talking, answered all questions with an obvious depth of knowledge! Had us all yelling "FIE!" And "HUZZAH!" throughout the tour as we hit 11 of the Freedom Trail sites. We finished at Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market, all VERY happy our experience, all exuberantly saying "FIE!" when Mr. Watson announced "We've reached the end our tour." HAH! All the families wanted to get pictures with Mr. Watson, cuz we "kinda" enjoyed our jaunt with him way too much ;) VERY EASY RECOMMENDATION! As a comparison, we also took the Boston Duck Tour and this was FAR MORE enjoyable for our party of 12, age range 12-52. Enjoy! We sure did! :)

The home does not have much to see but it is still very cool to walk into the home where John Adams…read morewas born and lived his life. The best part of the visit was an Adams re-enactor telling stories about John Adams. You need to purchase tickets to visit at the Visitor's Center.

Side-by-side houses that are super old and retain their historic character. So amazing to know…read morethat both Adams' were born and lived in these houses. Hard to imagine what the area used to look like, but the tour guides did a wonderful job describing all the background. Loved our visit.