Hi

I am arriving in Boston this Friday with a group of 17 Year Old Irish Students(30). What activities could you suggest. Also we had intended going to Six Flags New England but it is not open on the day we intended going any alternatives. Finally is Provincetown worth going to for this age group ?

Yikes, that's some mighty casual planning for a group that size. How long will you be here, and what have you already planned? Do these kids have any special interests? Will you be relying on public tranportation?

Provincetown I don't believe is worth it for 17 year olds. It is a nice little town that is very popular in the gay community. Other than climibing up some tower I didn't find it that thrilling and my wife said the same thing. Stay in Boston and check out Old Ironsides.

Welcome. I don't know how long you are staying, but I'll give this a shot (and I am guessing Anonymous and other Boston regulars here will make additions and sutractions from my list).

First, the Freedom Trail marks many of the early historical sites in Boston. It is a red marked line (paint and bricks) that winds several miles thru Boston's older neighborhoods with various cemetaries, historic buildings, small museums along the way. It ends at Old Ironsides/USS Constitution, the oldest still commissioned warship in US. Along the way it passes thru Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market area - the latter of which is an upscale shopping area with lots of food stalls and restaurants. (You will not be able to drag 17 year olds away from there).

A Boston Harbor Cruise is also nice - they have cruises from 1-4 hours, approx.

Boston Duck Tours are great - but rather expensive. You could call and get slightly lower group rates and would likely need reservations for group that size. There are 2 starting points, one is at Museum of Science, also an interesting possibility.

Boston North End (near Freedom Trail) is Italian area, with many good restaurants. For group that size, you would need to call ahead as many are quite small. Worth a walk-thru anyway, and they could always just stop for pastries at one of the shops.

Since much of Ireland is very old compared to US, try to hit some of the more modern downtown areas - go to top of Prudential Tower and see the view.

Tour of Fenway Park (baseball) might interest some, but no real chance of seeing a game since Red Sox will be away and tickets are not available anyway.

Possibly arrange tour of one of the Universities here - Boston University and Boston College admission offices would be happy to arrange that (both on MBTA)

Ride the MBTA someplace (mbta.com)

Museum of Fine Arts is a good museum. New England Aquarium is an average aquarium, but good if it rains.

You will not find an amusement park open during the week, but a much smaller version is Canobie Lake Park (canobielake.com) in very southern New Hampshire. It is open weekends starting 4/22.

Skip Provincetown. Skip Cape Cod. Skip Salem, Massachusetts - home of Salem witch trials unless you pair it with Peabody Museum - the rest is sort of hokey.

Walk down Newbury Street and window shop at some expensive shops.

I agree it is really short term planning for a group this size. Where are you staying, where are you eating, will you have a bus for transportation or will you rely on public transportation.

If you have a bus, you could go to Lexington and Concord, start of Revolutionary War with Britain (you guys are the experts on fighting with England, I presume)

Have a good trip - please check back here and give us some more info so we can help more and then let us know how trip went.

You got lots of good advice from gail - I would add:
a view from the top of Boston - don't know budget or group prices, but you might want to check out a nice overview from the Skywalk at the Pru -
see an amazing view, and some exhibits there on history of Boston-

then a nice walk around Boylston/Newbury/ Charles St to the Charles River, thru Boston Public garden, Boston Common and pick up the Freedom Trail , choosing the sites along the way that interest you all the most.
www.thefreedomtrail.org (which has info for group tours/audio tours if you want to do alone, etc)

If you walk Newbury/Boylston/Comm Ave/Beacon - you can weave between all of them and see both built up shopping/gallery areas plus some residential streets and if you walk any of them from the end near the Public Garden to the other (the cross streets go from A (Arlington) to B (Berkeley) to C (Clarendon) etc down to Mass Ave, you can then walk to the right, over the bridge and see the Charles that way if you don't see it at the other end going over the Arthur Fiedler foot bridge near the Hatch Shell (this will make sense if you look at a local tourist map)

some good sites to look at - www.gobostoncard.com, www.citypass.com and www.cityofboston.gov -
all good sites to give you an overview of what you can do, and to decide if purchasing one of the passes/ or just using student id discounts/ group discounts for the things you want would work better for your group. City of Boston site will direct you to places in the city to pick up guide books, maps, etc. as well as your hotel should be able to have much on hand.

Also:
www.bostonislands.com and www.bostonharborcruises.com will give you some info and help you decide if you'd like to see if that might interest you esp in the summer - to see George's Island or one of the others.

Or, if you are arriving at Logan, you might want to take the water shuttle across instead of the T or bus depending on how you are getting into town.

Lots of museums: the ICA on Boylston St has a cool exhibit currently that teens might like - my two enjoyed it, but they are 20 and 24.

I would consider taking them to Harvard Sq, Cambridge area at some point - and maybe to the garment district store if they want to shop frugally www.thegarmentdistrict.com

If you go to the NOrth End (which I think you should - the windy streets, Old NOrth Church, Paul Revere's house, stop at the Fire Station, it has one of the oldest fire trucks in the US and they sell tshirts, etc the kids might like.

Don't know how long you have, but I agree with skippingn Provincetown, Salem - there is so much to see in Boston/Cambridge area without having to use up so much traveling time to the outlying areas.

Between downtown Boston, Cambridge and the harbor islands, you will have much to do. Plenty of museums - see times for free entry (I can't remember when, but there is such a time at ICA (www.icaboston.org) and some others) - or group prices for the Omni Theater at Mus of Science, etc.

I would try and map out some itinerary for each day and nigth or otherwise with 30 students, you will have too many opinions being thrown in at the last minute and waste too much time - you're the "tour guide" so I think you need to look at some of these sites and map out a basic plan with a little room to go with the flow and alternatives for weather (rain vs. sun, ie: if planning a boat ride to one of the islands; and at mbta.com try and get a feel for the layout before doing it with 30 teens !!

If it's just you as a chaperone with 30 teens, all I can say is I will pray for you !! have fun

Don't know budget for food, but teens seem to enjoy Fire & Ice, all of Faneuil Hall, pizza in the NOrth End (many good choices), and the usual things like Chili's, and jillians (www.jilliansboston.com) the latter has pool tables, bowling,e tc and they do reserve space if you want to bring in 'under age' for burgers, etc so you could check and see if they have an opening when you are in town - many local under ages do birthday parties, high school senior events there and enjoy it for a few hours in the late afternoon.

Just back from trip to Boston with 32 17 year old boys. The information I received from all of you was excellent and we used it well

Many tahnks
MACD

thanks for letting us know - so glad it was a success !