The Boston CityPASS® Tourist Card

If you are someone who doesn't want to miss out on a city's most important attractions when travelling and are also looking to save time and money, the Boston CityPASS® could be the solution for you. With prices starting at £54, this tourist pass gives you access to four of Boston's best attractions, two of which are fixed and two of which you can choose from a range of options.

With a single purchase, you'll get the best value for money, with savings of up to 50% on admission tickets. All without wasting time and energy in long queues to secure your ticket, especially if your stay in the city is going to be short.

The price of the tourist pass starts at €64 for adults and €59 for children aged three to twelve. This price includes admission to the New England Aquarium and the Museum of Science, as well as the option to choose two options from Franklin Park Zoo, Harvard Museum of Natural History or a cruise with Boston Harbor City Cruises.

The Boston CityPASS® tourist pass also includes discounts on attractions not included in your pass and the option to claim refunds up to 365 days after purchase, in accordance with their refund policy.

The prices of the attractions included in the pass are calculated as a flat rate, generating savings of up to fifty per cent on the cost of tickets. This makes the Boston CityPASS® card an attractive option for visiting the city's best museums at the most affordable price.

• Price... The tourist pass starts at £54 for adults and £50 for children aged three to eleven. At most attractions, children under two years old enter free of charge, but I recommend checking the details in advance on each attraction's website.
• Remember that... Some attractions require advance booking. The New England Aquarium requires reservations up to one hour before your visit. The Boston Harbor City Cruises boat trip must be booked at the company's ticket office up to half an hour before the start of the tour.

Like other tourist passes, the Boston CityPASS® tourist pass can be purchased in advance. Once you purchase it, you will receive a virtual card at the email address you provided, which you can present at the ticket offices of the excursions from your mobile phone.

You do not need to have any printed information or receive any authorisation by post, and once you have purchased it, you will have one year to use it**.**

Activating it is very simple. Once you have scanned the card you will receive on your mobile phone to access the first excursion, the pass will be activated and you will have nine days to visit the other three attractions.

Although I recommend that you plan your itinerary in advance, you do not need to inform us in advance which excursions you wish to attend, so you can decide during your stay in the city or even on the day of the visit.

Just keep in mind that attractions such as the New England Aquarium require a reservation.

This tourist pass has two parts. The first includes the fixed attractions, which are the Museum of Science and the New England Aquarium, and the second includes optional attractions such as the Franklin Park Zoo, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and a cruise with Boston Harbor City Cruises.

You must choose two of these options. Here's more about each of the options available on the Boston CityPASS® tourist card.

New England Aquarium

This is one of the city's main attractions and is included in the Boston CityPASS® as one of the two fixed options. The Aquarium offers you the chance to see a large colony of penguins, seals, sea lions and Caribbean coral reefs with an ecosystem of over a thousand animals.

There are also interactive activities with rays and sharks that will turn your walk through the Aquarium into an unforgettable adventure. It is one of the favourite attractions for children when they visit Boston.

Remember that for this excursion it is necessary to book in advance, which can be done up to one hour before the start of the tour.

• Price... Regular admission to the New England Aquarium starts at £34 for adults and £25 for children aged three to eleven. Admission is free for children under two years of age.
• Opening hours... During spring and summer, the Aquarium is open Saturday to Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. During autumn and winter, the opening hours are Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Fridays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Duration of the visit... Allow about four hours for the entire tour.
• Location... The Aquarium is located at 1 Central Wharf, Boston.

Science Museum

This museum is the second fixed option on the Boston CityPASS® tourist card and is also one of the most visited places in the city. Among the exhibits are dinosaur fossils, a room dedicated to recreating a thunderstorm that offers an interactive and sensory experience, and an exhibit dedicated to the human body.

Boston is home to great universities and scientific advances, making this museum a global reference. I recommend that you don't miss the exhibition dedicated to computing, where you can see the floppy disk that spread the first virus in the history of the Internet in 1988.

• Price... Regular admission to the Science Museum starts at £24 for adults and £20 for children between the ages of three and eleven. Admission is free for children under two years of age.
• Opening hours... From Saturday to Thursday, it is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., while on Fridays, the opening hours are from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. There are no changes during autumn and winter.
• Duration of visit... Allow about four hours to complete the entire tour.
• Location... The museum is located at 1 Museum of Science Driveway, Boston.

Franklin Park Zoo

Located in the northern part of Franklin Park, this zoo is one of the largest in the state of Massachusetts and home to a wide variety of animal species from around the world, including lions, tigers and camels.

This is one of the options you can choose to complete the other two activities available on the Boston CityPASS® tourist pass.

Among the permanent exhibits, one of the most notable is the Tropical Forest, which recreates a natural habitat for gorillas, bats, crocodiles, and ocelots.

The zoo also has an aviary, a themed area with African animals, and an exhibit that includes a community of kangaroos. The film Zooloco was filmed there, and since then the place has regained notoriety. I recommend that you don't miss the savannah area, inhabited by giraffes native to Africa.

• Price... Regular admission to Franklin Park Zoo starts at £23 for adults and £16 for children between the ages of two and twelve. Admission is free for children under one year old. Prices may change in winter.
• Opening hours... Monday to Friday it is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., while on Saturdays and Sundays the opening hours are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Duration of visit... Allow about four hours to complete the entire tour.
• Location... The zoo is located at 1 Franklin Park Road, Boston.

Harvard Museum of Natural History

This is another optional activity offered by the Boston CityPASS® tourist pass. At Harvard University's most visited attraction, located in Harvard Yard, you can visit sixteen galleries that include the Blaschka collection of glass flowers, minerals from around the world, dinosaur and whale bones, and an extensive collection of fauna from around the world.

This museum is also connected internally to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, so many of the exhibits from both museums can be visited alternatively in the two buildings.

Admission to the Harvard Museum of Natural History with the Boston CityPASS® tourist pass also entitles you to enter the Peabody. Are you ready to be amazed by the enormous skeleton of a right whale hanging from the ceiling of the main hall?

• Price... Regular admission to the Harvard Museum of Natural History starts at €15 for adults and €10 for children between the ages of three and eighteen. Admission is free for children under two years of age.
• Opening hours... Open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Duration of visit... Allow about three hours to complete the entire tour.
• Location... The museum is located at 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge.

Cruise with Boston Harbor City Cruises

This is another of the optional attractions offered by the Boston CityPASS® tourist pass, but it is the only one that is truly different. This excursion consists of a cruise on one of the cruise ships available in Boston, in this case the Boston Harbor City Cruises company.

During this trip, the boat travels along the Fort Point Channel and Boston Harbour and is accompanied by an expert local guide who will provide information about the history of the city, the Tea Party and the American Revolution.

This excursion must be booked at least half an hour in advance at the company's ticket office, but it is a good opportunity if you are interested in seeing the city from the other side of the bay while learning more about the colonists and their exploits on a guided tour of Boston.

• Price... The regular price of the tour starts at €43 for adults and €38 for children aged three to twelve. Children under two years old are free when accompanied by an adult.
• Timetable... Cruises depart continuously from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. You only need to arrive in advance at the company's ticket office in Boston Harbour.
• Duration of the visit... The total tour lasts one hour.
• Location... The pier used by the company is located at 1 Long Wharf, Boston.

Attractions not included in the Boston CityPASS®

Although the tourist pass includes several of Boston's main attractions, it does not include the Tea Party Museum, which is considered the most important patriotic museum in the United States and one of the most outstanding in the city.

The Tea Party Museum reconstructs Boston's rebellious period, which ended with the Tea Party and started the American Revolution, through interactive exhibits and guides dressed as colonists.

The Boston CityPASS® tourist pass also does not include any Boston tourist bus tours among its optional offers. Hop-on hop-off transport is usually very popular with tourists as it saves them time and money that they would otherwise spend on public transport.

Apart from these two attractions, the Boston CityPASS® tourist pass is a very cost-effective option if your travel itinerary includes several of the excursions offered by the tourist pass.

This tourist pass will not be useful if you are not really interested in visiting several or all of the attractions it offers, as its options are somewhat limited.

The Boston CityPASS® tourist pass is designed for tourists who want a general overview of the city, as it includes the city's main attractions, except for the Tea Party Museum.

It is also not suitable if you do not plan to use all the visits in a short period of time, as you will have nine days from activation to use the remaining excursions.

If you feel that the Boston CityPASS® tourist pass is insufficient or does not meet all your expectations, there is another option that is a little more comprehensive. The Go Boston Pass offers unlimited visits to more than forty attractions and discounts at shops and restaurants.

The Go Boston Pass works differently from the Boston CityPASS® tourist pass, as the former does not consist of purchasing a fixed number of attractions but rather buying a pass for one, two, three, five or seven days. During the validity period of the tourist pass, which is counted from the moment it is activated at the first attraction, you can enjoy all the options you want.

Unfortunately, the Go Boston Pass does not include the Tea Party Museum, although it does include several tourist buses and the Museum of Fine Arts among its options.

• Price of the 1-day All-Inclusive Go Boston Pass... From £56
• Price of the 2-day All-Inclusive Go Boston Pass... From £77
• Price of the 3-day All-Inclusive Go Boston Pass... From £86
• 5-day All-Inclusive Go Boston Pass price... From £115
• Price of the 7-day All-Inclusive Go Boston Pass... From £136

Although you have nine days from activation to visit the three remaining attractions, it is best to plan an itinerary with the tour. The Boston CityPASS® tourist pass includes a guide with information on the excursions, which will help you organise your trip.

This tourist pass does not include some places that I recommend you visit, such as the Tea Party Museum or a historical tour of the city, so if you plan to do these activities as well, you can organise them in between the options offered by the Boston CityPASS® tourist pass.

Please also remember that the New England Aquarium and the Fort Point Channel and Boston Harbour cruise require advance booking, so you should take this into account to ensure you don't miss out on any activities.