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Near the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, the Boston Children's Museum is the next building along Congress Street, Fort Point's brewery taprooms and seafood restaurants are close by, and the Institute of Contemporary Art sits on the harbor in the Seaport. To finish the Tea Party story, go to the Old South Meeting House on Washington Street, where the meeting that started it ended on December 16, 1773. South Station, on the Red Line and the Silver Line, is the nearest T stop.
Start at the Tea Party Ships
The Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum sits on the Congress Street Bridge over the Fort Point Channel. The tour lasts about an hour, with actors in period dress, a town meeting, full-scale replica ships and tea to throw overboard. Tours run daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., admission starts at $36, and entry is timed; walk-up waits can run an hour or more on busy days. If you drive, the museum validates parking at the Atlantic Wharf Garage at 280 Congress Street: a $20 flat rate on weekdays after 10 a.m. and $10 on weekends.
Boston Children's Museum, next door
The Boston Children's Museum is at 308 Congress Street, on the same stretch of the channel, which makes it an easy pairing for families. It is open Wednesday to Monday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed on Tuesdays. Admission is $24 for adults and for children aged 1 to 15; babies under 12 months go free. The museum recommends buying tickets in advance.
Where the Tea Party began: Old South Meeting House
The tea was dumped at the waterfront, but the decision came from the Old South Meeting House at Washington and Milk Streets. Built in 1729, it was one of the largest buildings in colonial Boston, and the series of meetings there about the East India Company's tea ended on December 16, 1773 with the start of the Boston Tea Party. Today it is a Freedom Trail site, and its immersive exhibit, Ruckus, runs hourly at 15 minutes past the hour. It is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in October and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in November and December. One ticket, $18 for adults and $16 for seniors, covers both Old South and the Old State House. Both are also among the five sites on the Boston 250 Pass, which our guide compares with CityPASS and Go City.
Fort Point: beer and seafood
Fort Point is the old warehouse district on the Seaport side of the channel. Row 34 at 383 Congress Street opened its first restaurant in 2013 in a 1908 Boston Wharf Company warehouse, and serves oysters from Duxbury Bay, lobster rolls and the daily catch from the Boston Fish Pier. It is open daily from 11:30 a.m., and tables can be booked on OpenTable.
Trillium Fort Point at 50 Thomson Place is the Boston taproom of a brewery founded in Fort Point in 2013, with a roof deck, a patio and a full menu. It is family friendly and takes bookings for up to eight people on Resy, though reservations are not required. Further along the waterfront, Harpoon Brewery and Beer Hall at 306 Northern Avenue holds Brewing Permit 001 in Massachusetts, from 1986, and seats on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Institute of Contemporary Art
The Institute of Contemporary Art at 25 Harbor Shore Drive is in a building cantilevered over the harbor, and its Mediatheque frames nothing but water. It is open Tuesday to Sunday, until 9 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and closed on Mondays. Admission is $20 for adults, free for visitors 18 and under, and free for everyone on Thursday nights from 5 to 9 p.m. The Silver Line Waterfront routes from South Station stop nearby.
Getting around from the museum
South Station is the transfer point: the Red Line goes to Downtown Crossing (for Old South) and Park Street, and the Silver Line runs out to the Seaport and the airport. Our guides to things to do near South Station, the Seaport and downtown Boston cover the next ring of neighborhoods out.