Boston Museums with Kids

Boston has more museum per square mile than anywhere else in America, and a family can still get a day here badly wrong in three ways. The first is the closed day: the Children's Museum and the MFA both shut on Tuesdays and the ICA on Mondays, so the rainy midweek plan people default to is the one most likely to fail. The second is the add-on: the Museum of Science's $33 adult ticket buys the exhibit halls and nothing else — the Planetarium, the Omni and the 4-D films are $6 each on top. The third is assuming children are free, which they are at the ICA at any age up to eighteen and emphatically are not at the MFA, where a seven-year-old is $14. This guide has what each place actually costs in 2026, the hours that aren't a single number, and the discounted slots worth arranging a week around.

Updated September 16, 2026 · refreshed weekly

Museum of Science: Exhibit Halls $33 adult / $28 child 3–11 / $29 senior; under 3 free. Daily 9am–5pm. Theater add-ons $6 each
Boston Children's Museum: $24 for everyone aged 1 and up, under-12-months free. Wed–Mon 9am–4pm, closed Tuesdays
New England Aquarium: $39.95 adult / $30.95 child 3–11 / free under 3; New England residents $5 off, blacked out summer weekends
Museum of Fine Arts: $30 adult, $14 youth 7–17, free 0–6. Closed Tuesdays; Thu–Fri to 10pm; last entry 30 min before close
USS Constitution Museum: Suggested donation — “Standard: $15 per person”, “Reduced: Free – $10 per person”. Open daily 9am–6pm

The Museum of Science: one ticket, then more tickets

The Museum of Science is the city's most reliable indoor day — the exhibit halls are open daily, 9:00am to 5:00pm, with no closed day at all — and it is also the one where the sticker price is not the price. Exhibit Halls admission is $33 for an adult, $28 for a child aged three to eleven and $29 for a senior sixty and over; children under three visit free. That gets you the halls. The Charles Hayden Planetarium, the Mugar Omni Theater and the 4-D films are each $6 more when bought alongside admission, or $10 for an adult and $8 for a child as a standalone theater ticket if you are only coming for a show. Members pay $2 for the add-on. For a family of two adults and two children aged three to eleven, that is $122 before a single show and $146 with one show each. The good news is the evening: the Planetarium and Omni stay open until 10:00pm on Friday and Saturday nights, with the last show at 10, which makes a late Omni film a genuinely different outing from the daytime one. The museum's parking rate is not published on its visit or hours pages, so price it against the T before you drive — the Science Park/West End stop is at the door and every child under twelve rides free.

The Children's Museum: closed Tuesdays, and the $1 slot is Sunday

The Boston Children's Museum at 308 Congress Street charges $24 a head for everyone aged one and up — adults and children the same — with infants under twelve months free. It runs Wednesday to Monday, 9:00am to 4:00pm, closed Tuesdays, and on the first Saturday of every month it opens an hour later at 10:00am. Advance tickets are “highly recommended”, which in practice means a weekend walk-up may wait. The cheaper routes are worth knowing, and one of them is not what the internet says. There is no $1 Friday night: the museum closes at four, so the widely-republished “Fridays 5 to 9pm, $1” is a description of something that no longer exists. The live version is “TJX Sunday Afternoons: $1 admission during the Sunday afternoon timeslot 1:00pm–4:00pm”, and it says “Online Reservations Required” — turn up without one and you pay $24. Beyond that: an EBT or WIC card gets $3 a person for up to four people per card per visit, as does a Wonderfund Access Card; a coupon from most public libraries gets half-price for up to four; active Massachusetts K-8 teachers get half price; and active-duty armed forces personnel and veterans get in free.

The Aquarium, and the discount that disappears in summer

The New England Aquarium at 1 Central Wharf is $39.95 for an adult, $30.95 for a child aged three to eleven and $37.95 for a senior sixty and over, with children two and under free. Adding a Simons Theatre film takes it to $44.95 and $35.95. Hours are 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday and 9:00am to 6:00pm at weekends. Two things decide what you pay. The first is the New England resident discount, which takes $5 off each ticket — adult $34.95, child $25.95, senior $32.95 — for residents of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, and which is explicitly “not available during weekends and holidays in summer (Memorial Day weekend, May 23, 2026, to Labor Day weekend, September 7, 2026)”. That is exactly when most families visit, so check your date before you count on it. The second is booking: the Aquarium's own guidance is that you should “purchase tickets before your visit to guarantee entry” because it “frequently sells out on weekends”, with only a limited number of same-day tickets at opening. One more thing worth knowing and rarely mentioned: “visitors using wheelchairs and visitors with visual impairments are welcome at the Aquarium free of charge.”

The art museums, the free ship, and the branded SERP nobody needs

The Museum of Fine Arts is $30 for an adult, $14 for a youth aged seven to seventeen and free for children six and under. It is closed Tuesdays, runs 10 to 5 on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and 10 to 10 on Thursdays and Fridays — which makes a Thursday evening the quiet way to do it — with last entry thirty minutes before closing. The routes to free are specific: four Massachusetts-resident Open Houses a year, $5 pay-what-you-wish on the third Thursday of each month after 5pm, Card to Culture for EBT holders, and Boston Family Days giving Boston students and their families free entry on the first and second Sundays of every month. The ICA at 25 Harbor Shore Drive is the opposite shape: $20 for an adult but free for everyone eighteen and under, every day, plus free for all on Thursday evenings from 5 to 9 and on six public holidays. It is closed Mondays. And the free one people forget is USS Constitution at the Charlestown Navy Yard: boarding the ship is free, Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm, first come first served, with a Navy security screening; the USS Constitution Museum beside her is open daily 9am to 6pm on a suggested donation — the site names “Standard: $15 per person” and “Reduced: Free – $10 per person”, which means a family that cannot pay is explicitly welcome. One honest note on what this guide does not try to be: search results for the Boston Children's Museum by name are a branded wall the museum itself owns, and rightly. What we can tell you is the part its own homepage does not lead with — which day it is shut, and when the dollar tickets are.

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FAQ

Which Boston museums are closed on Tuesdays?

The Boston Children's Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts. The ICA is closed Mondays instead, and additionally on Patriots' Day, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. The Museum of Science opens daily, 9am to 5pm, which makes it the dependable midweek answer.

Does Museum of Science admission include the Planetarium?

No. Exhibit Halls admission is $33 adult, $28 child 3–11, $29 senior 60+, and the Planetarium, Mugar Omni and 4-D films are $6 each on top when bought with it, or $10/$8 as a standalone theater ticket. Members pay $2 for the add-on. Children under three visit free. Plan on roughly $146 for two adults and two children with one show each.

How do we get cheap Boston Children's Museum tickets?

The $1 slot is Sunday afternoons, 1pm to 4pm, and it requires an online reservation — there is no $1 Friday night, because the museum closes at 4pm. An EBT, WIC or Wonderfund card gets $3 a person for up to four people per visit. A public library coupon gets half price for up to four. Massachusetts K-8 teachers get half price; active-duty military and veterans get in free.

Is the New England Aquarium cheaper for Massachusetts residents?

Yes, $5 off each ticket — adult $34.95, child $25.95, senior $32.95 — for residents of any New England state. But the discount is blacked out on weekends and holidays through the summer, from Memorial Day weekend on 23 May 2026 to Labor Day weekend on 7 September 2026. Buy in advance either way; the Aquarium says it frequently sells out at weekends.

What can we see for free at the Charlestown Navy Yard?

USS Constitution herself: free to board, Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm, first come first served. She is an active-duty US Navy ship, so there is a security screening at the gate. The USS Constitution Museum next door is a suggested donation — the site lists a standard of $15 per person and a reduced tier of free to $10 — and is open daily 9am to 6pm.

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The Museum of Science: one ticket, then more tickets

The Children's Museum: closed Tuesdays, and the $1 slot is Sunday

The Aquarium, and the discount that disappears in summer

The art museums, the free ship, and the branded SERP nobody needs

Museum events in our catalog

FAQ

Get your personalized event picks for free

Create your free profile

Tune your picks

Get your weekly shortlist

Explore the full list