Eileen Ogintz - Kids Guide to Boston

Award-winning author Eileen Ogintz is a leading national family travel expert whose syndicated Taking the Kids is the most widely distributed column in the country on family travel. She has also created TakingtheKids.com, which helps families make the most of their vacations together. Ogintz is the author of seven family travel books and is often quoted in major publications such as USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times, as well as parenting and womens magazines on family travel. She has appeared on such television programs as The Today Show, Good Morning America, and The Oprah Winfrey Show, as well as dozens of local radio and television news programs. She has traveled around the world with her three children and others in the family, talking to traveling families wherever she goes. She is also the author of The Kids Guide to New York City; The Kids Guide to Orlando; The Kids Guide to Washington, DC; The Kids Guide to Chicago; and The Kids Guide to Los Angeles (Globe Pequot Press).

Youll find plenty of food you like in Bostonpizza and hot dogs, burgers and ice cream.

But Boston is a good place to try some new foodlike New England clam chowder or seafood caught right off the coast of Massachusetts.

Maybe youd rather have a Chinese noodle dish in Bostons Chinatown.

DID YOU KNOW?

Bostons Chinatown is the third largest in the country, after those communities in San Francisco and New York City. Today you will find other Asian restaurants here as well as Chinese Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and Thai among them.

Youll find anything in Boston from fancy restaurants to burger places to the stands in Faneuil Hall Marketplace where you can get everything from the biggest chocolate chip cookies youve ever seen to Indian curry, sushi, barbecue, bagels, paninis, and all varieties of New England seafood fried fish-and-chips, steamed clams and lobsters, and raw oysters that are considered a delicacy. Do you think youd like to try one? They really taste like the ocean. Boston is one place where every person in the family can get exactly the food they crave without compromising!

In summer, you can stop at one of Bostons farmers markets and pick up yummy fixings for a picnic in the park. Youll find them all around the city on different daysfrom Copley Square to the Prudential Center to Cambridge. Ask at your hotel or do a quick online search to find one where you are going to be (massfarmersmarkets.org). Talk to the farmers about what they grow.

DID YOU KNOW?

Kids in Boston like to go to The Pruthe Prudential Centerfor the view from the top and to shop in all the stores (800 Boylston St.; 617-236-3100; prudentialcenter.com). Its a huge mallgreat for a rainy day and when youve had enough of museums and historic sites!

DID YOU KNOW?

The North End is known as Bostons Little Italy because of all the Italian restaurants, bakeries, and cafes. But before the Italians arrived, the North End was home to other immigrantsGerman, Russian, and Polish Jews, the Irish, and the Portuguese. Italians have dominated the area since the 1880s, but now a lot of young Bostonians of all backgrounds live here too.

A lot of kids like to go to the North End for lunch or dinner. Your parents will probably take you here because it is home to two of the Freedom Trails most visited sites the Paul Revere House and the Old North Church. This is where Paul Reveres ride started, and many consider it the birthplace of the American Revolution because a lot of the first planning against England was organized at homes and taverns here. This is also where you can get some of the best pizza, pasta, and gelato in the city.

Whats Cool? Sampling a flavor of gelato youve never had in the North End.

Are you full yet? Then its time to do some shopping. Will it be a Harvard sweatshirt or a Red Sox cap? Theyre two of the souvenirs visiting kids like to get. Maybe you want to buy a book that is set in Bostonlike Robert McCloskeys classic Make Way for Ducklings, about the mallard family who decide to live in the Public Garden. Its the official childrens book of Massachusetts.

You can find everything with Boston on it too. How about a T-shirt with a map of Boston, a tote, a stuffed bear, key chains, or magnets?

DID YOU KNOW?

Newbury Street stretches for 8 blocksjust under a mile. Its Bostons top shopping areaand good for people-watching too.

Maybe you want a pair of socks with tiny lobsters on them? Faneuil Hall Marketplace is souvenir-central where youll find those and likely anything else you want to buy at its small stands as well as the mainstream shops just outside.

Kids also like to shop in Harvard Square as well as along Newbury Street. Youll find little local boutiques and fancy name-brand stores.

Whats your souvenir pick?

DID YOU KNOW?

New Balance is headquartered in Boston. You can visit the New Balance Factory Store at 40 Life St. in Brighton (617-779-7429; newbalance.com) and then try out your new sneakers at the nearby Portsmouth Playground.

Souvenir Stops

EVERYTHING RED SOX: Yawkey Way Store (19 Yawkey Way; 800-336-9299; yawkeywaystore.com)

EVERYTHING NEW ENGLAND: Best of Boston (Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Prudential Center; 617-227-3962)

LOCAL CRAFTS: Original artwork, handmade jewelry, light-up T-shirts, and more at Faneuil Halls 100+ shops and pushcart vendors (4 S. Market St.; 617-523-1300; faneuilhallmarketplace.com)

EVERYTHING HARVARD: