city touring with kids - Pitstops for Kids

Family friendly urban bike routes in the U.S.

July 12, 2017 By Amy Hagstrom

If you’re heading to one of the popular cities in the U.S. for vacation, you might want to consider doing some exploring on two wheels. There are plenty of cities around the country that offer family-friendly urban bike routes where you can learn more about the area and see some great scenery. Make a plan to check out the following urban bike paths with your family.

Cherry Creek Trail, Denver

Extending from downtown Denver to the high prairie grasslands, the 42-mile Cherry Creek Trail is one of the best ways to see the area. The paved trail starts at the confluence of Cherry Creek in downtown Denver. It then follows the creek past busy downtown streets and top attractions, such as the Colorado State Capitol building, Larimer Square, Union Station, and the Colorado Convention Center. As the trail heads out of the downtown core it goes through some historic neighborhoods, Cherry Creek State Park, and suburban residential areas.

Lakefront Trail, Chicago

See Chicago’s famous and stunning shoreline on full display when you ride on the Lakefront Trail. With the shores of Lake Michigan on one side and the Chicago skyline on the other, the 18.5-mile paved trail takes you by some the city’s most famous landmarks. A few of the attractions you’ll ride past include Navy Pier, Lincoln Park Zoo, Soldier Field, Monroe Harbor, and the Museum of Science and Industry.

Minuteman Bikeway, Boston

If you want to include some history with your bike ride, there’s no better place to do it than the Minuteman Bikeway in Boston. This 10-mile paved rail trail follows roughly the same route Paul Revere took during his famous ride. The trail connects the neighborhoods of Bedford, Cambridge, Lexington, and Arlington. It stops at the Alewife Station, where you can park your bikes and hop on mass transit to go right into downtown Boston.

BeltLine, Atlanta

The BeltLine is a former railway corridor that circles Atlanta. When completed, the trail will offer a nearly continuous loop around the city for transportation and recreation. So far, Atlanta has converted around 22 miles of abandoned railroad track to a multiuse trail. You can tour the city on the Eastside Trail and ride through the beautiful Historic Fourth Ward Park. Best of all, even if you’re traveling to Atlanta without your bikes, you can rent some using a bike sharing program and still tour the lovely BeltLine.

Burke-Gilman Trail, Seattle

Another lovely rail trail is the 27-mile multiuse Burke-Gilman Trail in Seattle. The trail runs from Puget Sound in North Seattle all the way to the town of Bothell. Along the way, you’ll ride the shorelines of Lake Union, Lake Washington Ship Canal, and Lake Washington. You’ll also enjoy relatively flat terrain, gorgeous views of the water, and a great tour of the surrounding neighborhoods.

No matter which city you decide to travel to in the U.S., you’re sure to find some scenic urban bike routes that will help you explore the area and learn more about where you’re visiting.

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Washington DC with kids: National Air and Space Museum

September 22, 2014 By Amy Hagstrom

There are many worthy museums along the Mall, and it can be hard to know which to see while visiting Washington DC with kids. If yours are airplane, science, or space fans, you’ll want to make the National Air and Space Museum a priority. Like the other museums, the Air and Space is massive, and will require at least half of your day. We recommend hitting this (and any major museum) early in the day, to avoid lengthy security lines.

Right when you enter from the Mall side, you’ll be able to touch a moon rock. Start here for the first ‘wow’ from the kids. The capsule from Apollo 11 is here in the main hall as well, and numerous other impressive space artifacts. The downstairs exhibit halls seemed more committed to hands-on science, with almost a science museum feel, with several rooms devoted just to kids. Ours enjoyed participating in scheduled programs in this area, such as a paper airplane making contest. We learned quite a bit about balance and stability in the process! Young kids will want to spend a good deal of time in these halls.

Upstairs, the larger planes and the Apollo 11 Skylab are available for touring; definitely check out the interior of the Skylab to see where astronauts went to the bathroom, slept, and ate. Numerous planes grace this level, and exhibit halls include aviation during WWI and WWII, military unmanned vehicles, and a space exhibit on exploring planets. There’s a section on the Wright Brothers upstairs, and another on the early history of flight downstairs. It seemed like these two exhibit halls could have been combined or at least next to each other.

Overall, the Air and Space museum looked a bit more worn than the other Mall museums; I’d love to see it get an overhaul. There’s an IMAX theater, and we were very intrigued by all the movie selections. We saw one, but the IMAX broke down before we could see a second. There’s a planetarium that we didn’t get to as well.

Date last visited:

July 2014

Distance from the interstate:

Minutes from I-66 and I-395. Close to I-95.

Admission:

Free. IMAX movies and Planetarium are extra ($9 and $7 for adults and kids, approximately).

Hours of operation:

10 am to 5:30 pm daily, except Christmas Day. Extended hours are possible in summer.

Dining:

There’s a museum cafe, but also a nice food court across the Mall underground between the two wings of the art museums. If you have the time and patience to go through another security check, it may be worth the effort. Tip: No matter what we do, we always bring water bottles and refill them at water stations. We save $10-15 per meal by not purchasing drinks, and save from adding to the plastic bottles piling up, too.

Directions:

The museum is located at Independence Avenue at 6th Street, Washington DC. Get off at the Smithsonian Metro stop, or walk from most points on the Mall.

Wondering where to stay in DC? Check out our review of Grand Hyatt Washington.

Get more Washington DC itinerary picks.

Boston with kids: walking the Freedom Trail

July 1, 2011 By Amy Hagstrom

A must-do when visiting Boston with kids, the Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile red-brick walking trail that leads to 16 historic sites, every one an important piece of the road to American freedom. I’ve heard of families worrying this tour would be too dull for kids, but we didn’t find that to be true at all! Not every site garners kids’ full attention, but it’s ok to gloss over a few in order to fully investigate the ones that interest your group most. Allow older kids turns navigating along the red brick path and reading aloud about the stops along the way, and you’ll be surprised at how much time they spend learning more.

If you opt to go the self-guided route (which I recommend if you have young kids whose interest may web and wane), you can start and end anywhere, but it’s best to begin at Boston Common. There you’ll find a useful visitor information center, where you can pick up a Freedom Trail booklet with descriptions of the sites you’ll see and a map to mark your progress along the trail.

The whole trail could take you half a day if you stop to enter the various sites (which you definitely should!) or longer if you also stop for a meal or shopping. The map is useful mostly to alert you to what you’re looking it; the trail is well marked in red brick, so you can’t get lost or go wrong. For our family, the highlights were Paul Revere’s house (which you can tour), the Granary Burying Ground (where many American revolutionaries, signers of the Declaration of Independence, and Ben Franklin’s parents are buried, among others), and the U.S.S. Constitution, moored near the end of the trail (and also open to visitors). In fact, the promise of boarding ‘Old Ironsides’ is what kept Toby (age 6) going for the last half mile or so! Once there, touring the ship is free (though wait times do exist in the middle of the day during high season).

Date last visited: June 2011

Admission costs:The trail is itself is free as well, but you’ll pay small admission prices to visit Paul Revere’s House and the Old State House. (I recommend both, and you can buy a combination ticket.) ‘Walk into History’ tours are also available for $13 for adults, $7 for children if you’d like a guide, but they run 90 minutes and don’t include the whole route (plus may be over the heads of kids 10 and under). Audio guides are great for older kids, however: you can get them for $15 at the Visitor Information Center at Boston Common.

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Tip:A stop at the National Park Service building (across from site of the Boston Massacre near Faneuil Hall) is a must if your kids have National Park Passports to stamp. You can also pick up great maps there.

Website: http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/

Note: The Freedom Trail has a Kidscore of 85. Learn more about Kidscore.