It’s not surprising that Bostonians love their city, as it seems to have everything they want. Foodies have plenty of restaurants, burger joints, and pizza parlors to pick from. Sports nuts have lots of teams to root for. And the city is renowned for its excellent schools, which includes the legendary Harvard and MIT.
And of course, they have theme parks as well. Plenty of locals don’t mind having to stay at home during the holidays. Why fly to Florida or California, they’ll ask (usually with their customary snark), when they have their own great theme parks that are just as good as Magic Kingdom?
Here are some of these theme parks in or near Boston that you might want to visit, if ever you come to Boston:
Six Flags New England
This is located a hundred miles from Boston, and it’s worth the short car ride. That’s only about an hour and a half of driving, then you’re in one of the best holiday spots in the whole New England area.
This place is perfect for families, with milder rides for kids while the teens and adults can go with more adventurous thrills. There’s the Zoom Down Screen, which involves a heart-stopping freefall drop from 200 feet up.
You should also try the Wicked Cyclone, which reaches speeds of up to 55 mph. You get to a height of 10 stories up in the air, then you go into a steep 78-degree drop.
And if you need a break from all the rollercoaster fun, you still have bumper cars and relaxed river rides to enjoy.
CoCo Key Water Park
This place is open all-year long, so you can head on out to Danvers whenever you have a free weekend. It’s a huge indoor park that spans 65,000 square feet, so you may need more days to explore every nook and cranny.
You’ll have lots of water park thrills to enjoy here, including various water slides, a water basketball court and dip-in theater. There’s also an arcade (it’s not just for the kiddies), an on-site bar (definitely not for the kids), and free Wi-Fi.
Water Wizz
This is in East Wareham, which is about an hour’s ride from Boston. They’re not open in the evenings, but you can get your fun in from 10am to 5pm. The place occupies about 8 acres, and that’s a lot of space for a lot of fun.
This place is for the brave and as plenty of thrills here are actually thrilling. Try the Squid Row, which is utterly unpredictable and you won’t really know what happens next. Then you go with the Devil’s Peak, which takes you 61 feet up from where you fall freely to the ground. The Harpoon Lagoon is another must-try attraction.
Palace Playland
This is less than a hundred miles from Boston, even though it’s actually in Maine. Again, it’s a daytime park as it closes at 5pm. But before that happens, you can get a ride on the legendary Electra Wheel so you can get terrific views of the park and the beach.
The carnival foods here at Palace Playland are terrific, while the arcade section features 200 games. You certainly won’t get bored here!