You're in for a real treat if your team is in or around Boston, especially if you’re working on building camaraderie within the group! Beyond its iconic landmarks and bustling urban life, Boston offers a wealth of opportunities for team building with its historical charm and contemporary dynamics.
Boston's allure for team-building activities lies in its historic sites, cultural landmarks, and the vast green spaces all around the cityscape. These open areas provide the perfect canvas for diverse team activities, allowing groups to harness the city's energy while engaging in fun and impactful exercises.
Boston is also home to many indoor activities that allow your team to bond regardless of the weather, considering that Boston summers can get pretty hot while winters can be awfully cold.
To help you plan your next team-building activity, here are the top choices in the Boston area:
1. Mobsters and Lobsters
If you’re a big fan of stories about the mafia, this is a good place to start. Mobsters and Lobsters takes you through some historical sites around the city but with bits and pieces of stories about the Italian Mafia, the Irish Mob, and their shenanigans in Boston.
Part of the tour’s charm is the blue trolley you’ll use as you go around. You can also choose the tour and meal package and end the trip with lobsters, steaks, and more.
2. Adventure Games
Treat the city as your team’s very own playground with Adventure Games! Adventure Games facilitates different activities for different-sized teams where you can be creative, solve puzzles, and strategize to win.
These activities come in different themes, from fun spy games to urban adventures. Each activity comes with a facilitator and the materials needed, and would take you to different parts of the city.
The great thing about these activities is that you also interact with each other smack in the busiest parts of the city. From coming up with a telenovela scene you’ll be performing at random sidewalks to creating flash mobs in high-traffic areas, you’re sure to be the talk of the town once the day’s over.
3. Trapology
Escape rooms are always on the top list of things to do with your team, no matter where you are around the globe. In Boston, Trapology is the place to go if you want to experience the most exciting and challenging puzzles to escape whatever room you choose.
What makes Trapology unique is that they don’t just have indoor escape rooms; they also have outdoor escape games!
Trapology also has a dedicated events team that works with teams like yours. They can also throw in a catering and bartending service so that you can have food and drinks once you’ve solved enough challenges for the day.
4. Paddle Boston
Take a trip around Charles River, Boston Harbor, and other points of interest in a kayak through Paddle Boston. It’s perfect for teams that love water activities.
Paddle Boston also has trained team-building facilitators who can work with your group. Since the package comes with pre- and post-event briefings, they can also discuss key skills you need to develop camaraderie within the team.
5. Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger Hunts are among the most classic team-building activities you’ll ever find, and there’s a good reason why they never get old – they’re just so much fun that teams can’t get enough of the challenge!
Of course, Boston is one of the best places to hold a Scavenger Hunt, considering the great locations around the city. ScavengerHunt.com’s Boston Scavenger Hunt is the perfect adventure, with their signature hunt spanning 1.81 miles with eight different stops.
The stops include iconic locations like the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, the Boston Public Library, The Tortoise and the Hare sculpture, and so much more.
6. Liberty Fleet
You can imagine yourself as a hero on an adventurous voyage or a pirate looking for your next loot. Either way, Liberty Fleet’s tall ships are perfect for the job.
Liberty Fleet offers Boston Harbor Sailing Cruises that give you a different way to appreciate the city. Go for a day sail to get a clear view of the Boston cityscape, or enjoy the beautiful sunset on the Boston Harbor Sunset Cruise. You can also enjoy a few drinks on the Cocktails, Rum & City Lights Cruise.
7. Cycleboat Boston
Not a fan of tall ships? Then a pedalboat is a better choice for you.
Cycleboat Boston takes you on a tour around the harbor, with passengers seated on bike seats so that they can paddle and help move the boat along. These boats also have lounge areas for passengers who would rather sit back, enjoy the ride, and skip the pedaling.
Whether you want to take the tour during brunch, while the sun sets, or at night, Cycleboat Boston has the right tour for your team. You can also bring your own food and beverages and enjoy them onboard.
8. Archery Games
Archery ranges have become more popular, but usually with rows of targets you can safely shoot at from a distance. But with Archery Games Boston, you get to experience how Robin Hood and his merry men felt each time they encountered a group of enemies.
Archery Games allows teams to go through different obstacles to shoot as much of the opposing team as possible. It’s a battle of speed, accuracy, and wits as you go head-to-head with your opponents for 50 minutes.
Once the games are over, Archery Games also offers food and drinks for the whole team.
9. The Freedom Trail
Ever wondered how it would have felt like to be part of the American Revolution? Walk The Freedom Trail and retrace the steps of some of the most iconic figures in history.
The Freedom Trail takes you through museums, meeting houses, churches, burying grounds, and other historic markers in Boston. Your guides also wear 18th-century costumes throughout the tour, making you feel like you’ve stepped back into a different era.
You can also request a customized tour for your team based on your preferences. If your team is composed of history buffs, you could make this a series of activities and sign up for a different tour each time.
10. Boston Cares Bed Project
Boston Cares provides opportunities to help the community through various projects. The Boston Cares Bed Project targets children under 18 who don’t have their own beds to sleep in as they transition between shelters.
Through this project, your team could help build beds that will be donated to the right agencies. You can even finish each bed you complete with your chosen paint colors to give your creations their own identity.
Volunteer activities like this help teams come together and complete a goal with a deeper purpose, which could build strong bonds within the team.
11. Museum Hack
Did you know that Boston is home to around 60 museums? This isn’t surprising, knowing how much history the streets of the city have seen.
But not everyone appreciates museums. So why not add a twist to the usual museum crawl and join one of the Museum Hack tours?
Museum Hack adds quirky little details to your museum tour, with icebreakers, fun trivia, and wine added to the mix. This means that your team won’t just learn important historical and cultural facts; you’re also in for the fun you wouldn’t normally associate with museums.
12. Boston Pub Crawl
How about mixing history and a few drinks? Many pub crawls are offered around the city, from a Historic Pub Crawl that takes you through historic taverns like Dirty Nelly’s and Green Dragon to a Haunted Boston Ghost and Pub Walking Tour that brings a different level of chills to your adventure.
13. Improv Asylum
Speaking of fun, how about getting the team together for a few laughs? Improv Asylum doesn’t just offer stand-up comedy; they also offer improv classes that target your team’s specific needs.
IA Innovation is Improv Asylum’s corporate training wing that takes leadership and employee training to a new level. They use the same techniques that their comedians use onstage to help your team develop their creative muscles and come up with more innovative ideas that could catapult your team to success.
14. Blue Hills Reservation
The Blue Hills Reservation is a 7,000-acre state park located just outside Boston. It’s the perfect place if you just want your team to wind down and enjoy nature, with its many trails of varying difficulty levels.
Make the trip even more fun by looking out for birds like the red-shouldered hawk and the wood thrush and interesting plants like the purple pitcher plant and the highbush blueberry.
You can also enjoy some of the bike trails or go for a swim at Houghton’s Pond. Horseback riding is also offered, and a museum is present for those who want to find out more about the native animals in the area.
15. Boda Borg Boston
Gamers in your team will understand how fun it is to complete different side quests. So why not complete quests in real life through Boda Borg?
Boda Borg Boston is like an escape room on steroids, with each quest requiring teams to go through the puzzles and challenges found in 3 to 4 rooms.
Boda Borg also offers customized activities for large groups, perfect for team building.
16. Central Rock Gym Boston
How about doing something physical for a change? Rock climbing at places like Central Rock allows teams to show how good they are at going through challenging boulder routes. The routes change over time, so it would be interesting to see how your team members cheer each other on and guide them through each wall.
Let their experts teach you how to fall safely, improve your grip, and other tips and tricks of the trade. Who knows? You might find a lesson or two in navigating these boulder routes that you could also apply to your team’s usual day-to-day.
17. Boundless Adventures
If you get a thrill out of heights, visiting Boundless Adventures is just the thing to hype your team spirit. Located just outside Boston, the zipline and other aerial adventures are worth the quick drive.
You can visit during the day and enjoy the zipline and obstacle course, or try night climbing and enjoy the park’s glow-in-the-dark elements.
There are also different difficulty levels, with rope courses catering to beginners and experts.
18. Cooking Classes
Food brings people together – your team included. But how about getting your team to prepare your own feast instead of ordering or eating out?
There are a lot of cooking classes happening around Boston that are open to everyone, whether you’re a complete noob in the kitchen or someone who knows their way around the kitchen.
From making your own pizza to making a few batches of sushi, you can schedule these classes regularly, with each class focusing on a different cuisine each time.
19. Foodie Tours
Not interested in cooking your own meals? Then how about a foodie tour in some of the best culinary spots in the city?
Boston Foodie Tours is a local female-owned business that provides unique food experiences around Boston. They know the best places to eat, from Little Italy to Beacon Hill, and will also show you a few historical sights in the process if you sign up for their Historic Dine Around.
20. Paint and Sip
Bring out your team members’ artistic side while sipping wine. Paint and Sip sessions are always a great team-building activity whether you’re in Boston, New York, or any other city in the country.
It always feels good to hang out with friends and participate in any creative process. This is exactly what happens in this activity. With everyone socializing and having fun, it sets the right atmosphere for boosting morale and building trust within the team.
While Boston can be considered one of the best places to hold team-building activities, it’s understandable that you might have remote team members who should join the fun. The good news is that there are a lot of online team-building activities that your entire team can enjoy.
Start off with something like the Coffee Maker feature in the CoffeePals app. Your team will enjoy answering the thought-provoking questions dropped twice a week in your team channel! It’s also interesting to see different perspectives based on the answers, allowing your team members to get to know each other better.
You can also have regular virtual coffee break sessions to give your team members some downtime. These quick breaks are a great avenue for team members to discuss their interests, veering away from the usual heavy work-related stuff.
Try out CoffeePals now and make team building a regular part of your team’s schedule.
