GREAT IDEAS FOR SCHOOL VACATION WEEK
It's coming for us: April vacation week. And those of us parents who aren't lucky enough to be jetting off with our tykes to sunny beach resorts from the 16th to the 20th are suddenly starting to look around for things to do with the kids close to home. But does staying put really mean missing out on doing something amazing? I say no. So I asked some of my most in-the-know friends for some brilliant ideas. Et voila: Take the little ones for some four-star, indoor glamping: April in Boston is no time for sleeping outdoors, right? Right. So instead, grab the family and jump on the over-the-top kids program at the Four Seasons Boston (fourseasons.com/boston). Throughout the rest of the year, anyone booking a room there can request the Kids' Adventure Package, which means discovering a tent set up just for them when you walk into the room (along with plenty of kids amenities and surprises for them — like their names written in special soap on the tub for bath time). But again, that's a thing you can get any time of year.
For this April vacation, things get even sweeter there, with an additional and communal “glamping” suite set up just for kids to watch movies (and some pretty adorable pillows that say, “Gone Glamping”). Best of all, during April vacation week, the hotel opens up its glorious indoor pool for a “Safari Swim” for kids, with huge floats and music, so it basically turns into a fantastic indoor party.
Fine art? Yes, please. Here's where culture meets adventure. At the Museum of Fine Arts (mfa.org), kids 7 to 17 are free during nonschool hours (kids younger than that are always free) for Boston Public Schools, including during the entire vacation week. How cool is that? But the fun thing is to bring yourself here with the kids and dive into art scavenger hunts that they plan, complete with check-off lists that bring in objects and images — from knights to mythical creatures — to learn some pretty amazing stuff. Meanwhile, you get to kick back and look at some incredible masterpieces.
Turn your kid (and maybe yourself, too) into a pro chef for a day. Imagine your little progeny, rolling out to-die-for flatbread pizzas and baking them in an open restaurant kitchen. That's exactly what happens at the Oak Long Bar + Kitchen's kids pizza making class (fairmont.com/copley-plazaboston) on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. With several executive chefs' hands-on, expert instructions to guide them, the kids learn to roll and toss dough, mastermind their own fixings, sauce and cheese, and ultimately create a pie to die for. The best part? You and they get to eat it afterward for lunch, when they serve it to everyone at your table.
Do some natural science in style. One of my friends let me in on a little secret: If you book a suite at Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge (hotelmarlowe.com), you and the kids can not only take out its bikes for free — for a perfectly beautiful ride along the Charles River — but also have access to its incredible concierge, who can get you tickets to the Museum of Science (mos.org) in a jiffy. And if it is a miraculously nice spring day out? Then you can borrow any of the hotel's kayaks or L.L. Bean paddleboards for free; they even bring them right down to the river for you and the kids. Bingo.