Me and my boyfriend just returned from visiting Boston. While finishing off the Freedom Trail for the 2nd day we stopped off to see the USS Constitution. What a beautiful ship! Our tour guide was fantastic and very informative. He took us below deck where they have the cannons set up and the captains quarters. Then we went another floor down and saw where the crew slept. The boat is well kept up. I definately recommend this tour if you enjoy history!!

My wife, 4- and 8-year-old children, and I visited Old Ironsides during a hot August visit to Boston for the first time. The half-hour wait under the scorching sun was a little much for the little ones...well, okay, I was hot, too. Nevertheless, we enjoyed seeing what an early 1800's warship was like (thank God, most of the tour was below deck). The U.S. Navy sailor leading the tour was a bit hurried in his presentation, but we learned lots of interesting history about the ship and it's times. The best part was a visit to the air-conditioned museum (where we all recovered from the heat!). Two movies gave a more visual history of Old Ironsides, and there were lots of intriguing exhibits about shipbuilding, naval warfare, sea piracy, etc. The museum was more informative than the ship visit, but there's no denying the sense of history when standing on the deck of the actual ship. All in all, we recommend visiting the USS Constitution.

p.s. Did we mention it was free admission?

p.p.s. If anyone finds a green and purple sippy on board, it belonged to my heat-exhausted 4-year-old daughter...

You know I'm not a huge history buff or anything but this was definitely worth the time. It's an amazing ship with a great crew. We went on the guided tour of the boat and it was amazing. Go early if you don't want to stand in line too long and it is closed on Mondays. The active crew serves as the tour guides and not tour guides pretending to be crew members.

We didn't get to tour the boat (closed Mondays) but really enjoyed the museum (2 adults and a 16 year old). Either I forgot most of what I learned back in school or they just didn't teach the good stuff. If you go to see the ship don't skip the musuem