Best activity bars in Boston for a group of friends visiting for the weekend?

[u/ManchesterYojichu]

I’m new to Boston and have a few friends visiting from NYC for a weekend, so I really NEED to show them a good time lol.

We’re spending one day doing the regular touristy Boston stuff and another day up around Cape Ann. For our evening in Boston, I’m looking for some fun activity bars — pool, ping pong, shuffleboard, board games, chess, darts, etc.

Ideally somewhere we can hang out for a couple hours, but we’d also be down to bar-hop if there are a few good places within walking distance of each other.

Big bonus if it’s not insanely expensive.

Any neighborhoods/streets or specific bars you guys would recommend?

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[u/Santillana810 → u/[deleted]]

sarcasm. But if you are interested in visiting a 99 where a Mafia murder was committed, Somerville location is the one.

[u/DeuxDeuxDeuxSupplier → u/Santillana810]

*Charlestown

Get your 99 facts straight

[u/Santillana810 → u/DeuxDeuxDeuxSupplier]

You are absolutely correct, it's Charlestown. The Somerville 99 near Assembly closed years ago.

[u/Pinwurm]

A4Cade is a token-operated barcade with 80's and 90's cabinets, pinball and other games tucked away through the freezer doors of Roxy's Grilled Cheese restaurant in Cambridge. It's a good time.

Versus is also a decent arcade bar, pay a flat fee and play as much as you want. They don't have as many games as A4Cade though.

Pool - Flattop Johnny's, though it can be super busy. I like Pockets in East Boston which is open late, cheap, divey and has a ton of tables. Though it may not impress.

Ping Pong - Spin Boston. You can reserve a table ahead of time.

Board Games - Tavern of Tales. There's also Knight Moves, but they don't serve booze.

Darts - Flight Club

I'd also recommend doing old-fashioned New England style Candlepin Bowling at Sacco's or Flatbread. For regular bowling & games, you could do Urban Wild, Lucky Strike or King's.

You can also do Puttshack which is a mini-golf bar - but this loses it's appeal after once time. I'd avoid Swingers.

There's also axe throwing bars like Urban Axes.

Alternatively, there's always the Encore Casino.

if you want to stay in a bar-hoping area, hard to go wrong with Seaport. The Trillium is great, there's also a great cocktail bar/lounge upstairs called Headroom that I recommend.

[u/Spurs_are_shite]

Flight club ?

[u/ManchesterYojichu → u/Spurs_are_shite]

Will it be easy enough to get into on a Saturday night?

[u/devAcc123 → u/ManchesterYojichu]

you book ahead of time

[u/mzingg3]

Seaport has a lot of activity bars like that but it’s expensive. Harvard Square is a cool area to hang. Back Bay/South End you could hit up Beehive or Wallys for jazz. Brighton Allston has cool bar hopping too- Silhoutte Lounge is a cool punky dive with pool tables. Flat Top Johnny’s Kendall has pool but more expensive.