Team Building Boston has worked hard to compile a list of the best team building activities, corporate events and company outing ideas in Boston and the surrounding area. We guarantee you’ll find the perfect team event on this list.
Remember, team building is one of the most important investments you can make in your people. When you show your employees that you appreciate the hard work they do and put your money where your mouth is by investing in your team’s well being and growth, you’ll see a significant improvement in overall employee satisfaction, engagement and retention.
Keep reading to find the best corporate team building activities in Boston, Massachusetts as well as ideas for events in Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, and Milton.
Team Building Boston: Table of Contents
- The Best Team Building Activities in Boston
- Unusual Team Building Activities in Boston
- Fun Team Activities in Boston
- Team Building Scavenger Hunts in Boston
- Boston Team Building Events With Food
- Team Building Boston: Frequently Asked Questions
The Best Team Building Activities in Boston
Choosing the best team building activities in Boston proved challenging, but after we settled on our criteria for evaluating each event, it became clear Boston has a few stand-out team outings. We looked at fun, effectiveness, creativity, and pricing to find team building activities that provide top-notch service with the best bang for your buck. Check them out below.
1. The Great Guac Off™ – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ [Most Popular]
The Great Guac Off is one of the best corporate team building activities in Boston! The event may sound a little unusual, being part guacamole making competition and part team building, but it is challenging, fun, and collaborative. The Great Guac Off encourages friendly competition, teamwork and team bonding by splitting your group into smaller squads. These teams will then battle it out in mini-challenges like avocado themed trivia and “House Builder”, before competing to make the room’s best guacamole. The Great Guac Off’s corporate events can be hosted anywhere, including at rental locations in Boston or at your office. There is no limit to the number of people (or amount of fun!) you can have doing this awesome team activity.
2. Museum Hack – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ [Highest Rated]
Museum Hack runs team activities at the best museums in Boston! These are not your grandma’s museums tours. In addition to fun and interactive games and icebreakers to get your team LOLing, every team event is full of sassy, behind-the-scenes stories, photo challenges, and more. The best part of Museum Hack’s fun corporate events is that the tour guides can customize the tour to match your company’s values and industry. For example, Dannon did a “History of Yogurt” tour and Google did “Technology Through Time.” Your group will experience the awesome museums in Boston like you’ve never experienced any museum before and have a ton of fun at the same time! If you want to crank up the difficulty for your next team outing, then check out Museum Hack’s Escape the Museum and custom scavenger hunts.
Unusual Team Building Activities in Boston
We all have certain activities in mind when it comes to corporate team building. For example: trust falls, escape rooms, and scavenger hunts. That “top of mind” feature doesn’t mean those options aren’t great for your next team outing; in fact, we’ve included several more traditional options on this list. However, if you are looking for something a little different for your next team event, then we’ve got you covered too. The team building companies below are all offering unique, unusual team building activities in Boston we know you’ll love.
3. Team Building Hero
If you are researching Boston team building companies than one you should definitely consider Team Building Hero. This company provides a variety of cool corporate event ideas, including storytelling workshops, scavenger hunts, museum tours and guacamole making competitions. There are advantages of working with a company like Team Building Hero to plan multiple team events. For example, the company’s sales reps and facilitators get to know you and your organization and can provide more personalized team activities for your group.
4. Gingerbread Wars
It’s time to mix some friendly competition into your next office holiday party. Gingerbread Wars will host a holiday-themed team event with trivia, challenges, team building games, and an epic gingerbread house making competition. Prizes will be awarded, an office gingerbread champion will be crowned, and merriment will be had by all. You’ll leave in a holly jolly good mood as you set the tone for the festive season to come. Snacks, cookies and BYOB are all available to customize your event. Gingerbread Wars has some of the best pricing for corporate team building activities we’ve seen and we expect event availability to sell out early, as the calendar is only open from October through December. Gingerbread Wars’ elves answer the phone year-round so be sure to make your reservation for your holiday team building activities as soon as possible.
5. The Brattle
The Brattle is a Harvard Square landmark and iconic cinema house in Boston and makes a neat venue for meetings, parties, and work off-sites. If your team is full of movie-goers and film aficionados, then you’ll want to check out The Brattle. The Brattle is a cool space for a fun and alternative company offsite. You can host an inspiring multimedia lecture, screen your team’s favorite movie (complete with tasty concessions as well as wine and beer) or put on a company networking event. All theater rentals for team building events include use of the historic theater space which seats 225 people, offers concessions, use of a podium with a microphone and sound set-up, film projection, and a stereo sound system.
6. Howl at the Moon
Howl at the Moon is a lively team building venue for your next company offsite or corporate event. The trendy bar is conveniently located in Boston’s Financial district and offers corporate friendly entertainment and live musical performances along with customized food and beverage packages. The live show can be tailored for team events. Howl at the Moon’s in-house musicians can play anything from easy listening to rock and from Lady Gaga to Bruce Springsteen. The company’s talented entertainers can even perform an original song specifically composed for your team to pay tribute to your company or product launch. Howl at the Moon offers a variety of packages for corporate events and accommodates groups from 10 to 340.
7. Alice’s Table
Alice’s Table offers the chance to take part in unique and creative team building activities – mostly around flower arrangements. The company’s staff will work with you to plan your team event, whether at your office or at one of the company’s many venue partner sites. Alice’s Table events generally take between one to two hours, depending on the complexity of the flower arrangement you make. Teams like Google, Jonathan Adler, Bumble, MiniLuxe, DavidsTea, CBRE, and Hubspot have all worked with Alice’s Table. A cool bonus about doing these craft-focussed team activities is you get to take home your flower arrangement.
8. Blue Hills Reservation
Blue Hills Reservation is located just a few miles outside of Boston so can be a good option for a company retreat. The reservation stretches over 7,000 acres, with a whopping 125 miles of trails to explore! Plan outdoor team building activities with your team through the forests of Blue Hill. If hiking isn’t your thing, then your team could participate in any one of the following company outing ideas: mountain biking, horseback riding, camping, swimming, boating, kayaking, canoeing, golfing, skiing, or rock climbing. Blue Hills Reservation is a good way to get your people out of the office and moving together. With activity levels ranging from easy to difficult, you’ll find the right fit for your next team event. Blue Hills Reservation is a good option for team building for large groups and is a budget-friendly team outing.
9. Host A Meetup
If you want to host corporate events in Boston that include not just your employees but also your customers, suppliers, and community too, then do a meetup. Meetups can be fun and there are a million ways to make it unique and customized to your needs. You can plan group activities that highlight your mission, brand and values, and customize options like the location and food. A meetup is a great way to connect everyone in your network and show them you appreciate them as part of your community. Plus, you may help your network make valuable connections with each other, which is a huge win.
10. Brooklyn Boulders
Brooklyn Boulders is a team outing for active groups who like a physical challenge. Located near Boston in Somerville, Brooklyn Boulders is a 40,000 square foot facility equipped with all different styles and levels of climbing – bouldering, auto-belay, top-roping, and lead climbing. Regardlress of whether your team has climbed before, Brooklyn Boulders is a good space to learn and develop this skill. You can rent out the venue for your own private team building activities. During your event, you’ll be guided by experts through all the basics of bouldering and earn your auto-belay certificate. Nothing builds trust like relying on your co-workers on a massive rock climbing wall. You also have the option to include additional team activities like yoga, boot-camp and meditation.
11. Boston Public Garden
Your team can spend an afternoon at the first public botanical garden in America, the Boston Public Garden. On a warm sunny day, Boston Public Garden is a nice location for a do-it-yourself team outing. Enjoy and explore the lagoon, fountains, monuments and the beautiful local flora and fauna. Plan a park day complete with food, drinks, and team activities. Bring along some music and you’ve got yourself the perfect team offsite to promote camaraderie and show your team that you appreciate the work they do.
Fun Team Activities in Boston
At Team Building Boston, we believe team building events are most effective when they are fun and accessible. With this belief, we’ve included corporate event ideas below that will show your team a good time, which we’ve found is key to boosting morale back at the office.
12. Murder Mystery Co.
The Murder Mystery Co. brings team building activities to you. The company throws killer office parties that are ideal for team building. This two-hour murder mystery show is interactive and fun. How does it work? Professional improv actors set the stage and lead the corporate event, but every team member will also have an important role to play. Everyone is out to solve the crime. Don’t be nervous about acting; Murder Mystery Co.’s team is highly professional and will guide even the most nervous folks all the way through the night effortlessly. The most popular themes for team events include a dance with death, the most wonderful crime of the year, and the best laid plans (a classic whodunit).
13. Trapology Boston
Trapology is a Boston Escape Room. You and your team will have only 60 minutes during your team event to follow a series of difficult clues, solve mind bending puzzles and escape. You can choose from the following five team activities: The Drunk Tank, The Hustler, The Retreat, Crush Depth, or Steampunk Train. Trapology is a team outing for both small and large groups. Each escape room can hold up to 10 people. If you have a larger team, then they’ll simply split you up into different rooms and you’ll compete not only against the clock but the other teams too.
14. Super Holiday Party
Is it almost the most wonderful time of the year? If so, then it’s also time to check out the holiday party planning experts at Super Holiday Party! Super Holiday Party is just what you need to shake up your office event and take team building and the holidays to the next level. Your team event includes an awesome holiday party host, fun games, team activities and challenges. You can upgrade your event to include catering, BYOB and holiday cookies! Space is very limited; Super Holiday party only runs from October through December so if you’re interested, it’s best to book your date as soon as possible.
15. Archery Games Boston
If your office is full of action movie buffs, then Archery Games may be a good team event for you. Archery Games Boston is the only combat archery arena in the area offering an action-packed experience for your next team outing. Played similarly to dodge-ball, your team will be split into two groups who will battle it out with bows and foam tipped arrows (don’t worry; the foam tip arrows don’t hurt!). Archery Games focuses heavily on communication and teamwork and mixes that up with friendly competition. You and your team can rent out this space with a group as small as eight and as large as 100. If you can’t make it down to the site, then Archery Games Boston also offers mobile corporate events where they’ll bring everything you need to your office or other location.
16. Paddle Boston
If your team is all about the great outdoors and doing active team activities, then you’ll want to check out Paddle Boston. You can spend a few hours getting to know your team in a relaxed environment away from screens and office walls. For the event, you can book a guided canoe or kayak tour to up the team building factor! Don’t worry, even if you’ve never done either of these team activities before, this is the perfect place to learn. Your group will be led by an expert guide who will give a lesson before the tour starts. You will eee the city from a different point of view and learn cool stories about Boston and its wildlife. After spending one to two hours on the water, you’ll come back to a meal with a view.
17. The Trivia Factory
The Trivia Factory hosts trivia and bingo nights in over 90 venues across 15 states. How does this work for team building activities? The factory format is a fun yet intense two-hour game of trivia. The event goes four rounds with 20 questions each, and a final bonus round that has four make-or-break questions. Make sure you and your team are paying attention to everything at the event, even the music! The songs played between each question provide a hint to the next question’s answer and your team can get extra points for naming the artist. The Trivia Factory is a good way to challenge your team and improve their ability to communicate and think quickly under pressure. The Trivia Factory’s fun group activities for adults are definitely challenging, but the questions are not impossible.
18. Boda Borg Boston
What is Boda Borg? Questing, AKA a real-world gaming experience! Each Boda Borg facility has over 20 different quests to choose from. A quest is a series of two to five challenges. Each challenge sets a task that only a group working together can solve. There are no instructions and no one can complete the quest alone. The facility has both physical and mental challenges that you and your team will have to work through in order to move to the next level. If you fail a challenge, then you’ll have to go back to the beginning or choose a new quest altogether. Boda Borg’s team events are ideal for smaller teams as you only need three people to quest. Are you ready to break out of prison, win a TV game show, explore a haunted house or run an obstacle course?
19. IA Innovation
IA, or Improv Asylum, is all about creating teams who communicate, listen, and trust each other. During team events, IA deep dives into exactly what traits you people need to improve in order to succeed. After consulting with you, IA creates a custom training experience just for your team. Corporate events with IA are about inspiring your team, getting you to work better together, and promoting creativity through improv to get innovative ideas flowing. To get a better idea about what types of company events IA offers, visit the website and check out the corporate training options and workshops. IA’s team activities include a comedy show, diversity awareness training, leadership cascade, and a master presenter challenge.
Team Building Scavenger Hunts in Boston
For team building in Boston, scavenger hunts don’t require a lot of work on your part to facilitate. Also, the scavenger hunts are a fun, easy, and straightforward way to ensure your team has an enjoyable afternoon of team bonding.
20. Strayboots
Strayboots offers scavenger hunts and team building activities that may be a good fit for your next company outing. You will make memories while working together to solve various clues and difficult challenges. Strayboots offers a variety of corporate event ideas and competitive scavenger hunts. You can choose from a strategy game, a food and drink hunt in downtown Boston, an event to welcome new hires to your team, a company scavenger hunt of Boston’s Back Bay, or a Salem Witch Hunt-themed team event.
21. Cashunt Boston
Cashunt hosts two-and-a-half-hour scavenger hunts focused on team bonding. You and your team will hustle around Boston, strike poses, leap frog down the street, dance your way to the next clue and more. You can choose from the following team building activities: Boston Hustle, Bay Back Hustle, Havad Yahd Hustle, Foxboro Dash, or Smartphone Gate. All of Cashunt’s fun corporate events include a 30-minute post game debrief where awards are handed out to the winners. You’ll also get access to all of the photos and video of the day for free. You must have at least eight people in your group to book a team event. If you have more people, then you’ll be split up into smaller groups and compete for a prize.
Boston Team Building Events with Food
Sharing a meal together may be one of the first team activities to exist. Check out the options below to see some of the best Boston team building activities with food.
22. The Great Guac Off™
The Great Guac Off does team building activities that include avocado themed trivia, fun games and a guac making competition. When you book a team event, you get everything you need to make it a success, including a fun event host, all the ingredients and dippers, prizes and more. You can run the Guac Off anywhere in Boston, including at your office or other venue, or at a rental location.
23. Mobsters & Lobsters
Mobsters & Lobsters is a neat option for team building in Boston. If you and your team are into local crime lore and the darker side of history, then this team building activity could be for you. Explore Boston’s sinister side on a trolley ride through the historic mobster underworld. Listen to stories and see the sites of historic heists, mobster hideaways, hangouts and more. But where does the lobster come in? Glad you asked! Your tour will end with a lobster dinner at one of Boston’s waterfront restaurants. Mobsters & Lobsters is ideal for team building for small to medium size groups, as the max number of people is 40.
24. Selfup
Selfup offers a variety of cooking-focused team activities in Boston and the surrounding area. Selfup’s fun team building activities for employees include an Italian dinner with Tiramisu, a cocktails mixology class, an authentic Japanese sushi dinner, and the perfect homemade dumplings. Your team will cook up a storm and you’ll also pick up a few new tricks to use at home in your kitchen.
25. Boston Public Market
The Boston Indoor Public Market is open year-round and features 35 New England artisans and food producers. The market is located at 100 Hanover Street at Haymarket Station. The Kitchen at The Boston Public Market is a nice place for community events with hands-on seasonal cooking classes and workshops. Boston Public Market may be the perfect place for your next team outing. Book a private corporate event or cooking class at The Kitchen. Some fun group activities for adults the market currently offers include farm-to-kitchen cooking classes, pasta making workshops, natural dye workshops, cooking local, and baking school.
26. Bites of Boston
Bites of Boston runs food tours and offers a variety of fun team activities for employees. On your tour you’ll sample a variety of food from local eateries and learn about the restaurant’s interesting history. The company believes a great food experience is all about context and so will teach you about the history, culture and architecture that makes each neighborhood so unique. Options for team building activities include Sweet & Savory South End, Allston Arts & Eats, Chinatown’s Culture & Cuisine, and Classic Bites of Boston. Corporate events last approximately three hours and cover one to two miles of walking. Depending on the tour, the number of guests is capped between 12 and 16.
27. Action Kitchen Boston
Action Kitchen Boston runs corporate team building activities for food lovers. Action Kitchen’s corporate events focus on building up collaboration, teamwork, organization and communication. You can choose from two different team building events: Collaborative Cuisine, which operates similarly to a cooking class or Creative Cook-off, which involves some friendly kitchen competition among coworkers.
28. Cookie Monster Party
If you are planning a team building event with food then it doesn’t have to be at a restaurant or with a third party company. Instead, you can stay at your office and do a Cookie Monster Party. Here is how the event works. First, you buy a tonne of cookies of all varieties. Then, you play games and do team activities like icebreaker questions. No alcohol needed, but don’t forget the milk!
Final Thoughts
Just to recap — investing in team building activities is key to increasing employee satisfaction, engagement and retention.
With so many incredible Boston team building activities to choose from there’s no reason you shouldn’t get at least one team event on your calendar today!
If you have any questions about doing team building events in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, and Milton, or other cities in Massachusetts and the surrounding area, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We’ll help find the right team activities for you!
Team Building Boston: Frequently Asked Questions
Here are a few of the common questions we get about team building in Boston.
What is the best team building activity in Boston?
Museum Hack is our favorite company team building event in Boston. You’ll visit the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston like never before with mind-blowing stories, scandalous backstories, and fun photo challenges and activities. It’s the ultimate team bonding experience.
How do I know what team building activity is right for my company?
Choosing the right team outing is critical to success. The first step is to decide on your goals for your corporate event, whether that be having fun, learning a new skill, or tackling a serious office challenge. From there, you can determine what company best offers a team building package to suit your needs.
What’s the most fun team building activity in Boston?
The most fun team building activity in Boston is The Great Guac Off! The guacamole making competition team building event touches on several key factors for awesomeness: it’s a great time, food is involved, you’ll enjoy challenges optimized for team bonding, it’s reasonably priced, and you can BYOB drinks.