Snow-tubing around Boston

Best snow-tubing spots around Greater Boston

Tubing at Nashoba Valley Ski Area

Photograph courtesy of Nashoba Valley Ski Area

Need one good reason to get outside and embrace the cold? Snow tubing. The slick rides are like sledding—on steroids. No special skills are required. And the colder it gets, the faster you’ll fly down the slopes: at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour. “As the snow freezes more, it gets a little icier,” says Alex Cole, a manager at Nashoba Valley Tubing Park, in Littleton, Massachusetts. There, 18 tubing lanes, each nearly a quarter of a mile long, are packed with man-made (and some natural) snow and extend along two sides of the hill, at a 100-foot vertical drop.

The park—the largest snow-tubing venue in New England—is part of the family-run Nashoba Valley Ski Area, founded in 1964. Tubing lanes opened on an adjacent hill in 2001, and quickly became a popular intergenerational winter activity. Families and kids come in droves, especially during school-vacation weeks, but so do groups of young adults and “the occasional older couple,” Cole adds. “We have thousands of people every week for tubing; in a season, we could see 50,000.” Tips: go early or late in the day to avoid crowds; two-hour individual tickets are $35; group-rate discounts are available; and night-time tubing, until 10 p.m., ups the thrill factor.

Other snow-tubing sites close to Boston include Ski Ward, in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, and McIntyre Ski Area, in Manchester, New Hampshire. Those are smaller and perhaps tamer, but nonetheless offer fresh air and exercise, human contact, and a fun day out: all helpful combatants against winter doldrums.

Read more articles by Nell Porter-Brown
Related topics

You might also like

Harvard Football: Harvard 31, Merrimack 7

The Crimson stay unbeaten and uncover a new star.

Harvard Football: Harvard 34, Cornell 10

The Crimson stays unbeaten following a hard fight with the Big Red

Harvard Football: Harvard 59, Holy Cross 24

Another week, another blowout, this one against an in-state rival

Most popular

Harvard’s Class of 2029 Reflects Shifts in Racial Makeup After Affirmative Action Ends

International students continue to enroll amid political uncertainty; mandatory SATs lead to a drop in applications.

What Trump Means for John Roberts’s Legacy

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

Harvard art historian Jennifer Roberts teaches the value of immersive attention

Teaching students the value of deceleration and immersive attention

Explore More From Current Issue

Professor David Liu smiles while sitting at a desk with colorful lanterns and a figurine in the background.

This Harvard Scientist Is Changing the Future of Genetic Diseases

David Liu has pioneered breakthroughs in gene editing, creating new therapies that may lead to cures.

Aerial view of a landscaped area with trees and seating, surrounded by buildings and parking.

Landscape Architect Julie Bargmann Transforming Forgotten Urban Sites

Julie Bargmann and her D.I.R.T. Studio give new life to abandoned mines, car plants, and more.

Six women interact in a theatrical setting, one seated and being comforted by others.

A (Truly) Naked Take on Second-Wave Feminism

Playwright Bess Wohl’s Liberation opens on Broadway.