Boeing tour with kids

Is there a minimum age for the Boeing factory tour?

No minimum age, but a minimum height: every visitor must be at least 4 feet (48 inches, 122 cm) tall. There are no exceptions, and carrying a child is not allowed.

Measure your child at home before you book. Boeing's FAQ spells it out even for the youngest: children 5 and under must reach 4 feet too. Many children reach that height around age 7, so a tall 5-year-old may go when a small 8-year-old can't.

The reason is the route: a coach, 22 stairs, a tunnel and a balcony with a railing. The coach tour from Seattle repeats the rule and adds that there is no child care facility at Future of Flight.

Can children go on the Boeing tour without an adult?

No. Children and teenagers under 16 must be accompanied by an adult, on the tour and in the building.

The rule is in Boeing's visitor guidelines. A 16-year-old can tour alone. For school and youth groups of 15 or more, booking goes through Boeing's customer service on +1 (800) 464-1476.

The phone rule applies to kids too. Tablets, phones, handheld games and even crayons and notebooks go into the locker. Tell them before you arrive, not at the locker.

How much are kids' tickets for the Boeing tour?

Youth tickets for ages 6 to 15 cost $30 to $32 for the factory tour, or $7 for gallery-only entry. Children 5 and under are free.

A family of two adults and two kids aged 8 and 11 pays $144 to $156 for the factory tour, booked directly. The coach tour from Seattle counts ages 13 and up as adults and has a child band for 7 to 12; check the price for your date before assuming a discount.

What can younger kids do at Boeing Future of Flight?

Plenty for an hour or two: the Kids' Zone with its Bernoulli table, coding robots in the Education Lab, the Sky Deck over the runway and the walk-in ISS module.

• Kids' Zone: open play, a Bernoulli table to test how air lifts objects, and kid-sized tables with washable markers to draw a plane of the future.
• Education Lab: coding robots and how Boeing uses robots to build and inspect jets. Boeing runs it intermittently, Thursday to Monday (Boeing FAQ).
• Sky Deck: Boeing calls it a kid favourite. Private planes, airliners from the Paine Field terminal and test flights of new Boeing jets.
• Engineering zone and Destiny module: hands-on space displays and a full-scale ISS lab you can walk into (gallery exhibits).

A guest on an older tour found the gallery time too short with kids and advised: “take the tour if your in solo but family i dont advised since you need more time for kids to explore the museum”. Driving yourself fixes that: stay as long as they want.

Can kids use the flight simulators at Future of Flight?

Only from age 12. Boeing says the 787 and F/A-18 Super Hornet simulators are for guests 12 and older, subject to availability.

The simulators sit in the Aerospace Adventure exhibit, which Boeing aims at middle and high school students (gallery exhibits). They arrived in October 2025, use Pacific Northwest satellite imagery, and have screens two or three times larger than a real pilot simulator, according to their designer (HeraldNet).

Under 12? The Museum of Flight has simulators for younger children, paid on site. One grandparent there wrote in June 2026: “We visited with our 13 year old grandson, he'd say the flight simulators were among his favorite things”.

Simulators, cockpits to sit in and the Kids' Flight Zone: the aviation day for every age. Under-5s free.

★ 4.8 · 2 to 3 hours · from $29

Explore the Museum of Flight ticket → Tour details

Can you bring a stroller to Boeing Future of Flight?

Yes. Standard strollers are welcome in the building, baby bottles are allowed, and both men's and women's restrooms have changing tables.

A stroller won't help on the factory tour, since any child small enough to need one is under the height limit. Plan it as a split day: one adult tours, the other stays with the little one in the gallery and on the Sky Deck, then swap on a later tour. That needs two tour tickets for the adults and is easiest on a Friday to Sunday, when tours run about every hour.

Bring nothing else edible: food and drink, including water, are banned in the building. The Paper Plane Café inside sells snacks.

Is the Museum of Flight better than the Boeing tour for small children?

Yes, for under-8s it is. The museum is free under 5, has a dedicated kids' play area, and lets children climb into real aircraft.

The museum's Kids' Flight Zone has hang-gliding simulators with harnesses, real cockpits to sit in, a wind machine for aerodynamics experiments and a soft runway corner for preschoolers. Visitors keep saying the same thing: “very interactive for children”, and “Each hall had great interactive exhibitions to engage even the smallest visitor.”

Tickets are $29 for adults and $21 for ages 5 to 17 at the Museum of Flight, 10 miles south of downtown. Compare both days in Boeing tour vs Museum of Flight.

When is the best time to do the Boeing tour with kids?

A weekday morning. Book a slot soon after the 8:30 a.m. opening, do the tour while they're fresh, and finish on the Sky Deck.

Morning tours mean less waiting around, and the drive back to Seattle beats the afternoon traffic on I-5. Remember the 80 minutes on the tour have no restroom stop, so a bathroom break at the last minute is non-negotiable. Midweek is quieter in the gallery and at the simulators.

Summer weekends fill first. If your kids are 12 and up and you want them on the simulators, a quieter weekday gives them a better chance at a free seat. More on timing and tickets in the ticket guide.

Frequently asked questions