We opted for the combination ticket when we visited on 5/15/24 which gives visitors a guided tour of John Adams' and John Quincy Adams' birthplaces (south of the visitor center) as well as John and Abigail's home Peace Field (north of the visitor center). To visit the houses requires on street parking which can be a little tricky, but the visitor center will validate your parking if you park in the garage directly behind it in downtown Quincy. The visitor center has an excellent introductory film about the Adams family and their many achievements. Be sure to use the restrooms at the visitor center as there are none available at the historical homes. Also, if you purchase a combination pass, save your receipt as you will need to show it at the birthplace location as well as Peace Field. Our tour guide at the birthplace homes seemed fairly new and mixed up the historical dates/names a bit, so I am not sure that we got the most accurate tour there. However, our tour guide at Peace Field was exceptional and had lot of interesting tidbits to share about the home and the four generations of the Adams family that lived there and expanded the structure from six rooms to how you see it today. The grounds at Peace Field are open until dusk so visitors can explore the gardens and walk around the house and 1873 carriage house. Highly recommend to anyone looking to learn more about one of America's first families.

There are 3 places to see in the Adams site: the birthplace ( one can self-tour) the Church of the Presidents where John and Abigail Adams and John Quincy and Louisa Adams are buried, and Peacefield ( The Adams Mansion and gardens) Pracefield requires a guided tour by a Park Ranger and each tour must be booked ahead of time and is limited to 10 people. This is because almost everything there is original to the house. One should start at the Visitors Center in downtown Quincy. There is a parking garage directly behind the center and your parking will be validated at the Center. There is a very well done introductory film worth seeing and then one can walk across the street to the Church. We had a very entertaining guide that showed us the crypts. There is a shuttle bus that runs between the birthplace and Peacefield or you can drive and park on the street. We had a tremendous tour by National Park Ranger Matt who knows his history and was quite engaging and entertaining. Just be sure to book it online ( up until the day before) or call the visitor center the day of to see if they have any openings for Peacefield. Many visitors just stop in there thinking they can buy tickets there but they are only sold at the Visitor’s Center. The City of Quincy has done a beautiful job creating a lovely park across from the Visitor’s Center and there are many places to eat all types of food.

The site is broken up into essentially three sections. The visitors center with the ticket booth, store and film about the Adams’s family. They will validate the parking ticket. They do offer bus service which we did take but in retrospect I would have preferred to drive between sites. The bus service runs on a schedule. To visit the first two houses took about 20 minutes and we had to wait for the bus for another 20 to 25 minutes. It then went to John and Abigail Adams final house which is spectacular. Again we waited for the bus to take us back to the visitor center. A word of advice, if you want to get the rangers talk and tour, get the tickets ahead of time. They sell out fast that day. You can get them on line. Otherwise you can take an unescorted tour just show you ticket that you got at the visitor center or your annual pass.

We really enjoyed our visit to the Adams Historical Park. After stopping at the visitors center, we visited Peace field, the birthplaces and the United First Parish Church. We spent around three hours touring the sites and enjoyed learning about both Presidents. Like the other reviews, check in at the visitors center and get a pass to visit the locations. We enjoyed visiting the site and enjoyed the tour of Peace field.

A must do if in the area. Beautiful grounds and a really great little city. Make sure to make reservations on recreation.gov and book your tour as soon as you have a date in mind as it feels up quickly. It only costs $1 for the tour but you will need an entrance pass that’s $15. The trolly then takes you to see and visit/tour the houses that both presidents were born in. Then you load back up and get to see where the Adam’s family lived for decades, absolutely stunning.