Boston: cruise line tour or Old Town Trolley on our own?

We're going on the Enchantment to Boston this July and I can't decide what to do. We could do the "best of Boston, Lexington and Concord" tour (7.5 hours for $99 each) or find the Old Town Trolley stop and do the hop on hop off thing on our own. (considerably cheaper). We're in our 40's and have no mobility issues. Which tour would be better?

Well I live out next to Concord so I'm partial to the area, but if you've never done Boston I would do the trolley on your own. I think the Lexington/Concord area is really interesting but even I wouldn't want to be captive on a 7.5 hour tour of the area. Come back to the area either in the fall around Columbus Day or in the spring at Patriot's Day to do it at your own pace.

Usually the ship's trolley tour is non-stop for about an hour and a half whereas the trolley on your own is hop on hop off and you can control where you spend your time. If you decide to do this, post back and I will give you suggestions about how to hop on and off and walk to get a more robust experience.

I would do a hop on hop off bus or just take the ship shuttle to quincy market and set off on foot from there. It is a very walkable city IMO.

We're going on the Enchantment to Boston this July and I can't decide what to do. We could do the "best of Boston, Lexington and Concord" tour (7.5 hours for $99 each) or find the Old Town Trolley stop and do the hop on hop off thing on our own. (considerably cheaper). We're in our 40's and have no mobility issues. Which tour would be better?

Hi

Definitely The Old Town Trolley. Or, as you are young (ish :)) and mobile you could walk around on your own and totally control your agenda.

When I was there I walked the entire Freedom Trail and made these :

Part 1 Boston Common to King's Chapel

Part 2 Boston Latin to Paul Revere's house

Part 3 Old North Church to the Bunker Hill Monument

That last one may blocked in the US :( but it's the most faraway part of the trail and you may decide not to go that far. But if you do be sure to take your passport as ID for the free 20-minute tour of the USS Constitution. It's wonderful

All the best, Tony

Do on your own, much better and cheaper. Check Groupon (just had a 2 for 1 sale) or other online discount sites for discount coupons and codes.

There is so much to do and see in Boston which is not really a huge city that I would save Lexington and Concord for a future visit.

You can easily see loads on your own in Boston and have a great day.

Even to think of Walking the Freedom Trail and having a nice lunch is a great day IMO

Boston is a very walkable city.

Thanks all for your suggestions! I think we're going to go with the Old Town Trolley hop on hop off. Where might our ship (Enchantment) dock and how far is the nearest stop?

Black Falcon Cruise Terminal is where all the ships dock in Boston.

Here's the map of where they stop, 17A is the terminal

It's a short walk from the ship terminal to stop #17A. You can either buy the tickets on line (might be a discount this way) or buy your tickets right at stop #17A. There should be an agent from Old Town Trolley where you exit the ship terminal to direct you where to go for stop #17A. This trolley will take you to stop #1, where you will get off to get on a tour trolley. When you do this, the driver will make sure you know where the trolley stop is to catch the trolley back to the ship.

Thanks all for your suggestions! I think we're going to go with the Old Town Trolley hop on hop off. Where might our ship (Enchantment) dock and how far is the nearest stop?

Please come back after your cruise and tell us how you liked it. We are doing the same cruise in Aug. and wanted to do the trolley hop on and off tour in Boston as well, thanks!

Thanks all for your suggestions! I think we're going to go with the Old Town Trolley hop on hop off. Where might our ship (Enchantment) dock and how far is the nearest stop?

Please come back after your cruise and tell us how you liked it. We are doing the same cruise in Aug. and wanted to do the trolley hop on and off tour in Boston as well, thanks!

Black Falcon Cruise Terminal is where all the ships dock in Boston.

 

Here's the map of where they stop, 17A is the terminal

This sounds perfect! I've been trying to figure out if I really needed a ship tour for my first visit to Boston. I thought I'd have to taxi into town to catch the trolley -- they are making it very convenient for cruisers to do the Trolley Tour on our own.

Thank you so very much for posting! I will be there in about 2 weeks! :)

Not to be different, but altho' I have done the Hop on/Hop off, I vastly prefer the Duck Tours....covers basically the same ground, plus you get a little cruise of the Charles River.....As many have said, Boston is SUCH an easy city to walk around in, that anything you want to see you can probably just walk to...just have a decent map and decent shoes~!!

Not to be different, but altho' I have done the Hop on/Hop off, I vastly prefer the Duck Tours....covers basically the same ground, plus you get a little cruise of the Charles River.....As many have said, Boston is SUCH an easy city to walk around in, that anything you want to see you can probably just walk to...just have a decent map and decent shoes~!!

Duck Tour = Fast and fun

Trolley Tour = Leisurely and you might learn something

Duck Tour = Fast and fun

Trolley Tour = Leisurely and you might learn something

Well, Ive done Duck Tours around six times....I'm from Boston and always bring visitors around the city and we usually do it...and I have found that the guides are informative and entertaining:and usually VERY accurate.

I trained as a Boston Tour Guide when I was younger, and actually find the Duck Tours people better than the Hop On/Hop Off people..

Best of all are guided walking tours for learning things...there are quite a few of them..

We just returned from our RCI Enchantment of the Seas Bermuda/Boston/Newport cruise, so I thought I'd post a little about the Old Town Trolley Tour.

First of all, we enjoyed Boston very much. Second, we didn't have nearly enough time to do much. We had to be back on board no later than 3:30 pm for the 4 pm sailing. Boston is very strict about how long ships can stay in port, we were told. We were off the ship by 9:30, so try to get off as early as you can.

To get to the trolley, go through the terminal and out the door. There will be a display of maps and attraction brochures to the right of the exit. Turn left and head toward what looks like a couple of small white tents. One of them is Old Town Trolley where you can buy your tickets. Rate for seniors last Tuesday was $29 per person. I had purchased tickets online at the senior rate of around $36 pp, which was supposed to be a discount from the regular rate of $40. I don't know why the discrepancy, except that at the tent, there was competition from another tour. The trolley will be waiting to pick up cruise passengers. This trolley is the Seaport orange line section. To get to Old Town, you will need to get off at Stop #1 and transfer to the green line.

We asked if it was a good idea to ride the whole line first to hear the narration or just get on and off. Each of the drivers gives a narration in between stops, so you wouldn't miss anything if you do the hop on, hop off. They suggested not to do the whole thing at one time, but to get off at the stops that interest you. Our first stop was #3 at the USS Constitution, where we spent about 1 1/2 hours seeing everything (well worth the time). Our next stop was #5 at the Old State House where admission is included in the price of the trolley ticket. Note where the trolley stop is because you will exit the building on the opposite side where you come in. We spent about 45 minutes there. By this time, we are thinking there is no way we can see all we want. When we got back on the trolley, we asked about how long will it take to get all the way back to stop #1 to transfer back to the orange line, and the driver said about 1 1/2 hours. We decided to continue on without stopping again. Even though trolleys come by each stop every 10-15 minutes, we decided not to risk being late. We were back to stop #1 by 2 pm.

At stop #1 we had a choice to take the trolley shuttle directly back to the cruise terminal or take the entire Seaport tour. The attendant said the tour would take about 45 minutes, but they were already running into some traffic delays. We decided to go back to the ship, and that took about 20 minutes. We were back on the ship by 2:30 and avoided the stress of worrying about being late.

Included in the trolley ticket is a Boston Harbor tour (at stop #1). We would have loved doing that, but the boats ran every hour and each trip was 45 minutes. No time to do that. They also give you some tickets for discounts at the Constitution museum gift shop, some restaurant discounts, and some other stuff we weren't interested in. Be sure to look them over when you are waiting to board so you can plan ahead. My friend bought $30 worth of stuff at the museum and then noticed later she could have saved 10%.

There will be a new stop opening up sometime this summer at the new Boston Tea Party Ship and Museum. It's on the orange line and will be a stop before the transfer point at stop #1. That looks really interesting, so check it out if it's open when you go.

If you go to their website, you can download a map of all their stops to decide ahead of time where you want to get off.

I just wish we had had another 3 hours in port to do all the things we wanted. We will definitely go visit Boston again, but this time we'll drive up and stay a few days.

Hope this helped your planning.

***One more thing: it is VERY important to take your govt issued photo ID along with your Seapass card. You will NOT be allowed to reboard the ship without the photo ID. Period.

Jonalyn, thanks for your thorough review of the Old Town Trolley. We are planning to do this when we are in Boston in August. Thanks for the review of Newport also. Both were a great help.