Small bus/van tour in Boston?

We're going to be spending a few days in Boston pre-cruise. Due to some health events with my mom this past year, we are thinking that a small bus/glorified van tour of the city would be a good option. We do not want to do the big (Greyline-like) bus.

Can anyone recommend and smaller vehicle tours? The HO-HO might be an option. Right now, I'm just trying to find some good options to present to my parents. Also, does anyone know if the HO-HO has a step stool (or lowering step) that reduced the size of that first step up/last step down?

Thanks in advance for your input!

Our last visit, we did the hop on hop off with Old Town Trolleys. I cannot remember if he put a stool down or not. You might be able to call them or look on their website. I don't really recall the driver even getting out when he stopped. I do remember that they had several trolleys and we were never really waiting for a pickup at any spot.

We did really enjoy the tour. We got off at Charlestown and toured the 2 ships there. We also got off at the Old State House (restrooms there in the lower level). However, if you go in the wrong door here on street level, you go into the subway. We almost did that.

We started and ended our tour at stop #1 I think. It was near the aquarium area. Ate a lovely meal at Legal Seafood.

I will say that the trolleys did a great job touring....however my only disappointment is they did not go down the smaller streets. For instance, I could not see Paul Revere's house or the Old North Church from the streets we were driving on. The driver just sort of indicated which direction to look but we did not drive down those streets.

We are going back to Boston this October. We booked a private tour. I believe we'll be in a van and it's just us and our tour guide. I cannot endorse her yet because we haven't gone yet. However, I can say that she is a former park ranger, and has written three children's history books. She already written to me with suggested reading for our 7 year old. We are so excited. She is picking us up at our hotel. We have a 6 hour tour for 350. That is a flat fee, not per person.

Then after our cruise, she is picking us up at the ship and taking us on another 6 hour tour ending at the airport.

She assured us there is plenty of history and historical sites for 2 full tours. We are so glad to have a personal driver. We are even hoping to go down to Quincy to see Peacefield (home of John Adams). So much to see. Also John Adams, George Washington, and John Kennedy's librarys are all in Boston. We are also hoping to see Harvard. From what I understand Harvard was 139 years old when the revolution began and Washington used Harvard as America's first army base. Here's her contact info:

She is Jane Sciacca

jane_sciacca@comcast.net

She was referred to us by another guide William McDonough

bostonprivatetours@yahoo.com

My sister-in-law took an all day tour with Mr. McDonough. That's who we first contacted. He must have been booked because he referred us to Mrs. Sciacca.

Hope that helps.

I might add that in getting a private tour, it may be easier to stop for bathroom or snack breaks. And she'll customize the tour to your likes and skip anything that doesn't interest you. On the trolley, sometimes we had to just take a photo on the fly...for instance we have a very blurry picture of John Hancock's grave stone. But our private guide will stop for us to see things and take all the photos we want.