Boston Duck Tours

You can’t beat the tradition of having one of the eccentric actors take you on a tour around Beantown on one of the duckboats if you’re a tourist. It’s a great way to get a quick intro to the city and most popular places.

I was so impressed and it’s amazing.
I got Dirty Waters as the tour guide. He’s wonderful.

Such a great experience! Our guide was funny and energetic which instantly lifted our moods. When riding the «car» it was risky– but exciting– because the streets were so tightly packed that it would almost scrape the cars on either side. When going into the Charles River, it sort of felt like a water ride because you would frequently get splashed if you were up in the front, like me. Overall, this tour was the best, wayyy better than the Freedom Trail tour, and I STRONGLY recommend you choose this tour if you are new to Boston!

I think that taking a Duck Tour was one of the best decisions that I made in planning my trip to Boston. Since we were only going to be in Boston proper for less than 12 hours I wanted to pack in as much as we could in a short amount of time. This seemed to be the most effective way to do so.
I bought the tickets about a month ahead of time just to make sure that we could have our preferred time but they seemed really flexible and not sold out, we made it onto an earlier boat bc we were early! The staff was super nice and gave us information about Boston and some coupons.
The tour itself is fun– every boat/​driver has their own gimmick and I thought that this was quite fun. Our driver was fun and entertaining while still teaching us about the City!
I think that I will consider a duck tour for every new city that I go to from now on, especially if you aren’t familiar with the area/​are in a time crunch.

Are you a tourist? Are you a local? Do you like to be entertained? If you answered yes to any or two of these questions, you will not be disappointed in one of Boston’s most noticeable and fun traditions.
In mid September I boarded a 5 p.m. tour which was maybe 40% full. Our «conDUCKtor» went by the name of Cowgirl and was just as funny as she was informative. It’s so impressive how they navigate these huge vehicles down Boston’s narrow and winding streets, peppering in legitimate history, news and relevant jokes along the way. Having lived in Boston for more than three years, I’d always wanted to try this out and loved every minute of it. There’s always so much to learn and Cowgirl kept it interesting and interactive.
Apparently, some people don’t know that these vehicles drive around land AND into sea. In the last 15 – 20 minutes of our tour, Cowgirl expertly steered her vessel into the water and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset along the Charles River. She lets the kids take a turn at driving (anyone can!) and continues sharing her knowledge and trivia.
All in all, it was an impressive tour and Cowgirl was phenomenal as a guide. I highly recommend getting on one of her tours if you can. Cash tips are welcomed for a job well done– and believe me, it’s more than well done with Boston Duck Tours. Quack quack!

My wife and I took this tour totally on a whim when the swan boats had closed. We figured we’d have fun… but honestly this was the MOST fun we had in our entire trip. We left promising we’d write a huge Unilocal review — but I can see it’s not needed!
Seriously, this was awesome. We had Ray Beez as a tour guide and he was a ball of laughs. If you’re looking for a Fodor’s reading, buy that and walk around. If you’re looking for the kind of experience you get on a rainbow-​striped amphibious boat with a knowledgable but punny con-​duck-​tour who quacks at pedestrians, go on this! You’ll enjoy yourselves, I promise.

I had the best time on Flo’s pink duck yesterday! We were all rolling laughing at her hilarity. Great way to see the city! We tried to walk up and get tickets our first day but they were booked through the late afternoon so we ended up buying them then for the last day of our trip. Knowing what we know now I’d say if you have a specific time you’d like to go you should book in advance if possible. Such a good time!

I’ve been on about 6 Duck Tours and I’m totally ready to go on another.
Every duck/​conducktor is different and it’s just a fun and easy way to explore the major sights of Boston without traveling on foot. Any time we have guests from out of town visit, we always book a Duck Tour. The tidbits are interesting and I always tuck them away when I play tour guide later. You get to quack at people, you laugh at the corny jokes, then enjoy the glory of the Charles at the very end. It’s always so beautiful even though I see the view a million times as a resident.
Such a relaxing and fun way to explore the beautiful city of Boston — absolutely recommend!
TIP: Go before 10a and save about $ 10 on your ticket! You also get free access to the Sports Museum and Hahvahd tour — as well as discounts to other museums.

I heard from multiple people that if we are going to do a tour in Boston, it needs to be a duck tour. Everyone swore it was fantastic! I honestly was a bit let down. Yes, this tour is different because it goes both on the land and the water, but I thought it was aimed more towards little kids than adults.
We were towards the back of the «boat» and every time our guide pointed at something, or started talking about a land mark, I couldn’t really see which building he was referring to. Unless the landmark had a huge sign, I was kind of lost. Plus he didn’t go into too much detail about any of the sites– he kind of just pointed and said «there’s this building…» which added to my confusion.
It was cute how the guide let the little kids «drive» the boat in the water, but even then it seemed like he started running out of things to talk about. This wasn’t a bad tour, I just thought that for over $ 30 a person it would be more informative and interesting.
***Note: if you book your weekend tour before 10 am you get a discount on tickets. I believe you save about $ 7 per ticket***

My wife and I did the duck tour on our visit to Boston. Our tour guide was the one dressed use as a race car driver and I like his humor, but the tour otherwise was just ok.
The «Water» part of the tour was really neat going into the Charles river, but we just putted around in a circle really slowly while he let all the kids who wanted to drive the boat — not sure if all drivers allow this but I’m sure if I had kids this would have been an extra +.
It was enjoyable, but I thought it could have been better on the tour & history part.

Great tours of Boston. I’m so glad we chose this before any of the others. Very informative. So much information to get out in 80 minutes. Wheelchair assist equipment was sitting nearby to use. No you do not get wet. This is not a water flume. Earphones translation in 8 languages is available. Announce special occasions, and they let kids drive the boat.
I have already recommended this to others.

When family and friends visit me in Boston, I take advantage of their tourist status and try to do everything a non-​local would. One of my top bucket list items was to take a duck boat tour, and when my sister visited recently, we did just that!
Boston Duck Tours offers a discounted rate for those who take advantage of their early morning tours, so if you’re looking to save a few dollars, it’s a great deal! We boarded the full duck boat and were greeted by none other than Colonel Duct Tape. If you are lucky enough to have him as your guide, he is hilarious! His jokes were nothing short of punny. HA! There are many ConDUCKtors, as they call them, and each one has their own unique character, making each duck tour a special experience.
Not only are you laughing throughout the course of your Boston tour, you’re learning a tremendous amount of history about this beautiful city — everything from Back Bay to Charlestown to Cambridge (which you get to see from the Charles River… it is a duck boat for a reason!). It’s not easy to make history fun for some people, but Boston Duck Tours manages to strike a beautiful balance between entertainment and education.
If a bunch of kids under the age of 7 can enjoy history, you know it’s good!

We took the Duck Boat tour from the Science Center on a recent Tuesday. The Duck Boat area was a bit chaotic since there were a lot of school tours going on but rest assured if you had a ticket and were not part of the school tours you had your own boat — meaning one NOT part of a school tour.
Our ConDUCKtour, Professor Quackenstein, did a great job pointing out hard-​to-​find things in Boston such as Dunkin Donuts and traffic (we did take the 2:30p tour). Kidding. The good professor did a great job navigating through Boston traffic, both on land and on the Charles River, showing us key sights and landmarks in Boston. He even let two younger girls drive the boat when we were in the river.
Boston Duck Tours is a great way to start a visit to Boston. You get a great feel for what’s where in the city, you get to hear some classic puns (Cold Sam Adams), and you get some freebies such as the Hahvahd Tour and other discount coupons. I think the Science Center location may be less busy than the others (our boat was only ½ full on a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of June).
Highly recommended. Quack quack.

If your time is limited to only a few touristy things (or even if it’s not), make sure you make the Duck Tour a priority on that list.
We started at the Aquarium, so State Street to the Aquarium (Blue line) and found a Duck Tour booth around that location. It was a little over 30 dollars a person and we paid up and walked back to the free shuttle that would shuttle us to and from The Navy Yard. Our shuttle driver’s name was Bryan and he was pretty cool and helpful with his tips of the city.
Our vehicle was waiting for us when we got to the Navy Yard. Our guide for the trip, Larry, walked around and introduced himself to every person that was taking the tour. I thought that was amazing and pretty genuine. It just goes to show I still haven’t met a Larry I didn’t like :)
Larry was hilarious. Apparently he did comedy abroad for our troops. While comical, he was quite serene when he needed to be and I think the most important thing was that he was very proud of his city. He was proud of the history, proud of the restaurants, and proud of the people that came out of the city. That kind of pride rubs off on you and makes you just as excited about the city as the residents that live there.
It’s the pride of the city that makes me and my friend want to live there now. I have yet to find that energy in any other city I’ve been.
The driving tour was about forty five minutes. We saw gems such as The Boston Commons, the Cheers Bar, the State House, the oldest cemetery in the city, and the North End. There’s just so much to see and do that with this tour, you have the opportunity to see a lot of it quickly and decide for yourself what you want to see once the tour’s over :) Aside from the huge flow of traffic that we experienced (construction), the driving tour was excellent.
The water part was unique and adventurous. You just go right into the water, like I’ve never seen before. You can snag some pretty cool views of the city from the water.
Overall, five/​five. Must do. Go now. Yay fun. Good times.

Being my first time in Boston, I had little time around the conference I was attending to really sightsee. I was however told this is a MUST DO and I fully agree!
A ~90 min tour not only takes you through some of the more interesting areas of Boston, but gives you the full history on the surrounding building that you would otherwise think «on nice building» vs. «wow, that’s where they first read the Declaration of Independence!!!».
The driver I had was incredibly fun quacking at everyone and bringing the bus/​boat full of people in on the action. Plus he was very knowledge on history, area, current affairs. You got the feeling that he really cared and was passionate about his job which made it all the better. This feeling I feel is shared throughout the other drivers as they were having just as much fun when they pulled by throughout the city and the water.
Plus, the view from the water is unique and one not to miss!

What a fun way to really about Boston!
We took a duck tour which I guess could be cheesy but overall really great! Our tour guide was so funny and full of information. We sat in the last seat which warning if you go early May, dress warm!
Anyway, the tour took us all around Boston and even into the Charles River. It probably close $ 75 for 2 which is a little pricey but for all history and information we received it was worth it. I’m really glad we did the tour because we wouldn’t have hit all the places if we were just walking around.
I would recommend this tour to anyone who is go visiting Boston for the first time. You really get a good amount of knowledge from these tours.

I had the pleasure to do the tour this past Saturday. My date was running behind and Bill at the counter was more than accomodating with changing our tour time a little bit. The tour guy was funny, entertaining and he even let a couple of the younger ones in the duck to drive it while in the water. Great option to get to know the city in a fun way. Loved it and i would recommend it to everyone i know.

We had a great tour of the city of Boston on the DUKW. This is an amphibious vehicle that can travel on land and in the water and was built for WW II. The one you will be riding on is a replica and more «green» than the original. You are led around the city with a tour guide describing various history facts or pointing out multiple historical sites.
It is a great way to begin your tour of Boston as it gives an overview of some of the highlights that Boston offers and you can decide which places you want to re-​visit again and lean more details about. Our driver’s name was «Alley Oop» and she was dressed up as an official. Your driver will likely show up in some costume making the tour that much more fun.
It is very kid friendly and while in the water everyone will be given the opportunity to drive the DUKW. Be sure to look for discounts online when booking.

We have Ducky Tours here in Pittsburgh and I never saw the allure of taking one, but I know my better half always wanted to try one, so I figured, lets try it in Boston. I must say I did not have many expectations prior to taking this but was extremely happy I did this and would recommend anybody wanting to take a fun and informative tour of Boston to do this.
We were picked up by «Plucky Ruffles» and off we went. They take you all around Boston providing you insight of many historical events that occurred in certain sites, information on many of the buildings and giving you a tour of the city. You get to see Beacon Hill, «Cheers» bar, Boston Common, Bunker Hill, Faneuil Hall, North Church, the State House, all the shops on Newbury Street, Hancock tower, the U.S.S. Constitution… etc. We liked getting an informative overview on this tour. It gave us an opportunity to figure out what we want to explore in more depth. When you finally hit the water, you get a nice view of the city.
Everyone on our tour was really into it and was having a great time. I certainly enjoyed myself. Our guide made everything fun and he was quite engaging.
The tour comes with the option to purchase pictures afterwards if you would like. With your purchase, you do get a lot of promotional items as well. These includes discounted tickets/​passes to other tours around the city. We chose to take a tour of Harvard University with our pass.
I would definitely recommend trying the Boston Duck Tour here. It was a fun yet educational experience.

Long overdue review…
So I asked my friend… «Hey, I only have less than 24 hours in Boston, what is ONE thing I should do?» Him, «Go on a Boston Duck Tour»
You can pick from two locations to board from, I picked the one by the Pru because it was closer to where I was staying. Sadly that day it was raining and the side of the duck was covered with clear plastic shields so it wasn’t as nice driving through the city. Also oddly enough they didn’t check for my ticket when I boarded the boat…
Anyway, our tour guide was fantastic! Super knowlegable, friendly, funny, and outgoing. 5 stars!
The best part: going into the water. Being on an amphibious boat is definitely one of the weirdest and most fun things I’ve ever experienced.
Overall great experience! Very quick yet thorough tour of Boston if you’re only there for a short time. Would definitely recommend to somebody who’s just passing by the city.