Boston: local Freedom Trail tour vs. Princess's Freedom Trail Walking Tour?

[swdke]

I see that Boston offers a locally guided Freedom Trail Walking tour, 90 min. in length, and Princess Tours offers a 3.5 hr. Freedom Trail Walking tour. Trying to decide which to do. With the Princess tour lasting 2 hrs longer, would I be correct in that the Ship's tour may cover more information? Has anyone done either and can share experiences. I do know that I wish to do the Freedom Trail, just not sure if to do on my own, take the locally guided tour, or do the Ship's tour. Trying to decide which is most informative? Any suggestions?

[CMM]

At the pier there is a worker who matches people up to share cabs. We shared a cab with another couple and split the $24 price to the Freedom Trail. We went to the visitors center, bought a guide book for $7. There was a man offering a tour in a colonial costume for $14 pp, but we wanted to go on our own with the book and he looked kind of dirty. We also bought a combo ticket to enter 3 historic buildings, but you can enjoy them for free from the outside. We got tired after touring Paul Reveres house and grabbed a cab back that only cost $12. I wouldn't have wanted to be herded with a tour group. It was a nice day. The guide book gave lots of information on each stop and the trail has a red stripe to mark the way.

[Maraprince]

Please be aware that a ship's tour of the Freedom Trail is only shown as being longer because you are driven from the port to the start point and when you are done you are driven back to the ship. My cabin mate did this on a Carnival ship.

 

You can do the Freedom Trail on your own. Just take a taxi from the port to Qunicy Market and walk out the back end where you will see a red line painted on the sidewalk. This is the Freedom Trail. Follow it for as long as you wish. It is not a narrated tour, but a do it yourself one. You can download a audio tour from one of the Boston's websites and follow the directions there and print out a map of the trail itself.

 

You will find groups with guides doing it along the way. Stop and listen for a few seconds to what is being said.

 

I personally cannot see the sense to pay for a walking tour and not be able to have admissions included.

 

MARAPRINCE

[Grego]

Please be aware that a ship's tour of the Freedom Trail is only shown as being longer because you are driven from the port to the start point and when you are done you are driven back to the ship. My cabin mate did this on a Carnival ship.

 

You can do the Freedom Trail on your own. Just take a taxi from the port to Qunicy Market and walk out the back end where you will see a red line painted on the sidewalk. This is the Freedom Trail. Follow it for as long as you wish. It is not a narrated tour, but a do it yourself one. You can download a audio tour from one of the Boston's websites and follow the directions there and print out a map of the trail itself.

 

You will find groups with guides doing it along the way. Stop and listen for a few seconds to what is being said.

 

I personally cannot see the sense to pay for a walking tour and not be able to have admissions included.

 

MARAPRINCE

 

I am curious as to why you invested in a cab to get from Black Falcon cruise dock to the Freedom Trail and you started at Quincy market rather than the Commons. I don't know if it would cost that much more and you missed out on a bunch of stuff unless you backtracked to the Commons and then walked all the way back to Quincy and then finished the trail.

 

We were thinking of grabbing either the bus or cab to the Commons and then, hopefully, going all the way to the USS Constitution and maybe grabbing a cab or bus back to the ship. I'm sure there is some recommendations and I'll start searching the posts unless someone has a great plan to share with me.

[Maraprince]

I am curious as to why you invested in a cab to get from Black Falcon cruise dock to the Freedom Trail and you started at Quincy market rather than the Commons. I don't know if it would cost that much more and you missed out on a bunch of stuff unless you backtracked to the Commons and then walked all the way back to Quincy and then finished the trail.

 

We were thinking of grabbing either the bus or cab to the Commons and then, hopefully, going all the way to the USS Constitution and maybe grabbing a cab or bus back to the ship. I'm sure there is some recommendations and I'll start searching the posts unless someone has a great plan to share with me.

 

 

My cabin mate booked a walking tour of the Freedom Trail. I didn't.

 

The last 2 times in Boston we did not take any tours, but took a taxi from the pier to Qunicy Market. While we were in the North End I noticed a "red" and asked if this was indeed the Freedom Trail. My cabin mate said that it was. We walked around the North End, checked out some of the restaurants for lunch (decided we were too casually dressed since most of the men were in suits), stopped in some churches, found Mike's Pastry Shop, walked as far as Paul Revere's statue and headed back to the Market were we each went separate directions in seach of the type of food we wanted to eat. Even our TA thought it was riduclous to pay for a walking tour that you could do on your own. While the cabin mate was on the walking tour, I went to Salem and was back on the ship 1-1/2 hrs. before my cabin mate!

 

On another visit (without the cabin mate who booked the walking tour from the ship), my friend and I took time to check out many of the kiosks and shops. My friend went to Build a Bear Workshop and purchased and named a bear. We then went over to McDonald's since the Market was wall-to-wall people and we had "0" chance of getting a seat with all our shopping bags of goodies.

 

We enjoyed our chicken wraps, large Caesar salad and some of Mickey D's great coffee. Compared to the Market, it was nice and peaceful, we didn't have t compete for seats or the restroom and it put us in just the right spot to catch a cab back to the ship. Did manage to get some canoli to take back to the ship to enjoy at our leisure.

 

 

MARAPRINCE

[CMM]

I don't know if this helps but we took a cab to the Gardens (which was pretty and they had the swan boats there) walked the Freedom Trail leisurely, reading along the way, and ended at Paul Reveres house as we were tiring of it.

We are not the types to make the most of every second you are in a port, but prefer a more leisurely pace. We enjoy being on the cruise ship as well. There was plenty of time to have gone on further if you had wanted to.