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Walking Tours

Our Walking Tours

Boston By Foot tours offer opportunities for visitors and locals to explore Boston’s cityscape and discover its history with a passionate and knowledgeable guide. Core tours are offered on a daily and weekly basis during the April-November tour season, while others are offered monthly or quarterly. All tours are available upon request as a private tour at any time.

View tours by frequency, topic or by schedule by accessing our calendar. Each tour page contains detailed information about each of our offerings. We look forward to sharing our love of Boston with you!

PLEASE NOTE: Registration for all public walking tours closes one hour before tour start time.

Daily & Weekly

Paul Revere's house in Boston's North End

The North End: Boston's Immigration Gateway

Explore Boston’s oldest neighborhood and discover the charm of this unique, compact city space

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance0.88 mile
potential uneven surfaces and moderate inclines

Monthly & Quarterly

Front of the Boston Art Museum

Art, Architecture and Gardens

Stroll along a section of the Emerald Necklace designed by landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmsted

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance1.5 miles
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
victorian buildings in boston's back bay

Back Bay’s Victorian Architecture

Explore Boston’s Back Bay, home to one of the United States’ richest collections of art and architecture

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance0.65 mile
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Boston's Bay Village Street in Spring

Bay Village

Discover this hidden neighborhood that has maintained its residential charm amidst the surrounding city

tour duration90 minutes
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Boston Public Library

Becoming Back Bay

Learn why Boston's Back Bay is considered a marvel of 19th Century engineering

tour duration90 minutes
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Map of old Shawmut Peninsula overlayed on Modern Boston

Before Boston: Shawmut Peninsula through 1630

Explore 12,000 years of human activity on Shawmut Peninsula, the lands we now call Boston

tour duration90 minutes
potential uneven surfaces and moderate inclines
Painting of Benjamin Franklin

Ben Franklin: Son of Boston

Celebrate the life of Boston-born Benjamin Franklin by visiting his homes and haunts in Colonial Boston

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance1.1 miles
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Burned buildings and homes in boston after the great fire

Boston Reborn: After the Great Fire of 1872

Explore Boston's rebirth after the Great Fire of 1872, a more costly disaster than the Chicago Fire the year before

tour duration90 minutes
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Boston Chinatown Gate

Boston’s Chinatown

Visit one of Boston’s most vibrant neighborhoods, and one of the few surviving Chinatowns on the East Coast

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance1.05 miles
potential uneven surfaces and moderate inclines
Gilded Age photo

Boston's Gilded Age

Learn about Boston's upper-class during the late 19th century - their favorite haunts and their social activism

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance1.1 miles
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
re-enactors of British loyalists in boston

Boston’s Loyalists

Hear the stories of Bostonians who remained loyal to the British crown

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance1.5 miles
potential uneven surfaces and moderate inclines
Bullfinch Triangle

Bulfinch Triangle

Find out how this transportation and entertainment hub is also becoming a thriving residential neighborhood

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance1.5 miles
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Boston Harbour viewed from above the custom house

Change and Response: Boston’s Architecture

Take an in-depth look at the people, trends and events that led to Boston's architectural evolution

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance0.75 mile
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines

Commonwealth Avenue

Visit the heart of Victorian Boston while strolling along the city's Grand Boulevard

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance1.5 miles
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Middlesex County Courthouse

East Cambridge

Travel across the Charles and visit a fascinating neighborhood called one of America's industrial powerhouses

tour duration90 minutes
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Gravestone reading Memento Mori

Grave Undertakings

Explore Boston's burying grounds and learn about the customs surrounding death in Puritan New England

tour duration90 minutes
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
view from Pickney Street Boston

The Hub of Literary America

Journey to Victorian Boston and see where writers and poets including Emerson, Alcott and Thoreau gathered

tour duration90 minutes
likely uneven surfaces and significant inclines
Star of David stained glass in Circular Window

Jewish Beacon Hill

Learn where Boston’s Jewish West End residents worked, lived and worshipped - including The Vilna Shul

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance0.75 mile
likely uneven surfaces and significant inclines
view of a graveyard by day

Johnny Tremain’s Boston

Relive a young boy's adventures in Colonial Boston based on the prize-winning, coming-of-age novel

tour duration90 minutes
likely uneven surfaces and significant inclines
Lincoln Street, Leather District

Leather District

Discover what was once the hub of New England’s leather and shoe industries at the turn of the 20th century

tour duration90 minutes
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Emily Greene Balch

Remarkable Women of Jamaica Plain

Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood was home to remarkable women who changed the course of the history

tour duration90 minutes
Boston Aquarium during construction

Rethinking Boston Brutalism

Explore the historical and social context of an architectural style that has put Boston on the international map

tour duration90 minutes
mural of birds on boston's kennedy greenway

The Rose F. Kennedy Greenway

Stroll through Boston's beautiful new “People’s Park” that annually attracts over a million residents and visitors

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance1.2 miles
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Rowe's Wharf architectural rendering 1984

Rowes Wharf: Sensationally Good City Making

A visionary concept in urban planning, Rowes Wharf remains at the center of 21st century Boston

tour duration60 minutes
tour distance0.25 mile
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines

Annual Events

Massachusetts State House

Footloose on the Freedom Trail

Our special annual 3-hour July 4th event!

tour duration180 minutes
tour distance2.5 miles
likely uneven surfaces and significant inclines
lit pumpkins in the dark

Beacon Hill with a BOO!

For more than 30 years, this tour has been part of any great Halloween celebration in Boston.

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance0.94 mile
likely uneven surfaces and significant inclines

New for 2024

Betances Mural

Art Introspective: Copley Square to the South End

New for 2024! Discover a trove of unknown and underappreciated works of art

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance1.2 miles
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Boston City Hall

Boston City Hall

New for 2024! Explore both the inside and outside of Boston's historic City Hall

tour duration60 minutes
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Boston Common

Boston Common: Past Lives and Hidden Stories

New for 2024! Join us to discover the many lives of Boston Common and its people

tour duration90 minutes
tour distance1.1 miles
potential uneven surfaces and moderate inclines
Kendall Square

Kendall Square's Innovation Transformation

New for 2024! Learn the history of this innovative neighborhood

tour duration90 minutes
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Samuel Adams statue

Sam Adams' Boston

New for 2024! Explore the life and influence of patriot Samuel Adams

tour duration60 minutes
tour distance0.65 mile
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Shaw Memorial

Slavery and Abolition in Massachusetts

New for 2024! Explore Massachusetts' long and complex history of slavery

tour duration90 minutes
potential uneven surfaces and moderate inclines
Wang Theatre

Theater District

New for 2024! Experience the colorful history of theater in Boston!

tour duration120 minutes
mostly flat surfaces and little to no inclines
Trip Advisor Travellor's Choice Awards Winner 2024