Walking Tours of Boston Offer the Best Sightseeing Opportunities

Boston is a pedestrian city, which makes it perfect for walking tours. In a town comprised predominantly of paved cow paths, where double parking is the norm and pedestrians have little regard for crosswalks, tourists can save their sanity by walking or taking Boston's comprehensive public transportation.

Seeing Boston by foot isn't difficult. All the historic sites lie within a roughly four square mile area. Whether joining up with a tour group or going it alone, taking a walking tour of Boston is the best way to learn about its history and admire the architecture.

The Freedom Trail Foundation
The Freedom Trail is a two and a half mile long journey linking Boston's significant historical sites. The Freedom Trail Foundation features the most popular and well known walking tours of the Freedom Trail. Guides dressed in historical costumes lead tours along the Freedom Trail marked along the sidewalks with a red line. Their lectures focus on famous colonialists who forever changed the story of democracy in the free world. The Freedom Trail Foundation "Walk Into History" tour operates daily on regular intervals. Meet at the Boston Common Visitor Information Center at 148 Tremont Street, right next to the Park Street MBTA subway station. They also offer the Reverse "Walk Into History" tour leaving from the Bostix Ticket Booth in front of Faneuil Hall Marketplace each day at 10:30 am. Also from the Bostix Booth, each day at 1:30 pm, they operate the "North End Tour", the neighborhood which the hub of Italian-American culture in Boston today.

Boston By Foot
Boston By Foot organizes tours to meet every tourist's needs. Their "Classic Tours" feature walks through Victorian Beacon Hill, the Freedom Trail with walks geared toward adult or child audiences, literary and engineering tours, and noteworthy neighborhoods The North End and Back Bay. Boston By Foot also has holiday specific tours and specialty Tours of the Month. Boston By Foot tours operate seven days a week from May to October and run at various times each day.

New England Ghost Tours
Looking for something a bit creepier than historic graveyards at midday? Try New England Ghost Tours. Each night at 8 pm, the Boston Spirits Walking Tour departs from the Boston Common Visitor Center at 148 Tremont Street. Learn the stories of the people hanged on Boston Common, get to know the spirits of colonial boneyards, and hear spine tingling tales of "Proper Bostonians" and their eerie haunts.

The Boston Audissey
For independent travelers or those who prefer to sightsee at their own pace, technology has made self guided walking tours easy. The Boston Audissey is an audio tour available for download on mp3. The Boston Audissey focuses on Boston's "secret sites" like Underground Railroad destinations and mafia hideouts of the North End. It is narrated by local Bostonians Dicky Barrett of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Luigi "Big Lou" DeMarco, an authority on the North End, and Michael Patrick MacDonald, best-selling author of "All Souls: a Family Story from Southie". The Boston Audissey can be downloaded at the Audissey Tours website or through iTunes.