Beantown Trolley

Would not book again. Due to rain, we missed our tour on the bus, so instead took the trolley tour! BIG mistake! Had to wait longer than planned at each stop, our tour guide was a joke and insulting to our intelligence and was very chauvinistic! Made us wait in the pouring rain before he decide we could get on board, after telling us that he had to park at the curb, which there was no parking. We stood in the rain for 10 minutes before he gestured that we could come aboard. Lots of trolley tours in Boston, take someone else–

the guide did the best he could with what he had to work with. but, at least one speaker on the bus was damaged so it was difficult to understand what he was saying.
after just a few stops, the aisle was full from front to back with people standing. from then on, we could see out of only one side. Beantown is way overselling their capacity as we often left people waiting at stops because we we’re already full

Horrible! Does not come every 20 minutes as advertised but every hour. Totally not worth it. When actually on the trolley it skipped stops because of «traffic» or because no one was stopping there. What if someone was waiting to be picked up!!! They even skipped Fenway Park since no one was stopping! Such a shame and disgrace and definitely not a hop on hop off trolley.

This review is completely based of the customer service I received when I need help the most (I never took the tour)!
I booked 5 tickets through their website with an American Express and didn’t receive an email confirmation from them the whole day. That Sunday I called and left a couple of voicemails and I no one got back to me. I waited till Monday and walked over their kiosk in the Transportation Building in Downtown to see what was happening. They informed me that they don’t accept American Express and immediately tried to assist me with my issue. They gave me someone’s number to contact and Sue was more than helpful. She even called me back to follow up with the problem.

Extremely unprofessional operation. We had two day passes as a part of our Go Boston Cards. We arrived at 8:50 for a 9:00 departure. The trolley showed up at 9:26. The man in charge was quite rude to the other passengers who were waiting, and we were told that we had to wait fifteen minutes before we got underway because they needed to set up shop. The previous day, our driver began skipping stops due to traffic and acted like this traffic was a surprise. I find it incredibly hard to believe that this traffic was something new for the driver. The most frustrating part was that there was no real sense of urgency on the part of the staff despite the fact that we would be starting forty five minutes later than promised.

Wish I could give minus stars. Absolutely awful! Spend at least an hour at each stop waiting for trolley.

Don’t waste your time or money on this tour/​trolley service. What a joke … Wait times of up to an hour and I never saw one to reboard.

Take a different trolley tour. There are several to choose from in Boston, and this one is the worst. We waited for nearly an hour after being told there would be a trolley every 30 minutes. The drivers injected their own political views into the tour, which was extremely offensive. We were visiting Boston for the 4^th of July and while explaining Paul Revere’s ride and the Old North Church, our driver said, «and that is what led to the USA being a free constitutional republic – until last week.» He was obviously referring to a week of decisions from the US Supreme Court the week before, which upheld Obamacare and made same-​sex marriage legal in all 50 states. When we asked him to clarify what he meant, he told us to «go to Fox News and you’ll learn the truth.» The issues he was commenting on are very close to me and my family and we found his remarks out of place, offensive, and inappropriate for a tour of the city. We got off at the next stop and took Über or cabs the rest of the day to avoid the chance of having to sit through his politically-​charged tour of Boston.

I went with my family today. We got off and on 3 different times and each time there was a trolley right there for us to reboard once we finished. Interesting information but the corny jokes get old after a few hours, especially when the driver complains when no one fake laughs at a joke that isn’t funny. The drivers ask for a minimum of quiet conversation, which I can appreciate. However, I’m traveling with a special needs child and I didn’t appreciate the sharp look I got (from 1 of the drivers) in the rear view mirror the very first time she spoke a single word that was a little bit loud after sitting quietly for more than half an hour. I don’t know if this was representative of all the drivers but I was disappointed. Finally, the trolleys are not air-​conditioned which would have been quite uncomfortable if the weather was any hotter than the low 80’s.

The worst
Day at Fenway — waited hour and a half for our trolley that we were told would pick up every 15 – 20 minutes (when we bought our «Boston Explorer» ticket)
Phone support tells me «well there’s nothing we can do» (thanks)
ruined our trip that day we didn’t get to do anything else that day as everything on that «Boston Explorer» closes at 4 or 430 :(
(Looking for that next)
Saw Old Town Trolley go by at least 5 x while we waited
Take that one!

Like many other reviews here, we had this as one of the options on our GoBoston Card.
WHAT NO ONE TELLS YOU:
There are no fewer than SIX different hop on /​hop off trolleys operating in the greater Boston area. Many logos look the same, none of them validate any of the others’ rides. Make sure you know which one you’re supposed to be looking for– we definitely learned this the hard way. We were staying in Sommerville, so we walked to Harvard Square for breakfast and attempted to hop on the trolley there to our next site, only to find that it wasn’t the same company. We ended up grabbing a Lyft from HS to find the kiosk in the mall at the Prudential Center to get our actual hop on hop off tickets.
The Go Boston book was useless, as it directed us to a kiosk inside the mall currently occupied by a different trolley service, who sent us out to the front drive of the Sheraton hotel where the Beantown supposedly stopped– we asked the Valet, he sent us to the Concierge, they sent us back into the mall. By this point we’d lost literally hours to trying to figure this all out. My friend finally jsut called and was told the new location inside the mall (RIGHT next to where we’d walked in, but we didn’t notice cuz we were following the guide book!) In this case, the Beantown Trolley, appears to be the run of the trolley litter — all of the other trolleys were double decker or at least elevated rides. This is supposed to be patterned after a San Francisco street car, but really the only similarities are wooden interiors and an uncomfortable ride.
We finally found it and the guy at the booth apologized profusely and said he gets the same story, all day, every day. By the time we actually found the kiosk and got information on how/​where to catch it, it was too late to be able to make the last Freedom Trail Walking Tour (another GoBoston Card tour) by taking the trolley, so we had to hail a cab. (If you’re keeping track, that’s $ 13 for the Lyft to the PruCenter, and $ 15 for a cab to the Freedom trail– both of which we were supposed to have been able to do with the trolley pass.)
We were told the trolley stops were marked at each location, they are not (the only stop we picked up the trolley at was Fenway, and the Old Town trolley had a stop sign there, but no others.). Look for it, wave it down like it’s a rescue copter.
Last summer I did hop on hop offs in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Paris, and they all had pre-​recorded narratives explaining the history and sites you were seeing, triggered by GPS. Beantown had an irritable driver you couldn’t really understand speaking into a hand-​held microphone making announcements.
Don’t sit over the back wheels unless you’re wearing a strong support bra and don’t mind getting shaken and bumped around like a bad amusement park ride.

I have mixed feelings. We had a couple great drivers and a couple who were less than enthusiastic about their jobs. The trolley with the open sides was enjoyable, but twice we had one where the a/​c wasn’t working and the windows wouldn’t stay open (my daughters fingers got shut inside) and we all sat in our sweat for an hour plus.
The tour itself, so-​so. Had to do quite a bit of waiting for trolleys to come. It wasn’t a bad way to see the city, but not a good choice if you’re in any sort of hurry. Oh, and the ride can get pretty rough and bumpy, I watched a grown man fall out of his seat.

I went on this trolly because it came with our Go Boston pass. I’m actually from Boston so have had the experience of taking several tour options. This is definitely the worst. We also had to wait over an hour for a trolley, our driver was obnoxious — a forced, fake laugh and several really bad jokes (bad in general but also poor taste). Because we were told the trolley comes only every 40 minutes, it makes it a terrible «on/​off tour» we didn’t dare get off after waiting so long, but after bearing 60 minutes of the tour, I could not get off fast enough! I rarely leave bad reviews and I’m sorry to do it here, but people should know about this. Our whole day of touring was completely messed up by this tour.

This experience had been one of the worst. We purchased a two day pass and have spent both days just waiting around mostly. Their every 20 minute arrival is a complete joke. Then we finally boarded a bus and couldn’t understand a word the driver was saying and then because he was over an hour behind schedule, he skipped several stops. Today they have overbooked a tour bus and we are sitting here waiting for a larger bus to arrive. We are now 30 minutes late for starting this tour.

I had to wait over an hour for pick up at a stop while the other tour buses came by about ever 15 minutes leaving me not enough time to utilize the attraction pass I bought. Super disappointing.

DO NOT use this company. They only have a couple of trolleys so you wait forever for the next trolley. Plus after getting on the trolley, the driver totally skipped the stop we wanted. When we asked him what happened to stop 9, he said he was told not to go there. There was no advanced warning, either verbally or with a sign. If we had just been told… I managed to talk with a manager, fully expecting to have our money refunded since we did didn’t get what we paid for, only to be told «I apologize». That just didn’t cut if for us. We will never use this company again.
I would post no stars if I could.

I live in Boston and use the different trolley tours when friends and family come in to visit. This was the 1^st and last time I will use Beantown Trolley. They say they come every 40 mins. This could be argued as the driver asked us many times to tell his boss no one was there are no one appeared to be «running» toward us. Having been on several other tour companies, I would say I learned a lot, but SOME of the Beantown driver appear to want to practice their poor stand up routines and tour guide less. All of that I could have avoided until my family I and I were left stranded at one of the stops. We waited over 20 min after the trolley was supposed to arrive (assuming it was rush hour traffic). They I called dispatch and was told it would be another 30 min??? Sadly we waited and no one showed. Also, no one mentioned prior to us getting off, they wouldn’t be back. We walked 30 min to catch a train.
I highly recommend Old Towne Trolley: they pick up/​drop off SEVERAL times during an hour and give very informative tours.

For us it was free with the Boston go card but if we had paid for it I’d have asked for my money back. SO not worth it. Tour guide was reciting his script in a robotic monotone and he was unintelligible. Literally could not comprehend about 60% of what he said. Subway is faster for ¹⁄₁₅^th the price. Only conceivable reason to use this company is that if it is included as part of a tourist package, you can get on and off at will (between 9 to 4) unlimited times, and thereby save a few bucks compared to multiple T trips. (But it’s wicked slow doncha know.)
Otherwise the $ 33 ticket is a rip off. Skip it unless it’s included as part of a tourist package.

I really enjoyed this tour. Although it didn’t run often enough between stops, if we planned well enough, we made it work for our downtown travel needs. (Parking was horrendous, so this really saved us time, energy, and money). This was included on the Go Boston Card, which is well worth the money. Our favorite driver was Tony — hilarious, knowledgeable, and made our Boston trip all the more fun with his attitude. Over several trips, (we stopped at many stops and walked around a lot), we basically got to experience the whole tour. The trolleys are clean and comfortable. I would definitely do this again.

I am not a fan of this trolley company. At every stop, I would see 2 – 3 Old town trolleys (Green & orange) and 2 of the gray trolley before a red one showed up. One of their trolleys are red without any writing notifying you that it is Beantown. It confused us and others. I even saw two people stop and decided it wasn’t theirs. Then we pulled away and they realized it was the Beantown. The driver didn’t stop and motioned for them to wait. What another 20 – 30 minutes. This was during 4^th of July week so tourist season was booming.
Our one driver was pretty good while the other one was terrible. i couldn’t understand him and he just talked monotone like he memorized his script without any care of making it interesting. The only good thing is that it goes with the Go Boston card. We used it one day and didnt have much desire to use it the 2^nd day.