Boston Duck Tours

One if by land, two if by sea……QUACK QUACK!

Last weekend my family and I took the Boston Duck tour. The DUKW (Duck) is a vintage World War II amphibious truck.

The Duck Tour is a 80 to 90 minute tour of historic Boston. The first hours or so is a narrated tour showing you all of the important spots in this seaport town. The tour includes sightings of the Bunker hill monument, U.S.S Constitution and Quincy Market. This has turned out to be the best way to get an over view of the things to see and do in Boston. When you board your DUKW (ok I have to spell it correctly) your conDUCKtor begins an entertaining description of the history of Boston form the earliest settlement to the Big-Dig of today. A unique part of the tour is after you finish all of the history you drive right into the Charles River. The DUKW switches to boat mode and you get a unique view of parts of Boston like MIT and the Esplanade where the Boston Pops performs on the Forth of July.

Each conDUCKtor has adopted a persona for the tour, ours was Paul from Revere (not Paul Revere) (See Bio Below). Paul provided great insight to the area and I really wish I had taken notes on the restaurants and neighborhood he described. One of the best parts of the tour for my six year old son was being able to drive the DUKW with Paul while we were on the water.

Paul from Revere, our conDUCKtors bio.

“Revere is right above Boston.. geography-wise. It also has the oldest public beach in America. In Revere, they tan and they gamble. It’s where the roast beef flows like wine. In Revere people like their Iroc Zs fast and their women’s hairdos extremely high. One if by land! Two if by sea! On the opposite shore his Camaro would be. Don’t confuse him with Paul Revere – he was a famous American Patriot. This is Paul from Revere; he just bet very poorly on the Patriots. He lost a bundle last January. To make up for gambling debts, he is giving tours on the DUCKs. Finally, he has a job where he can drive a company vehicle into the Charles River and not have to deal with the police afterwards.”

For more information on the Duck Tours check out http://www.bostonducktours.com/index.html

A history of the DUWK from http://www.bostonducktours.com/duck_history_main.html

The demands of war, along with technical know-how and old fashioned Yankee ingenuity combined to create the perfect solution: a vehicle that was half boat and half truck that could run on land and water. Code-named DUKW (see where we get the name?), the first “DUCK” was actually a GMC truck enclosed in a water-tight shell.

Boston Duck Tours operates a fleet of restored World War II era DUKWs. These amphibious vehicles played an important role in both the European and Pacific theaters of the war. Now, Boston Duck Tours and Boston’s Museum of Science have teamed up to present the history of these remarkable vehicles. A special exhibit will include a history of the DUKW, photographs, posters, and vintage film. General Motors built 21,000 DUKWs during the war. The display will also include a fully restored Seep. It looks like a miniature DUKW but is actually one of 12,000 amphibious Jeeps built by the Ford Motor Company during World War II.