North End Market Tour

I recommend this tour for locals and visitors alike. I learned a great deal about the North End, the stores and restaurants, italian american food, and cooking tips. Three hours flew by and I wished there was more. I would take this tour again in a heartbeat.

My husband and I really enjoyed the tour of the north end. We feel much better acquainted with the area now and have already been back to get a few ingredients!

Very informative as to history and food and where to buy interesting items. We loved Maria's bakery and made sure we returned after the tour to buy some goodies to take home. We could have used a few extra hours either before or after the tour to do some further exploration. I plan to come back sometime in the not too distant future to spend more time in each of the stores we visited and to make some purchases. We took our adult son and his girlfriend and they enjoyed it as much as we did. Even though it's 3 hours, there isn't much walking and we got to sit down from time to time if needed. Our tour guide, Dick, was very knowledgeable and able to answer all of our questions. I highly recommend this tour.

We took the tour at a cost of a total of $109. The tour was 3 hours long. The guide was pleasant but in our opinion there was too much detail that was irrelevant (cooking detail, history of ingredients, origins of products) and of no interest to us in particular. There were very small occasional tasters including miniscule amounts of olive oils and a chic pea or two. We were told not to buy any products from any of the shops in case this caused delay. However we would like to have bought some things and did not get the chance afterwards because we could not find the various shops again in the maze of little streets that compromise North End. Some of the shop keepers gave us the impression that they were rather irritated by 13 people on a tour standing in their shops. $109 was a lot of money for this tour. Having done a similar one in New York we have something to compare it with and the one in NYC was far better value and more interesting. Having said that Boston is a VERY expensive place in general. Generally we would have preferred less detail and more opportunity to taste the products of the local shops, and buy!

We thoroughly enjoyed our North End Market Tour with Jim. His expertise, presentation skills, and knowledge all helped to create an interesting and entertaining (and tasty) tour experience. We enjoyed visiting each of the shops and learning about the history of italian food in Boston. We have already recommended this tour to friends in Boston and abroad! We highly recommend this tour when in Boston! P.S. We went back to several of the stops to purchase merchandise after the tour.

We visit the North End often and this tour brought us into places we never would have done ...very interesting...loved the tastings...we all learned so much...I would highly reccomend this to anyone!

My husband and I took this tour on the recommendation of relatives who had taken it several months before. This was definitely one of the best city activities that we have experienced in many years of travel to a wide variety of places. Our guide, Jim, was entertaining, knowledgeable, and obviously loved his subject! The tastes of the wonderful specialties of the various markets, bakeries, etc, added so much to the experience, making it a truly multi-sensory event. It is far more than just a culinary tour, bringing in so much history and culture. Even though my husband does not cook (and has no interest in learning!), he enjoyed the tour just as much as I did. We want to do the Chinatown tour with Jim next time we are in Boston!

It was the highlight of our weekend plans. Can't wait to do the China Town Tour!

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some friends had recommended it but I was surprised at how great it was. Our tour guide Jim was wonderful and it was definitely a fun 3 hours. I would definitely recommend it to all of my friends. I can not wait to go on the tour of China Town.

very entertaining and educational - a great combination of history, food and tastings!