Our Reviews

100% Recommended!!!Not only it was an awesome experience to navigate the river on an actual Fireman boat, but the staff was super friendly, attentive and knowledgeable of the city and the boat' history itself!We actually decided to go on it because my 3-year-old is a huge fan of firemen, and it was totally worth it. They even had an old water pump for him to play with while navigating.Also, it was raining that day and they are one of the few boats that has a 100% covered area, where you can still enjoy the ride, see the buildings/architecture, while enjoying a coffee or a beer.Best option to go with in Chicago!!

Best tour I've taken in Chicago. What a great tour! Somehow, I had the boat all to myself (it seemed most people booked for later in the afternoon when it would be warmer), and the crew were all really friendly. Cliff was a great tour guide, knowledgeable, great sense of humor, and a good story-teller. He answered all my questions and I learned about Chicago history, the architecture, and about the boat itself. It was the best tour I've taken here and the fact that its all Veteran owned and operated was very cool. I'd definitely take it again and have already recommended it to a friend. Plus, even if you aren't the only passenger, it's still smaller than the other boats we saw on the river for a more intimate experience.

By FAR the best boat tour in Chicago! I used to think “all Chicago River boat tours were the same tour, different boat” and you just hoped to get a good guide ( I’ve done them about 20 times)But finally, I found one that’s truly a “step above”Not only do you learn some history but you’re riding in a piece of it on the Fireboat! The tour is much more intimate and the staff better trained than the other boats, they all clearly love their jobs and are well managed. That’s no easy feat in hospitality ( I work in hotels and it’s so hard to get folks caring this much) Also, the value of this tour with more affordable drinks and better service is just insane. We’ve done the Fireboat 4 times now, and I’ll never do Wendella or one of the “mass producers” again Met the owners, who also “drive” and they were really welcoming and let me daughter take pictures in the captains chair and generally “run roughshod” all over their boat. Pretty sure she got yelled at on Wendella, maybe justifiably lol Overall, this is a 6 star experience, and the care and attention of the captain and crew is incredible, just keeps getting better

Great tour; 2 hours — nice crew and very good tour guide/history story teller. Highly recommended. Picked this company because we went out on Lake Michigan first to see the city landscape and skyline, and then went through the locks to the more standard architecture river tour.

Great experience! Lovely crew with great passion for the city and its history. Very nice way to discover Chicago. I would definitely recommend this more personal experience over the huge boats with hundreds of tourists.

Epic! Lived near Chicago for half of my life, took the Wendella about 50 years ago. Visiting Chicago now and decided to go on a few adventures, this was a wonderful tour. Veteran owned, learned a lot of Chicago history that I didn’t know and rode a true piece of Chicago history. In credible views! Highly recommend!

Weekend in Chicago What a wonderful tour on a piece of Chicago history. The trip and crew were outstanding. The weather cooperated and we learned alot from the narrator.

I am not a leading authority on tours, but this is the best one I have ever taken. This operation is the personification of integrity, knowledge, and customer service.Picture this: My wife and I booked this tour the day before. Because we don’t know the area well, we showed up way early. As we stood alone on the pier, getting lashed by the wind and cold, we grew steadily convinced that this trip was going to be canceled.When co-owner and captain, Ray, approached us I was sure that he was going to inform us that our money had been refunded and that we were welcome to come back some other time. Not at all.Ray welcomed us aboard, introduced us to the entire crew, invited us to warm up with a cup of coffee.Note that this is a boat that routinely packs in over 100 passengers, but now we were the only ones onboard. Soon after taking a table on the wind-protected aft deck, we were introduced to Cliff, our tour guide.Cliff didn’t sit tucked away somewhere using a PA-system; he sat down at the table with us. We then struck up a 90 minute conversation about the boat, its history, Lake Michigan, the Navy Pier, the lock, the Sanitation and Transportation canal, the Great Fire of 1871, the architecture of the great buildings along the river, and much more.Cliff, a native Chicagoan, has lived and studied this city and its lore and history and he’s a great storyteller to boot.All in all, we had the best tour of our lives thanks to the professional and personable crew of the Fire Boat Tour.Don’t miss it!

Best guided tour of my life. This was the best guided tour we have ever taken. Picture this: it’s windy, cold, and raining and my wife and I are the only takers for the Noon Fireboat tour. I’m figuring they will offer to give us our money back and send us on our way. Not at all. Captain and co-owner, Ray, assured us that the tour was on. We were then introduced to the entire crew and then storyteller extraordinaire and tour guide, Cliff, sat down at our table. With hot coffee to warm us up we sat on the wind-protected aft deck and listened to the fascinating history of the Chicago waterfront. Cliff is a native Chicagoan who has a love for Chicago and a deep knowledge of its history and architecture. Well worth it!

Chicago Fireboat trip The trip was great. Good info about buildings, the city and harbor. Old super nice boat with very friendly crew. Worth a trip - you will get a special experience.

Great experience, I learned some interesting facts, plus the guiding man was funny!

Terrific! Wonderful tour on a terrific little vessel with great history. It was a real plus to have small crowd on this tour - some of the other boat tours were PACKED and this had such an easy going vibe and top notch narration.

A great company and tour to take in Chicago, especially for St.Patrick's Day!

Highly recommend taking this tour!! This boat is amazing! Such an intimate way to get to experience Chicago from the river. The history of the boat and the knowledge this team has is unmatched.

If your looking for a great blast from the past experience that's one of a kind you found it. You will be captivated the second you step on this beautiful vessel made in 1936 and you will immediately feel the history and hospitality of the crew members. They serve great alcohol choices at amazing prices. Once aboard dont forget to walk around the vessel and admire the great chicago history you are standing on and take a look at some of the amazing photos of what it used to look like when in operation. Then with us we had the amazing pleasure to meet and converse with the man who knows his city and guide Cliff. He was very welcoming and very knowledgeable of the city and designs chicago has to offer and will most definitely keep you interested with some humor and architectural knowledge. This is and will be as stated on board with i believe was the owner of the ship l. A one of a kind authentic tour you will get nowhere else in chicago and man he was not kidding.

Great experience with Fireboat Tours. Was a beautiful day, a great way to see the city & would certainly use them again in the future!

Great tour, our guide was very friendly and knowledgeable. Me and my family got to learn a lot about the places we saw on the trip. The fireboat is a piece of history and art itself, as it was repurposed as a tour boat and works beautifully. There is no gasoline or diesel smell.

MICKEYS 70th It was a perfect fall day and we had an amazing boat ride! First, it is a decommissioned fire boat! Second, the tour not only incorporated history and architecture it also took us through the river locks. I could not have wanted for a better tour. The crew was friendly and did an amazing job! I would go again!

Fire boats are just as cool as fire trucks. 5 star tour AUSTIN was an amazing tour guide. He delivered the history and information in a fun and humorous way. With so many options for these tours being a volunteer firefighter i of course had to chose this one. I liked that it started in the lake and not in the river , Cool boat with cool memorabilia . Manny at the bar was great. This boat wasn't overly crowded which was nice. Some other boats are packed like sardines. I was hoping for a bit more fire storys but it was in fact an architectural tour. If you are in town go down and support these guys.

Lieber Austin, danke für die tolle Tour mit vielen Infos zur Historie der Stadt, Anekdoten und Witzen!

We had a wonderful time on this tour. The crew was very friendly and helpful. Our guide, Cliff, was great. He was informative and funny. It was very interesting to pass through the lock. We are glad we did this tour.

Don’t miss this tour. It’s small, informative, and great information about the city while riding Well worth your time for a unique view and education about the city. The tour was extremely informative about Chicago’s architecture and history. You get a tremendous view of the city while riding on a historic fireboat. As a former firefighter, this was a real treat. The narration, Captain, and crew were top notch.

Super cool fireboat. the guide, Austin, was super funny and told a lot of interesting facts. My 12 year old loved all.

Book the 5pm tour Wow what a tour. These guys are incredible they really enjoy doing tours and have so much awesome information to put out. The boat was so clean and had tons of the fire boats history on it. Although since I was running a marathon two days after when I did my tour I didn’t enjoy the full bar but it was stocked to the max with anything to keep your thirst in check. The kids on board got little fire hats and got to play with pump sprayers which I thought was very cool. I had never been to Chicago or even knew to much about the history esp of the river but you leave knowing a ton. I recommend the 5pm tour. One the way back as the sunsets the views are amazing. It’s also nice to support a very well run veterans company.

Fun and Informative! Great Experience! Super informative the the views are beautiful! The guide was great and very funny! Learned a lot about Chicago and the added experience of the fire boat and fire history was great!I liked that there were tables and you could get a beer and enjoy the ride.

Very informative tour! We were impressed with the wealth of information. Also, it was fun to be on a historic fire boat. Great 2 hour trip on the lake and river.

Hello y'all, I do not know the owner or any of the crew. My wife and I took a river tour last weekend on their decommissioned fire tug. The dock was easy to get to, and it is in a nice area of the riverfront. It's easy to find, look for moored white and blue ship. It is huge, and the only one you can not miss it. Walk past it on the same pier and you will see the red fire tug. There is also a crewman that is at the entrance of the pier before the tour starts hawking rides. The tug is a fine ship and very well maintained. The skipper is also the owner. he saved it from some other company up north and brought it back to her old post on the river. Her sister ship is still in service as quarters for the crew of the new city fire tug. They have a covered foul weather/sun deck with seating at the stern, and open seating on the bow by the old deck gun. They play awesome tunes and have a full service bar in the old crew quarters. There are two very good heads (bathrooms) . the ship rides very well and it's not over crowded like the other tour boats, its like your uncle is the fire boat captain and you caught a ride on his boat. They also serve beer and snacks etc. It is a veteran owned local company. She is berthed by a sailing club, there were a bunch of people learning to sail in little boats on Lake Michigan when we went through, which was kinda cool to watch as you motored to the mouth of the river. This tour was reasonable priced and to be honest y'all, when is the next time you will have a chance to ride a fire boat? They also like patches too for you folks into patches.... They have them all over the inside of the boat. Even though its old, the boat runs strong, a crewman told me they overhauled it before putting back into service as a tour boat. Everything appears to be well maintained. The guide was funny and new a lot about the buildings, I learned a bunch of Chicago waterfront history. The views of the lake and skyline were on point. and there was plenty of room to walk around if you needed to change angles etc. This is not a traditional tour boat that crams people in like cattle. There is plenty of space. It is the closest most people will get to crewing a work boat. The only thing missing was those homemade, midwest firehouse sloppy joe sandwiches on a potato bun, wrapped in butcher paper, to go with the old style. And a WORKING deck gun, that would be very very cool to let it rip when your out on the lake part of the cruise. I am making this a new tradition when I have to come to Chicago. It is a nice way to spend a few hours. The bartender is very cool too. To the crew; Y'all have a fine little boat, keep up the good work. I am letting all my coworkers know about your tour. My wife's family is about to become regulars too.

Loved this tour! This is the second time I've taken this cruise. The first time I went with a friend; this time I brought my five grandkids. (Ages 8 -19) I wanted them to have the experience of going through the lock. They enjoyed the boat itself as much as they liked the cruise; it's really comfortable as well as being a piece of history. Every member of the crew made us feel welcome, and the tour guide did a great job.

Austin was great!

Great time! Super knowledgeable tour guide, and friendly bartender! I took my friend on the tour for her birthday. She absolutely loved it as did I. The boat was not crowded. The tour guide did a great job explaining everything to us. It was about a 2 hour trip which I thought was perfect. I liked that you could set outside or inside and still see everything. The history of the boat was just as cool as the history of the city. The bartender was super friendly and knowledgeable as he liked to chat with you when you came up to get a drink or snack. I highly recomend this tour as it was a super unique was to explore the city.

Amazing tour!!! Very nice people, good information about chicago and the river and a terrific beer only for this boat!!! If i comeback to Chicago i will repeat this tour no doubt!!!

Chicago Fireboat Tour is a Quality Experience We had an excellent experience on this tour. Staff was super friendly, particularly Captain Ron & Cliff. Cliff did a superb job of describing not only the architecture but also of teaching us about the history of Chicago. His style is engaging and he clearly has an excellent sense of humor. And his singing wasn’t half bad. Highly recommend for 5 and up.

Went here for a corporate event and it was incredible! Austin is an amazing tour guide and is so funny and informative! Highly recommend!

Was visiting Chicago again and decided to hop on tour with friends. It was amazing, I just was surprised that there were not a lot of people. It definitely worth every penny. And sunset skyline was amazing. Definitely recommend.

Great experience Amazing! Everyone is very friendly and the tour information was interesting to an adult and a child. We loved the experience of being able to go through the lock from the river to the lake.

Best tour ever Best Chicago tour by far. Excellent tour guide (Cliff), amazing views and learned so much about the city. Will definitely go again!

Best Chicago Boat Tour Took our 81 year mom for her birthday with the whole family. Great views from the lake and river. The tour was full of so much Chicago history not just architecture. Use spot hero to get close cheap parking. Have been on several river tours and this was the best!

We always enjoy a boat ride when vacationing near big bodies of water, seeing from the shore just isn't the same. We saw this company while walking along the docks. We were not disappointed! The ride included much information provided by Cliff about the waterway, Lake Michigan, Chicago River, and the varied architecture of the many huge buildings along the way. The trip to the river also requires passing through the lock that I really enjoyed. Be sure to get a spot where you can watch the lock open and see the water equalize the Lock to the next body of water. They also have a good selection of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages to quench your thirst.

This experience was absolutely heaven sent. The crew was amazing!! They were so polite, pleasant and caring. I took both of my aunt's. And it was ALL of our first time on a boat. So we were a little bit nervous. They mad us feel so comfortable. It was like a family outing. And OMG it was beautiful and informative. I can't believe I live in Chicago all my life and didn't know these places along the river even existed. And learning the history behind these places was amazing. Thanks to our very funny and caring tour guide. He even took time out to come check on his passengers. I definitely recommend everyone come check them out. It was such a great and memorable experience 💖.

Loved this tour! It was the perfect blend of laid-back and informative - not too much information where you can't take it all in. I loved that we were on both the river AND lake - much better than just the river. Amazing views and we loved Manny at the bar. And the craft beer options were amazing. I also loved that the info was interesting and it didn't feel like we were being talked "at" - great delivery of really interesting Chicago facts. The interior is so cool, it's like being in a firehouse cabin. Love how down to earth this tour was and I'll recommend all of my friends! Vet-owned is a plus!

Ride on some ChiTown history while learning about the history of Chicago We had a great time on the retired fire boat. Was a cool feeling as a retired firefighter myself being on this retired engine. The tour guide Cliff was knowledgeable and they had a great selection of beers for purchase. The weather and sites were fantastic, highly recommended!

Chicago Fireboat Tours is THE tour to choose! So glad we picked this tour ( as there are a bunch to choose from. Besides all the other great reviews, the fact it was on a famed retired fire-boat was the deciding factor. Very cool vessel, with a bar. Great crew. On our tour Cliff was on leading the tour. Very knowledgeable , lively , and fun.

Let s go! The boat tour was one of my favorite thing to do in Chicago. The view from the boat was the best. I liked that the fireboat is not too big, you are in a small group, i t s easier to take pictures. The boat has his history that makes him more interesting than cruise boat. Our guide was really nice ( i think his name was Austin) . The comments were interesting and fun! I recommend the tour!

Best Tour Boat ever this was a great way to see the lake and river in Chicago And get the architectural tour. My husband is a firefighter and for anyone who loves firefighters or Kids who love firetrucks, This is an amazing tour to go on because you’re on a real live retired fire boat. Our guide cliff was absolutely amazing. Gave great information, was full knowledge, and taught us so much about Chicago’s history. The captains were great, and the bartender was amazing as well. There’s great seating in the front in the sun or there are also covered options if you want to be shaded. we would highly recommend anybody to try out this Chicago fire boat tour!

Birthday treat on the lake. This was a special treat for our youngest son’s bday (3 years old). Him and his brother (5 years old) were very excited and a little scared since it was both of their first times on a boat. The crew made it an experience to remember! Very friendly and personable to the boys. They had a few things to bring out for the boys to play with too. The tour itself was great. The tour guide, Austin, was very knowledgeable and funny too. He was able to answer questions from other guests as well as my boys, which is a task in itself at times. Austin was even nice enough to give my son a birthday shout out over the PA when we were heading back to the dock. We loved this tour. We are thinking of going back around Christmas when they have a Santa boat tour! Thanks for making our day special Austin and crew!

Loved it Fantastic tour. Loved Austin the tour guide. So unique and interesting. Beautiful boat and ride out on Lake Michigan and then on the Chicago River I would highly recommend

Awesome boat, awesome crew. Great day on the water. Wanted a boat cruise up the river to see the Chicago architecture. Wife and I looked and wanted to find a smaller boat so selected this one. Can sit on the bow in the sun or inside which is what we did. A very cool boat, crew very accommodating and the gentleman that did the announcing (Cliff) was amazing. Learned a ton on the trip. We passed other larger boats doing tours and looked miserable to me - hundreds of people sitting in the sun. Highly recommend you take a retired fireboat.

The staff is friendly, and attentive! Austin was our tour guide! Austin was charismatic, informative and hilarious! I enjoyed the tour with my family and would do it again! We learned so much we didn’t know about the city of Chicago.

This was by far THE BEST boat tour in Chicago! Not only was it on a historic 1937 fire boat, but the crew was laid back and very genuinely happy. The tour guide was so full of energy and great information about everything.

Great Saturday afternoon tour with Cliff

There are many Chicago boat tours, but only one like this. There are many, many, many boat tours in Chicago, but only one on a historic fireboat! If that weren't enough, it's a comprehensive and informed tour, provided by an excellent guide and crew. (Bonus points for having plenty of seats in the shade and a friendly bartender!)

Fireworks cruise was awesome! Good music, relaxed feel on board, and fantastic view of the show in the sky.

Great experience Great tour through the lock giving a view of both the lake and river! Such an interesting boat! Great with kids! Gave them water to pump

Fun tour for all ages! We went on this tour as part of celebrating my Uncle's retirement from the Fire Department. Great drinks and fun experience overall!

This boat tour was my favorite part of our trip to Chicago! It was so fun and informative 🙂 Austin, the tour guide, was really funny, too!

Fireworks tour. It was nice.

A must do experience in Chicago! The friendliest crew and a fun way to see the city’s architecture! Will be back!

We had a great time doing the fireworks. Nothing fancy but close to the action.

Great Chicago tour Great tour on a Saturday afternoon. Great to do both the lake and river, which not all do. Cliff had lots of great stories and info.

Must Do - Chicago Fire Boat Tour We had SO much fun on the Thursday night brew-cruise (I bet any tour is great here)! The crew was awesome and clearly love what they do and we loved the Brew Cruise IPA collab. Can't recommend this boat enough - chill, fun and felt totally at home on the water! Looking forward to next time!!