Boston by Bike

"Boston: The least bike-friendly city in the nation."

That's what Bicycling magazine called it in 1999. Happily, I can report that Boston's reputation for streets inhospitable to two-wheelers is greatly exaggerated.

I recently spent a delightful day touring Beantown by bike -- and this despite intermittent downpours and cold early spring temperatures.

With experienced guides in charge of our route, my companion and I rarely found ourselves on Boston’s busiest streets. That's good because Boston is notorious for impolite drivers and maze-like streets clogged with traffic. Instead, we often slipped through quieter side streets, occasional alleys and recreational paths.

I thought I knew Boston fairly well. But I saw so many new places and different angles on familiar places that I might as well have been riding in a city I’d never visited.

Even more amazing was the abundance of detail pointed out by our two tour guides. We learned bits of history and stories of some of the people who made Boston happen. It was precisely like taking a walk in the woods with a trained naturalist versus walking alone. You see so much more than you ever would on your own.

In the belly of the beast

I’m not really a city person. But if I have to be in a city, I’d rather be in the heart of the city than in shopping-mall suburbia. Besides, I like challenges in my outdoor adventures. I wanted my Boston biking trip to be right in the belly of the beast, not in some quasi-urban setting.

It would have been easy enough to throw my bike on the car and drive to Boston, which is an adventure in itself. But I’m a big believer in public transportation in cities. I wasn’t about to add a bike to my luggage on a bus-and-subway trip to my hotel.

So I started looking at rental options, and that’s when I hit the jackpot. An outfit called Urban AdvenTours (617-233-7595) not only rents top-quality bikes, but also offers $50 per person (which includes bike rental) guided tours of the least bike-friendly city in the U.S. The tours are based at Landry's Bicycles at 890 Commonwealth Ave. (right on the Green Line).

The Fairmont Copley Plaza is an elegant, if somewhat unusual place to begin a biking adventure, but it was convenient for my other business in the city. I felt only slightly out of place eating breakfast in their elegant Oak Room in my biking clothes.

A little later, Andrew Prescott, the owner and head guide at Landry's Bicycles, fitted Amy Gallagher and me with helmets and solid, comfortable hybrid bikes, perfect for city riding.

Amy and I had signed up for the basic City View Tour ($50 per person) which takes in Fenway Park (quiet when we rode by), Faneuil Hall Marketplace, some of the Freedom Trail, the Back Bay and the South End, Haymarket, Harvard University, The North End and Copley Square. That sounds like a lot, but Boston is a surprisingly small place on a bicycle -- if you don’t get lost. And you won't if you take a guided tour.

Each Urban Adventour is accompanied by a super-knowledgeable guide. In our case, Andrew was in the lead. We were fortunate enough to have Ed Ballo (who can also give the tour in French or Italian) bringing up the rear.

We happily rode for the next two hours at an easy pace through the streets of Boston. We stopped often to take photographs and see details of the city you’d never imagine if you rode past in a tour bus. Amy is definitely not a bike animal -- she hadn’t ridden in years -- but she had no trouble keeping up on this trek.

 Boston may not be “bike friendly” but you couldn’t prove that by this trip.

More Adventours

Urban Adventours also offers a longer art and architecture tour ($60 pp) and a 3-hour photography tour ($75 pp). Various custom tours include a college tour and a retracing of Paul Revere’s Ride on bicycles. All tours include bike and helmet rental.

I had enough fun on my city tour that I'll sign up for another option the next time business takes me to Boston. Come to think of it, I might plan a day in Boston just to go biking.