Chicago Fireboat Tours — Local services in Chicago

Update 3/19/25, Rode the river during St. Paddy's Day. Very cool. They put on a nice spread too. Y'all keep up the good work. Only thing that would make it cooler ? The deck guns. They need to become operational!

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...

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...

We had the BEST time on the air/water show cruise. The crew was sublime, working tirelessly in the background to ensure that everybody was well fed and having a great time. The crew even extended the cruise to ensure that everyone had the chance to watch the final Thunderbird performance of the show. On such a hot day as yesterday, it was also SO nice to be sitting in the shade, out on the water, and listening to fun facts about the performers and planes that we are viewing. The best way to view the air/water show in my opinion. Overall, the tour is extremely family friendly - our son was even given the opportunity to spray a real fire extinguisher off the side of the boat. We were so impressed by the casual, chill vibe of this boat - in contrast to some of the "bigger" tour boats. It makes everything so much more personable and feels like a well-kept secret once you are on board. Plus, having a chance to ride on a literal piece of chicago history is fun as well! We can't wait to be back on board - and to share with our friends and family! One thing to note, and this is definitely noted in the confirmation email, when you are walking to the boat from the millennium parking garages...you will actually pass the boat while walking to the loading dock for the boat (which is further down literally right behind the massive yacht club boat) ... this is not the spot where the boat loads... keep walking :) Anyways, thank you to the crew for an...