Another boat tour my friend Julie happened upon, was the free Port of Houston boat tour. It’s a 90 minute boat tour around the Houston shipping lanes and it doesn’t take too long to get to.
Located east of the city of Houston, the Sam Houston Boat Tour is a free service of the Port Authority of Houston. There are two tours every day 10am and 2.30pm. Reservations are given on a first-come, first-serve basis and are required at least 24 hours in advance, but this tour is often booked up at least a month in advance!
Make sure everyone brings their driver’s license or photo ID, as everyone must have ID to get on the boat. When you drive to the port, you feel like you’re driving in a place you shouldn’t be. There are very few signs and it really does feel like you’re in a restricted area, or no mans land.
Just pay close attention and you’ll get there just fine, the ladies at the entrance to the port were very friendly indeed and very helpful about telling you where to go once you arrive.
Once you park your car, there’s a small park, a restroom area, and vending machines where you wait for the tour boat to pick you up. But there’s no real guidance, signs or staff members to tell you what you’re supposed to do. You just kind of wait until it’s time for the tour to leave and head down to the boat, hoping someone is going to be there to greet you!
It’s a nice boat. You can sit indoors, where it’s air conditioned, but, if you like, you can go out on deck and walk around. They have a nice Texas flag mounted on a flag-pole which makes for a great photo-op. The only thing about standing outside on deck, is that you can’t hear a single word the captain/tour-guide is saying.
So you either sit inside and don’t see much, but hear everything, or, stand outside and see everything but have no idea what you’re looking at.
It’s an OK tour, it was interesting to have a look around the port and the channel. I was surprised they gave us a free soda though, very good touch, especially since it was so hot and we all most definitely needed a cold, refreshing soda!
I much preferred the 2 hour Galveston tour, though, for $10, it was worth every penny, it was a better tour. You saw more, you heard more, and, ok, there was no free soda and no AC, but I learned more than I did in this tour. Plus the guys on the boat weren’t particularly thrilled to be working there, they all seemed very non-plussed and at times almost looked asleep!
To take the tour, register online any time, or call 713-670-2416, Mondays through Thursdays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Regularly scheduled tours may be canceled without advance notice. Before traveling to the Port of Houston, please check this Web site for information on the status of your tour.
