Take A Harvard Campus Tour on Your Visit to Boston

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It’s time to get wicked smart on your trip to Boston. A visit to the wonderful city of Boston wouldn’t be complete without taking a Harvard campus tour. After all, there’s so much history there.

I really wanted to visit Harvard University when I was in Boston. But I didn’t actually realize you could take a tour and walk around the university. In fact, the tours are run by students. What a great idea!

I was hoping for some serious osmosis just by being in the vicinity of this world renowned college. Still waiting for that to kick in – let’s hope you have more luck. But if you want to give it a go, keep reading to find more about this fun, unique tour.

Where is Harvard?

Harvard University is in Cambridge Massachusetts, on the other side of the river to Boston. Also in Cambridge is MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology). That’s a lot of smart people in one small place.

Cambridge is a short distance from downtown Boston and is a stop on most city tours. I took a hop on-hop off bus tour when I was there with my parents and we could get off to walk around Cambridge and Harvard before getting back on.

How do I get there?

If you are not taking part in one of these bus tours, then you can still easily get to Harvard. The university has a stop on the red line of the MBTA subway. Clearly marked as Harvard you can’t get off at the wrong stop. If you do, then you might not be Harvard material.

The train journey is less than 15 minutes from downtown Boston if you’re along the Red Line. I stayed at the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel, where there was a Green Line subway right outside. I connected at Park Street station and was there in only 20 minutes.

How much is the tour?

The Harvard campus tour is $20-25 for adults, costs can sometimes vary by day or season. We didn’t book our tickets in advance, but if you are traveling in the summer months when it might be busier this could be a good idea.

Gratuities are not included, but this is a fully guided tour and the students who lead the tours work really hard at delivering the best tour possible. So this is a really reasonable price for what you learn. To book your tour in advance, check out this Viator link.

What time does the Harvard campus tour run?

The tours go multiple times a day, seven days a week. From December to February inclusive the tours are more limited so make sure to check in advance. But all other times of year there are at least 4 or 5 tour start times. In the summer months June to August there are about a dozen times with the tour leaving every half hour between 10am and 4pm.

Will there be a lot of walking?

The Harvard campus tour is just over an hour long. It starts right outside the subway station and you’ll walk in through the university gates, around the yard and past some of the more historic buildings.

All in all you end up walking about a mile, but there are plenty of stops to listen to stories and the guides walk at a relaxed pace. We had a large group and no-one had trouble keeping up. We spent time around the college both before and after our tour though, so if you plan on doing the same make sure you have comfortable footwear.

Tell me more about Harvard

I thought you’d never ask! Well, I don’t want to give away all of the tour information, but I can tell you a couple of things about Harvard University that I found interesting.

As a total bibliophile I was amazed at how many books this university holds. I bet you can’t guess. Well there are 77 libraries. That’s right SEVENTY SEVEN! Between them all they hold over 18 million books.

The biggest of these libraries is Widener Library holding over 3 million books by itself. It goes six stories down and you’d walk two marathons (52 miles) to go past the same book twice if you went around it all. Harry Elkins Widener was a book collector who died in the Titanic disaster of 1912, and the library was commissioned by his mother in his honor.

Harvard University has had a number of famous residents. 8 US Presidents studied here, as well as countless other notable figures. Not all of the famous attendees finished studying at Harvard – Matt Damon and Mark Zuckerberg included. Although this is the university where Facebook began.

In Harvard Yard is a statue that has one foot much shinier than the rest of the statue. This is the statue of John Harvard, one of the founders of Harvard college. Touching his left foot is apparently lucky, hence the one shiny foot.

The biggest issue with the statue though is not the misdirected faith in good fortune coming from touching it, but that this is not actually John Harvard. See, when the statue was commissioned over 200 years after his death, they realized no-one knew what he looked like. So this statue takes inspiration from a descendant of one of the college’s earlier Presidents instead.

So what do you see on the Harvard campus tour?

Well our tour started with a walk through the side of Johnston Gate, the large wrought iron gate that leads to Harvard Yard. Most of the time the gate is closed. Why? Well because if you haven’t guessed it yet, there are a few superstitions when it comes to Harvard.

A big one is that you should only pass through the gate twice. Once on your first day as a Freshman, the next after you graduate. Any more and it’s considered bad luck.

We walked past the office of the President of Harvard, and into the main Harvard Yard. Here we were told about the people who have studied here and they told us a bit about the student housing (and the luck of the draw that comes with it).

We saw the statue of John Harvard. Well, almost (see above). Then walked through the yard, and across campus to the are that holds Praine Hall and the Sanders Theater, two of the larger structures where students gather for concerts and events.

Continuing around the perimeter we passed old buildings, museums and learned historic facts about the great university. I feel like I knew Harvard just by seeing it in so many movies. Channeling my inner Elle Woods, I soaked up as much Harvard knowledge as I could during this impressive Harvard campus tour.

What about the tour guide?

As I mentioned before the tour guides are all students. So what does this mean? Well it means they know a heck of a lot about this university. They eat, breathe and sleep Harvard. They worked their asses off to get there, and the excitement and pride shows in every story they tell. Our guide was incredibly personable and informative, and kept us all smiling throughout.

She was originally from Colorado and told us all about her dream to go to Harvard, the application process and the benefits of studying at Harvard. What I found most impressive is that Harvard is one of the top universities that is supported by financial aid for students.

Any student whose family earns less than $60,000 a year does not have to pay for tuition. While attending Harvard is by no means a free ride (accommodation and school supplies still add up), it is good to know that you don’t have to come from an investment banker family to be able to afford one of America’s top colleges.

Where can I buy some Harvard swag?

After the tour of the inner Harvard campus, the tour heads out into the streets of Cambridge, the small university town where the college is located. We had a number of shops, restaurants and pubs pointed out to us. But at the end of the Harvard campus tour we were taken to the Harvard shop where we said goodbye to our tour guide, and hello to Harvard branded everything.

Sweaters, t-shirts, mugs, stickers…you name it! If you want anything with a giant H on it, you’re in luck. Some of the items are more reasonably priced than others but a sweater is most likely going to set you back about $50.

Read more about some of the best food in Boston including Mike’s Pastry located in Cambridge, right outside of Harvard University.

Should I do this Harvard campus tour?

If you’re visiting Boston and you have an afternoon free then definitely. The first time I was in Boston I didn’t get to Harvard as I thought it was quite far. Boy was I wrong, it was super easy to get to. I’m glad I managed to get there though, and this tour was one of the best things I did in the city. It was unique and informative, and the students who run these tours are champs.

I would highly recommend you take this tour if you’re visiting Boston. Prepare to get smarter, and when you get home you can honestly use the phrase “well, when I was at Harvard…”. They don’t know you were only there for an afternoon!

If you’ve enjoyed this post leave a comment or share using the social media buttons below. Have you taken a Harvard campus tour? Or something similar?