Portland Walking Food Tour – Warm Donuts, History & Hidden Gems
Description
Portland, Maine is known for its culinary scene, including amazing donuts. With this tour, you'll get to sample from the city's best donut shops, while also learning of Maine's connection to the invention of the donut and the city's history. Your tour guide will take you not only to the most famous of them all, The Holy Donut, to skip the line, but also to local favorites, that are equally delicious.
Tour Options
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
- Requires ability to walk 1 mile, through a historic district that includes uneven wharf, and cobblestone surfaces at times.
Reviews(218)
Not to be missed! Learned so much about Portland’s history. Included 3 stops at local donut places. Deliciously fun! Such a unique way to learn all about Portland. Our tour guide, Chris, was AWESOME! Highly recommend this experience!
Dylan was great! Good mix of history and local donuts would recommend for those new to area. Also good food recommendations
Great tour. Dylan was very informative and showed many highlights of Portland as well as his personal ties to the city. Three donut shops were the perfect amount of donuts without feeling sick. He gave stories and historical facts about each shop as well as many buildings in the city. Highly recommend the tour and especially Dylan as the tour operator.
Don’t waist your time and money. Only visited 3 donut shops and each of us received a fourth of a donut at our first stop. Another stop had two tiny donuts. Final stop was a piece of donut. So, for the cost of the tour you are better off just researching donut shops in Portland and visit them yourself. All the shops are a short walking distance from each other. You can save some money and select the donut(s) that interest you.
What a perfect way to kick off Day one in Portland! We got a great orientation of the city with an engaging, fun history with three delicious and unique donut tasting experiences along the way! Our tour guide Dylan was the perfect anchor with just the right balance of knowledge and local charm.
Thank you so much for joining us! We love hearing that the tour helped kick off your first day in Portland, Maine. Many guests tell us they enjoy experiencing the city this way—getting oriented to the Old Port, learning a bit of local history, and discovering some of Portland’s unique local donut shops all in one outing. We’re especially glad Dylan helped make the experience memorable with his knowledge, energy, and local charm. We truly appreciate your kind words and hope the rest of your time in Portland was just as enjoyable! 🍩🏙️😊
We had a great time! Fun to walk around the city and learn so many historical facts. The donuts were a bonus! Dylan was fantastic!
Thank you so much! We’re thrilled you had such a great time exploring Portland’s Old Port with Dylan. One of our favorite things about the tour is combining the city’s rich history with visits to some outstanding local donut shops, so it’s wonderful to hear you enjoyed both. We’ll be sure to pass along your kind words to Dylan. Thanks again for joining us, and we hope to see you back in Portland, Maine for another tasty adventure someday! 🍩🏙️😊
We were in a group of 6, paired with another group of 4- four adults and 6 kids/teenagers in total. I lured our kids with the promise of donuts, of course, so they found the walking and history part kind of boring. I think that our tour guide, Dylan, could have done more to actually engage with them- he just walked really fast to places, talked over loud cars and noises nearby, asked very few questions, then moved quickly to the next stop. He also spoke in a strange accent that was best described as “Shakespearean performative.” We would also have liked to have an opportunity to purchase donuts at the first two stops AFTER we actually tasted them- the only chance we had to do so was at the third stop, which was a Korean dessert shop, not really a donut shop (we bought macarons, but would’ve had to walk back on our own after the tour to the other shops to buy their donuts). The other group left our tour at the third stop, so Dylan was much more engaging walking us back to the starting point. He even gave us the box of leftover samples, which the kids/teenagers were very appreciative of (and probably gave them a better final impression). Overall, I feel some improvements could be made to justify the price point- $65 pp is a lot for a few donuts and a barely memorable history lesson.
Thank you for joining us and for taking the time to share such detailed feedback. I’m glad the kids enjoyed the donut samples and that Dylan was able to spend more time chatting with your family as the tour wound down. I also appreciate your comments about engagement, pacing, and audio clarity. Walking tours in a busy downtown environment can certainly present challenges, and your observations are helpful as we continue training and developing our guides. For future guests, our experience is designed as a combination of Portland history, local storytelling, and donut tastings, with the walking route and pace varying somewhat based on group size and dynamics. While many families enjoy the historical elements, we recognize that younger guests are often most excited about the donuts! Regarding additional purchases, we encourage guests to make note of any favorite stops along the way, and we’re always happy to point visitors back to local shops (all within .5 miles) they’d like to revisit after the tour. We appreciate your feedback and are glad you were able to discover several unique treats while exploring Portland’s Old Port with us.
Quick little tour in the old port area with a bit of history and a few donuts. Our tour guide Dylan was great
Thanks for joining us, Eric! I'm glad you enjoyed exploring Portland's Old Port with Dylan. He does a great job sharing the city's history while introducing guests to 3 of our favorite local donut shops (with 6 total samples). We appreciate your feedback and hope to welcome you back for another Portland walking tour the next time you're in Maine! 🍩🏙️
What a blast. Dylan our tour guide was fabulous fun. He took us to 3 donut places and we sampled many delicious donuts. Perfect sunny day for 1 1/2 hour walk.
Thank you so much! We're thrilled you had such a fun time with Dylan. There's nothing better than a sunny stroll through Portland's Old Port, sampling delicious donuts from local bakeries while learning about the city's history and culture. We truly appreciate your recommendation and hope to welcome you back to Portland, Maine for another adventure soon! 🍩☀️🏙️
What a fun tour. We had a perfect day walking around Portland with Dylan our tour guide, very outgoing and funny. He took us to 3 favorite donut shops. The Holy Donut, The Eight eight and at the last donuts place we had a molasses flavor doughnut.Unique and delicious. Highly recommend this 1 1/2 hour tour.
Thank you so much, Diana! We're thrilled you enjoyed your time exploring Portland's Old Port with Dylan. He loves introducing guests to some of our favorite local donut shops, and I'm so glad you enjoyed the variety—from potato donuts to the unique molasses donut! Depending on the group's pace and conversation, our Portland walking tour typically lasts 1½–2 hours, giving everyone plenty of time to enjoy the tastings and stories along the way. We truly appreciate your recommendation and hope to see you back in Portland, Maine someday! 🍩🏙️
