We were out at Hopkinton State Park for a summer bbq picnic so we had already paid the $5 to park in the park (ha!). To locate Boating in Boston, we drove down the main drag of the park and turned in at Birch Street, then we continued on till we spotted the boats. There's a small lot right by there, another lot before them by the beach, and after that it is quite a walk upwards to the next lot on the opposite side of the dirt road. Tip: don't park on the grass - you might get a ticket when you're not looking. Paying $25 for what otherwise would have been free parking isn't quite worth it. They had a tent set up for registering on one side with a driver's license (though they didn't take ours, they just scanned them), and for paying on the other side. With only one staffer handling things on either side, the lines moved rather slowly. Waivers are required to be completed for each participant, but only one license is needed per group. We came and left at good times when the lines weren't atrocious, but we could see how things might get frustrating at times. Once we passed the divider by the water we were fitted with life jackets, grabbed our two headed paddles (one per person), then headed on to the multiperson (straight ahead) or single person launch (to the right) where we were set in a boat and given a push. Yes, no lesson on how to handle the paddle, no nothing. But fortunately both my cohort (who took the back seat and the lead in directing our ship) and I had been around on one of these things before. But if you haven't, you might want to say something to this affect before you are sent off on your own in a boat with a paddle. We kayaked around the two little forested islands and back again. With no motor boats in the water it was a relatively calm and stress free time out in the water. Though we came with a voucher that would have covered a one-hour single kayak ($15/hour), two-person kayak ($20/hour), canoe ($25/hour for 2-3 people), or stand-up paddleboard ($20/hour) rental, we found that a two-person kayak rental was charged $1.25 in tax while the single kayak was not. Expect to get wet, so if you can, wear clothing that dries fast or consider bringing a change of clothing. read more

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With Groupon & BuyWithMe in hand, I came here on 2 occasions, one to learn how to sail! Two - to go kayaking! This location has plenty of parking, but beware, you may have to pay for parking to enter Hopkinton State Park, which they don't have posted on their website, but it's only $5/car which isn't bad at all for a day of fun! The staff at Outdoor Recreation was nothing but friendly and helpful! They do take your license when renting a kayak, so don't forget to get it back at the end of the day! Kevin, my instructor, was extremely great during our sailing lesson. Going through our safety lecture, some vocabulary, and the overview of the day. We canoed over to our sail boat, learned how to set everything up and went through some of the actions. Each of us took several turns at how to sail the boat, how to tact, how to run, and so forth. It was seriously an amazing day on the water. If I could afford to, I would love to sign up for a 4-week course, but alas this is not my time to do so. But perhaps in the near future. Upon return to Outdoor Recreation a few weeks later, it was nothing but a great time. The staff got us squared away in no time. Got our life vests on and into our kayaks quickly and safely. Spent about 2.5 hours on the water and around the lake, enjoyed the sun and fun! Would definitely love to come back again. Perhaps next time, I'll have saved enough money to have purchased my own gear. But until I have my own kayak and PFD, I'll definitely be using Outdoor Recreation again for whenever I want to hit the water and relax on the lake. read more

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We have rented canoes and kayaks from Boating in Boston at the Hopkinton State Park on multiple occasions. The staff here is for the most part friendly, informative and helpful. The equipment is clean and well cared for. There are also sail boats & paddle boards available, lessons, and awesome sounding camps for kids. The best part however is the lake and natural surroundings. Minutes from Hopkinton & Southborough town centers, Rts 9, 495 & 90 you are able to leave the hectic world behind and be surrounded by glorious nature. Having a bad day, take you lunch on or at least beside the water. Bring your kids and introduce them to fun without wifi and electronics! Pack a picnic and have a fresh date. We are so luck to have a lovely park so nearby. Note: You need a drivers license or photo ID in order to rent. The weather is fabulous,get out there and enjoy it-snow fall record? What snow? read more

My least favorite boating in Boston location. Staff issues - At 9:45 I asked what time they opened- the manager seemed offended that she had to answer a question before 10. When I came off the water, there was nobody to assist me on the dock. Then the manager seemed offended that I wanted to use the season pass holder sign out sheets instead of waiting for her. They hold camp there, which means there are 50,000 screaming youngsters around. At least they stay between the dock and the near island, so with 5 minutes of paddling you can escape the mayhem. Unfortunately the lake is pretty small. I paddled as slow as humanly possible, and even visited the far island, and I was still done in 1.5 hours. Been there. Done that. Never have to go again. read more

I signed up for a SUP class. Arrived 15 prior, as the website instructs. The instructor never showed up. We waited til 1015 to start our 10 AM class with another instructor, Cody, who I will say was great. It was windy and choppy, I know there is nothing that can be done about the weather, again the website states that it would cancel due to wind or rain. The staff is young, and doing the best they can, however they need more customer service training and scheduling knowledge. The SUP classes are posted on-line, your desk people should be aware of them. And the no-show instructor, we were informed this wasn't his first offense. I am a small business owner, I fire people who don't show up for work. Cody- great instructor Boating in Boston- avoid if you want to take a class. Would not recommend for beginners. read more

My review is based solely on the service and check out process at the Hopkinton location. I spent half the amount of time I was in the water standing in line to check out because of the highly disorganized manager that was running things. Very disappointing way to end our day read more

TERRIBLE customer service: --Had to rummage through a disorganized closet of pfds (life jackets) while the teenage dock staff chatted amongst themselves. When one finally did come over, he yanked on all of the straps rather than gently making sure they were snug. --Same dock staff member rolled his eyes at me and was clearly put out when I asked for a sit-in kayak rather than a sit-on-top --Gave me a boat with water still in it --No sponge available to remove the water in the boat --The manager was rude and didn't even offer to help me remove the existing water from the boat --Dock staff said they were trained in how to remove water from a boat, but yet, they stood there and had me do it myself. To sum it up, I didn't even get out on the water for a paddle, customer service was THAT bad. Do yourself a favor: don't waste your time going to Boating in Boston. Go to a real kayak company with good customer service, appropriate equipment, and knowledgeable staff. Even for a rental, it'll make a world of difference. read more

Was lookin for an activity to do near Hopkinton state park. I found this boat rental within da park and it was so worth it. You get to rent any where from a kayak, canoe , paddle board or paddle boats . It was fun rowing the boats while it was exhausting but fun! If your around the area you should definetly makes this an activity to go to read more

Gah! The service at Outdoor Rec sucked. They virtually ignored us and/or were incapable of basic tasks. We waited there for 10 minutes to sign the waivers. Then another 30 or so to get someone to help us get our gear and kayaks. Some young guy was spending that entire time helping a family get a canoe but the other 4 employees just ignored us. I got completely fed up and grabbed the gear myself and chose the kayaks for my wife and I. When someone finally came by to see if we needed help, I asked if they had spray skirts and they didn't know and would've had to ask. The kayaks they've got are pretty basic, even the expedition kayaks. We got a tsunami and a carolina, which are geared for the beginner kayaker both around 14 ft and were fairly new and it good condition. Hopkinton State Park is pretty nice but the water areas were pretty small. We kayaked all the different sections of the park and got back within an hour. There is another section of water when you go under the bridge (right of the boat rental when kayaking outward from it). The day we kayaked was overcast and they still seemed to have some decent business. The rates for an expedition kayak were $20 an hour which would've seemed steep but there's so little to explore it won't take too long to get through and come back. But again the service was god awful. Wouldn't go back to this location. read more

Went there yesterday with my husband and daughter. Kind of disorganized. We got there at 5:30pm, and they closed at 7:00pm. Told us we needed to be back by 6:30, which was OK, we only wanted to go out for about an hour. After we paid and rounded the corner, there was a HUGE crowd of people waiting for boats and lifejackets. My husband asked how long the wait was, and they told us 30 minutes! We got our money back, wasn't worth the money to go out for only a half hour. Need to get their act together. read more

Yesterday evening at around 5 PM we went for a family fun event to Hopkinton State Park for boating and it turned out to be be disaster. For this fun event 3 families went for boating together and out of which 2 families are doing first time, with gods will & grace and with the help of other fellow boaters luckily we all survived. We signed up for 3 four people canoes and 11 of us picked up life jackets ourselves and put on (no staff verification of properly putting on life jackets and life jackets don't have any whistles) and after waiting for about 20 mins one staff person offered to help us. First family with 3 people boarded on a green canoe and took off, Second family with 4 people (My Cousin, his wife, his father, my son) on red canoe, which looked smaller in size (not sure if 3 people canoe) took off and the third family with 4 people (My wife, myself, my cousin's mother, my self) on green canoe took off. After 15 minutes of boating (~500 feet deep from docking area), we observed that my cousin's red canoe seems to have some problem and we rowed our canoe closer to them and before we reached them their canoe flipped. No body on that boat knows swimming (my son knows little bit of swimming). When Canoe flipped, my cousin and his wife came out but his father and my son got struck under the canoe. No whistles to life jacket's to blow for help and we all screamed for help and few fellow boaters from around 100 ft started rowing to us and I jumped into water and my cousin and I manages to flip back the canoe and I pulled off my son and my cousin managed to pull his father out of the canoe, seems like by then he drank lot of water and my cousin's wife is struggling too (as there is nothing to hold other than canoe to hold on to). I managed to pass my son to another canoe (where my wife is there) meantime other nearby boaters came and we all manged to hold on to their kayaks in the water. We waited in the water for about 30 minutes for the rescue team (just 2 teenage girls) to come in a motor boat and they have to work very hard (imagine teenage girls pulling well build wet bodies) to pull everyone into boat and that took another 30 minutes.Finally we all came back to dock Here are few safety issues we see from this bad experience 1. No proper monitoring of customer's putting on proper size life jackets and putting on properly 2. No whistles to life jackets 3. When boarding (especially those sitting in the middle) no guidance on how to sit. My cousin's father and my son sit in the bottom and stretched their legs under the top wood bars and so got struck. 4. No dedicated rescue team to help out if anybody drown in the water. Because of this they took long time. If we are not close by and other boaters are not nearby seriously we would have lost our dear one's. 5. The rescue team should be well built, good swimmers, good leaders giving directions. The team there is 2 teenage girls. After this experience we felt that it's not a good idea to go for boating if we are not good swimmers, especially to the places where there is no dedicated lifeguard rescue team like Hopkinton State Park boating. Hope this review will help Hopkinton state park boating business to work on these safety issues and help boaters what to expect from them. read more

I went for the very first time to hopkinton state park boating along with my family and my cousin's family. We had a terrible experience which is unforgettable. One of our canoe which they said will fit 4 people(including adults, kids) was totally insecure and small for 3 adults and 1 kid itself. The staff working there are just teenage girls who know nothing. They haven't took care if our life jackets are tight or loose, didn't gave instructions of how to sit in a conoe especially the middle rows. Our Canoe got capsized in middle of lake and were struggling in water for 20-30 minutes. It's so pathetic that there were no single life gaurd who is attentive of these disasters and never reacted to such incident until one of my cousin out their on the yard notified them. Guess who the life guards were, 2 teenage girls who can't even pull us out of water on to the boat. They came in to rescue us after 20-30 minutes of struggling in the water to death. None of us know swimming. Me, my wife somehow were able to hold on to the boat and manage to breath but my father and my cousin's son were totally stuck in the boat because they were sitting in middle of the boat with wooden bars across. I saw my dad in really bad situation who don't know swimming and too old to manage in water. I am so thankful to god that i was able to pull my father out of that boat and hold him so he could breath for a while as his lifejacket was so loose...fellow boaters saw this and helped my dad in holding to their kayak's...My cousin from other boat jumped into water to help us and rescued his son who is stuck on our boat and then helped my wife in holding on to the boat.. I would strongly suggest anyone NOT to go if they don't know how to swim. Their canoe's are really bad and small in size for 4 ppl. Boating in boston management should consider hiring staff someone who is good at giving instructions to boaters and check life jackets before they sail and who can respond to such incidents in matter of seconds. Hire well build life guards instead of hiring teenage girls who hardly can pull us from water... It's totally because of god's grace and our luck that me, my wife, my father and my cousin's son survived. read more

I am reading all of the negative reviews and would like to come to the defense of the workers here. I have rented kayaks at lesast ten times this year and every time the workers were quick and pleasant. My life jacket and those of my grandchildren were checked for fit every time. They always ask if I had any questions. I have noticed that many people who have no experience on the water are expecting to use these boats with no knowledge of boating. That is not the fault of the facility. This is a hidden gem and we are lucky to have it. read more

I like this place . this place is not heavily crowded and always plenty of kayaks readily available. I did kayak twicw this year and loved it. read more

One computer to check in and one computer to check out with ONE person working both computers! On a day the park was closed because it was full!!! Rented for one hour- was out on the water for 50 minutes so I would not go past my 1 hour- had to stand in line for 30 minutes to check out- they charged my for a 2 hour rental- charged for standing in line. I used to enjoy this company and going out - but I will not go again on a weekend- they had plenty of people to work but most of them standing around drinking coffee! Disappointing day! read more