Hotels

Massachusetts

My lists

Ames Boston

Our Tablet Spy program offers the chance to get early looks at the most promising new hotels. If you’re willing to take the risks associated with staying in a hotel that’s not officially open yet — unfinished spaces, noisy construction, inexperienced service — then you’ll be rewarded with the ...

Boston Harbor Hotel

Boston’s got a reputation for being one of America’s most old-fashioned big cities — accurate or not, there’s no denying that it’s not exactly the trendiest city on earth. Of course that’s not a bad thing at all; and what Boston lacks in design fireworks it more than makes up for in old-world gra...

Four Seasons Hotel Boston

Since it opened in 1985, the Four Seasons Boston has been the place for the establishment to drink tea. New as it is, it feels completely part of its blue-blooded home, next to Beacon Hill and overlooking the Boston Public Gardens. From its entrance lined with fountains, to its massive staircase,...

Hob Knob

Martha’s Vineyard is the kind of destination that can feel a bit closed off to outsiders. It’s a place that’s perhaps better known for vacation homes and vacation estates than it is for hotels. But there are some gems to be found, among them Hob Knob, a charming 19th-century house in Edgartown th...

Intercontinental Boston

A prime waterfront location in the Financial District is the only natural site for the InterContinental group’s grand entry into Boston, given the demographics of its likely audience — the fact that it’s pretty much the exact site of no less historic an occurrence than the Boston Tea Party is jus...

Mandarin Oriental Boston

It may have been a long time coming but this new Mandarin Oriental, on Boylston Street in the upscale Back Bay, was exactly what Boston needed. It’s not simply that it’s a high-end luxury hotel — this town’s already got a few of those — but it’s the obsessive attention to the finer points of styl...

Nine Zero - A Kimpton Hotel

Boston is justifiably proud of its colonial heritage, and in terms of architecture and design (if not politics) its conservative streak runs deep. There’s plenty of room for some contemporary style — and while we’re not eager to see a spate of anonymous international-style design hotels, Nine Zer...

Taj Boston

For the quintessential grand-hotel experience, an obsessive homage to the French Riviera of the Thirties, there’s no competition — it’s got to be the newly renovated Taj Boston, at Newbury and Arlington, just across from the Public Gardens. It's got a history that long predates the Taj...

The Back Bay Hotel

It may have been easier to remember the name of this place back when it was called Jurys. But it’s worth noting that now, under its new name, it’s still family-run — the Doyle family not only owns but also operates the Back Bay Hotel, as well as a few others in Ireland and the UK, which is a situ...

The Charles Hotel

The Charles Hotel is a rare thing: an Ivy League hotel nestled in between Harvard and Radcliffe. Certainly with its red brick institutional exterior it’s practically part of the campus. Inside, however, it’s far from dormitory standard. The Charles Hotel is very Boston, with red apples at ...

The Liberty Hotel

For a luxury hotel it’s an awfully imposing structure — they’re not typically rough-hewn granite monuments. But this is is no ordinary luxury hotel. The Liberty is imposing and monumental because, in a previous life, it was a jail — the 1851-vintage Charles Street Jail, with a riverside Beacon Hi...

The Veranda House

Please note: The Veranda House cannot accommodate guests under the age of 10 years old. Though it’s been here for ages, the Veranda House is anything but starchy. This 19th-century house, long known as the Overlook, has been in the family forever, but the new generation of owne...

The Wauwinet

Please note: The Wauwinet Inn is open May 14th - Oct. 12th. The Wauwinet Inn is remarkable for how near it gets to the Platonic ideal of the perfect Nantucket holiday, an ideal whose earthly incarnations are all too likely to be spoiled by the omnipresent signs of mass market to...

The White Elephant

In the small world of seaside New England, Nantucket looms pretty large. The island is one of the region’s most storied destinations, and the White Elephant, by virtue of its privileged position in town on Nantucket Harbor, is one of its central attractions. It’s more or less everything you’d wan...

XV Beacon

Boston needs to grow young, in the same way many of us need to grow up. Somber, red bricked, brown stoned, the keystone of New England dignity — it's almost as though the Puritans are still in residence. Enter XV Beacon (pronounced Fifteen Beacon, for those who forgot their Roman numerals), the n...