Boston, from the Public Garden to the harbor
Boston has been at this since 1927, when a Ritz-Carlton opened on the corner of Arlington and Newbury, and the city still prefers its luxury quiet – brick, a wood fire, the Public Garden outside the window.
The collection
7 hotels
Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street, Boston
Five-star · Back Bay
Sixty-one stories of glass beside the Christian Science Plaza – Boston's third-tallest building, with the hotel on floors eight to twenty-one.
From $800 per night
Four Seasons Hotel Boston
Five-star · Back Bay
Forty years facing the Public Garden – bay windows over the swan boats, a lobby redone by Ken Fulk in the Garden's own colors.
From $800 per night
Mandarin Oriental, Boston
Five-star · Back Bay
Back Bay's most spacious standard rooms, eight floors above Boylston Street, with Newbury Street a block away and the Prudential reached without stepping outside.
From $700 per night
Boston Harbor Hotel
Five-star · Rowes Wharf & the Waterfront
The hotel under the archway – Rowes Wharf's eighty-foot arch, a private marina beneath it and the harbor out front.
From $600 per night
Encore Boston Harbor
Five-star · Everett & the Mystic River
A Wynn casino resort on the Mystic River in Everett – bronze glass, 671 rooms and a public Harborwalk – fifteen minutes from downtown.
From $600 per night
The Newbury Boston
Five-star · Back Bay
The 1927 Ritz-Carlton building at the corner of Arlington and Newbury, restored in 2021 – wood-burning fireplaces, a rooftop under glass, the Public Garden across the street.
From $600 per night
Raffles Boston
Five-star · Back Bay
The first Raffles in North America – a 35-story tower beside Copley Square, a lobby on the 17th floor and a butler on call around the clock.
From $700 per night
Boston has been at this since 1927, when a Ritz-Carlton opened on the corner of Arlington and Newbury, and the city still prefers its luxury quiet – brick, a wood fire, the Public Garden outside the window. We looked at every address from Back Bay to Rowes Wharf, and one casino resort across the Mystic River in Everett, and kept only the hotels whose service is as sure as their setting. Seven made the cut.
Back Bay
The Public Garden, Newbury Street and Copley Square on a nineteenth-century grid of brick and brownstone – five of the seven hotels are here, all within a mile of one another.
The neighborhoods
Back Bay
The Public Garden, Newbury Street and Copley Square on a nineteenth-century grid of brick and brownstone – five of the seven hotels are here, all within a mile of one another.
Rowes Wharf & the Waterfront
The harbor's front door – the Rose Kennedy Greenway on one side, the water taxis on the other, with the North End, Faneuil Hall and the Financial District a few minutes on foot.
Everett & the Mystic River
Across the Mystic River from Charlestown and outside Boston's city limits – a Wynn casino resort on a remediated stretch of riverbank, fifteen minutes from downtown by car.
Good to know
Which neighborhood should I stay in?
Back Bay holds five of the seven – the two Four Seasons, the Mandarin Oriental, The Newbury and Raffles, all within a mile of one another, with the Public Garden, Newbury Street and Copley Square on foot. Rowes Wharf is the choice for the harbor itself, with the Greenway, the North End and the Financial District at the door. Everett is a different proposition – a Wynn casino resort on the Mystic River, fifteen minutes from downtown by car, for a stay that is about the resort rather than the city.
When is the best season for Boston?
Autumn is the city at its best – clear, cool days, the trees along Commonwealth Avenue turning, and the Head of the Charles regatta filling the river in October; it is also the busiest season, so book early. Late spring runs it close, with the Public Garden in bloom and the Marathon in April. Summer is warm and lively on the harbor; winter is cold, quiet and, in the hotels with fireplaces, rather good.
Which of these hotels are on the water?
One is on the harbor: Boston Harbor Hotel, on Rowes Wharf, with its own marina and a water-taxi dock beneath the archway. Encore Boston Harbor is on the water too, but on the Mystic River in Everett, outside the city limits – a Wynn casino resort fifteen minutes from downtown. The five Back Bay hotels are inland, a short walk from the Charles River Esplanade.
How do I reserve a stay?
Search your dates on any hotel's page to see rates and what is available, then book the room you want. A concierge is on hand throughout – to weigh Back Bay against the harbor before you book, and to arrange dinners, tickets and the rest of the stay once you have.
