Boston, from the Public Garden to the harbor
Five-star hotels in Boston
5 hotels
Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street, Boston
Five-star · Back Bay
Sixty-one stories of glass beside the Christian Science Plaza, with the hotel on floors eight to twenty-one.
From $800 per night
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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
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Mandarin Oriental, Boston
Five-star · Back Bay
Back Bay's most spacious standard rooms, eight floors above Boylston Street, a block from Newbury Street.
From $700 per night
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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
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Encore Boston Harbor
Five-star · Everett & the Mystic River
A Wynn casino resort in bronze glass on the Mystic River in Everett, fifteen minutes from downtown.
From $600 per night
Any mandatory hotel fees are shown before you confirm.
Boston has been at this since 1927, when a Ritz-Carlton opened on the corner of Arlington and Newbury. 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. All five hold five-star standing. Five made the cut.
Back Bay
A nineteenth-century grid of brick and brownstone that holds three of the five hotels. The Public Garden, Newbury Street and Copley Square are all here, and the three hotels stand within a mile of one another.
The neighborhoods
Four Seasons Hotel Boston · Back Bay — Peter Peirce / Four SeasonsBack Bay
A nineteenth-century grid of brick and brownstone that holds three of the five hotels. The Public Garden, Newbury Street and Copley Square are all here, and the three hotels stand within a mile of one another.
Rowes Wharf & the Waterfront
The harbor's front door, with the Rose Kennedy Greenway on one side and the water taxis on the other. The North End, Faneuil Hall and the Financial District are a few minutes away on foot.
Everett & the Mystic River
A Wynn casino resort on a remediated stretch of riverbank, outside Boston's city limits. It stands across the Mystic River from Charlestown, fifteen minutes from downtown by car.
Good to know
Which are the five-star hotels in Boston?
Five. Every hotel we list in Boston holds five-star standing: Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street, Boston; Four Seasons Hotel Boston; Mandarin Oriental, Boston; Boston Harbor Hotel; and Encore Boston Harbor. Each has its own page, reached from the list above, with a concierge behind every stay.
Which neighborhood should I stay in?
Back Bay holds three of the five – the two Four Seasons and the Mandarin Oriental, 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 Back Bay hotels are inland, a short walk from the Charles River Esplanade.
How do I reserve a stay?
Search your dates on the hotel's page to see reference rates, then send the concierge a request. The concierge confirms exact rates and availability with you before anything is booked, and any payment and its timing are set out before you confirm.
