Choose your Boston hotel carefully and you'll be able to walk to most of what you want to see and do, and take the MBTA subway and taxis to reach the rest.

If you're not familiar with the city, read How to Find Your Way Around Boston.

Hotel Map with Prices

Use the handy Hotel Map below to see room rates, location, availability and facilities. (Don't see the hotel map? Click here!)

Booking.com

Prime Areas for Boston Hotels

Central Boston Hotels

Hotels around Boston Common and Beacon Hill allow you to walk to most sightseeing, as do hotels near Faneuil Hall Marketplace, and some in the Financial District. More...

Hotels in the Theater District are perfect if you're coming to Boston for a performance, for Tufts Medical Center, Chinatown, and even for general sightseeing.

North Station hotels are convenient for Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins games and major entertainment events held in the TD Garden.

Hotels near the New England Aquarium are great if you're going there, and/or on a Boston harbor cruise, and they're not far from the hotels near Faneuil Hall Marketplace either.

Back Bay Hotels

Hotels in Back Bay are best for shopping at Copley Place, Prudential Center and Newbury Street, for events at the Hynes Convention Center. More...

Hotels near Symphony Hall are great for concert-going, (BSO, Jordan Hall, Berklee College, New England Conservatory), visiting the Christian Science Center, and Northeastern University.More...

Hotels in Cambridge

If you choose your Cambridge hotel carefully, you'll be able to stay in Cambridge and also get to Boston easily. More...

Hotels at Logan Airport

Central Boston hotels are only a few miles from Logan International Airport, but you've got to cross Boston harbor to get to them. If you want to stay at the airport, here are the hotels. More...

HI Boston Hostel

The 468-bed HI Boston Hostel at 19 Stuart Street (map) in Boston's Theater District, near Chinatown, is only a half mile (800 meters, 12 minutes' walk) from South Station and South Station Bus Terminal, and two blocks south of Boston Common—a great location for a historic building completely restored and modernized.

Nearest MBTA subway stations to the hostel are Boylston Street (Green Line) or Tufts Medical Center (Orange Line). More...

Tips for Saving Money at Boston Hotels

Visit Boston on a Weekend

First of all, if you want to stay right in the city center, by all means plan your visit for a weekend!

If you sign up for a two-night stay on Friday and Saturday, you may get your chosen hotel room for 30 to 35% less, plus a bottle of champagne, breakfast in bed, the morning's newspaper, free parking, or other such treats.

Arrange your itinerary to be in Boston only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. If you arrive here mid-week, go directly to Salem and the North Shore, or to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, or to Old Sturbridge Village.

Country inns and other accommodations in these "country" destinations are less crowded and less expensive during the week, more expensive and crowded on weekends.

Same-Day Reservations

It's always better to reserve your hotel in advance if possible, but if fate has left you driving toward Boston and needing a hotel room for that night, stop at a Massachusetts Tourist Information Center and look in the brochure racks. A number of moderate to expensive downtown Boston hotels routinely offer special prices to travelers calling from tourist information centers for same-day reservations.

For example, if you arrive at the airport, or train station, or are driving up from Cape Cod or Plymouth and stop at the Regional Information Complex for Visitors on MA Route 3 at Exit 5, and you pick up the hotel's brochure, inside you may find a leaflet offering a special low price.

What's the catch? Well, like cheap airplane seats, these offers are based on availability of rooms, and if the hotel is pretty full, they might not grant you the discounted price because they feel they'll be able to rent the room at full price.

Also, you can usually only reserve for that same day, your stay may be limited to two or three days, and you must call from the information center and tell the reservations agent the name of the center you are calling from.

So if you want to be sure and stay in a particular hotel, or district of the city, you should reserve in advance.

A Word on Taxes

Massachusetts imposes a room occupancy exise tax of 5.7%; Boston levies a 2.75% convention center tax and a 6.5% room tax, so your hotel bill will be 14.95% higher than what the hotel charges you.

It's a bummer! The hotels dislike these taxes as much as you do, but Boston is worth it. There's not much you can do about these taxes, but I wanted to warn you to anticipate them.

Each hotel may also impose its own mysterious "service" and/or "facility" fees, whether you use any extra services or facilities, or not. It's simply bait-and-switch: offering you a low price to get your reservation, then charging you more...because they can. In the opinion of this travel writer, it ought to be illegal. Prices quoted should include all taxes, fees, charges, and tips, as in more progressive tourism destinations.

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