Boston: Seaport Hotel (August 2010)

I was pretty pleased with this hotel overall. I stayed here for only one night with my spouse while he was attending an event at the BECC (Boston Exhibit Convention Center). It was a Saturday night, and there were many weddings and social events in the hotel. Our room was on the fifth floor, the floor above some of the event rooms, and it was a little loud at times. The location is great for the convention center; it's an easy walk over a bridge on an extremely low-traveled street. The lobby area is small but attractive, with beautiful floral arrangements that they seem to change every Sunday (when I arrived on Saturday, the flowers were not the same as when I left on Sunday). There is a gift shop, coffee bar (Seaport Cafe), a more formal restaurant (Aura), and then a more casual bar/restaurant with some outdoor seating (Tamo). I saw the fitness center, which seemed well-outfitted, but not the indooor pool. There is a very small outdoor garden space on the plaza level if you feel you need to relax outside. Parking is included in this hotel, as are all tips - very unusual in the USA. The valet parking attendant and bellman would not accept tips, telling us that service is included. The rooms are a decent size, with a small seating area with two comfy chairs. Bathrooms were a good size also, and stocked with Gilchrist & Soames products. There was a bathrobe, safe, and umbrella in the closet, and there's an empty small refrigerator for your personal use (it was only filled with four bottles of water - which were not complimentary). There is a 7-11 convenience store as well as a Dunkin' Donuts across Seaport Boulevard, so it's easy to buy things to bring back to the room. But beware of bringing wine or beer into the hotel - we were told that it was against Boston city law to bring alcohol into a hotel room. We were stopped in the lobby and asked to check out cooler containing beer (and it was just a 12-pack, enough for personal use for 2 people for 2 days; it wasn't like we were rolling in a keg!) There are a few restaurants within walking distance: the Barking Crab, Daily Catch, Legal Test Kitchen (LTK), Mortons, Wicked Priest, Anthony's Pier 4. The hotel location is really close to the traveling Cirque du Soleil production called OVO, and we were fortunate to score great seats at the last minute. We weren't sure what to expect, having seen permanent shows like KA and O in Las Vegas, but it was excellent. It was very easy to get to Logan Airport from this hotel, a 15-minute trip costing only $2 per person. There's a subway station for the gray line right outside the plaza-level door. (It's a bus, though, not a subway train that drives you to Logan.) I would stay here again if I were in town for a convention or trade show. While it's a short walk across a bridge to the Downtown/Financial District area, it's probably not the location that I would choose for a stay unrelated to a convention-center event. On the other hand, it's really easy to reach the airport from this hotel, and since you can even see the planes lined up on the runway across the river, it could be a viable option for an airport hotel (without the noise) that still allows you to enjoy the city.