The 68 Best Places to Drink and Stay in Boston

Rooms on the upper floors look directly over the Public Garden, which is the kind of view that makes you forget what a hotel room costs. This is a classic luxury hotel that holds a Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key, and a recent renovation sharpened the interiors without leaning on tired colonial signifiers. The beds are serious, the marble bathrooms feel almost indulgent, and an eighth-floor indoor pool adds a quietly civilized touch.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key
3. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award

Boston's second Four Seasons sits in a Henry Cobb skyscraper, which means floor-to-ceiling glass and views that remind you this city is actually quite flat. The hotel is contemporary in a way that still feels safe for anyone who travels with a hanging bag, with a full spa, an indoor pool, and Zuma and LPM for dining. It holds a Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key, and the room views alone reframe the city.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key
3. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award

A private corridor connects the hotel directly to the Prudential Center, which in a Boston February is less a perk and more a lifeline. The Mandarin Oriental is a luxury hotel in Back Bay, its lobby built around local granite, feng shui principles, and a long gas fireplace that earns its keep most of the year. It holds a Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key, and the staff seem to know the difference between attentive and hovering.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

A Forbes Five Star hotel on the waterfront where guests arrive by water taxi from Logan, bypassing the city entirely and stepping straight into a marble rotunda under an American flag. Rooms face the harbor or the skyline, and the staff have thought of things you forgot to pack. It sits at the edge of the Financial District, so the crowd trends toward people who expense things, but everyone gets the same treatment.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The 1927 building on the corner of Newbury Street spent its early years as one of the country's first Ritz-Carlton outposts, and the bones still show: wainscoting, herringbone floors, the whole patrician package. This Forbes Four Star, Michelin two-key hotel layers local art and Byredo bath products over the classical shell without fussing too much about the contrast. The rooftop restaurant, Contessa, draws its own crowd well beyond the guest list.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys

Dark wood, sink-in seating in bold colors, and cocktail names that tip you off early: this is a cocktail bar that wants you to stay longer than you planned. The menu leans playful and genuinely inventive, and the room has enough tucked corners for a long conversation. A James Beard Best New Bar semifinalist and an Esquire Best Bars pick, it earns both without trying too hard about either.

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 10 Nominee · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar

A modern tower right on the edge of Boston Common, which means the park views from the upper floors are the kind that make you forget you're in a business hotel. The Rockwell Group interiors lean into contemporary luxury rather than Old Boston stuffiness, and the rooms are plush without being fussy. The theater district is essentially at the front door, though the Avery Bar gives you a convincing reason to stay put. A Forbes Four Star property.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. The 50 #86 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Eater The Best Bars Around Boston
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service · Oscar Simoza

The building was the Federal Reserve Bank once, and The Langham has kept enough of that fortress-grade exterior to remind you money used to feel serious. Inside, it's a full-service luxury hotel done in softened British style, which sits amusingly well in Boston's Financial District. A lap pool, Italian dining at Grana, and a New England-inflected pub called The Fed cover most moods without ever leaving the building. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

A curved bronze tower rising over the Mystic River, Encore Boston Harbor is a Forbes Five Star casino resort that imports the Las Vegas playbook wholesale, flowers and all. The hotel holds 16 dining and lounge venues, several tied to Boston restaurateurs, and a casino floor loaded with every slot and table game you'd expect. It's Vegas-grade spectacle without the flight, for anyone who considers that a selling point.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Best New Bar
2. Eater Best New Bar
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East

The Koji Club is a sake bar of about sixteen seats in the Allston Speedway, where the bottle storage doubles as a coat rack and a rice cooker sits behind the bar like it pays rent. The staff will walk the sake-curious through the list, so no one gets quizzed. The snack of choice is a bowl of rice with furikake, miso, and pickles. It's dim and cozy, and it's on the Esquire list of best bars in America.

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. Eater The Best Bars Around Boston
3. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Boston

A rooftop beehive supplying honey to the bar and kitchen is a flex most waterfront hotels don't bother with. This 424-room hotel sits on the harbor between Faneuil Hall and the Seaport, so the views are doing a lot of work whether you're in the lobby, lined in Italian marble and Texas limestone, or up in your room. Three dining options, a spa, and a health club round things out for a property that leans toward the polished business-traveler end of the scale.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A two-dozen-seat Thai tapas room in Brookline Village where the menu reads like a love letter to northern Bangkok filtered through a genuinely curious kitchen. Small plates and creative cocktails share equal billing, the Michelin Bib Gourmand crowd sitting close enough to see what everyone else ordered. The New York Times and Boston Magazine have both circled it, which tracks for a spot this compact running this confidently.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Boston Right Now
3. Boston Magazine #13 · Top 50 Restaurants in Boston

The old Charles Street Jail, a granite hulk from the mid-1800s, is now a full-service luxury hotel where the do-not-disturb sign reads "Solitary" and the in-room safe doubles as a bedside table. The conversion leans into the bit without apology: a cocktail bar in the original cellblock, restaurant names that wink at incarceration, and mugshot art on the walls. The rooms are comfortable, the theming is committed, and the location near Beacon Hill is hard to argue with.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A Federalist townhouse on Beacon Hill, XV Beacon is a boutique hotel where all 63 rooms come with a four-poster bed, a working fireplace, and fresh flowers, which is either very romantic or a lot of pressure, depending on your companion. A house Lexus will ferry you around the city, and the concierge knows the neighborhood the way only someone who works it every day can. Old Boston in the best, least stuffy sense.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

Sichuan Garden fed Brookline Village for two decades before the family's son, a bartender with a James Beard-nominated bar pedigree, took over the front of house and made it a cocktail bar. The drinks lean tropical, lots of rum and agave, threaded through with Sichuan flavors that have no business working this well together. The Spirited Awards named the bar team a Regional Top 10 Honoree, which tracks.

1. Eater The Best Bars Around Boston
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Boston
3. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Boston

1. Michelin Guide 2 Keys

Three restored 19th-century buildings sit steps from Lexington Green, where the Revolutionary War opened for business. The Inn at Hastings Park is a Relais & Châteaux property with 22 rooms spread across a former private home, a politician's residence, and a carpentry barn, which is either atmospheric or a trivia question depending on your mood. Walden Pond is nearby for the philosophically inclined. It holds a Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Beacon Hill is the kind of neighborhood that eyes new arrivals with suspicion, so a boutique hotel on Charles Street has something to prove. The Whitney pulls it off with red brick on the outside and interiors that split the difference between old-money Boston and something you'd actually want to photograph. It holds two Michelin Keys, and the Longfellow Bridge is right there if you need a walk to justify the room rate.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Keys

The red awnings and sweep of red carpet announce this grand Back Bay hotel before you've even reached the door. Inside, the lobby is all ornate plasterwork and soaring ceilings, the kind of architecture that has made it a recurring film location and a perennial power-lunch backdrop for Bostonians. The guest rooms have been refreshed without scrubbing away the old-money atmosphere that makes the place worth staying in over a newer option.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

1. The 50 #88 · North America's 50 Best Bars

1. Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America

Backbar is a cocktail bar tucked down a concrete hallway behind a steel door in Union Square, which is how you know the drinks are serious. Weekends bring a line of people waiting to find out what the menu is themed around this month, sometimes an animation studio, with drinks named for scenes. Tell the bartender your mood and let them handle the translation, because the ingredient lists read like a botany final.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Boston
2. Eater The Best Bars Around Boston

This is a narrow natural-wine bar near Downtown Crossing, the sort of place that introduced a lot of Boston to tinned fish and has been quietly smug about it since. The list is long and a little nerdy, but the bartenders will talk you through it without making you feel graded. Half bottles of nearly everything let you change your mind twice. It was a James Beard semifinalist for its wine program, and on Wednesdays there are fancy hot dogs.

1. Eater The Best Bars Around Boston
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Boston
3. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program

Harbor views come standard at this full-service hotel in Boston's Seaport District, where the rooms angle toward the water and the nautical nods in the decor are tasteful enough to forgive. Three dining options, a health club with massage, and complimentary bikes keep things moving. The Convention Center is steps away, which tells you something about the weekday crowd, but the ICA and the waterfront are right there too.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

Pisco is doing serious work here, with Esquire naming the pisco martini among the best in the country. La Royal is a handsome Peruvian restaurant and bar in Cambridge where the menu wanders across the full breadth of Peruvian cooking, including Chifa, the country's Cantonese-inflected tradition. Ceviches are sharp and citrus-forward, and the room has a genuine going-out energy. A James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant.

1. Esquire Pisco Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. Esquire #31 · The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Boston Magazine #24 · Top 50 Restaurants in Boston

The grounds are landscaped to echo Monet's Water Lilies, which sets the tone: this Forbes Four Star inn near Plymouth leans hard into French countryside fantasy, turrets and all, less than an hour from Boston. Fifty rooms, attentive staff, and a 14,000-square-foot spa with a heated foot pool, an Aqua Terrace with waterfall and fireplace, and a full fitness calendar. The spa is the real draw, and most guests seem to know it before they even unpack.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

A wraparound rooftop bar with Fenway-facing sunset views is a strong opening argument for a hotel. citizenM is a compact-room, XL-bed chain hotel on Newbury Street where tablet controls handle the blackout blinds, the mood lighting, and basically everything else. Self-serve check-in keeps arrival frictionless, and the bright lobby fills with original art and neon. Walkable to almost everything worth walking to in Back Bay.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the Common from nearly every room, which is a solid reason to book a higher floor at this sleek downtown hotel on Tremont Street. The building is a quiet contemporary amid Boston's colonial streetscape, but the interiors go louder: bold patterns, rich materials, and lighting someone clearly thought hard about. Beds come with ten pillow varieties, which is either thoughtful or a decision you'll regret making at midnight.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Two early-1900s buildings on Washington Street house this 242-room hotel, the interiors dressed in mid-century neutrals with orange accents, which is a more interesting answer to Boston's past than a tricorn hat. The Godfrey sits in a city where the hotels tend toward the historic and the hushed, and it leans into that without being stuffy about it. Staff who take your comfort seriously, in the old-school sense of the phrase.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Murals of Boston song lyrics cover the bedroom walls, which sets the tone for this affordable boutique hotel in the South End's mostly brick landscape. The building is mid-century modernist, the palette is muted blues and reds, and the pop art references in the common areas are oversized enough to make the point. Conspire, the multi-purpose ground-floor space, runs breakfast, all-day coffee, and evening drinks, drawing a younger crowd not angling for Back Bay luxury.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The black-glass tower sits directly above TD Garden, which means Bruins nights are either thrilling or a logistical adventure depending on your schedule. This design-forward hotel keeps rooms compact and consistent: XL beds, rain showers, blackout blinds, and a tablet that runs everything. The second-floor lobby doubles as a lounge, with street art and deep colors doing the heavy lifting. Beacon Hill and the harbor are visible from the terrace if you need convincing you're somewhere.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The boulevard out front is named for the man who invented the Polaroid camera, which tells you something about the neighborhood's self-image. This Kimpton hotel sits on the Cambridge side of the Charles River, close enough to MIT and Harvard that the lobby's soft sci-fi aesthetic, industrial meets minimalist meets saturated river greens and blues, feels less like a design choice and more like a local dialect.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Red brick exterior, Shaker furniture, and denim pillows make this hotel feel like Harvard's well-appointed guest quarters, which is more or less what it is, sitting between the university and Radcliffe. Rooms lean Boston-cozy over sleek, with fresh flowers and burgundy armchairs. The walls are famously thick, which matters more than you'd think when the neighbors are practicing anything at all.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The Dagny is a boutique hotel inside a 1928 Art Deco tower whose ornate ceilings and brass fittings survived intact while the sensibility around them got considerably sharper. Faneuil Hall and the waterfront are a short walk, which keeps the lobby purposeful on weekdays. Tradesman Café handles breakfast, Fin Point handles the seafood, and the building's rumored history of hidden revolutionary cannons handles the small talk.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Transparent igloos on the roof keep the cocktail hour going through a Boston winter, which tells you something about the attitude of this Seaport hotel. Rooms are contemporary with a wry streak, TV stands welded from old bike frames included, and floor-to-ceiling windows pull in harbor views. It's a Marriott Autograph Collection property, the chain's boutique arm, so the personality is deliberate and the service runs smooth.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A converted 1895 firehouse standing alone in a neighborhood otherwise paved over by MIT and the global tech industry, The Kendall Hotel is a boutique stay where the Queen Anne facade and twin cupolas do most of the talking. Rooms are snug and characterful in the way only old firehouses can manage, and the Black Sheep Lounge downstairs leans Iberian for small plates when you need a reason not to walk anywhere.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A mid-century motel in the shadow of Fenway Park that, instead of leaning into Red Sox nostalgia like every other spot in the neighborhood, pays tribute to the Fenway/Kenmore area's rock-and-roll history. The Verb is a boutique hotel where the decor does the talking, and the talking is about music. Guests who don't care about baseball but do own vinyl will feel oddly at home here.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. East

The freezer martinis section of the menu says a lot about Eastern Standard's priorities. This Fenway cocktail bar has been around forever and carries itself accordingly, all dark wood and low hum, the kind of room that makes a dirty martini feel like the only logical choice. The classics-heavy list also wanders into margarita territory, with a Tajin-dusted mezcal version alongside fruitier options, and the white negroni is never far from someone's hand.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. VinePair Brewer of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Liz Nicol

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The sunchoke doughnuts with XO gouda are reportedly un-removable from the menu, which tells you something about this Davis Square wine bar. The list leans toward small producers and natural winemakers, and the staff actually know it. Small plates from the kitchen are the kind of thing a food scientist might dream up on a generous budget. A James Beard Outstanding Bar semifinalist for 2026.

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
2. Boston Magazine #16 · Top 50 Restaurants in Boston
3. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Boston

Perched over America's oldest working port, this waterfront hotel in Gloucester does classic New England maritime without apology: navy and weathered wood, fireplaces in the better suites, and ocean views that make you feel the design choices were basically inevitable. The onsite 1606 Restaurant & Oyster Bar leans into fresh Atlantic seafood, and the rooftop bar earns its keep at sunset in a way that's almost unfair to inland hotels.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Six studio rooms in a restored 19th-century house on the New Hampshire seacoast, each with a full kitchen and in-unit laundry, which is the boutique hotel quietly admitting that some guests prefer to live in a place rather than just sleep in it. The decor is traditional in its bones but contemporary in execution, and the team fields calls from guests who want a local's read on where to eat or where to go. New Castle is a short drive from Portsmouth.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A lovingly restored 1950s motor inn where the retro bones have been given proper adult upgrades, including full kitchens with Smeg fridges that suggest someone has opinions. This is a self-catered, low-touch stay on the New Hampshire coast, so you're cooking, not calling room service. The beach is directly across Ocean Boulevard, the swim shop has your gear, and Portsmouth is ten minutes away when the tranquility starts to feel suspiciously peaceful.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A Victorian house from the 1880s that Lark Hotels converted into a 32-room boutique hotel, The Hotel Portsmouth sits in a walkable seaside town an easy drive from Boston. The bones are all 19th-century charm, but the rooms lean contemporary, which makes a quiet statement in a region where hotels tend to treat "traditional" as a personality. Portsmouth's shops and restaurants are right outside the door.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A two-hundred-year-old house renovated with contemporary flair rather than colonial reverence, this ten-room bed-and-breakfast runs on a low-touch model: contactless check-in, self-catered breakfast, and a concierge available when you need one. Every room is a fully furnished studio apartment, which makes it feel less like a historic inn and more like a very tasteful borrowed flat. Portsmouth's restaurants, breweries, and pubs start at the front door.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Eater The Best Bars Around Boston

Bubble Bath Back Bay is a penthouse cocktail bar atop the Citizen M hotel on Newbury Street, with skyline views most Boston bars can only dream of. It's built for ending a shopping day with visitors in tow, someone cradling a prickly pear mezcal drink while bags pile up at their feet. Order champagne, or let the caviar cart roll up and serve it with potato chips and cannoli. It's The Infatuation's pick for the best bars in Boston.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Boston

Gray's Hall is a South Boston wine bar that has the energy of a friend's living room, if your friend kept a natural-leaning wine list and a small-plate menu that includes a burger. It comes from the team behind American Provisions, the neighborhood's sandwich-and-bottle stop, so the instinct is to feed you while you stay put. Staff stay unbothered even when the place fills up, and a loyal local crowd keeps it that way.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Boston

1. Eater The Best Bars Around Boston

My Girl is a glamorous cocktail bar tucked beneath Yvonne's, with gold leaf, rosy marble, and passion fruit martinis that clearly expect you to dress for them. The Sox hat stays home. Reservations help at prime time, though the place hits its stride after 10, when Boston finally decides to stay up late and live music takes over Thursday through Saturday. The Infatuation put it on its list of the best bars in the city.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Boston

1. Eater The Best Bars Around Boston

1. Eater The Best Bars Around Boston

Rebel Rebel is a tiny natural wine bar tucked into the shipping-container-sized stalls of Bow Market, and it works as a salon as much as a place to drink. Talks with food writers, chocolate pairings, and a Beaujolais Nouveau party where pot-au-feu comes out of a cauldron are all on the calendar. It's casual, the glasses are small-producer pours, and it has been a James Beard semifinalist for wine and beverage programs.

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Boston
3. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program

This is a tiny sushi counter downstairs from a Japanese listening bar, where the walls come with a vinyl collection and the rules come with a certain hush. It's the kind of room where nobody talks over the record, and the tuna rolls are taken seriously by people in dark jackets who have strong feelings about turntables. It's small, so plan on cozy, not spread-out. The Infatuation has it on their Best Bars In Boston list.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Boston

The Druid is an Irish pub in Inman Square, the kind where the bartender's accent comes standard and the Guinness gets poured with the patience of someone who has seen impatient people. Live music turns up often, and it sometimes becomes an impromptu session of fiddles and bodhrán drums in which several generations of strangers simply know the same songs. Expect pub prices, wool sweaters, and a table you will not want to leave.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Boston

1. Eater The Best Bars Around Boston

Trina's is a pinup-flavored Somerville dive where the corners are dark, the beer runs from local IPAs to buckets of High Life Ponies, and the staff has been pouring so long they're basically load-bearing. Bartenders from other bars turn up for the Monday industry brunch, which is the closest thing to a seal of approval a bar can get. There's mac and cheese with a buttery Ritz crust and a mango margarita with a BBQ-spiced rim.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Boston
2. Boston Magazine 2025 · Best Non-Seafood Tower · Best of Boston

1. Eater The Best Bars Around Boston

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. Eater The Best Bars Around Boston
3. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Boston