Boston, United States

The Newbury Boston

Price per night from$575.10

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD575.10), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Garden vantage

Setting

In amongst it

Bordering the iconic Boston Public Garden is the Newbury: a stalwart Bostonian building (formerly the Taj Boston) whose sweeping staircase twists up to residential-style rooms and suites, furnished in light woods, dressed in soothing creams and herringbone details, and with walls featuring artwork from some of America’s iconic creators – though your eyes will likely be drawn towards those views over the oldest public park in the country. The speakeasy-style Street Bar, the glass-enclosed Contessa rooftop, and the intimate Library keep things sociable inside, and outside you’ve got the brownstone boutiques, bistros and art galleries of Newbury Street to entice you.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A bottle of wine on arrival

Facilities

Photos The Newbury Boston facilities

Need to know

Rooms

286, including 90 suites.

Check–Out

12 noon. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £530.46 ($670), including tax at 16.45 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional resort fee of $35.00 per room per night on check-out.

More details

Rates don’t include breakfast, but you can choose to order it at the Street Bar, Contessa rooftop or to your room. Bostonian breakfast dishes include blueberry pancakes; lobster benedict; and thick-cut challah French toast.

Also

There are 12 ADA compliant guest rooms available throughout the hotel, across a range of room categories.

At the hotel

Street Bar, Contessa rooftop restaurant, Library, Salon (for afternoon tea), 24-hour gym, parking. In rooms: WiFi, TV, Nespresso machine, robes and slippers, custom Byredo toiletries. Rooms either have park views or overlook the streets of Back Bay. Some rooms (40 in total) have wood-burning fireplaces (attended to by, well, an attendant) and a menu of wood options with different scents.

Our favourite rooms

For more space, go for the Park View King room – plus, that iconic public garden and downtown view. It’s hard not to be wowed by the Mansion: a huge 15th-floor suite with panoramic views, walk-in closet, powder room, butler’s pantry, and dining room for six. The white marble bathroom has a rainforest shower and deep soaking tub with a bamboo shelf and slots for books – plus premium bath salts and pumice stones.

Packing tips

You certainly need not pack any books: the library is fully stocked with literary reads curated by the Boston Public Library, and you’ll find a copy of Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings in your room. You can even bring the narrative to life with a themed afternoon tea in the hotel’s Salon: a delicate feast of scones and finger sandwiches overlooking the treetops and boutiques of Newbury Street.

Also

A particularly high-calibre triad of designers were involved in the 2021 renovation: public spaces are by Jeffrey Beers; rooms and suites by Alexandra Champalimaud; and the Contessa restaurant by Ken Fulk.

Pet‐friendly

You can bring a maximum of two dogs per room – all that’s required is a $100 cleaning fee per stay. Local dog walking or sitting services and available, just ask the concierge. See more pet-friendly hotels in Boston.

Children

The hotel has connecting rooms that are great for families, and kids will be given their own robes. A kids menu is available – as is a diaper genie, microwave and small fridge. A rollaway or crib can be added to rooms; just let the hotel know in advance.

Sustainability efforts

The Newbury Boston is part of EarthCheck’s sustainable certification program. The hotel works hard to conserve water, recycle where possible, use energy efficient lighting and reduce the use of plastic. They partner with Clean the World and use sustainable and locally sourced ingredients wherever possible, even creating a home for 12 apiaries of bees to pollinate the area – this honey is used in dishes served in the hotel’s restaurants.

Food and Drink

Photos The Newbury Boston food and drink

Top Table

Easy: the blush velvet banquette right in the corner of the L-shaped restaurant – among the bustle, and with room for six.

Dress Code

The building may have once housed the Ritz, but these days it’s far less formal. The restaurant is a flurry of elegant unflashiness and chastened chic.

Hotel restaurant

The sultry, glass-wrapped rooftop of Contessa serves classic trattoria cuisine: burrata, truffle-dotted beef carpaccio, squash carpaccio, braised veal and octopus agrodolce. Brunch is a big affair: panettone french toast, carbonara scramble and smoked salmon carpaccio are to be expected. Don’t miss the crema di Boston – a cream pie bomboloni – for dessert. Cocktails hark back to the 1920s: spritz, vesper, negroni and bellinis are familiar names, or try the Boston sour – whisky and egg-white martini topped with lambrusco. The space has a retractable roof, making it open-air in summer and a sky-scraping snow-globe in winter. The marble bar, fringed lamps and teal accents were inspired by old-world Europe but the setting is all Boston: high above Back Bay’s sun-soaked streets.

Hotel bar

Locals already flock to speakeasy-style Street Bar: a heritage-filled haunt with an expansive list of martinis, shaken and/or stirred. Try a Harvard, Alaska, Singapore Sling, Bobby Burns or Hanky Panky, and make sure to line your stomach with the locally-inspired, high-end bar snacks available. The storied all-day menu features spicy pink lobster chowder, devilled eggs, oysters, and of course: a lobster roll. It’s available 11.30am–9pm, extended on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays with a late-night menu until 11.30pm. Drinks are served until 10pm throughout the week; until 12 am Thursday–Saturday.

Last orders

Breakfast is served until 11am in both restaurants. Grab lunch at Contessa from 11.30am–2.30pm; dinner 5–10pm; or brunch (Saturdays and Sundays only) 10am–3pm.

Room service

Room service is available around the clock, with a specially-selected menu of the most suitable under-duvet dishes chosen from Street Bar and Contessa.

Location

Photos The Newbury Boston location
Address
The Newbury Boston
One Newbury Street
Boston
MA 02116
United States

The Newbury straddles some of the city’s ritziest addresses in the historic shopping district of Boston’s Back Bay.

Planes

Touch down at Boston Logan International Airport, a 10-minute drive from the hotel (traffic dependent). American Airlines, British Airways, Delta and Virgin Atlantic arrive into Boston every day from the UK and most large US airports.

Trains

You’ll hear locals refer to the affectionately shortened ‘T’ – Boston’s subway system. The closest stations to the hotel are Arlington (green line), Park Street (red line), and Back Bay (orange line). It makes sense to buy a CharlieCard even for short stays: load a seven-day LinkPass ($19) for unlimited travel on the service. For longer-distance US travel head to South Station, an 18-minute walk from the hotel. You’ll find links to New York, Washington DC and Philadelphia.

Automobiles

Driving isn’t advisable here – finding your way is challenging – but the city is very walkable, and easily accessible by subway, too.

Worth getting out of bed for

Step straight out to Newbury Street: home to art galleries, alfresco cafés and ice cream parlours (J.P. Licks is a local favourite). Just a few blocks away are some of Boston’s loveliest Victorian brownstone and red-brick addresses, and you can easily walk to the start of the historic Freedom Trail, too. The path connects 16 of Boston’s monuments and heritage sites, including Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere’s house, and the country’s oldest public park. Speaking of, the adjectives ‘first’, ‘oldest’ and ‘original’ crop up a lot in nearby Beacon Hill: a neighbourhood of 18th and 19th-century red brick houses, lined up on narrow hilly streets. Visit literary institution Brattle Book Shop and browse shelves holding more than a quarter of a million books, maps, prints and postcards. There’s a dedicated rare-book room at the back with the store’s most valuable treasures. Cross the Charles River into Cambridge (look out for the lovely Esplanade Park as you do so) and stroll Harvard University’s walkways. It doesn’t take a genius to appreciate the coffee at Peet’s (as featured in Good Will Hunting), before a nosey around the vintage boutiques and bookshops lining the streets around the campus. If that has you feeling studious, head to Omni Parker House, a historic guesthouse whose basement museum documents its famous former guests (Mark Twain) and staff (Ho Chi Minh). Don’t forget to try the Boston cream pie at its restaurant, Parker’s: a sponge filled with custard and topped with chocolate, served steps away from the spot that President Kennedy proposed to Jackie. Or, for the ultimate in celeb-spotting, say hello to Romeo and Juliet… the resident swans at artfully landscaped Boston Common. Finally, head to Beehive on Tremont Street for a live jazz session, the House of Blues for a gig, or to the Institute of Contemporary Art for work by up-and-coming artists, right by the harbour.

Local restaurants

The area’s gastronomy is renowned – think Boston baked beans, New England clam chowder, lobster rolls and Boston cream pie. If you like seafood, try the city’s local specialities: oysters, fresh steamed lobster and cod – perhaps harbour-side at the Seaport District. Daily Catch is a Sicilian seafood spot with just 20 seats. It’s been a family-run spot since 1973, serving up bowls of fresh calamari and squid-ink linguine. Barbara Lynch’s No. 9 Park is well-loved for its freshly prepared Mediterranean dishes – try steak tartare, prune-stuffed gnocchi and octopus: or if you can’t decide, opt for a five- or seven-course tasting menu. Find fruits de mer a plenty at Select Oyster Bar: a neighbourhood seafood spot in Back Bay.

Local cafés

Tatte’s pastries and cakes are renowned – be charmed by the old-world interiors of the Charles Street branch. Head to the city’s North End for family-owned Modern Pastry and its cannoli, carrot cake, and ricotta pie. Cambridge institution Christina’s is a good stop off between the academics for ice cream lovers: they hand-crank scoops every day with a huge menu of bold flavours, right between Harvard and MIT.

Local bars

Alibi, housed in a former jailhouse, pours excellent cocktails: order a Double Jeopardy, Law & Order, or Early Release. Tip Tap Room pulls pints of craft beer hailing from the US and Europe, and plates up thick-cut steaks and burgers of every description (including antelope and Italian sausage). Lookout’s rooftop bar has views of Boston’s Financial District skyline, including the historic Customs House Tower: head here for late night drinks among the twinkling cityscape.

Reviews

Photos The Newbury Boston reviews
Laura Neilson

Anonymous review

By Laura Neilson, Travel-hungry style writer

Despite the relatively short distance between New York’s Manhattan, where I live, and Boston, I admittedly haven’t spent much time in ‘Beantown’ beyond my college-era, bar-hopping years.

Booking an autumn weekend at the Newbury, an elegant new hotel on the edge of Back Bay, seemed like the perfect opportunity to take in a different side of the city, and in a convenient area for strolling with visiting siblings and their very energetic kids. (Along with its ‘Beantown’ moniker, Boston is commonly regarded as ‘America’s Walking City.’)

For those unfamiliar with Boston, Newbury Street is one of the city’s major commercial thoroughfares. On weekends, its sidewalks are teeming with pedestrians and shoppers. The Newbury’s building, which sits at the corner of Newbury and Arlington Streets – and was formerly the Ritz-Carlton – shares its block with upscale names such Rolex, Chanel, Valentino and Tiffany, yet the hotel’s welcoming staff will quickly dispel any expectations of snobbishness.

They won’t seem bothered as you gape, oohing and ahhing (as I did), at the hotel’s darkly-marbled lobby, a stunning example of elegant, yet understated grandeur. Just beyond the front desk, there’s a dimly-lit library where guests can enjoy a momentary respite with coffee and pastries in the morning, or linger over board games and a cocktail as the day extends. For such an upscale property, the vibe is decidedly low-fuss. It’s ‘do what you will’ here, something I appreciate at any good hotel.

With November’s chill on the horizon, I had chosen a fireplace suite for myself on one of the hotel’s top floors. The sprawling corner suite featured a wraparound layout with a sizable living room – large enough for a dining table, a well-sized desk, and a cushiony, L-shaped sofa – and, of course, a fireplace.

The suite’s description included the service of a ‘fireplace butler’ who will arrive at your calling to present a menu of kindling choices – birch, oak, and cherry, for example – before constructing a gentle blaze to cozy up beside, preferably with a glass of wine and some light bites. (Those arrive via the butler too). Alas, the weather was unseasonably warm that weekend, which meant no crackling fires and more strolls about town.

The afternoon of my check-in, Newbury Street was abuzz with pedestrians and ebullient restaurant patrons spilling onto the sidewalk, everyone marvelling over the summery temperature. I was happy to have the opportunity to walk and work up a solid pre-dinner appetite, too. I’d heard stellar things about the hotel’s rooftop restaurant Contessa, (overseen by the same culinary team behind iconic New York restaurants such as Carbone and the Grill), where I would be taking my siblings for dinner that evening, and needless to say, I was already excited just to have scored the reservation.

A few hours later, freshly-showered and dressed-up for the night, I arrived on the hotel’s 17th floor and immediately understood why Contessa was a notoriously hot ticket: it’s gorgeous!

The glass-enclosed restaurant looks out over twinkling Boston, while the Ken Fulk-designed interior invokes an elegant garden trattoria, lifted from another time and place. It’s thoroughly contemporary-feeling, while exuding plenty of retro glamour, and given Contessa’s popularity amongst hotel guests and locals alike, it’s quite literally the Newbury’s crowning jewel.

And then of course there was the food, a swoon-inducing lineup of Northern Italian-inspired fare, supplemented with an extensive wine list, and dangerously good negronis. I commandeered the menu and ordered several dishes for the table, including the luscious, fresh burrata; the umami-packed butternut squash carpaccio (the sleeper hit of the bunch); and the octopus agrodolce, a flavorful balancing act of smoke and acid.

For their entrées, two of my siblings ordered the popular spicy lobster cavatelli, a creamy, silky emulsion of sauce, lobster and noodles, which we all ended up adoring. Hard as it may be after such a filling dinner, I’d advise saving room for dessert, most especially the Torta de Boston. My sister nailed it, when she compared its paper-thin layers of crunch to a Ferrero Rocher chocolate bonbon in fork-able form.

The only thing to make the spectacular night even better was knowing that my weekend sanctuary was just an elevator ride away. Back in the room, I took in the various thoughtful, considered touches like the decorative Villeroy & Boch coffee cups in a punchy floral pattern, which lent a dose of color to the rest of the room’s otherwise neutral palette.

In lieu of traditional ‘Do Not Disturb’ door hangers, there were chic tassels, and the bathroom’s toiletries by Byredo featured a custom-formulated scent inspired by the softly-draping willow trees in the public garden across the street.

The next morning, I headed downstairs for breakfast at the Street Bar, the hotel’s ground-level, speakeasy-style café and nighttime watering hole, before the arrival of my brother and sister-in-law, with my two young nephews in tow.

Thanks to a freshly-pressed green juice, and a fortifying yoghurt and granola parfait, I was ready for the long morning’s walk through the Commons, past the Old State House, and down to Faneuil Hall, where the youngsters delighted in an interactive dinosaurs exhibition. From there we continued on towards the waterfront, stopping for brunch along the way, before ending our amble at the New England Aquarium – another great option for kid-friendly venues.

Back near the hotel, I opted for a light and solo Sunday evening supper at Krasi, a welcoming and stylish wine bar specializing in Greek mezze where I could perch myself at the kitchen-facing counter with a glass of Assyrtiko and some melitzanosalata, a thick dip of smoky eggplant and charred red peppers.

It was still too warm, and I was admittedly far too tired from the wonderfully full day, to call upon my suite’s fireplace butler that night, although the thought did cross my mind. It was just as well, I said to myself before drifting off to a peaceful night’s sleep, it would be one more reason to visit Boston – and the Newbury – sometime again soon.

Book now

Price per night from $575.10