The Colonnade Hotel ★★★★

RTP, the only rooftop pool in Boston

The Colonnade's calling card sits on its roof. RTP is an outdoor pool open in the warm months, with a bar and a kitchen serving cocktails and light dishes, sun loungers along the edge and the towers of Back Bay and the Prudential Center rising on every side. It is popular enough that the hotel sells day passes to Bostonians who are not staying overnight, and it hosts poolside yoga sessions and events through the season. For a city break in June, July or August, it changes the shape of the day: sightseeing in the morning, the pool in the afternoon, dinner downstairs.

Spacious rooms on Huntington Avenue

The 285 guest rooms are larger than the Back Bay average and full of natural light, with pillow-top mattresses, dimmable lighting, a proper work table and city views over Huntington Avenue or the Christian Science Plaza. Bathrooms are contemporary, several with double marble vanities and walk-in showers. A fitness center with cardio machines, weight stations and free weights covers training, and the VIPETs program looks after guests traveling with a dog. The hotel holds the AAA Four Diamond rating and serves as the official hotel of Northeastern University athletics, a detail that says something about its place in the neighborhood.

LUCIE drink + dine, a brasserie on the ground floor

LUCIE drink + dine is the hotel's Parisian-style brasserie, open from breakfast through dinner, with a bar that draws a local crowd as much as hotel guests. Regular visitors single it out as one of the reasons to return, and the same team runs the food service on the roof.

Between the Prudential Center and Symphony Hall

The location is one of the most connected in Back Bay. The Prudential Center and the shops of Copley Place are across the street, with the Prudential Green Line stop at the door and Back Bay station, for Amtrak and the Orange Line, about five minutes away on foot. Symphony Hall and the Huntington Theatre are a similar distance, the Hynes Convention Center is next door, and Newbury Street, Copley Square and the Boston Public Library are about ten minutes away. The Museum of Fine Arts is a fifteen-minute walk down Huntington Avenue, and Fenway Park is reachable on foot in around twenty minutes. Check-in is at 3 pm and check-out at noon, and parking is available at the hotel.

Why we selected it

A rooftop pool, generous rooms and a brasserie worth the trip, at the point where Back Bay meets the museums and the concert halls: The Colonnade is the hotel we recommend for a summer visit to Boston, for families who need space and for travelers who want the Prudential and Copley shopping at their doorstep without the formality of a grand hotel.