The Eliot Suite Hotel ★★★★★

Built for Harvard, kept by one family

The Eliot opened in 1925 on Commonwealth Avenue as an apartment hotel commissioned by the family of Charles William Eliot, the former president of Harvard, to lodge the university's visiting academics and guest lecturers. Harold Field Kellogg designed the nine-storey building in a Georgian Revival style with French touches borrowed from the boulevard outside. The Depression ended the Eliot family's tenure, and in 1939 Nathan Ullian and his partners bought the house and restored it; his family has owned it ever since, which makes the Eliot one of the last family-run luxury hotels in the city. The Eliot Lounge next door became a Boston institution for half a century, and the hotel itself is a member of Historic Hotels of America.

Suites with French doors

Of the 95 rooms, 79 are one and two-bedroom suites, and that proportion is the point of the place. A living room with a desk and a kitchenette or wet bar opens through French doors onto the bedroom, and the bathrooms are lined in marble. The decor stays classic, with Italian marble and refined fabrics rather than fashion, and the two-bedroom suites give families a real apartment for a few nights. The hotel welcomes pets, arranges babysitting and in-room massages, and offers breakfast in the room. Service is the house specialty: the doorman has greeted guests for decades and the general manager has run the hotel for a quarter of a century.

UNI, Ken Oringer's izakaya

The hotel restaurant is UNI, the James Beard Award-winning chef Ken Oringer's take on the izakaya, with global street-food-inspired small plates, makimono, nigiri and sashimi, craft cocktails and a wide-ranging sake list. It is one of the destination restaurants of Back Bay in its own right, and having it downstairs is a real advantage on a cold evening.

Commonwealth Avenue, between Newbury Street and Fenway

The Eliot stands on the tree-lined mall of Commonwealth Avenue, one block from Newbury Street and its boutiques and cafes. The Hynes Convention Center Green Line stop is three minutes away, Kenmore Square five, and Fenway Park about ten minutes on foot, which makes the hotel a favorite for game days. The Charles River Esplanade is a ten-minute walk north, Copley Square and the Boston Public Library are a little over ten minutes east, and the Museum of Fine Arts is about fifteen minutes away. Check-in is at 3 pm and check-out at noon, and valet parking is available.

Why we selected it

A landmark on Boston's grandest residential avenue, a suite for almost every guest and a family at the helm since 1939: the Eliot is the address we recommend to couples and families who prefer a small luxury hotel with a private, residential feel to the scale of the grand hotels around Copley Square.