New hotels in Back Bay, Boston

Back Bay did not exist before the 1850s. The land was tidal flats west of the Shawmut Peninsula, and the city spent roughly four decades filling it, with the work largely finished by 1882 and the last stretch reaching the Fens around 1900. What went on top was planned as a residential quarter: a gridded layout with Commonwealth Avenue as its boulevard, a wide tree-lined mall down the middle, and cross streets named in alphabetical order from Arlington to Hereford. Four hotels we track have opened here since 2019, which makes it the densest cluster of new hotels in Boston.

The oldest of the four is Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street (May 2019), the most recent is citizenM Boston Back Bay (September 2024). In between come The Newbury Boston (May 2021) and Raffles Boston Back Bay Hotel & Residences (September 2023). They sit within a mile of each other, but they serve different trips, and the differences are mostly a matter of which end of the neighborhood you want to wake up in.

How the neighborhood is laid out

Think of Back Bay as a rectangle. The Public Garden and Arlington Street form the eastern edge, the Massachusetts Turnpike and the Prudential Center the southern one, Massachusetts Avenue the western, and the Charles River the north. Three long streets run east to west and do most of the organizing: Commonwealth Avenue, Newbury Street, and Boylston Street. Beacon Street runs along the river side.

Copley Square is the knot in the middle. Henry Hobson Richardson's Trinity Church, finished in 1877, faces the McKim, Mead & White wing of the Boston Public Library, which opened in 1895. The library stands on filled ground, and its builders drove more than 4,000 wooden piles into it before laying the foundation. The Boston Marathon finishes on Boylston Street at the square, which is why the last block of the route is the most photographed one in town.

Two of the four hotels face this square directly. The other two sit at opposite ends of the neighborhood, one tucked behind the Christian Science Plaza, the other on the border with Fenway.

Getting around

Back Bay is flat and compact, and walking beats any other option for most of what follows. The T covers the rest. The Green Line stops at Arlington, Copley and Hynes Convention Center, all on or near Boylston Street. The Orange Line stops at Back Bay station and again at Massachusetts Avenue. Back Bay station is also the Amtrak and commuter rail stop, which matters if you are arriving from New York or Providence.

A short walk north takes you to the river. Cross the footbridges near the Hatch Shell and the Charles River Esplanade runs along the Boston side for miles, popular with joggers early and with picnickers on summer weekends.

What to do in Back Bay

Start on Newbury Street, which runs eight blocks from the Public Garden to Massachusetts Avenue. The first few blocks near Arlington Street carry the more expensive boutiques and galleries; the blocks toward Massachusetts Avenue are younger and cheaper, with record shops, vintage clothing and cafés on the lower floors of brownstones. Boylston Street, one block south, is the chain-store and office street, and also the one with the Prudential Center and its shopping arcade.

The Boston Public Library is free to enter. Bates Hall, the main reading room on the second floor, runs about 218 feet and is worth fifteen minutes even if you have no intention of reading. The courtyard in the middle of the McKim building is a good place to sit with a coffee when the weather allows.

Across the square, Trinity Church charges admission for visitors outside services and is best seen in the morning, when the stained glass on the west side catches the light. The glass is largely the work of John La Farge and others of his generation.

For a sense of how the district was lived in, the Gibson House Museum at 137 Beacon Street is a preserved Victorian rowhouse, built in 1859 and 1860 and occupied by three generations of one family. Guided tours cover the period rooms and the original kitchen. It is one of the few places in the neighborhood where you can see the interior of a house of the kind that lines every street outside.

The Public Garden, at the eastern end, has the swan boats from spring to early autumn and the bronze ducklings from the children's book on the path toward Beacon Hill. Beyond it lies the Common, and beyond that Downtown Boston.

South of Boylston, the Christian Science Plaza and its reflecting pool are a few minutes from the Prudential Center. Eataly occupies part of the Prudential complex and has a rooftop terrace in the warmer months; Contessa, the Italian restaurant on the roof of The Newbury, is the other well-known rooftop table in the neighborhood and tends to book out ahead of time.

Where to stay: the four new hotels

Copley Square and Trinity Place

Raffles Boston Back Bay Hotel & Residences opened on September 15, 2023, at 40 Trinity Place, a block from the square and next to the Back Bay train station. Raffles Boston Back Bay is the brand's first hotel in North America. It has 147 rooms in a tower that also contains 146 private residences, and the tower is cantilevered over the low University Club next door. The three-story Sky Lobby looks onto Trinity Church and the library, and rates start around $510.

The practical advantage here is transit. Back Bay station is a couple of minutes away, so an Amtrak arrival from New York can be at the front desk in minutes. The Green Line at Copley is also close.

The Public Garden end

The Newbury Boston stands at the foot of Newbury Street, at the corner facing the Public Garden. The Newbury Boston occupies a building from 1927 that was a Ritz-Carlton for most of its history, then a Taj, before closing in October 2019 and reopening in May 2021 as an independent hotel under Highgate. It has 286 rooms. Jeffrey Beers International designed the public spaces and Champalimaud Design the guest rooms. Major Food Group runs Contessa on the roof.

Rates start around $350 on our figures, well below the other luxury names in the neighborhood. The position is the best in Back Bay for the Public Garden, the Esplanade and Beacon Hill, and the Arlington Green Line stop is under two minutes away.

Behind the Christian Science Plaza

Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street is the one with height. Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street opened in May 2019 in the lower floors of a 61-story tower designed by Henry N. Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the third-tallest building in Boston. It has 215 rooms, and its wellness floor, which includes an indoor pool, sits 20 stories up. Rates start around $700, the highest of the four.

The address is the quietest of the four, away from the shopping streets, but only by a few blocks. The Prudential Center is a short walk, Newbury Street a little longer, and the Hynes Convention Center stop is close.

The Fenway border

citizenM Boston Back Bay opened on September 4, 2024, at 408 Newbury Street, where Back Bay runs into Fenway. citizenM Boston Back Bay is the brand's largest hotel anywhere, with close to 400 rooms, and Boston's first all-electric hotel. The tower stands on a platform built over the Massachusetts Turnpike, the Green Line and rail tracks, as part of a $700 million development known as Lyrik (formerly Parcel 12). It is the city's first air-rights construction since Copley Place in 1983. The platform also closes a gap that had divided Back Bay from Fenway for decades.

Rates start around $130, a fraction of the other three, and the Hynes stop is next door. Fenway Park is about fifteen minutes on foot.

Which hotel for which trip

If your plans involve the library, Trinity Church, a train, and not much else, choose Raffles. A first-time visitor who wants Boston's postcard walk, the Public Garden, Beacon Hill and the river, should take The Newbury. Anyone coming for a conference at Hynes or a game at Fenway should look at citizenM first, and anyone spending a few days shopping and eating along Boylston, or who simply wants a high floor and a pool, belongs at One Dalton.

A second consideration, and a practical one, is price. The spread between the cheapest and the most expensive is more than five to one, which is unusual for a neighborhood this small. All four prices are starting rates from our listings, not quotes, and they move with the calendar, especially around the Marathon in April and the graduation weeks in May.

For the rest of the city, Boston has the full picture, Beacon Hill and the Seaport District are the closest neighborhoods with their own pages, and the United States page covers the national list.

Frequently asked questions

What is the newest hotel in Back Bay?

citizenM Boston Back Bay, which opened on September 4, 2024, at 408 Newbury Street. Before it, Raffles Boston Back Bay opened in September 2023 and The Newbury Boston reopened in May 2021.

Which Back Bay hotel is closest to the Public Garden?

The Newbury Boston, which faces the Public Garden at the foot of Newbury Street. The Arlington Green Line stop is a minute or two away on foot.

Is there a hotel with a pool in Back Bay?

Yes, Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street, whose indoor pool is on a wellness floor 20 stories up. It is the only one of the four tracked hotels where a pool is part of the headline.

How far is Back Bay from Fenway Park?

About fifteen minutes on foot from citizenM Boston Back Bay, which is the closest of the four hotels to the ballpark. The others are further east and closer to 25 or 30 minutes.

Can you walk from Back Bay to downtown Boston?

Yes. From The Newbury through the Public Garden and across the Common, Downtown Boston is roughly a 20-minute walk, and the Green Line covers the same ground in a few stops.

Which Back Bay hotel is cheapest?

citizenM Boston Back Bay, with rates from about $130, against roughly $350 at The Newbury, $510 at Raffles and $700 at Four Seasons One Dalton Street.