Hotel at a Glance: Chandler Inn Hotel

The boutique Chandler Inn Hotel is just a short cab or train ride away from downtown—you’ll pass the vibrant Boston Common, theater district, and Chinatown along the way. The hotel’s home base of Back Bay is also worth exploring. Here you’ll find beautiful Victorian brownstones and a shopping quarter that stretches for eight blocks, offering stores such as Chanel and Banana Republic.

• Get some rest in your newly renovated room, which features a plasma-screen TV and comfortable modern decor.
• Go to Harvard: Stroll amid the campus’s redbrick buildings—some of which date back to the 1700s—or check out one of the many museums onsite.
• Grab a bite at the Trophy Room Boston, located in the same building as the hotel. You can pair draft beers and craft cocktails with burgers, mussels, or brunch fare in the restaurant’s industrial-chic dining room.
• Learn something new at Boston cultural institutions, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Science, and the Freedom Trail, which takes you to many of the city’s important historical sites.

Boston’s Back Bay: Victorian Architecture and Historical Landmarks on the Charles River

Boston’s Back Bay used to be just that—a literal bay that extended into the Charles River. In the mid 1800s, developers added landfill and created the grid-style neighborhood that remains today. Victorian brownstones and kempt gardens line the wide avenues of this waterside enclave that lies just west of Beacon Hill. Boston is a highly walkable city, so you’ll be able to get to several other neighborhoods from Back Bay as well.

Often called the Rodeo Drive of the East, Newbury Street stretches eight blocks east from Massachusetts Avenue to Arlington Street. The quaint tree-lined street is home to dozens of high-end retailers such as Chanel and Cartier, as well as vintage boutiques and consignment shops. Between Newbury and the Charles lies some of the most desirable real estate in Boston; the historic brownstones are worth checking out. The Esplanade, a 3-mile jogging path along the Charles, is especially popular in the summer. There you can take sailing lessons or sip lemonade on a sunny afternoon.

The famed walking path known as the Freedom Trail begins a mile east of Back Bay in the Boston Common, and it’s a must-see for history buffs. The 2.5-mile trail wends through cobblestone streets, bringing Revolutionary history to life with stops at the Old South Meeting House, where plans for the Boston Tea Party were secretly hatched, and the site of the Boston Massacre.

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