The Whitney Hotel - Boston

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this hotel in Boston and unpacked their tomes from legendary bookstore Brattle, a full account of their Beacon Hill break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Whitney Hotel Boston…

Travel back in time to the America of the Founding Fathers with a trip to Beacon Hill, the Boston neighbourhood where the Whitney hangs its hat. Here, you don’t have to walk very far before you pass buildings, shops and public parks attached to adjectives like ‘first’, ‘oldest’ and ‘original’. The streets themselves look like relics from another time, lit with gas lamps and lined with boxy townhouses in fiery red brick. At nearby Faneuil Hall, none other than Samuel Adams once took the stage to make an independence-urging speech. There’s no doubt about it: this is the old soul of New England, and the Whitney is right at the heart of it. 

Unlike many of its neighbours, however, the hotel is no museum piece. The influence of the Federal townhouse can be seen in the boxy, red-brick exterior, but open-plan layouts and vast windows ensure the common areas feel fit for 21st-century travellers. Velvet armchairs, leather banquettes and French-oak floors introduce the trappings of fine living to the restaurant and lounge, but there’s no danger of stuffiness or over-formality. In the rooms, chintzy curtains and floral patterns have been eschewed in favour of a restrained palette of dark blue, white and black, allowing the modern artwork to provide the finishing splash of colour. Even the most contemporary pieces riff on Bostonian themes, however, proving the Whitney always has one eye on Beacon Hill’s history, and the other on its bright present.