A public Pay Toilet in downtown Boston
[Flickr/michelle murphy]
One of the many perils of touring any city is trying to find a conveniently located public restroom. Very few restaurants like to accommodate non-paying tourists breathlessly trying to push their way to back, and even most fast food emporiums insist you that become a customer before using their facilities. To make your wanderings throughout Boston as painless as possible, here’s a list of the city’s better placed public bathrooms (for those with small children or elderly adults – you even might want to print this out!):
1. The Boston Public Library – Located on Dartmouth Street in Copley Square. Enter the main building, pass the security equipment/check-in desk, take a left before the stairs and then follow the signs. Make sure to check out the lions guarding the elegant stairway going up to the main reading rooms, and after the pressure is off, take a walk through the lovely center courtyard. Of course, if you’re lucky enough to be staying in one of Copley Square’s great hotels – like the Marriott Copley Place, Westin Copley Place, the Lenox or Fairmont Copley Plaza – you can just go there simply to appreciate the architecture. Open 9 AM – 5 PM Monday-Saturday (longer during the summer) and 1 PM – 5 PM Sundays.
Read More »
M Bar & Lounge at the Mandarin Oriental, Boston
Ah, the hotel bar – although sometimes underrated, it can actually be home to some of the best bartenders and most creative concoctions around. There’s something wonderful about hotel bars even for those who live in the same city; it’s a chance to see first-hand the kind of traveler your city is attracting, and if you play your hand right, it’s an opportunity for you to get to know a bartender well enough for him to divulge the secrets of the room to you. Some of the best people watching goes down in Boston‘s hotel bars, so we’ve offered up a few of our favorite hotel bars for your next trip to Beantown:
1. M Bar & Lounge, Mandarin Oriental: If elegance and extravagance is what you seek, look no further than M Bar at the Mandarin Oriental Boston. The new hotel sits pretty in Boston’s trendy Back Bay and M Bar plays into the style and sophistication of the neighborhood. The crowd is a mix of high-rollers celebrating a new VC-deal and cougars on the prowl for cubs, and you’ll enjoy a little bit of everything from your corner seat with a Mandarin Martini.
2. Minibar at The Copley Square Hotel: The name of this little space says it all – it’s a mini-bar, set right in the middle of the lobby so you can watch all the comings-and-goings of the night, into the late-late-night. Make your own martini from the minibar’s “mixers list” or have the bartender create you something special. If the mood strikes, you can always get ‘in.2.it’ in one of the hotel’s sexy little rooms upstairs.
Read More »
