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After a delayed flight and an almost-misadventured train ride to “Wonderland” (an actual station on the Blue Line), I was grateful I didn’t have to stumble far out of the State Street station before I bumped into the Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall. Having never been to Boston before, I wanted to begin my week-long stay in one of the hotels downtown.
Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall Review
First Impressions
I was checked in warmly by Matthew, who kindly allowed me to check in at 12:30 pm, even though check-in wasn’t officially until 4:00 pm. When I handed him my card for incidentals, he exclaimed, “Oh, you got the Hyatt card!” We discussed our mutual love of the card for a minute before he handed me two bottles of water for my Discoverist status.
Pops of teal and gold punctuated the lobby. The tall ceilings were accented with decorative molding.
The lobby also featured a cozy two-way fireplace.
My favorite feature was the wall of open books behind the large conference table.
The Room
My room for the two-night stay was number 811, with a “coziness” reminiscent of European hotels in the middle of downtown Boston. It would be quite tight for two people to share, as the only places to sit were the bed, the corner chair, and a small ottoman you could slide out from underneath the bedside table. While there wasn’t enough room for a desk, there was a small airplane tray-sized stand thing you could slide over the chair as a makeshift grade school desk.
Continuing the compact theme, I could only fit my DSLR camera inside the safe; neither my laptop nor my iPad would fit. The safe was clearly designed to accommodate wallets, passports, jewelry, and the like.
A tiny fridge was concealed in a drawer, with a note from staff regarding its lack of functionality. (Contrary to the note, my fridge was unfortunately not even suitable for chilling beverages).
One of my favorite decorative pieces was the wooden map outline of downtown Boston. Admittedly, the Midwesterner in me admired it as a lovely wooden art piece for several minutes before it began to look familiar.
The window featured a landscape view of the building across the street. Even with the curtains completely parted in the middle of the day, the room was still fairly dim without any additional lighting. Admittedly, the provided lighting provided minimal help; mere mirrored bedside lamps and a sole standing lamp behind the corner chair were tasked with lighting the entire main room.
A backlit circular portrait of the neighboring State Street train station served an ambient glow from above the bed.
Neighboring the TV, slender wardrobe, and fridge drawer/Keurig display was a brass-rimmed full-length mirror with curved edges. The mirror reflected one of the fun design elements of the room: the sliding barn door separating the bathroom from the entranceway.
The bathroom featured a backlit mirror with a built-in clock – helpful in informing me just how beyond schedule I was when getting ready for the day. The shower was narrow, with plenty of vertical room but not much horizontal space. I appreciated the detail of the blue accent wall and artwork near the toilet.
The overall decor was sophisticated while being minimal and clean. The espresso wood gave a lot of warmth, and the tall ceilings provided some breathing room that made the room feel bigger than it was. With the plaid patterns and varying shades of brown, gray, and copper, it felt as though I might find a Scottie dog somewhere.
Related: 5 vegan desserts Boston shops you have to try
Overall Aesthetic
Orange, blue, and plaid dominated the rooms and common areas. I enjoyed the fun design on the wall mirror facing my floor’s elevators. I also appreciated the marble-style border around each elevator, although it was a bit worn-looking.
Amenities
The Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall offered a small fitness center, which had enough equipment to accommodate a basic dumbbell workout with a rowing machine, cable machine, and a couple treadmills to supplement. If you need some kind of barbell rack (or anything lower-body-oriented), you may want to workout elsewhere.
The gym did offer complementary wired earbuds for use, as well as a selection of both room temperature and chilled towels.
A small business center with a PC and printer sat in an offshoot of the lobby, across from a meeting room.
Food
My only eating experience at the Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall was breakfast at Bar Cicchetti. I enjoyed the industrial accents of the place: the concrete columns, the black geometric lighting fixtures, and the distressed look of the wooden tables. The restaurant featured windows on three sides, but the closely-neighboring tall buildings obstructed any view of the hotel’s namesake. In a way, it felt like eating in an alley.
It was easy to admire the details of the space because the restaurant was deserted. I walked in at 10:30 am (with breakfast served until 11:00 am) and a small stack of menus near the entrance reassured me I was not in the wrong place. I had to walk through two-thirds of the restaurant to find a staff member to ask if they were still serving breakfast. “Yes, sit anywhere you like.”
In fact, I had the whole place to myself for a half-hour, until I observed another lone guest do the same confused “am-I-allowed-in-here-right-now” choreography before being intercepted by staff. We ended up exchanging remarks on the tastiness of our food from our seats twenty feet apart over the course of our meals.
I chose the antioxidant granola bowl with oat milk and a decaf oat milk cappuccino.
From the menu description, the dish appeared to be the same thing as the steel-cut oatmeal but with granola instead of oats. I was a bit disappointed by the bowl at first because, while the dish name explained itself perfectly well, it was literally just some fruit atop a bed of granola with milk to pour over it. I think it was the granola-to-fruit ratio, which was a bit too much for me.
And while it was flavorful, I got a little bored with the taste and texture. The milk transformed it into more of a soggy crushed graham cracker consistency after a short while. My cappuccino was thin and a little watered down but hey, what can you expect from hotel coffee?
The staff, while scarce, were very pleasant and gladly gave me some tourist recommendations when asked.
Related: 6 vegan restaurants you should visit in Boston
Booking
As a Category 5 property, nights at the Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall are 20,000 points. As prices for Boston hotels downtown are pretty high regardless of where you stay, I opted to use 40,000 points for two nights. The cash price for the same two nights was $808.55. That yielded me a value of 2.02 cents per point. As it’s so easy to get value with Hyatt points, I don’t recommend using them if you’re getting anything less than two cents per point.
Overall Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall Review
The Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall is definitely a city hotel. While the design aesthetic is clean and elegant, you’re staying here for easy access to attractions in the downtown area, not for a leisurely amount of personal space and a picturesque view. The most interesting view I had was of the red and blue emergency lights flashing outside the lobby after guests on certain floors were asked to evacuate following a fire alarm. (Don’t worry. My guerilla entertainment was brief and seemingly unnecessary.)
It was an ideal location to begin my week in Boston. For a Boston first-timer like me, staying in one of the hotels downtown was a great choice. I walked to the New England Aquarium, the Common, City Hall Plaza, and even the Seaport District with ease. The restaurant-filled North End and West End are also swiftly accessible. One can even quickly hop on the Freedom Trail less than a block from the hotel entrance, near the Old State House. If you’d like to venture farther out, there are also many convenient T stops nearby. Whatever the itinerary, the Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall will set you up for success.
You should book if:
- You only have a few days in Boston.
- You’re visiting Boston for the first time.
- You’re interested in staying in one of the hotels in the downtown Boston area.
You should skip if:
- You prefer to drive to places of interest.
- You’ll be spending a lot of time in your room and want space to spread out.
- You don’t like a city environment.