Fairmont Copley Plaza

The Fairmont Copley Plaza shares more than a name with New York's Plaza Hotel: both were designed by Henry Hardenbergh, and the Boston sibling, opened in 1912 on the site of the original Museum of Fine Arts, carries the same Beaux-Arts conviction that a hotel lobby should feel like a state occasion. Its gilded, coffered-ceilinged entrance hall—running the length of the building and known for its mirrored and marbled splendour—remains one of Boston's grandest interiors, and the hotel has hosted presidents, royalty and generations of Boston weddings ever since.

The location on Copley Square puts the city's most civilised quarter on foot: Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library face the hotel across the square, Newbury Street's boutiques begin a block away, and the Back Bay brownstones stretch beyond. Rooms are traditional in the Fairmont manner—classical furniture, rich fabrics—with views over the square or the Back Bay skyline, and the rooftop health club adds a workout with a view.

The OAK Long Bar + Kitchen, a handsome update of the hotel's storied oak room, anchors the ground floor with brasserie cooking and one of Back Bay's liveliest bar scenes, and the hotel's canine ambassador—a tradition much loved by regulars—greets guests in the lobby. It is not Boston's most fashionable stay, but for gilded-age architecture at the very centre of the city's best walking neighbourhood, it has no equal.