We are thinking we'll take the family to Boston for a fall conference. We need a hotel with easy metro acccess to the Boston Convention Center on 415 Summer Street. The rest of the family will do touring while dad goes to school! Help, please. It can be hard to tell which hotels really are easy to use to go back and forth to the convention center. I'm talking about no more than 10 miles away from the Convention Center. We would be flying into Logan, so we would not have a car and would have to get from the airport to said hotel, too. Thanks.

That's the BCEC in the "Waterfront" area. You DO NOT want any hotels that are 10 miles away, not even 5 miles. Boston is compact ~ 10 miles is the suburb already!

There are a bunch of hotels that are right near the BCEC, including the Westin Waterfront, Renaissance, and Seaport Hotel. All are within walking distance to the Silver Line service of the "T" (short for MBTA; http://www.mbta.com/). The Silver Line is directly linked to the Logan Airport (~ 10-min ride); as well as to South Station (~5-min ride) where you can change for the Red Line to other parts of the city.

Otherwise, you can stay at any hotels in the "downtown" district, meaning Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall area, or Theatre District. Your husband should be able to get to BCEC in 30 minutes by T if you guys choose to stay there instead of the Waterfront district.

The only downside of Waterfront district is that it's still a relatively new area of the city, so there aren't many restaurants around. So if you stay there, you'll need to head into town (by T or a short cab ride) for dinner.

What about these listed as Crosstown area: courtyard Boston downtown/Tremont

doubletree Boston Bayside

Definitely NOT the Doubletree Bayside. It's extremely inconvenient.

The Courtyard on Tremont is fine. It's right next to the Tufts medical Center and Chinatown. It's convenient for sightseeing. For your husband to get to BCEC, it'll be faster for him to walk to South Station (~10-min walk) to catch the Silver Line to BCEC.

You may want to check reviews on the Courtyard. My only concern would be ambulance sirens since it's so close to the hospital.

The Doubletree is not in downtown Boston, it's on the grounds of the Bayside Exposition Center in the section of Boston known as Dorchester. Although it has easy access to a subway station on the Red Line, the area itself has nothing of interest except the JFK Library. Boston is a conglomeration of villages that used to be independent, so there are many duplicated street names. (For instance, there are 4 or 5 "Park Streets".) Although the Doubletree is on "Mount Vernon Street," that's not the same Mt. Vernon Street as the one on Beacon Hill.

Many hotels use "Boston" in their name but are actually in locations that would be very inconvenient for you. The Doubletree is a compromise: boring location but with access to the T. You can do better, there are many hotels in town. The Courtyard or any other hotel taht really is in in Downtown Crossing would be just fine, and very convenient for the tourist segment of your group.

The conference has given us a list, but it doesn't provide all the info I'd like. It lists a couple places by Copley Place and the 3 by the convention center itself (2 of which are already sold out). I do see a Doubletree Boston Downtown.

Doubletree downtown (821 Washington Street), is just around the corner from the Marriott Courtyard Tremont. Again, it's next to the Tufts Medical Center.