The Night Before, Ranked

Your three best hotels, live

Change any answer and the picks change with it. They’re built from the same published facts as the ranking below. Nobody pays to be here.

Your night before, worked out

Five answers, and the page builds the whole thing: the hotel, the ride in, the ride to the ship, what happens to the car, what time to leave, and how you get home. Every figure is one the hotel, the port or the company publishes. Where nobody publishes a number, you’ll see that instead of a guess.

Partner links (transfers, rental cars, luggage storage, lounges) may earn Seabound Journeys a commission at no extra cost to you. They don't change the plan, which is built only from what each company publishes.

The top three

One with its own ride to the ship and two you can walk from. The Holiday Inn Express in South Boston lists a shuttle to the cruise terminal, fare by phone, with free breakfast; Homewood Suites and Hyatt Place, in the Seaport, put the terminal a 5- and a 10-minute walk away.

The twenty, in order

Filter by what matters for your night. Save the ones you like, or tick up to three to compare side by side — the order is ours, the shortlist is yours.

From the airport to the hotel, then on to the ship

Pick how you’re arriving. The board counts what each hotel publishes, the table lights up that column, and the companies below run from the airport to the port.

Norwegian puts Logan about 2 miles and 10 minutes from the cruiseport; Holland America says 2.8 miles, 45 to 60 minutes with traffic, and a taxi of about $40. Ten of the twenty are in the Seaport, a walk or a short ride from the terminal.

How far each pick sits from the ship

Boston has one cruise terminal, Flynn Cruiseport at 1 Black Falcon Avenue, out on the Seaport’s working waterfront. The bands measure from there: the Seaport and Fort Point; downtown and South Boston; Logan, through the tunnel; then Chelsea and Revere, north of the airport.

Ten of the twenty are in the Seaport, two downtown or in South Boston, three at Logan and five in Chelsea or Revere. None in the suburbs made the cut.

The Night-Before Score, out of 100

Five things decide how easy the night before is, and each one is scored only from what the hotel publishes on its own site or its brand’s.

If a hotel doesn't say it, it scores zero there — not a guess, zero. Travel sites, tourism listings and review sites don't count, and when a hotel’s own pages contradict each other, we score the claim as unconfirmed and tell you. Each page lists exactly what we couldn't confirm.

Where the car goes while you sail

Two of the twenty print a rate to leave the car, both north of Logan. Set your cruise length to see them against the cruiseport lots, at about $25 a day per third-party guides.

For the options in town, see Boston cruise parking, compared.

Twelve that just missed

We checked 51 hotels in the Seaport, downtown, Back Bay, Cambridge, around Logan and in the suburbs. These came closest, with their scores and the reason each fell short. The Boston Harbor Hotel, both Four Seasons and the Envoy are on the splurge list, with the Seaport Hotel and the Omni.

Not ranked: Holiday Inn Express & Suites Boston Garden. At 280 Friend Street. Yelp lists it as closed, and hotel-listing sites now show Hotel Indigo Boston Garden by IHG at the same listing; we found no IHG page for either, so it isn't scored.; Hilton Boston Downtown/Faneuil Hall. Now The Dagny Boston, at 89 Broad Street, per hotel-listing sites; AAA lists The Dagny as Four Diamond since 2023. Hilton's old page still loads with thin data. We didn't research The Dagny, so it isn't scored.; Comfort Inn Boston, 900 Morrissey Boulevard. Choice's pages for it load with no hotel content, so we couldn't confirm it's open or score it. CruiseHive, a third party, describes a $299 package with parking and a shuttle.; Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel. Now Renaissance Boston Seaport District, at the same address with the same Marriott code, and in our twenty under that name.; Courtyard Boston Downtown/Tremont. The older name of the Courtyard by Marriott Boston Downtown at 275 Tremont Street; Booking.com's link still uses it. We scored it: 28.; Moxy Boston Seaport. We found no such hotel. Marriott's Boston Moxy is Moxy Boston Downtown on Tremont Street, which we scored: 28.; Canopy by Hilton Boston Seaport. We found no such hotel; Hilton's Boston Canopy is Canopy by Hilton Boston Downtown, on Blackstone Street, which we didn't research.; Hilton Garden Inn Boston Seaport. We found no such hotel; Hilton's Seaport hotels are the Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites at 670 Summer Street, both in our twenty.

Landing the day before?

Pre-cruise hotel FAQ