Overnight in Boston - A Little Bit About a Lot of Things A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

June 12, 2011 Overnight in Boston

My mother and I spent an overnight in Boston-enjoying what this great city has to offer. First stop, check into the Elliot Hotel located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue. A really great hotel-boutique, before it was ‘in’, with lots of charm. The lobby area is small and sparse, but every room is suite style.

The lobby.

There are 4 chairs in the small lobby-two on each side.

The beds were comfortable and stylish.

The bedroom had a tv in front of the French doors that led out to the sitting area.

A small hallway off the sitting area. To the left was the bar area and to the right the hallway to the bathroom.

The bar.

The bathroom was a bit small with very little counter space. There was no fan in the bathroom so it got steamy when you took a shower.

A pretty great feature was this touch screen computer in the room. You could make restaurant reservations, find the best places to shop, even find a good route for your morning run.

We left the hotel and made our way to the Mandarin Oriental for a day at the spa. The service was impeccable. The lobby of the spa had a relaxing water feature (not shown) and a shop to buy all your spa products. Here you begin by taking off your shoes, a symbol of leaving the outside world behind, and then complete the welcome ritual with a hot towel and a cup of tea.

Everything is sleek and modern. We are here early in the morning, and there aren’t many other people here. The locker rooms feature a wonderful eucalyptus steam room, with a shaved ice machine outside, overhead rain showers, a wading pool and luxurious beds to lounge on while you wait for your appointment.

I had a wonderful aroma stone massage-an hour and twenty minutes of pure bliss! They have hydraulic massage tables that I especially liked. I also had a one hour and twenty minute facial-which included a mini massage. I would say don’t do both back to back-if you are like me…I get antsy and can’t sit still that long 🙂

Be aware that the spa at the Mandarin offers weekday prices and weekend prices and an 18% gratuity is automatically added to your bill.

After a morning of pure relaxation, we head over to Stephanie’s for lunch. See review here.

We head over the Newbury Street, the Prudential mall and the Copley mall to walk off our lunch before retuning to our hotel to get ready for dinner at Clio.

It’s hard to see what this room looks like because it was so dim. Clio and Uni are in the same space. Uni, the sushi bar, is located in a small space-down a few steps from Clio. Clio is a relatively small restaurant and the place was packed. Both restaurants are Ken Oringer’s-Clio’s menu changes nightly so see the website for a sample menu.

I started with a really wonderful appetizer-green and white asparagus with en egg. The asparagus was cooked perfectly and the creamy texture of the egg blended really nicely with the saltiness of the ham.

For the main course I had the lobster. Two large portions that were the perfect texture and wonderfully sweet. Such a simple dish, but done so well.

I can’t remember the name of this dessert, but it was a little too gummy for me. It tasted like chocolate pudding but was more of the consistency of jello….Really good meal over all-I expect nothing less from Ken Oringer..the service was good-very attentive. We called it a night after dinner.

We went back to Clio for breakfast-they offer a buffet option, with cereal, yogurt, and pastries. We opted for the a la carte menu. I had the waffles with fresh berries and raspberry coulis. Beautifully presented, and tasted just as good.