We just returned from four nights at the Marriot Copley. We (it was my husband, my sixteen year old and myself) booked this hotel based on its proximity to BU and Northeastern University, Newbury Street shops, the malls, and historic Boston. We also used three nights of Marriott points and then paid $229 for the fourth night. We chose these dates because of Spring Break in Virginia. We had an excellent stay, and let me say that there was an initial aghast moment when we checked in along with thousands of Anime Conventioneers! Check in was simple (we arrived two hours late due to the tardiness of our flight out of Reagan National), we were given our request of a top floor (room 3045)--this was a corner room and at the very end of the hall which was great since it meant that the only people heading down to our end of the hall would be us! In retrospect, I wish I had asked for an even higher floor, or even tried to get club level or an upgrade, but what I was given was perfect at the time.

Before critiquing the hotel too much, I will say that I am a Marriott Timeshare owner, so when I go away for either a night or seven nights, it has usually been in a Springhill Suites-style room, or a timeshare (apartment-like). I haven't stayed in a Marriott Hotel-style room in a very long time, so this took some getting used to (without a sitting area or kitchen, so to speak). There is a chair, small table and lamp against the long wall with the window. The bathroom is small. I didn't love that there wasn't an exhaust fan, the spray of the shower (pressure), the yellow staining on the wallpaper (near the floor and possibly glue coming from behind the paper), or that they turned the water off Sunday night from 12-6am (this would have been okay if our sink water had come back on at six am...instead when we called downstairs at seven to report that there wasn't any water running after an initial try of getting black water, we were told to just keep it on and it "will eventually come on". It didn't, we brushed our teeth using the tub water, and reported it to maintenance (it was on when we returned to the room that afternoon). And there was a letter slipped under our door letting us know the water would be cut off for those six hours (someone else on this post had written about this during his stay as well). There could be much, much better lighting in the bathroom and a better hairdryer (not turbo enough for long hair). But it was clean, enabled two people to stand next to each other and put on makeup ( a bit cramped, but possible), and provided us with the dryer, toiletries, etc

I didn't love that I had a full wall of windows plus more once rounding out the corner (about three feet of the next wall), but the bottom half was "foggy". I did love that the top half was BIG enough that the bottom half could be avoided and I got tons of great pictures of the Charles River and beyond.

I didn't love the double beds (I would have preferred two queens), but I really do love those Marriott pillows!

I didn't love the fee for the Internet for the cost of the room.

Yes, it did seem like it took a while for them to clean up the dishes from the halls (a few coffee mugs and wine glasses) like another poster wrote. But the cleaning crew were always working (remember we had a full house of ANIME people...look it up if you don't know what they are...or perhaps you are one of them?).

We ate at Champions the first night since we arrived late and wanted to get acclamated to the area. I loved that the malls were attached, and since I left my hairbrush at home (!), I loved that Shaws is across the street (snacks, hairbrush, sodas, EVERYTHING you need). The restaurant was good, but I tried not to go to any other chain while in Boston.

We were touring colleges for my daughter (mission accomplished), saw Boston (never been before), took the Trolley Tour (can get tickets right at the Marriott and pick up Trolley there), explored the "T" (very easy--get everyone put on the Charlie Card and it is even easier), tried many great restaurants (listed below) and did a lot of walking! If I didn't have the points to use for a free night stay, I would probably comparison shop and look into the Westin as a possibility. Just for a change. The Marriott has always done right by me. And the fact that this hotel is connected to the malls, the convention center, extremely close to the "T", has a grocery store across the street, the Duck tour boats and Trolleys right at the entrance.....so many pros and very, very few cons.

We ate breakfast at Brassiere Jo (three minute quick walk away), Mike's City Diner (fifteen minute even quicker walk away--it was chilly so fast walking was easy for us!), and Thornton's Diner (two more mins past Brassiere Jo's). Had wonderful waffles and you have to order the double hot chocolate at Brass. Jo's. Thorntons had excellent crepes and we liked the home fries/potatoes there the best. And Mike's had phenomenal waffles (cinnamon walnut). Brass. Jo's is french so the waffles tasted a bit different than what you'd expect (wheat?) and the hot choc. was thick and came with small crocks of whipped cream on the side.

We ate lunch at Bartleys Burger Cottage (near Harvard)...if you can get past the nasty, rude girl passing out menus outside (and yes, we had a ten minute wait outside on a Saturday at two pm, and we placed our order right there on the street with a man that was taking the orders outside and then having them run inside for a head start!), the people inside are very nice. EXPECT cramped quarters! Small and dark inside. The burgers weren't anything spectacular. They have many choices, a huge menu, and it is the ambience/atmosphere/age that we went for...and Rachael Ray recommending it had me curious. We had Easter Lunch at Upper Crust since many places in Little Italy had special menus or weren't open yet (never made it to Giaccomo's due to timing on our part). I loved Upper Crust's pizza. And we also ate lunch one day in Little Italy at Caffe della Sport (it was very, very good...paninis and pizza and very good).

Finally, we ate dinners at The Pourhouse (on Boylston and maybe ten min walk from hotel). It is a pub, and we had good wraps, wings and cheesesteaks. Dark though and the service wasn't great. I would go again, because of the size of the menu and the proximity to the hotel, but it wasn't "all that". Firefly was AWESOME. It is on Dartmouth and literally twenty yards maybe from a mall entrance (so you aren't outside for very long if you walk through the mall). I had Pumpkin Lasagna (!), my daughter had the special (ravioli---very good), and the steak was good as well. I enjoyed that restaurant a lot. Easy to get to, quick, efficient and good service.

JP Licks was endured since we walking Newbury Street and just had to stop in for some odd flavored ice creams (we just had to). We had gelato in Quincy Market, and of course we ate many cannoli's in Mike's Pastry. We also gave in to one other chain and had cheesecake in bed from the Cheesecake Factory.

I hope this helps a bit...email me with any questions. I have enjoyed reading Trip Advisor and hope to be able to help others, like I have been helped along the way from other reviews!