Copley Square Hotel: Beantown, Part 2

Here's one piece of advice we'd give to anyone traveling with a toddler or infant: Ask your hotel for a refrigerator.

The folks at the Copley Square Hotel in Boston—a slickly remodeled boutique hotel in (like all of Boston) an antique building situated conveniently near the T in an upscale neighborhood—were kind enough to reserve the one refrigerator available for us.

It was just a tiny thing, but since there was a Shaw's (somewhere between a Bristol Farm and a Von's, according to Eric) just down the street, we were able to load up with milk each night, and more than a few bottles of water, and freeze our ice pack for walking around the city each day. Trust us: It's worth asking!



Another essential piece of advice is to travel with your in-laws. Not only did Aki's Jiji and Uncle meet us at the airport and help us lug our luggage laden with toddler goodies through Boston's mass transit system, but Jiji and Baba helped us lug around our milk and snack-heavy each day and made it possible for us to, oh, eat every now and then.

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A sleek, trendy bar for the younger set fronts the hotel (crisp black modern lines, plush cushions, and a "fireplace" composed of dozens of faux frosted glass candles), and there are free wine tastings every night from 5-6 p.m. which, as anyone who knows us could tell you, is like the icing on the cake. Granted, every time we've come to Boston we've tasted wine and it's always been from California, but who's going to complain when it's free?

With its restored-to-trendiness/art deco feel, the Copley Square Hotel reminded us of some of the boutique-y places we've stayed at in San Francisco or Greece. Following another parent guidebook's advice, we ate a meal or two in the hotel (again courtesy of Shaw's!) to help make the place feel like "home" for Aki (and also saving a couple of bucks in a relatively pricey tourist trap like Boston!).

Oh, and our last piece of advice about traveling with a toddler is to have a friend get you the hook ups: The Copley Square Hotel isn't exactly budget, especially during graduation season (contrary to Spinal Tap's assertions), but Kano was able to find us a great deal at the travel agency where she worked before moving on to bigger and better things. Thanks, Kano!