Marriott's Boston Custom House: A Marriott Vacation Club Resort Rating: 3.5 Pearls

Downtown and Waterfront, Boston, Massachusetts

Suites feature mini-kitchens with microwaves

Only in Boston will you find a Marriott Vacation Club housed in a landmarked building with a history that dates back to the mid-19th century (it was erected in 1847 and functioned as, well, a custom house, serving as a point of entry for clipper ships). Up until the mid-20th century, it was the tallest building in Boston, and its clock tower is still a distinctive feature of the city's skyline. (Guests thirsting for more of the building's history might enjoy the mini-museum located in the hotel's rotunda.) Marriott purchased the building in 1997 and operates it now as a time-share, with roughly half the 84 rooms available to hotel guests.

With its spacious suites and exhaustive activities program, the Custom House caters largely to families. Huge, 650-square-foot, suite-style rooms were given soft renovations in February 2009 and, though not particularly design conscious or state of the art, they're comfortable and clean. As of January 2010, the rooms also boast HD flat-screen TVs and free wireless internet. Decor is vaguely nautical, with dark wood furniture and upholstery in blues and golds. Rooms are designed to accommodate a passel of travelers, and feature a master bedroom with a four-poster, pillow-top king bed, a sparkling white kitchenette (with microwave, mini-fridge, silverware, coffeemaker, toaster, and blender), a four-chair dinette, and a sitting area with a foldout couch, HD flat-screen TV, complimentary WiFi and DVD player. A door between the sitting area and the corridor leading to the bathroom and master bedroom affords an added level of privacy for guests using the foldout as an extra bed. Quarters above the 7th floor have stellar views: My 18th-floor perch afforded a spectacular panorama of the harbor, Faneuil Hall, and the Zakim Bridge.

Traditional hotel services and amenities are fairly sparse here, however. Though a concierge is supposedly on duty Monday through Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (with shortened hours on Friday), the desk was unoccupied when I visited multiple times. There's no room service or on-site restaurant; just a 2nd-floor space serving continental breakfast that transforms into a performance area with a tiny adjoining bar at night. And there's a small, 24-hour fitness center that's not particularly up-to-date.

But what the hotel lacks in amenities it makes up for with an array of family-friendly activities that run the gamut from guided historic walks to T-shirt making workshops to Spanish guitar performances. The game room on the 24th floor, with its arcade games, air hockey and pool table, can keep restless kids busy for hours. The building's top-floor observation deck offers a bird's-eye view of the city, plus a views of a bird's eye -- a webcam tracks the activity of the Peregrine falcon family that nests in the hotel's clock tower. And though there's no on-site pool, swimmers get free access to the pool at the Marriott Long Wharf across the street.

The Custom House is uniquely suited to families and travelers with extended stays. Beware of weekend stays, however, especially on the lower floors: Proximity to the bars along State Street means that things can get noisy, a complaint that visitors during my stay shared.

View on a Larger Map

Centrally located two blocks west of the harbor, the New England Aquarium and Christopher Columbus Park, and directly south of the tourist mecca that is Faneuil Hall, the Harborside is an ideal home base for tourists, with easy access to dozens of restaurants and bars.

• Aquarium stop on the T (Boston's subway), is just down the block on State Street.
• Across the street from Faneuil Hall, a historic marketplace and modern-day mall
• Less than a five-minute walk to the New England Aquarium
• 10-minute walk to the 52-acre Boston Common, the country's oldest park and the start of the 2.5-mile Freedom Trail, which passes through 16 historic landmarks
• 10-minute T ride to TD Garden, home of the Boston Celtics
• 15-minute T ride to Harvard Square and the entrance to Harvard University
• 35-minute T ride to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox
• 20-minute, $30 cab ride to Logan International Airport; $10 buys a one-way trip to the airport via the Water Taxi, which stops across the street at Long Wharf

Game room has foosball and air hockey tables.

The name says it all. The Marriot Custom House is a vacation club, and as such, has dozens of planned activities for adults and kids every day of the week. Guided history tours, fitness walks, and sports packages (all of which can be arranged through the concierge), not to mention nightly live musical performances that cater to adult guests, are all on offer. A rotating lineup of kid-friendly activities (recent example: a T-shirt decorating workshop) keeps pipsqueaks occupied.

All of the property's 84 guest rooms are suites that can easily sleep four or more, with one master bedroom featuring a king-size bed and a living room with queen-size pullout couch. Kitchenettes and a dining room table make it easy to eat in on the cheap.

• 650-square-foot rooms with living room, foldout sofas, kitchenettes, and dining room tables
• Free cribs and rollaways
• Babysitting referrals are available via the concierge.
• On-site children's activity center reopened after renovations in early 2010; features include a full-size Connect Four, a Nintendo Wii and a dollhouse, among other things.
• Laundry with free washers and dryers, plus free detergent
• Freshly baked cookies in the lobby every day around 3:30
• Observation deck with 360-degree views of Boston
• Peregrine falcon nest located on upper deck is outfitted with a webcam (though recent attempts to access the URL were fruitless).
• 24th-floor game room features pool table, foosball table, air hockey, arcade games (Tekken 3, World Class Bowling Deluxe, 2005 Golden Tee) and vending machines, plus a view of the clock works
• No pool, but guests of the Marriott Custom House can use the Marriot Long Wharf's pool across the street. 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday
• Across the street from the New England Aquarium, whale-watching boats, and an IMAX theater