Where to stay in Boston while visiting colleges?

We are planning to tour Harvard and Boston College while in Boston in August. Would like to head to Brown the following morning. Wondering what area of Boston would make sense to stay? Will traffic heading south be bad in the morning? Is there a bad rush hour? Is there a place to stay that’s close enough to get to Harvard and BC easily (by car) but could maybe cut our commute time a bit to get to Providence? TIA!

I’d look at the Marriott in Newton. It’s right on 128 so it will make the trip down to Providence in the morning a bit easier. There will be traffic headed to Harvard and BC if it’s a work day. I’d recommend hitting Harvard first and working your way back to BC.

Download the Spot Hero app on your phone. It will be helpful while in the Boston area.

Our family did the Boston trip last month. We stayed at Residence Inn on Washington Street in Roxburry. We only visited MIT and saving Harvard for another trip in case my son consider applying under RD. Most of the colleges info session and tour are either 10AM and 2PM. Are you just visiting our doing an actual tour. The info session for Harvard requires registration.

The Residence Inn in Roxbury is just down the street from Northeastern. Parking will be very difficult in Cambridge. I did manage to find street parking but note that they are limited to 2 hours. There is an app to pay the parking meter as well. Otherwise, carry some quarters.

We went over spring break and it was our “vacation” with a family of 4. We actually rented a great condo/apartment in Cambridge through VRBO. That might be worth checking out for anyone visiting. We visited MIT, Harvard, BU and Northeastern while there for a whirlwind 3 days.

Based on the schools you’re wanting to visit, I’m wondering if you wouldn’t be better off either staying somewhere in Cambridge right near Harvard U, and a place that has parking. Then either walk or take the T to Harvard. You could then either drive to BC, or even take the T there. Then drive down to Providence.