With plummeting temperatures and shorter days, winter can sometimes feel a little doom and gloom. But that doesn’t mean you can’t find beauty in the season—you just have to know where to look. According to Premier Inn, the largest hotel chain in the United Kingdom, Boston is where you should seek wintertime scenery. A 2024 report released by the hotel found Massachusetts’ capital to be the most beautiful winter city in the world.
In its analysis, Premier Inn showed 100 participants images of winter in 72 cities around the world and used eye-tracking technology to measure which destinations held gazes the longest. “The average fixation times were then ranked from high to low to reveal the cities that people spent the longest time looking at,” the report said. “These cities were the most eye-catching and therefore the most beautiful.”
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Franklin Park, a partially wooded 527-acre parkland in the Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and Dorchester neighborhoods of Boston
The analysis found that Boston’s skyline had an average viewing time of 2.67 seconds. “The city’s colonial architecture takes on a nostalgic quality when covered in snow, while the Freedom Trail becomes a magical walking route,” Premier Inn revealed in its results. “Boston Common and the Public Garden transform into winter wonderlands, and the Museum of Fine Arts offers warm halls filled with world-class art.”
With its iconic skyline and sights, Boston held participants’ gazes for longer than images of wintry New York City, mountainous Salt Lake City, and U.K. destinations like York, Liverpool, London, and Edinburgh. And no small feat.
Besides being beautiful, there are plenty of things to do in Boston in the winter, too—visitors can ice skate on Frog Pond, visit the Snowport Holiday Market, and even dine in an igloo on the rooftop of The Envoy Hotel. Travelers can glide across the iconic Frog Pond ice rink in Boston Common, warm up with hot chocolate in Beacon Hill’s cafés, and browse the festive lights along Newbury Street. You can also wander through the museums, catch a performance at the Boston Ballet, or take a brisk stroll along the Charles River for postcard-perfect city views.
Of course, other U.S. winter cities also enchanted viewers. New York City came in second place, followed by Salt Lake City, Washington D.C., and Aspen, Colorado, rounding out the top five.
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