I have stayed here many times. I always would book for 4th of July. Unless you are on the water side you don't see the fireworks. The only good thing is the T stop is right outside and gets you all over the city.

This hotel is so close to downtown - only a T ride which is right outside the hotel or there's another one right across the street. For the fireworks we just walk over - only two blocks walking distance. The hotel always has friendly staff just aiming to please. One time at 11:30 pm after the fireworks my daughter (8 yrs old) was exhausted but hungry and we couldn't imagine where we'd get food at that hour....so when we finally got to the hotel after getting through the huge crowd it was almost midnight but the restaurant was still doing room service but only for like 5 more minutes. When I got in the room I called room service and they had no problem - the food they sent up was awesome - my daughter felt like a queen. Love the Cambridge Marriott!!!

The Cambridge Marriott is a great choice if you're visiting MIT, the Kendall Square area or other parts of Cambridge. With a Red Line stop right outside, it's also convenient to Harvard Square and many parts of Boston. It's well maintained with nice rooms. Many of the rooms have great view of the Charles River and Boston. The hotel has a nice restaurant and bar and a Starbuck's. The rate can be quite high (over $300), but good deals can be found, too.

We stayed here for a weekend event at MIT. I did a lot of research and boy did it pay off. I had requested a standard view room with two queen sized beds when I made our reservation. Upon check in I was told that the only thing available was a room with one king. There were 4 of us so I was a bit panicked at first. The front desk was able to assure me that we would all actually fit a bit better here as we could fit a roll away bed in addition to a queen sized pull out sofa and the king sized bed. The room was perfect and apparently we had been upgraded to a river view room!!! The view of Boston across the Charles at sunset and night was beautiful.
The hotel was literally steps from MIT. I could watch my son exit the building 15 floors below, cross the street and be on campus.
We did not rent a car, nor did I ever wish we had! The subway stop was in the hotel's courtyard...talk about convenient. Harvard was two stops "outbound" and we were in Boston within 10 minutes. We decided to purchase tickets for one of the sightseeing trolleys from the extremely helpful hotel's concierge and discovered that there was a stop right in front of the hotel.
In all, I cannot imagine staying anywhere else when visiting MIT.Our room was reasonably priced, convenient, clean and very comfortable! If our son ends up as a full time student there, we will make this hotel our home away from home each time we visit him.