Bought a bargain package, mostly to see if BI was a place I'd want to go again. The answer is yes, the island is lovely, couldn't see it all in three days. Lovely vistas, gentle pace, friendly service everywhere and classy shops. HOWEVER, the inn itself was a bust. Tiny rooms, no place to sit but the bed, no room for a chair or a luggage rack. Sink and shower needed cleaning when I arrived after being told my room was "ready". No AC, no carpets, had to go to lobby for ice, bathroom so small you literally could not stand between the toilet and shower. HOWEVER, in exact contrast to hotel, the restaurant downstairs had excellent food though the service was slow and lackadaisical. Staff at both hotel and restaurant spent more time chatting with each other than attending to guests. BTW, there is now wifi in rooms.

Nice old New England hotel, no air conditioning. We enjoyed the restaurant, and the view over the harbor is enjoyable.
The WIFI killed me though. They have one router sitting behind the bar for the whole hotel, and it is pathetically slow. The hotel should not even offer this service, it just makes the guests angry.

This was our second stay at the Harborside Inn and this time the "charm" just didn't cut it. It's difficult to fault a facility directly across from the ferry but this is really a " has been" place. We stayed in the room we had previously stayed as there are only maybe two with air conditioning, however, we pretty much didn't sleep. The rooms are old and not remotely charming, just stale and funky. The restaurant and bar are dark and rather creepy and certainly not welcoming.

The one bright spot is the front porch which is large and comfortable and you can enjoy whatever the bar serves on the porch. Our morning coffee was the highlight at the Harborside as we could escape from our yucky room and enjoy it on the porch.

I will be making reservations for next year and for certain we will stay elsewhere.

Having stayed here years ago, I knew it was a small room in an old building. We had an oceanview room (which should be called the spectator room because it's more a view of the street and all the people coming off the ferry's!) so I knew to bring a small fan with us - which allowed a nice cross breeze when combined with their fan. Upon arriving, we took our shoes off only to find the floor was inundated with sand and later found bottle caps on the floor that weren't ours - someone forgot to sweep I guess! The hotel has it's charm and we were all about relaxing, so we were fine. Our second night there around 8pm, we were really upset that there was not a stitch of hot water to be had! 8:00 at night ... they told us everyone in the hotel was getting ready to go out, to wait a 1/2 hour. I found this bothersome because we took hot showers just before check out time each day and there was plenty of water. Also, if I do the math correctly, this hotel is pulling in at least $8K a night .. that could certainly buy a heft water heater I would believe!! We met a couple at the front desk who were explaining how they thought they dropped an earring on the floor, only to find a dead bird under the dresser! Guess they didn't sweep that room either! The front desk staff was so/so. The convenience of the luggage room to enjoy another day is ideal! The restaurant was very good for breakfast - a continental breakfast was included - or - you could take $4 off another breakfast selection. For some reason we got the same thing 2 days in a row and our bill was completely different! For lunch, we were disappointed that our food wasn't cooked, but they did accommodate us by taking it off the bill. It's the perfect location and it was quiet enough to get a nice nap in on a drizzly day. I would stay here again, but need to remember the pros/cons and not have any expectations.