Where to Stay in Southborough, MA: A Local's Town Guide

If you are working out where to stay in Southborough, MA, the first thing to know is that the town has almost no lodging of its own. People come for a school event, a family visit or a job along I-495, and most end up in a chain hotel one town over. This guide covers what Southborough is like, what there is to do, and when a whole house makes more sense than a row of hotel rooms.

What kind of town this is

Southborough sits in MetroWest, about 30 minutes from downtown Boston when the Mass Pike behaves, with Worcester roughly the same distance the other way. It split off from Marlborough in 1727 as the "south borough", which is why the neighbours are called Westborough, Northborough and Marlborough. The town's own history page has the details, including a first town meeting held on land that is now part of St. Mark's School. The 300th anniversary falls in 2027.

The town describes itself as a former farming community of four villages, with tree-ringed reservoirs and rock outcroppings. That is accurate. There is a small center, and a strip of offices and shops along Route 9. Between them: stone walls, old farms and a lot of water.

Do not expect nightlife. Expect quiet, and a ten-minute drive to most errands.

The reservoir and the trails

The Sudbury Reservoir takes up a large share of the town map. It is watershed land managed by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, so the shoreline is undeveloped: no docks, no houses on the water, just woods and stone.

The Sudbury Reservoir Trail runs about five miles along the water from the Framingham side of town west to the Westborough line. For much of that distance it doubles as the Boroughs Loop Trail, a 33-mile regional loop through four towns, and as part of the MWRA's Aqueduct Trail network. One rule catches visitors out: the town's trail pages state that no dogs are allowed on DCR property within the Sudbury Reservoir watershed.

Two other places are worth an hour each:

• Chestnut Hill Farm, a 170-acre working farm owned by The Trustees of Reservations. It is free, open daily from sunrise to sunset, with about two miles of easy trails through hay fields and woods. There is a farm store at the first parking area. Dogs are not permitted.
• Beals Preserve, 58.5 acres of meadow, pond and woodland owned by the Southborough Open Land Foundation. Leashed dogs are allowed here, which they are not on the reservoir trails.

Our longer trails guide goes through all of these properly.

Visiting St. Mark's or Fay School

A good share of Southborough's out-of-town visitors are school families. Both schools sit close to the town center.

St. Mark's School is a coeducational Episcopal boarding and day school founded in 1865, on 210 acres. About three quarters of its students board, so family weekends, games and graduation bring parents in from a long way off.

Fay School dates from 1866 and describes itself as the first junior boarding school in the United States. It runs from kindergarten through grade nine, with boarding in grades seven to nine.

Honest advice for school weekends: the nearest hotels are in Westborough, Marlborough and Framingham, 10 to 15 minutes away, and they are fine for one or two people. They fill early around graduation, when colleges across the area hold theirs too. If grandparents, siblings and an aunt are all coming, a house in town saves you from eating every meal out and gives the student somewhere to sprawl for an afternoon. Check each school's calendar for dates.

Getting here and getting around

You need a car. Southborough is at the junction of I-495 and Route 9, with the Mass Pike (I-90) a few minutes south. The MBTA's Framingham/Worcester commuter rail line stops at Southborough station in the south of town, which is useful for a day in Boston without parking, but the station is a drive from the town center and there is no local transit to speak of.

Approximate drive times from Southborough town center:

• Downtown Boston: about 30 minutes off-peak, often 50 or more at rush hour
• Worcester: about 25 to 30 minutes
• Framingham and Natick: 15 to 20 minutes
• Hopkinton State Park: about 10 minutes

All of these swing with traffic, especially on the Mass Pike and Route 9.

Where to stay in Southborough, MA

For a solo business trip, take the hotel near your meeting. For a group, there is Southborough Garden Retreat, a private whole-house rental in town. It was a family home for nearly 30 years before it became a retreat. It has four bedrooms (two kings, a queen and a bunk room with eight spots) plus sofa beds, and sleeps 14 comfortably. The dining table seats 12, the kitchen has an induction range and a stocked spice rack, and there is a first-floor primary suite, which matters when someone in the party would rather skip the stairs.

The grounds run to more than an acre, with garden paths, a pond, a gazebo and a patio with a gas grill. The Sudbury Reservoir Trail is a short walk away. Indoors there is a library of more than 1,000 books, a projector room, a games room and a gym.

It is on a quiet residential street and it is not a party house. Daytime gatherings are possible by arrangement; the gatherings page explains how that works. Jillian, the host, is a Superhost who replies within the hour.

If your trip is really about a neighbouring town, see the guide to Westborough, Marlborough and Hopkinton.

Useful links

• Town of Southborough: History
• Town of Southborough: About Southborough
• Town of Southborough: Sudbury Reservoir Trail
• Town of Southborough: Boroughs Loop Trail
• The Trustees: Chestnut Hill Farm
• Southborough Open Land Foundation: Beals Preserve
• St. Mark's School
• Fay School
• MBTA Framingham/Worcester Line