The full-service Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside is Portsmouth’s only real Harborfront hotel and is a short, pleasant walk from downtown restaurants and shopping. Highly recommended.
Above, the spacious lobby of the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside with a view of Portsmouth Harbor outside the hotel dining room in the background.
The 180-room Sheraton Portsmouth Downtown Harborfront, 250 Market Street, stands at the Congress Street gateway to the City, across the street from the berth of the M/V Thomas Laighton (providing narrated Portsmouth Harbor and Isles of Shoals cruises from mid-May to September), a short walk from the downtown retail district, and steps away from some of the City’s best harborfront restaurants.
The Sheraton is one of two full-service properties downtown, and it is Portsmouth’s only true waterfront hotel. The lobby and lobby restaurant have been recently and nicely reconfigured and renovated, and both the dining room and the comfortable, aptly-named Riverwatch Bar on the mezzanine offer panoramic views of the harbor. Some guestrooms also have views of the river, but more do not, so you should ask for one if it’s important to you at check-in (or call the front desk to request one early on the morning of your arrival).
Visitors hoping for a traditional, coastal New England ambiance won’t be disappointed. The hotel has been tastefully decorated, predominantly with muted earth-tones, and some seacoast-themed, early American paintings adorn the lobby. Sheraton standard guest rooms are reasonably large and comfortable, and all will be going through further renovations beginning in 2013.
Complimentary buffet breakfast is available to guests on the Club Floor and other guests can purchase Club Floor upgrade for $20. This seems like a bargain, considering that it buys breakfasts, though not in the very nice lobby-level dining room with large windows overlooking the river.
The hotel has a notably friendly and helpful staff, an indoor pool, a state-of-the-art exercise room, complimentary Internet access.
The Sheraton is fully accessible and pet-friendly.
We recommend breakfast in the Harbor’s Edge dining room, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Portsmouth’s working harbor, a glass of wine in the Riverwatch lounge, and then walk to dinner downtown.