An experimental study was performed to evaluate the effects of surface coating and an enhanced insulation structure on the downward facing boiling process and the critical heat flux on the outer surface of a hemispherical vessel. Steady-state boiling tests were conducted in the Subscale Boundary Layer Boiling (SBLB) facility using an enhanced vessel/insulation design for the cases with and without vessel coatings. Based on the boiling data, CHF correlations were obtained for both plain and coated vessels. It was found that the nucleate boiling rates and the local CHF limits for the case with micro-porous layer coating were consistently higher than those values for a plain vessel at the same angular location. The enhancement in the local CHF limits and nucleate boiling rates was mainly due to the micro-porous layer coating that increased the local liquid supply rate toward the vaporization sites on the vessel surface. For the case with thermal insulation, the local CHF limit tended to increase from the bottom center at first, then decrease toward the minimum gap location, and finally increase toward the equator. This non-monotonic behavior, which differed significantly from the case without thermal insulation, was evidently due to the local variation of the two-phase motions in the annular channel between the test vessel and the insulation structure.