The 25 Best Hotels in Charleston
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This city is known for several things, but chief among them is charm: friendly residents, a food scene of Lowcountry classics and fresh seafood, and a history of welcoming its visitors—whether short- or long-term guests. It was chosen by our readers as the best small city in America for nine years in a row. No surprise, then, that when it comes to places to stay in Charleston, hospitality is a distinguishing factor. From colorful boutique stays to grand, art-driven buildings, genteel spaces draped in crown molding and regal drapes, and porch-fronted row house hotels in the city's downtown, our list of the best Charleston hotels covers the city's alluring range—and like the city itself, isn't short on appeal.
Read our complete Charleston city guide here, which includes:
How we choose the best hotels in Charleston
Every hotel on this list has been selected independently by our editors and written by a Condé Nast Traveler journalist who knows the destination and has visited that property. When choosing hotels, our editors consider properties across price points that offer an authentic and insider experience of a destination, keeping design, location, service, and sustainability credentials top of mind.
Courtesy Post House InnhotelPost House Inn
$$The Old Village is an enviable neighborhood just across the bridge from downtown Charleston. You might have glimpsed it in The Notebook or the TV series Outer Banks: deep verdant lots, oak covered streets, white picket fences laden with morning glory blooms, clapboard houses dating to the mid-1700s. No two rooms of the Post House Inn are alike. What type of travelers will you find here? The inn’s bar and restaurant are hangouts for linen-clad locals, many of whom walk or bike over. Room guests range from staycationers to visitors to extended families, or boutique special event attendees who sometimes rent the entire inn as a full buy-out. All in all, a peaceful seaside village retreat, only 10 minutes from downtown Charleston.
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Courtesy The SpectatorhotelThe Spectator Hotel
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Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023Immediately south of Charleston's historic market, this boutique hotel attracted instant raves when it opened in the summer of 2015. The lobby is a stunner, with a gently cascading waterfall wall, hand-painted bird mural, stuffed white peacock, and amethyst-colored drapes, elements all selected to channel 1920s glamour with a contemporary twist. I was greeted with the bartender's daily changing cocktail—in this case, a hibiscus-infused French 75 (pale pink, subtle, and refreshing). The bar is the hotel's greatest strength, both in design and service. Be sure to order the hotel’s special seasonal cocktail, some proceeds of which are donated to the Lowcountry Food Bank. This hotel has heart. The stylish bar, vintage elegance, central location, bright rooms, and admirable commitment to local products make The Spectator worth its price.
Joe ThomashotelThe Ryder Hotel
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Hot List 2022 Readers' Choice Awards 2022We all need a little more fun in our lives: less formality, more adventure. The Ryder channels that. There’s synchronicity here, in that the hotel is a top-to-bottom renovation of a 1958 structure, the same year that Jack Kerouac’s novel The Dharma Bums came out and lit up the American psyche. Kerouac’s semi-fictional character Japhy Ryder was the inspiration here: that beatnik ideal of finding oneself through travel, bucking stereotypes, shaking things up a bit, relishing the journey. The Ryder’s 91 rooms are a breathable mix of pale woods, custom-woven rugs, mesh drapery, silky smooth flooring, rounded woodwork (everything’s new, so all the drawers glide, nothing sticks), and striking sconces. You can spend your evening out on the town or at the poolside bar, or have a night in, throw off your shoes, wrap yourself in The Ryder’s Italian-embroidered Frette robe, and watch Netflix on the flatscreen.
Courtesy 86 Cannon Historic Innhotel86 Cannon Historic Inn
$$This boutique 10-room hotel fits into the Elliotborough/Cannonborough Charleston neighborhood street so organically, you wouldn’t know it was a hotel at all. Look for the brass 86 above the door of this classic “Charleston single” main house with doubleside piazzas and neatly trimmed topiaries. There’s an ample gravel parking lot out back, where you’ll hear canine residents Sully and Eli bark hello from the kitchen house window. The onsite manager strolls out to greet you, having anticipated your arrival via the inn’s interactive text-messaging app. Take a seat in the front parlor for a personable check-in amidst live orchids and the scent of Casablanca lilies drifting down the stairwell. This is a truly a pampered spot to call home. Worth every cent. The owners have thought of everything and they don’t cut any corners.
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Photo by Andrew CebulkahotelThe Dewberry Charleston
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Gold List 2019, 2022 Hot List 2017 Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024By Charleston height standards, the eight-story Dewberry towers over Marion Square with 200 west-facing windows. Its cool, lime-washed facade gives way to a sleek, marble-slabbed lobby flanked by warm wooden walls and accented with mid-century modern furniture. Veer left, and you're in the expansive Living Room, a space frequented by guests and locals alike, where leather wing backs and low-slung cane chairs double as reading and meeting nooks by day, then transition into happy hour haunts by night. Extraordinarily tall windows date to when JFK originally commissioned this building, providing vertical frames of city views. Lofty drapery and gauzy blinds lend privacy. The canopy bed itself is feather soft with Irish linens—it's no wonder staff nicknamed it "the cloud." The bathroom feels regal and vogue, lined with polished Vermont marble and brass fixtures. A deep cast-iron soaking tub with a window view shares a platform with the glassed-in shower.
Franzi Annika/The VenduehotelThe Vendue
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023A row of historic warehouses dating to 1780 were combined into this sprawling boutique hotel, with each facade true to its original historic color, so you experience a "rainbow row" effect before walking into the ultra-mod lobby. There is no check-in desk. No need for one. The Vendue has flipped that tradition on its head. Instead, you can either check in remotely, with a mobile key option, and head straight to your room, or you can just show up to be greeted and ushered over to Mad Hatter-style seating beneath over-the-top chandeliers for a fluid, fun check-in process—seated, relaxed, conversational. You could stay at The Vendue 84 consecutive times, experience the 84 different rooms, and be surprised every time. Each one has a different size and layout due to the antique bones and meandering passageways of the building itself: some have fireplaces, some have exposed brick. Little frivolities abound, like French bulldog doorknockers, and gilded “hands” as curtain pulls.
JB McCabe/The Palmetto HotelhotelThe Palmetto Hotel
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2023Fronting the French Quarter, The Palmetto’s tall, sunny lobby is a welcome respite for everyone from silk-clad fashionistas framing shots against Venetian plaster walls and lounging on Chippendale-style sofas to groups of friends playing backgammon in tall back striped linen chairs. The single, stocky palmetto tree directly in front of the hotel sets the stage here. Rooms are light-filled, calming, echoing the breezy palm-frond, swaying cordgrass feel of Lowcountry landscapes, with linen headboards and flaxen grass-cloth recessed ceilings. Frosted glass adds privacy to spotless floor-to-ceiling marble showers, with a spa-like customizable rainfall shower head, and Bamford bath products of geranium, lavender, and peppermint. You can slip into a fur-lined plush robe, grab a cute canned cocktail from the mini fridge, and pour your dry gin-and-tonic or your orange-and-almond Mai Tai into cut crystal glassware, then step through French doors onto your narrow balcony to observe the historic but vibrant scene.
Courtesy Planters Inn/Peter Frank EdwardshotelPlanters Inn
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018Step off the busy streets and into the genteel foyer of this Relais & Châteaux property in Charleston’s city center. Tucked within the sturdy walls of a four-story 19th-century emporium, the rooms here have the feel of an affluent traditional Charlestonian dwelling: heart pine flooring, antiques, candelabra, fine oil paintings. In the entry hall, a Chinese tea chest shares space with large Gullah woven sweetgrass “rice fanners.” Mango tea is served in the parlor. Each room has its own wrought iron deck furniture where you can sip an early evening wine or Old Fashioned and watch the ceremonial lighting of copper lanterns below. An instant classic since its inception in 1994, meticulously maintained, and the only Relais & Châteaux property in Charleston, this is truly elegant hotel with unparalleled fine dining.
Courtesy The Restoration/Andrew CebulkahotelThe Restoration
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024Look for the plate glass façade, a strikingly modern accent in an otherwise historic area. The Restoration plays a clever trick in that it unites five buildings into one internal maze—the layout follows wonderful twists and turns: a little courtyard, intriguing hallways, fabulous large-scale photography by local phenom Benjamin Gately Williams. Williams is also an avid open road motorbike aficionado whose wanderlust aesthetic helps set the mood here. At 750 square feet, the combined living room, galley kitchen, 1.5 bathrooms, and king size bed of the Signature Suite were larger than many New York apartments. To put on the bucket list: a Residence room for an audaciously roomy condo-style hotel experience (one with a full ping-pong table, another its own private rooftop deck!). Beds are super comfy, with giant shag throw pillows. Bathrooms are grey, with vertical "light saber" style lighting and herbal Beekman 1802 products that smell so good, you'll want to pour them in a martini glass and drink them.
Courtesy EmelinehotelEmeline
$$ | Hot List 2021 Readers' Choice Awards 2021Emeline’s spacious foyer feels more like hip living room than lobby, with a boisterous Motown soundtrack. Walk up the center steps to check-in where you are handed a strong punch cocktail (or house lemonade if you wish). As you sip, take a sidetrack down the discrete wheelchair ramp to locate a hidden curio cabinet of Lowcountry treasures: taxidermy shorebird, turtle shell, barnacle-covered sea glass, cicada, guinea feathers, and much more. With a vinyl record collection of 500 and growing, it’s only natural to settle into your room by slipping a record out of its sleeve, placing it on the Crosley turntable, and setting the needle. A steel beam pierced through the sitting room, a relict of the building’s pre-Civil War mercantile beginnings. Thick blackout drapes the color of raw mustard concealed a second layer of gauzy privacy drapes. Vintage Spoleto art festival posters adorned walls. This is a hotel that truly makes you feel at home—Emeline’s retro-glam home, that is.
The Dunlin, Auberge Resorts CollectionhotelThe Dunlin, Auberge Resorts Collection
$$$ | Hot List 2025Auberge Resorts Collection’s Lowcountry debut centers the coastal charm of the sparkling South Carolina sea islands. Transformative wildlife immersion abounds over 2,000 acres that include a marshfront pool and dining, in-room soaking tubs overlooking the water, and an on-site farm fueling craving-worthy Southern food. There are dolphin and seabird safaris amid the towering piles of massive oysters that make up the meandering coastline (those bivalves will be fresh on your plate come dinnertime), and 72 summer-cottage-style rooms with coastal-grandma-chic design: Scalloped sun umbrellas, wicker furniture, and mint-hued gingham make every inch of the place feel like an ethereal yet timeless summer home. Aptly named for the region’s plover sandpiper, The Dunlin, Auberge Resorts Collection is the perfect marriage of Southern sophistication and nature’s bounty.
Cameron WilderhotelThe Charleston Place
$$$ | Gold List 2024 Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024In its three decades of existence, The Charleston Place has become a sort of opulent living room for locals. It’s in the heart of the city. People love to pass through its lobby to check out seasonally themed exhibits, to grab a drink at the Thoroughbred Club, or to celebrate milestones, even if they are not staying here. When you arrive, you’ll notice a new fleet of bicycles strapped with oversized clasped baskets designed by Tara Guerard of Soirée for your picnicking enjoyment in one of the city’s many parks. Valets and door greeters welcome you with enthusiasm as you settle in, admire the artwork, and ponder the hidden engineering that keeps that 2.5-ton chandelier in place. All of the hotel's 433 guest rooms have a comfortable, traditional mahogany bed, free-standing armoires, Carrara marble shower with striking herringbone accents, and a refreshed color scheme of soft grays, subtle blues and greens. The effect is one of tranquility.
Courtesy Hotel BennetthotelHotel Bennett
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024Hotel Bennett feels utterly fresh and spotless. In the entry foyer, there's nary a scuff in the white marble flooring or the tufted, white-leather banquettes. Jacketed doormen usher you inside, through a rotunda hand-painted with an artist’s rendering of colonial Charles Towne’s 18th-century harbor and skyline, including one panel devoted to the Richmond plantation purchased several years ago by hotelier and businessman Michael Bennett. You can’t help but linger here, marveling at the detailed mural, the petal-like chandelier, and the over-the-top flower arrangements. But the siren call of soft jazzy riffs from a grand piano beckons you towards reception. Not only is Hotel Bennett smack on a park, but it fronts King Street, a major shopping artery. The hotel is within easy walking distance of many restaurants, including Hall's Chophouse, The Grocery, and The Ordinary, plus cocktail bars like Proof, The Belmont, The Cocktail Club, and Felix.
Courtesy The AnsonboroughhotelThe Ansonborough
$$The hotel hugs Charleston’s eastern rim where residential meets the port. Directly west sits the Ansonborough neighborhood, “Charleston’s first suburb,” whose streets were laid out in the 1730s and are very pleasant to stroll through. Of the seven different room “types,” even the smallest studios are well-appointed, but the lofts and suites are the real stunners. You could easily host an event in the 871-square-foot Admiral Suite with its dining room table, wrap-around veined quartz countertops, gas fireplace, and towering ceilings. Some rooms have baths, while most sport walk-in showers lined with navy tile surround. The backlit mirror has a lovely glow as you brush your teeth and get lost in antique nautical maps that line the walls, pondering the old trans-Atlantic trade routes Lord Anson himself might have sailed.
Photo by Christopher ShanehotelThe Cottages on Charleston Harbor
$$$These cottages are one of Charleston's better kept secrets, right across the harbor from downtown. You park, walk past a cozy, wood-paneled club house with an outdoor pool, past a hedge of blooming pittosporum, beneath rustling palm trees, and you've arrived. Nine of ten cottages line the harbor; the only thing separating you from saltwater is nature's maritime "front lawn" of marsh grass. These cottages are real homes-away-from-home but they feel new. A full kitchen opens onto a vaulted living room with gas fireplace. All rooms opened onto a screened porch fronting the harbor with wooden rocking chairs, table, and a Pawleys Island hammock crafted up the coast. This place is downright dreamy. Cottages sit right on the harbor, so you can watch pelicans dive-bombing for dinner, and cargo ships moving slow-motion with dolphins surfing bow waves. Relax in utter quiet, or drive the 10-15 minutes downtown.
Christian HarderhotelThe Pinch
$$ | Hot List 2023 Readers' Choice Awards 2023The Pinch sits on King Street’s popular north-south artery of clothing shops, wine bars, palm trees, and decorative facades. The hotel’s understated marquee anchors the corner of King and George, but the private entrance is tucked discretely off-street. Choose from 25 rooms, lofts, suites, plus a few longer-term residences including a standalone townhouse located on the third floor of the circa-1796 Lequeux-Williams House, above Lowland restaurant. The larger suites are perfect for families or groups of friends traveling together who want to lounge in the living room and cook in the generously sized kitchen, equipped with a smooth walnut island, Mauviel copper cookware, and a craft cocktail recipe book for the bar. Even the smallest rooms don’t disappoint, because no matter the layout, every single room boasts design finesse: handcrafted furniture, artistic lighting (bunched linen pendant shades), pinched stoneware in the kitchen, wood-fired ceramics, hand-painted accent wallpaper, potted cacti on windowsills, one-of-a-kind antique woven rugs.
Kim GrahamhotelThe Loutrel
$$ | Hot List 2022 Readers' Choice Awards 2022, 2024This boutique 50-room hotel is recent construction (opened 2021), but if you walk half a block south, you’re squarely in the 18th century, on the uneven brick of historic Philadelphia Alley lined with camellias and flowering peppermint peaches. The Loutrel combines the best of both worlds. You can spend your days immersed in colonial and antebellum architecture, then retreat to the creature comforts of the 21st century. Rooms are crisp, minimal, and spacious, with floor-to-ceiling windows, double-paneled privacy sheers, and state-of-the-art soundproofing. The Loutrel’s “wow factor” is its rooftop terrace, cresting the mature treeline of Charleston’s historic French Quarter. Early risers take morning coffee up here to watch the sun illuminate a sliver of harbor, or to lounge by day on cushioned wicker with a book from the Clubroom library, or to enjoy an evening sunset cocktail, or to stargaze late at night.
Patrick J O'BrienhotelThe Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort
$$ | Gold List 2023 Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024The rural drive from Charleston to Kiawah Island is 21 miles, but it’s a drive 100% worth making. Past the entry gate, a beautifully landscaped, winding road is the orchestral prelude to the grand portico of this classic hotel by the sea, where smiling bellhops whisk away your luggage. The soaring central lobby frames views of the ocean beyond. On each side, dual sweeping staircases fill your peripheral vision, curving past two-story murals painted by local artist Karen Larson Turner who captured Kiawah’s Lowcountry landscapes, shimmering with coastal light. Design-wise, The Sanctuary straddles modern and traditional. On the one hand, you’ve got state-of-the-art construction built in 2004 to withstand the occasional hurricane (thick walls, solid windows, no ambient noise). On the other hand, old-school design touches give the hotel warmth and softness: floral drapes, mahogany bed frames, and soft yellow hues.
Courtesy Renaissance Charleston Historic DistricthotelThe Lindy Renaissance Charleston Hotel
$$If you’ve never danced The Lindy Hop, it’s an energetic, enthusiastic, even acrobatic swing dance, a spinoff of the classic 1920s dance rage The Charleston, and it’s that kind of energy this hotel aims to channel. Room numbers are engraved with images of Charleston door knockers, and entrance hallway ceilings sport the telltale superstitious “haint blue” believed to ward off evil spirits. Wood vinyl flooring feels both rustic and clean. Whimsical black-and-white rabbits line the bathroom wall—a deliberate allusion (per the bellhop who brought up my suitcase) to Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole. This is a top notch, Marriott branded, completely refurbished hotel with all the technological perks you would expect. Better yet, it is situated on a lesser trafficked cross street downtown, so it feels hidden despite being in the center of everything.
Courtesy Zero GeorgehotelZero George
$$ | Gold List 2018, 2020, 2025 Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024To the naked eye, the five beautifully restored 1804 residences and carriage homes at the corner of George Street and East Bay constitute just another pretty block in Charleston: warm brick, statuesque façades, breezy column-studded verandas, and flickering lanterns. But veteran hospitality duo Dean Porter Andrews and Lynn Easton knew better when they selected this spot to launch their bespoke brand of Lowcountry luxury in 2013. The hotel’s magic lies in the exclusivity and privacy of its interior: a hidden labyrinth of meticulously manicured gardens, crushed oystershell pathways, and calming fountains connecting five distinct historic dwellings into a retreat guests love to call their home in the Holy City. Zero George’s onsite restaurant is renowned for its culinary excellence—the pint-sized historic kitchen manages to produce some of the city’s biggest flavors, making dinner reservations here (and a spot at The Caviar Bar) highly sought after.
Kevin Hardmanhotel20 South Battery
$$Imagine having a grandiose historic house museum all to yourself, and being allowed to sit on the furniture. Settle in! The five-story mansion faces the public park and the harbor beyond, so you’ve got White Point Gardens as your front yard, with night herons nesting in the branches of live oaks. You’ll be given a code to open the wrought iron front gate. Walk up the grand staircase flanked by marble lions, step into the front hall, and pinch yourself at the sight of the two-story ballroom filled with period antiques and flooded with ambient daylight from a center sky-lit cupola. Pictures don’t do the house justice, because the scale of this place is meant to flood your peripheral vision. Carriage tours amble by, and you can wave as if you owned the place. You’ll love strolling through White Point Gardens and along the High Battery overlooking forts, dolphins, and sailboats.
Photo by Wayne EgglestonhotelThe Inn at Middleton Place
Readers' Choice Awards 2019Though quite close to the city, this inn feels worlds away, and that's the point. Guests enter on a dirt road, past impressive horse stables and sprawling live oaks, through a coded gate, and pull up to a cluster of ivy-covered, design-savvy structures, with the Ashley River just beyond. A pathway connects the inn to the famous "Butterfly Lakes" of America's earliest landscaped gardens, Middleton Place, which clearly is the main draw here. Each room now has a good-sized flatscreen TV with Roku for streaming, and Wi-Fi is greatly improved throughout the property. With the right mindset, you’ll fall in love with this place: peace, quiet, gardens, nature, horse-riding at the equestrian center, hammocks strung between oaks and magnolias, a filling southern breakfast, and a stellar fine dining restaurant through the woods. It's worth more than a one-night stay, especially if you want to visit all three adjacent historic plantations (Middleton Place, Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, and Drayton Hall).
Courtesy HarbourView Inn, A Charlestowne Managed PropertyhotelHarbourView Inn
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021Who doesn’t love being near water? From the lobby and rooftop terrace, you can watch kids playing in the public fountain below, sweetgrass basket weavers on the pier, windsurfers, paragliders, and sailors in the harbor beyond. The street Vendue Range was once Charleston’s historic wharf district, now populated with condos, hotels, shops, and art galleries. Head east until you hit the harbor, where you’ll find the inn. Walk through lobby doors, up the curved stairs, and into the second floor lobby, surrounded by windows overlooking the water. On a hot day, it’s a blessing to hang out here, beneath whirling fans, with driftwood design features and a marble fireplace for winter. Kids will enjoy the Waterfront Park and dancing in the high-jet fountain, plus there’s a Belgian ice cream place downstairs. Guests can borrow hotel bicycles to roam waterfront streets and to explore the nearby historic residential district, just a few blocks south.
Courtesy John Rutledge House InnhotelJohn Rutledge House Inn
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2020, 2024This statuesque 1763 home was built as a wedding gift from groom John Rutledge for his bride. It also happens to be a place where portions of the U.S. Constitution were drafted. Deep green wrought iron balconies, full of hidden imagery (look for eagles and palmetto trees), are stunning from the street, but guests have an even better view. Cushioned seats on the second floor balcony offer vistas of passing horse carriages below and St. Michael's Church steeple beyond. Luckily, staying in a centuries-old house does not mandate sleeping on a centuries-old mattress. Here you get Tempur-Pedic comfort with the timeless aesthetic of a period cotton throw. Bold hunter green walls in the living area of my "Main House Mini Suite" segued to muted greys and soft creams in the marble bathroom, with a full jacuzzi tub positioned just beyond a walk-in glass shower. Bonus: 12-foot ceilings, marble fireplace, and king-sized canopy.
Courtesy Wentworth MansionhotelWentworth Mansion
$$$ | Gold List 2018 Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2024Wentworth Mansion figures prominently in the elegant but bucolic Harleston neighborhood on the west side of Charleston’s historic peninsula, pleasantly detached from the tourist fray. Its original 1886 owner, Francis Silas Rodgers, had money—and lots of it—from cotton brokering, phosphates, and shipping. He also had 13 children and 24 servants, and chose an imposing mansard roof to shelter them all. Hotel guests are the modern-day beneficiaries of his spare-no-expense taste: 14-foot ceilings, Tiffany windows, hand-carved moulding, huge marble fireplaces, gargantuan pocket doors, crystal chandeliers, and a rooftop cupola with sweeping views out over the city. In morning light, guests stroll through the gardens to the hotel’s carriage house restaurant for an ample, complimentary, cooked-to-order, full-service breakfast. By night, the same space transforms into a destination-worthy upscale restaurant helmed by Executive Chef Marc Collins, who has enchanted palates here for more than two decades with his gorgeously plated, refined southern cuisine.
This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.
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