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The 15 Best Hotels in Charleston, According to Travel + Leisure Readers

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5 months ago

July 9, 2024

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The 15 Best Hotels in Charleston, According to Travel + Leisure Readers

For more than a decade, Travel + Leisure readers have ranked Charleston the No. 1 city in the United States. And with its ever-growing restaurant scene, postcard-perfect streets, and harbor views, it’s easy to see why people are drawn to the South Carolina city. But as T+L readers will attest, it’s the famed Southern hospitality — found in the Holy City’s best hotels — that keeps people coming back.

How Voting Works

Every year for our World’s Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe — to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Over 186,000 T+L readers completed the 2024 survey. A total of more than 700,000 votes were cast across over 8,700 properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc.).

Hotels were classified as either resort hotel, city hotel, inn, or safari lodge based on their location and amenities, and they were specifically rated on the criteria below:

Rooms/facilities
Location
Service
Food
Value

For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses.

Courtesy of Wentworth Mansion

What Readers Loved

By design, Charleston is a boutique hotel city. Thanks to a 1998 ordinance that restricted new hotels on the lower peninsula to just 50 rooms or fewer, the Holy City is packed with charming inns and bed-and-breakfasts. And despite their small footprints, these boutique hotels offer outsized amenities (think: breakfast in bed and afternoon happy hours included in the rates at some properties) and warm Southern hospitality — and our readers can’t seem to get enough. Boutique hotels make up about half of this year’s list of our readers’ favorite hotels in Charleston, including the top four properties. Of this year’s runner-up, John Rutledge House Inn, one reader wrote, “I have never experienced more personal and thoughtful care … I would stay here a million times.”

Of course, Charleston has its fair share of expansive luxury hotels that offer all the bells and whistles, too. A rooftop pool, a full-service spa, and a swanky Champagne lounge can be found at Hotel Bennett, another reader favorite, ranked fifth this year. One reader commended Hotel Bennett, saying, “This is luxury at its finest. From the rooms to the food and the spa, amazing.”

From intimate inns to grand, five-star properties, these are our readers’ favorite hotels in Charleston this year — starting with No.1, Wentworth Mansion.

The Winner

Wentworth Mansion

Courtesy of Wentworth Mansion

For the second year in a row, Wentworth Mansion was voted the top hotel in Charleston by T+L readers. The historic home-turned-hotel features 21 unique guest rooms with grand touches like Tiffany glass panels, marble fireplaces, and sparkling chandeliers. One reader captured the hotel’s luxe but intimate atmosphere, saying it was “a unique experience to stay in a mansion that evokes the Gilded Age. You feel like a resident rather than a guest.” That residential feel comes partly from the hotel’s location in the less-touristy Harleston Village, where you’re just a short walk to the buzz of King Street. On-site fine dining at Circa 1886 features multicourse tasting menus in the evening and an included full Southern breakfast in the mornings.