Charleston The Elliott House Inn

Frommer’s Review

Historians have researched anecdotes about this place going back to the 1600s, but the core of the charming inn that you see today was built as a private home — probably for slaves — in 1861. You get a warm welcome from a very hip staff, and there’s lots of Colonial inspiration in the decor of the comfortable and carefully maintained rooms. But despite all the grace notes and the landscaping (the flower beds are touched up every 2 weeks), the place seems like a raffish indoor/outdoor motel, which some guests find appealing. The rooms are arranged in a style that you might expect in Key West — off tiers of balconies surrounding a verdant open courtyard. Each room contains a four-poster bed (the one in no. 36 is especially nice) and provides a feeling of living in an upscale cottage. Avoid those rooms with ground-level private outdoor terraces, however; they’re cramped and claustrophobic, don’t have attractive views, and tend to be plagued by mildew problems. Conversation often becomes free and easy beneath the city’s largest wisteria arbor, near a bubbling whirlpool designed for as many as 12 people at a time.