The English founded Charleston in 1670, originally named Charles Town (as you may have guessed) after King Charles II. The city was at Albermarle Point first, on the west bank of the Ashley River, which is Charles Towne Landing, but moved in 1680 to its present location and by a decade later was the fifth-largest city in the US. It’s not in the top 100 today, if you were wondering, but is often cited as the best small city in the country.
For those of you who love horse-drawn carriages, cobblestone-streets and pastel antebellum houses, this is a city for you. Waterfront Park and Battery promenade overlook the harbor, with Fort Sumter — where the first shots of the Civil War were fired — visible across the water.
On the harbor waterfront, next to Joe Riley Waterfront Park, you will find Charleston’s newest luxury hotel, The Cooper, a sleek, shiny, gorgeous property that looks more like it was meant for Miami Beach than this classic Southern city. It has 191 rooms, suites and specialty suites, which include the enigmatically and somewhat unsettlingly named Water Double Queen (with a balcony), and the more singular-monarch named Water Front King, and some of those have balconies. Regular suites include the less grand but still quite wonderful Water Front Studio Suite, the utilitarian-titled One Bedroom Suite and the presumably-as-advertised Water Front One Bedroom.
The Signature, ne plus ultra suites are the Terrace and Presidential. And they are most grand of all…