The Lowcountry has never lacked for places to stay, but for years the choice was mostly binary: a big island resort or a highway chain. A wave of small, historic inns has opened a third option, and Beaufort is where it shows most clearly.
Anchorage 1770 turned a 250-year-old waterfront residence into an inn with a cocktail bar and a river view. The Rhett House Inn keeps period rooms in a Greek Revival house known for its Southern breakfasts. The Emerald took over a former downtown toy store and runs as a self-service boutique hotel with contemporary rooms. The Beaufort Inn spreads across a main house, cottages, and courtyard flats in the historic district.
Bluffton has its own version in the May River Manor, a boutique property with a handful of en-suite suites a short walk from the old town.
What these places share is scale. They trade the resort’s amenities for a dozen rooms, a real front porch, and a location inside a historic district rather than behind a gate. The appeal is being in the Lowcountry itself, close to the water and the streets, instead of at a resort set apart from it.