Charleston Place

The grand hotel that anchors the top of King Street's shopping district — marble lobby, a fleet of doormen, and the kind of scale that makes an entrance. Recently independent and reinvested, it pairs a rooftop pool and full spa with direct access to the best browsing in town. It's polished and a touch corporate rather than intimate, but for a first Charleston trip where you want everything under one roof and shopping at the door, few beats it.