The Best Boutique Luxury Inn in Charleston: My Review of John Rutledge House

As you know, I just got back from my trip to Charleston and can now officially verify that the city lives up to its hype. Whether you are a foodie looking for world class restaurants, a bachelorette looking for a nice southern gentleman, a shopaholic looking to add a southern touch to your wardrobe or a history buff hoping to step out of your books and into the places you read about, Charleston is the place for you. To fully experience this city in the most authentic way possible, you have no other choice but to stay at The John Rutledge House. This bed and breakfast is based in a house built 250 years ago by one of the signers of The Constitution and gives its guests the opportunity to feel like a southern aristocrat living in simpler times. But don’t get me wrong, this hotel has all of the necessary amenities for a luxurious trip. More importantly, it provides what many luxurious hotels can’t, some authenticity and classical elegance!

The Room

The room was charming and spacious and was filled with furniture any antiquer could dream of. Some nice touches included an Italian marble gas fireplace, original wood flooring and plaster moldings, canopy beds, and 12-foot high ceilings. Overall, the room made me feel like a woman of wealth and taste from the Old South. Oh yeah, and I guess I beat out those considered billionaires of their day because my room had A/C, a large flat screen TV, a DVD player, and a Tempur-Pedic mattress! The rooms were also immaculate–no easy feat for a home that’s nearly three centuries old!

Random Acts of Luxury

The perks of this hotel fit right in with its genuine Dixie vibe. The hotel provides a complimentary breakfast each morning, either served in your comfortable room, the decadent ballroom, or the peaceful courtyard. Later in the day, if you decide you need a break from that hot Charleston sun, you can take a load off and sip some complementary iced tea on the house’s covered balcony while you gossip in your newly acquired southern twang about other members of high society you mingled with the night before at the saloon.

If you decide to end the evening with a night cap, the hotel offers its guests some port, sherry & brandy. Finally, you can head back to your room and have a couple of iced cold bottles of water from your refrigerator and eat that wrapped chocolate as your last fix of sweetness before you hit the hay and call it a day. If you’re on a honeymoon or there for a romantic package you may even have a bottle of champagne that awaits you!

Get to the Point

The John Rutledge House is more than a historic landmark in Charleston. It provides its guests the opportunity to experience living in an old Southern mansion, which once hosted George Washington for lunch and had the likes of President Taft as house guests. There’s nothing like topping off a trip full of culture and history with a stay in a hotel that encompasses both!