Charleston, United States

Emeline

Price per night from$300.70

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD300.70), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Emeline Photos

Style

Glamorous socialite

Setting

Church Street belle

Explore

More hotels in Charleston More hotels in United States

Like a sociable sybarite in her element, luxury hotel Emeline brings easygoing elegance, great tunes and velvet-trimmed style to historic downtown Charleston. An in-crowd Italian restaurant spills onto a fire-flickered courtyard, and there’s an artisan coffee shop and a martini-slinging mixologist, too. Confirming Emeline’s host-with-the-most prowess: bikes to borrow, and a curated vinyl playlist in the lobby. As the needle drops, saddle up for a freewheel through Charleston’s pastel-painted heart.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

$25 credit to spend on food and drink at the hotel

Facilities

Photos Emeline facilities

Need to know

Rooms

212, including 128 suites.

Check–Out

11am; check-in is at 4pm. Both are flexible, subject to availability.

More details

Rates are room-only, but a breakfast menu with Southern and Italian influences (focaccia benedict, cornmeal pancakes, biscuits and fennel sausage) is available at Frannie and the Fox.

Also

Several rooms, including king rooms, double king rooms and one-bedroom suites, have been adapted for guests with limited mobility. These rooms each have a roll-in shower and a door with a lowered peephole. They are also hearing accessible, with visual alarms and notifications for the door and phone.

At the hotel

Bikes to borrow, boutique, vinyl library, local art history exhibition, courtyard, paid laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: smart TV, glass-bottled water, steamer, bathrobes and Red Flower bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Opt for one of the suites, and evenings in can be soundtracked by hand-chosen records on your Crosley turntable.

Spa

Emeline doesn’t have a spa, but in-room massages with a local practitioner can be arranged on request. There’s a 24-hour fitness center with Life Fitness equipment, a Peloton bike, free weights and yoga mats. If live classes are more your speed, ask about Emeline’s wellness passport, which grants you free entry to boutique studios around the city.

Packing tips

Cobble-ready footwear and your Christmas shopping list, whatever the time of year — with a local craft scene this strong, you may as well get a head start.

Also

The soap dishes in each room’s bathroom were made by local ceramicist Susan Gregory. Find her bespoke collection for Emeline, alongside the work of other Charleston makers, in the hotel’s curated shop.

Pet‐friendly

Dogs weighing up to 100 pounds are welcome (up to two a room) for a fee of $200 a stay. Pooches are as pampered as people at Emeline — they’ll each have a bed and bowl waiting for them, plus a treat prepared by the hotel’s pastry chef. See more pet-friendly hotels in Charleston.

Children

All ages are welcome. There are double king rooms, as well as options with sofa-beds, which will suit families.

Food and Drink

Photos Emeline food and drink

Top Table

On fine evenings, find a spot out on the fire-warmed terrace.

Dress Code

Casually cosmopolitan — if you make like Emeline’s fictional namesake and accessorize with pieces picked up on your far-flung travels, even better.

Hotel restaurant

More a beloved neighborhood haunt than a traditional hotel restaurant, Frannie and the Fox has won over in-the-know Charlestonians with its warm atmosphere and wood-fired Italian fare. The pizzas, with their bright seasonal produce and perfect char, are the showstealers. Don’t skimp on the small plates, though — between the zingy mussels escabeche, meatballs with whipped ricotta, and lemony charred peas topped with parmesan, this is a place for eyes bigger than your belly.

Mornings on the go mean a stop at Clerks Coffee Company for a locally roasted brew and a fresh-baked pastry or breakfast sandwich. Don’t be surprised to find yourself swinging by again for a light lunch, or sinking into a sofa, maple old fashioned in hand, after a hard day’s cobble-strolling.

Hotel bar

Slip away to the Den, a cozy hideout in Frannie and the Fox’s dining room, for caviar service and sophisticated cocktails — the martini menu is a masterpiece in its own right.

Last orders

At Frannie and the Fox, breakfast is 7am–11am; lunch is 11am–3pm, Monday to Friday; weekend brunch is 8am–2pm, and dinner is 5pm–10pm. The Den pours from 5pm–10pm, Tuesday to Thursday; till midnight, Friday and Saturday. Clerks is open 7am–6pm daily.

Room service

You can order select dishes from Frannie and the Fox’s menu to your room between 8am and 9pm.

Location

Photos Emeline location
Address
Emeline
181 Church Street
Charleston
29401
United States

Horse-drawn carriages roll past Emeline’s entrance on Church Street, a heritage-steeped spot in the middle of historic downtown Charleston.

Planes

The hotel is around a 30-minute drive from Charleston International Airport. There’s a taxi rank at the airport; the minimum fare is $17.

Trains

Amtrak’s Palmetto service runs daily down the East Coast from New York City to North Charleston station. From there, it’s around a 30-minute cab ride to Emeline.

Automobiles

Downtown Charleston is enticingly walkable, and Emeline has bikes to borrow, but you’ll want a car if you plan to explore further afield. Valet parking is available at the hotel for $53 a day.

Worth getting out of bed for

Here in the heart of historic downtown, the sightseeing starts as soon as you step outside. It’s a seductively walkable district; other ways to get around include scenic cycle routes, and, at the other end of the exertion spectrum, horse-drawn carriage rides. However you’re getting about, Rainbow Row’s pastel-painted, pre-Civil War houses should be on your hit list. Promenade along the Battery, admiring the waterfront mansions gazing across the harbor towards Fort Sumter, then make a palm-shaded pitstop in Waterfront Park.

Come armed with copious totes — you’re right by City Market, a tempting hub of traditional crafts and handmade souvenirs, and King Street, the city’s picturesque shopping thoroughfare. Emeline’s artist in residence program often sees creative events and workshops held at the hotel. Check out the Gibbes Museum of Art for an insight into the 1920s Charleston Renaissance, and the International African American Museum for often under-celebrated voices.

Local restaurants

Emeline is neighbors with Hank’s Seafood Restaurant, a Charleston institution serving sustainably sourced Southern catch in an atmospheric turn-of-the-century warehouse. A love letter to traditional Southern cooking, Magnolias puts a polished, contemporary spin on classics such as Lowcountry bouillabaisse and fried green tomatoes on grits. Fig’s name stands for ‘food is good’; try the unfussy fine-dining menu showcasing seasonal Lowcountry produce, and it’s hard to disagree.

Local cafés

Emeline’s own Clerks Coffee Company is the go-to neighborhood café. At Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit in City Market, a crumbly buttermilk biscuit sandwich, filled with pimento cheese or tart blackberry jam, makes for hearty souvenir-hunting fuel.

Local bars

Wine buffs will be wooed by Bin 152’s Old World-focused cellar; the attentively curated cheese and charcuterie selection is a heart-stealer, too. Set in a speakeasy-style lounge, the Cocktail Club takes a wholesome approach to mixology, working with natural ingredients fresh from regional growers.

Reviews

Photos Emeline reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this city-proud hotel in South Carolina and unpacked their sweetgrass basket and handmade ceramics, a full account of their coastal city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Emeline in Charleston…

Emeline takes its name from an imagined explorer who sailed the world before succumbing to Charleston’s charms. It’s a whimsical icebreaker — and curled up, martini in hand, in your peacock-painted suite, you can totally picture yourself a glamorous globetrotter of yesteryear. But it’s the real people of the city that are the hotel’s lifeblood.

Homegrown makers collaborated on the interiors, and the city’s creative leaders of old are celebrated in the hotel’s gallery. Once a provisions store and a bank, the building has been a hub for ordinary Charlestonians for centuries; splitting a plate of the restaurant’s famous meatballs today, you’ll still be among a regular local crowd. Really, the clue’s in the first impression: as you check in, the records spinning on the turntable were hand-picked by the owner of downtown’s coolest record store. Emeline’s an adventurous soul, but in Charleston, she’s firmly put down roots.

Book now

Price per night from $258.52

Hotels nearby

Villas nearby

Recently viewed