Charleston, United States

The Ryder Hotel

Price per night from$397.47

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 (USD397.47), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

The Ryder Hotel Photos

Style

Beachy beatnik hangout

Setting

Downtown pearl

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The trundle of horse-drawn carriages might set the pace in demure downtown Charleston, but The Ryder Hotel rolls on island time. Cobble-strolling mornings fade to piña coladas around the pool and slow-tempo evenings at the restaurant, where South Carolina’s gourmand-drawing seafood gets a tropical twist. And when it’s time to cut footloose, there are bikes to borrow for freewheeling along the harborfront, coolers and boomboxes for drop-everything beach days, and Polaroid cameras to capture it all.

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Facilities

Photos The Ryder Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

91, including four suites.

Check–Out

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

More details

Rates at The Ryder Hotel are room-only, but a menu of breakfast classics, including avocado toast, huevos rancheros and overnight oats, is served at Little Palm.

Also

Some King and Double Queen rooms have been adapted for guests with limited mobility, with roll-in showers and grab bars in the bathrooms. The hotel’s entrance, restaurant, front desk and communal areas are all wheelchair accessible. There’s elevator access to all floors, and elevator buttons have braille. Hallways and public areas have both audible and strobe alarms, and accessible parking is available.

At the hotel

Kit room with bikes, longboards, Polaroid cameras, speakers, coolers and beach chairs to borrow; bocce, board games, paid laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, steamer, free glass-bottled water, yoga mat, bathrobes and Zenology bath products.

Our favourite rooms

At The Ryder Hotel, embrace the buzz in the Balcony King room, sipping something tequila-y overlooking the leafy Backyard Bar.

Poolside

Whole days can be dawdled away by The Ryder’s heated outdoor pool, a pastel-splashed spot where marshmallow-like sunloungers and sofas are shaded by pretty gingham parasols. Snag one, summon pan con tomate and a piña colada from the restaurant, and you’re set. The pool is open from 8am to 10pm daily.

Spa

Massages from local therapists can be arranged in your room on request.

Packing tips

A dog-eared Kerouac paperback — extra credit if you sit poolside scribbling mysteriously in the margins.

Also

You’ll have all-hours access to the fitness center at Emeline, The Ryder’s sister hotel, plus free entry to a handful of boutique gyms and studios across the city. A Peloton bike can be set up in your room, too, subject to availability.

Pet‐friendly

Dogs weighing up to 50lbs (up to two a room) are welcome in any room for a $150 fee a stay. They’ll each have a bed, bowl and organic calming mist waiting for them. See more pet-friendly hotels in Charleston.

Children

All ages are welcome. A rollaway bed can be added to Premier King rooms on request.

Food and Drink

Photos The Ryder Hotel food and drink

Top Table

On breezy nights, watch the fire flicker amid the backyard’s tropical foliage.

Dress Code

Seersucker shirts, slinky kaftans and Atlantic-mussed hair.

Hotel restaurant

Little Palm has the mellow atmosphere and mood-boosting pastels of your favorite beach café, with a sunny menu of sharing plates, citrus-brightened salads and sandwiches to match; order the coastal catch with leek veloutée and jalapeño oil to see why South Carolina’s seafood sets epicurean hearts aflutter. The restaurant spans several spaces — bag a poolside sofa, slip into a booth by the bar or settle on the frond-shaded backyard terrace, where festoon lights and a fire make for especially cozy evenings.

The Ryder’s front desk doubles as the Coffee Counter, where you can pick up homemade pastries, to-go breakfast bites and coffee courtesy of Charlestonians’ favorite roastery. There’s a specialty cold-brew bar, as well as a menu of signature lattes — the Washington DC, which blends iced coffee with cherry blossom and vanilla, was made for coastal wanders.

Hotel bar

Little Palm’s bar sways to a retro island rhythm, with fruity signature cocktails, frozen piña coladas and tipsy floats. There’s a curated wine list to dip into, too, and local craft beers on tap.

Last orders

At Little Palm, breakfast is 8am–11am; lunch is 11am–5pm, Monday to Saturday; Sunday brunch is 8am–4pm, and dinner is 5pm–10pm (until 11pm, Friday and Saturday; 9pm, Sunday). The Coffee Counter opens 7am–3pm (until 11am, Monday and Tuesday).

Room service

Order select dishes from Little Palm’s menu to your room; hours vary depending on the day.

Location

Photos The Ryder Hotel location
Address
The Ryder Hotel
237 Meeting Street
Charleston
29401
United States

The Ryder Hotel is in the heart of the historic district in downtown Charleston, which is also a 20-minute drive from South Carolina’s sandy beaches.

Planes

The hotel is around a 20-minute drive from Charleston International Airport.

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 20-minute cab ride to The Ryder.

Automobiles

The Ryder’s central location means all of historic downtown is easily walkable. There are bikes to borrow and cycle paths linking downtown with local beaches, but a car will allow for more leisurely outings. Valet parking is available for $53 a day.

Worth getting out of bed for

You’re in the heart of Charleston’s walkable historic district, so head out armed with a camera. Rainbow Row’s ice cream-coloured townhouses should make your to-snap list, as should the Battery’s 18th-century mansions and views across the water to Fort Sumter. The French Quarter is worth strolling, too, for the Huguenot history and soft-hued architecture. Between King Street’s boutiques and the stalls laden with artisanal goods at City Market, your souvenir game will take some beating. The manicured Waterfront Park makes a picturesque spot for a time-out; stay till dusk to see the pineapple fountain light up, if you haven’t already been tempted out onto the water for a boat tour or sunset cruise of Charleston Harbor. Bidding downtown adieu, there are several white-sand beaches in easy driving distance; wave-blessed Folly Beach is an all-rounder, as ideal for sandcastles and sun-kissed naps as it is for surfing, paddle boarding and other watersports.

Local restaurants

You’re a short stroll from beloved Charleston stalwart Hank’s Seafood Restaurant, where soul-warming Lowcountry dishes spotlight sustainably caught ingredients. Regional produce fuels the Italian-influenced menu at Frannie and the Fox at Emeline, The Ryder’s sister hotel. The wood-fired pizzas are works of art, but see if you can’t find room for a few small plates, too. Fig’s name stands for ‘food is good’, but that feels like an understatement at this polished bistro, where fine local ingredients are celebrated in elegant, seasonally shifting menus.

Local cafés

The Ryder’s Coffee Counter has you covered for your locally roasted morning brew. Further afield in the historic Cigar Factory, Mercantile and Mash is a good bet for a specialty latte as you browse the food emporium for tasty bites.

Local bars

Feel-good mixology is the MO at the Cocktail Club, a low-lit lounge where the shakers are filled with house-made infusions and botanicals sourced straight from nearby growers. Charleston’s oenophiles gather at Bin 152, an Old World-inspired wine bar where the cellar is matched only by the stellar cheese and charcuterie selection.

Reviews

Photos The Ryder Hotel 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 free-spirited hotel in South Carolina and unpacked their Havaianas and Hunza G swimsuits, 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 The Ryder Hotel in Charleston…

The folks at The Ryder Hotel were onto something when they brought in Polaroid cameras to borrow: there’s much at this downtown Charleston stay worth snapping for posterity. 

You’ll want the classic poolside selfie — bonus points if you wangle your small plates and frosty piña colada into frame — and stroll-by snaps of the pastel townhouses on your doorstep. Beach days bring comedy shots of attempts at surfing or skateboarding, courtesy of the hotel’s kit room. Save your best work, though, for evenings out on the backyard terrace: a candid of your person as the firelight catches them just right. 

The Ryder bucks the stuffy Old South tropes, fittingly renegade for a hotel named for a Kerouac character. But it doesn’t take a Great American Novel to capture the adventure here; you just have to point and click.

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Price per night from $355.29

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