Over Memorial Weekend, the Mrs. Guru and I spent a weekend at the Hilton Doubletree Charleston Downtown. I had been holding onto 2 free weekend night certificates (which I earned from the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Card), and needed to put them to use. The certificates are only valid for a year, and they would be expiring in early September. With the retail rate over $400/night, it seemed to be a good use (I think standard rates are around $250/night, but rates seemed to be higher due to the holiday weekend).
I called Hilton Reservations and checked availability for using the certificates. Several Hilton properties had availability for Memorial Weekend, so I originally booked the Embassy Suites. After studying a bit more of the historic district of Charleston, I realized that the Doubletree was a good 3/4 mile further south (and really right in the center of the historic district). Since downtown Charleston really is geared towards walking, although not the end of the world, the extra 3/4 mile would have been a bit of a pain. Once I had a better feel for the locations, I was able to switch our room to the Doubletree.
We drove down to Charleston on Saturday morning, getting into town around 12:30 pm. We checked in to the hotel, but our room wasn’t ready yet (which was understandable, since check in time didn’t officially start until 4:00 pm). There is public parking on an adjacent block for about $20/night, but it doesn’t include in/out privileges. The hotel valet parking was $25/night with in/out privileges, so we decided to make life simple and have the car valet parked. Even though our room wasn’t ready, the friendly valet was happy to park our car so we could walk around and grab lunch.
The Mrs. Guru had been to Charleston several times, while I had never been…so she scoped out a fantastic lunch spot called Bull Street Market Cafe. The restaurant was very busy, but the food came relatively quickly. We each ordered a sandwich, which were as enormous as they were delicious. The ingredients all tasted very fresh, and we were stuffed in no time.
After lunch, we went on a walking tour called the Charleston Footprints Walking Tour. The tour started at 2:00 pm, and was 2 hours long. Our tour guide, Michael, took us all over the historic district, telling great old stories at every turn. We saw houses where George Washington stayed, meeting points of the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and some of the largest (and most expensive) homes in the area. Overall, Michael was a very good tour guide with loads of information, but he wasn’t the greatest at fielding questions from the group. After most of his stories, he wouldn’t pause for long, sometimes quickly turning to continue walking, so it was sometimes difficult to get questions in. Other than that, we really did enjoy the tour. He had LOTS of great stories, and kept running into local friends on the street, which was fun. It was $20 per person, which seemed fair….I would still recommend the tour, but you may want to stand towards the front and get your questions in quickly if you have any!
By the time we finished the tour, our room was ready so we headed back to the hotel (only a 5 minute walk from where the tour started and ended). The entrance and lobby felt grand:
Our room was on the 3rd floor, room 376. The room was actually a 2-level suite, with a living room downstairs and bedroom upstairs. The hotel actually has lots of these 2-level suites, and it was the only type of room available for using the certificates.
While the room wasn’t extremely modern, everything was clean and in good condition:
The sink was separate from the shower/toilet…the actual bathroom was definitely on the small side, with barely enough room to get in and close the door, but otherwise was ok:
As I mentioned, the location really couldn’t have been any more perfect. The hotel looks out over Market Street, the famous outdoor market, which runs for several blocks. We were within 10 minutes walking distance from practically anywhere in downtown, so it was a great spot for exploring the city.
Breakfast was served each morning in the restaurant, and was either $10.95/person for the Continental Buffet, or $16.95/person for the Full Breakfast (including the buffet and made-to-order eggs and omelets).
As a Hilton Gold member (included with the same Hilton HHonors Reserve Card that gave me the free night certificates), the Full Breakfast was complimentary. The breakfast was excellent, and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who gets it free (Gold members and above, or if you book a rate including breakfast), but as with most hotel breakfasts, you could almost certainly find a comparable breakfast for less.
The hotel also had a quiet central courtyard, where we relaxed one afternoon with a glass of wine before dinner:
And speaking of dinner, I should mention that the Mrs. Guru was spot on with helping choose Magnolias Restaurant the first night night and Fleet Landing the second night. Magnolia was a bit more upscale (although not too fancy), while Fleet Landing had a great casual atmosphere right on the water.
On the whole, I would absolutely recommend the Doubletree for anyone visiting Historic Charleston, mostly for its location right in the middle of downtown. The hotel could probably use a bit of a refresh sometime in the near future (some of the furnishings felt a bit 90ish), but nothing that outweighed the location, friendly service, and overall condition. While I would have loved to have used the free nights at the Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa, where we stayed on our honeymoon, a 4 hour drive to Charleston was a whole lot easier than a 8,000 mile journey back to the Seychelles!