Everything below Calhoun Street, which is what almost every visitor means by 'Charleston'. The residential grid of pastel single houses and walled gardens south of Broad; the cobbles, galleries and old waterfront of the French Quarter; the market sheds and hotel blocks around Meeting Street; and, on the Cooper River, the museum built on the wharf where the ships landed. Beautiful, dense, walkable end to end in twenty-five minutes — and much thinner on good restaurants than its hotel count suggests.
Who it's for: First-time visitors, architecture and history people, anyone travelling without a car, and early risers. This is the only part of Charleston where you can see almost everything on foot, and where staying central genuinely pays.