My husband and I are visiting Charleston for my birthday labor day weekend. I would really love to stay in the historic downtown district but find that it is just sooo expensive. Is there anywhere else that is just a few blocks away that I can still walk out the door and see everything I want? Maybe for $130 or less?

http://www.ansonboroughinn.com/home.asp

They list your time of visit as their low rate season. You might find a fit.

Happy birthday!

Try the King Charles inn, in the centre of historic Charleston,parking on site. Paul

You might look here for some ideas and if you search for "charleston" on www.charlotte.com there was just another article about Charlseton.

http://query.nytimes.com/search/site...+SC&srchst=cse

King Charles Inn is a good budget choice. You may also want to check the price on the smaller rooms at the Andrew Pinckney Inn.

There's also a Days Inn that is very well located, but may or may not be a decent place to stay.

We stayed at the Barksdale House Inn; their low-season rates would fit your budget.

The Day's Inn in fine, located in an historic building and with free parking.

Another second that the Days Inn is fine, but it ain't cheap.

Hate to be a pest, but Labor Day weekend is NOT going to be any hotel's low season/low price.

And any hotel where you can walk to what you want to see is IN the historic district.

All that said, try www.hotwire.com

I input 8/29 through 9/1 and didn't get what I was hoping for (Mills House, stayed there twice, great hotel, great location)--the hotwire description will say B for boutique, three star historic district, and shows tennis nearby (go figure). But I did find a 3.5 star hotel on hotwire for these dates in the historic district for $122 per night. Play around with the dates and you might get lucky enough to get the Mills House on the cheap.

The Holiday Inn historic dictrict on Calhoun St. is just on the edge of the Historic area and a ten minute walk to the center of the action. The Battery is about a mile or so away, but still walkable. (We had a car, so that made things easy) Holiday Inn Historic gets very high ratings on Tripadvisor, mainly due to concierge service. Check it out. My husband and I were quite pleased with our stay in April. Labor Day weekend will be extremely HOT and HUMID.

The Francis Marion Hotel is another good budget choice. It's just on the edge of the historic district, and it's available for $137/night Labor Day weekend via hotels.com.

It's an older hotel on a busy corner, but it's better than staying outside the historic area.

Thanks a bunch for everyones help, I was able to get a killer deal at the Embassy Suites in the Citadel for $161/night.

Any ideas on free things to do in charleston.

Dixie, here is a copy of my extensive trip report and hotel reviews.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=34567869

I wrote it in February 2005 but I keep the information updated.

As you've found, Charleston hotel rates are not cheap. More and more they are creeping up towards Manhattan prices.

There really is no 'off' season for Charleston.

You could always bid for a hotel on www,priceline.com You'd want to wait until right before your trip though. This time of year prices will be higher and hotels are less likely to accept a bid that is too low. I once bid and surprisingly got a room in November for $60 per night right by the Market downtown Charleston that would probably cost $250 per night at Labor Day time. It was an incredible room!