Charleston Things To Do

My favorite things to do in Charleston:
Free:
The Garden/Cemetery walk: http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden/gateway_walk_charleston Pretty much you just look in this area and there is a path that leads through all these cemeteries and gardens. There are gates and you can usually figure out where they are, if you find one. Hopefully the map helps. 
Charleston Tea Plantation: http://www.charlestonteaplantation.com/ The tour is short and free, but they also have a nice area by the visitors center that has benches and is a good place to relax. I'd have lunch there sometime, I think they'd be ok with that. They also have other tours you can do and pay for. 
Angel Oak: on the way to the Tea Plantation, really pretty, large oak tree. http://www.angeloaktree.org/ another place you could do a picnic.
Firefly Vodka: I think it's near the Tea Plantation. I think they also do wine. http://www.fireflyvodka.com/ (we haven't been there yet)
Mepkin Abbey: http://mepkinabbey.org/ BEAUTIFUL grounds. They're outside of Charleston (on the way from Columbia). You can do a tour if you want but you could also go just to check out the grounds and they have a cute gift shop. 

most of these you can also find on this site: http://traveler.nationalgeographic.com/2010/03/free-city/charleston-text/6 not bad. 

Other fun things: 
The South Carolina aquarium: http://www.scaquarium.org/default.html 

If you like shopping, there's an outlet mall in North Charleston, near where I-26 and I-526 come together. http://www.tangeroutlet.com/charleston
 
If it were me, and I wanted to spend a day in Charleston, I'd go downtown first, early morning and  check out the garden walk and the market stuff (high-end shopping is on King Street), then have lunch at Fleet Landing. Then get the car, head out and see Angel Oak and the Tea Plantation. You could go by Folly Beach if you wanted to see the beach (there are some cute shops and surf shops there), or, depending on how exhausted you are, you could either stop at Mepkin Abbey or take Hwy 17 and see some of the plantations and just the sights of the low-country. You can take 17 to Summerville, then get back with I-26 there. Also there's a sticky fingers at that exit, if it's time for dinner. :) 
 Or, in the summer, after spending the morning downtown, I like to go out to Isle of Palms for their beach access (http://www.ccprc.com/index.aspx?NID=60) and get some sun. If you want to take a break, visit the Ben and Jerry's on IOP and window shop. Then go over to Sullivan's Island and have an early dinner at Poe's on the front deck. If it's a full moon, you can watch the moon rise over the ocean after sunset. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Going Greek

Well, it's one of my favorite times of the year in Columbia. Football season, fall and...the Greek Festival! If you live in the area and haven't been, you need to make it a point to go. It's a great festival with lots of great food and some real friendly people. Now, disclaimer, it gets crowded! They usually take up one block with booths, games, entertainment stages, and food vendors so every free space there is can be filled with people. I recommend going during one of the off-times. Like take a late lunch or an early dinner. Or even an early lunch. They're open from 10 am - 10 pm Thursday through Saturday. They also have Sunday hours. But while you're there, try and make it a point to tour their church. It was just built in the last couple of years and they are always working on adding new artwork. It's beautiful. You can sit there and study all of the Greek Ikons and learn about the history of each painting. Greek Festivals are great family activities and I ...
Read more

Battle of Rivers Bridge State Historic Site

Image
2020 Hiking Post 4 You might remember how last May, we visited the  Battle of Rivers Bridge State Historic Site . Recently, we returned there so we could explore the park more. This site is the only SC State Park where Confederate soldiers fought Sherman's troops as he made his way from Savannah to Columbia. There is a short trail (less than a mile) that takes you around the battleground and shows you the battle and what conditions were like at the time. There are still earthen rifle pits and other embankments that the soldiers built. Lots of informational signs along the way. Rifle pit mounds Retreat Trail There's also another trail that marks the route that the soldiers took as they retreated and a cemetery that has the dead from the battle. The park is free and has good visuals of how the battle took place and who was involved in it. There is also a community center and some neat events that take place throughout the year that show you what life wa...
Read more

Charleston Area State Parks

Image
2019 Hiking Week 41 Charles Towne Landing Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It’s been quite the year traveling all over the state and seeing all that South Carolina has to offer. We didn’t anticipate at the beginning of this year that we would visit all of the South Carolina State parks but we finished and received our certificate! We ended our state park visits with Charleston area parks. We stayed in the area and visited Edisto , Colleton, Givhan’s Ferry, and Charles Towne Landing . We had previously visited Colonial Dorchester State Park on a day trip.  Edisto Beach State Park covers a large part of Edisto Island. There is an inland section with trails, camping, a boat dock, and nature center, as well as a beach section of the park. It was pretty cold when we visited but still beautiful. Edisto is one of the barrier islands that is remote and takes awhile to get there. It’s about an hour’s drive from Charleston. We’ve stayed there a couple times and it’s one of...
Read more