Things to Do When Visiting Charleston

My husband took me on a short trip to Charleston, South Carolina as an early birthday present recently. I had always wanted to visit this city so rich in southern charm, so it was the perfect place to go for our last southern trip. We had a great time, and fit several fun things into a three-day trip. I’m sharing with you what we did, as well as some of the things I recommend and wish we had gotten the chance to do.

The very first thing we did was take a horse and carriage tour around downtown. I highly recommend this because it’s a great way to hear about the city’s little details you wouldn’t normally notice and you can see a lot of downtown — even spot a few things you’ll want to get a closer look at later. We went an Old South Carriage Company tour. Travis chose this one because it has the best reviews online. We really enjoyed it. Before the tour began, we were able to pet one of the horses in his stall. Our tour guide was funny and informative. They had blankets on the seats for us to use as well, since we were there in the winter.

We spent most of the rest of the day exploring downtown on our own. We visited City Market, located on Market Street between Meeting and East Bay Streets, which is full of different shops and booths where people sell their wares. While you’re on Market Street, be sure to stop by the Moon Pie General Store and the Sugar Shop (see the giant Rice Krispies Treat below) for all sorts of fun gift ideas. We also visited many local stores on the surrounding streets.

I recommend visiting King Street. U.S. News and World Report named it one of the “10 Best Shopping Streets in the Country.” Every second Sunday of the month, they close down King Street to traffic and it becomes a huge shopping street where shop and restaurant owners put their stuff out on the sidewalks and even in the street. I really enjoyed a store called HandPicked — very cute jewelry! And the Savannah Bee Company is always a great store to go into. Here in Charleston, they sell the famous King of Pops Popsicles inside!

Be sure to check out Charleston Cooks! on East Bay St. They have couples cooking classes, which could be fun to try! But they also have a store full of all sorts of kitchen, cooking, and baking gadgets.

Travis really wanted to surprise me with a dinner cruise. He wanted to take me on the Carolina Queen; however, the don’t do tours in January. But if you are going to Charleston in the spring, summer, or fall (which I recommend), you can check out this company’s cruises. They have all kinds of specialty cruises like murder mystery, jazz brunch, blues & BBQ, and holiday events.

After shopping, Travis and I went to visit one of the local churches. Did you know Charleston is known as the Holy City because of how many churches they have? We walked around and inside The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. We had been told about this church during our carriage tour, and we wanted to take a closer look. The original church burnt down in a fire, and because someone hadn’t paid the insurance bill they didn’t get any insurance money for it. This church has taken 100 years to rebuild. They just added the steeple in 2010. Our tour guide told us that each small indention in the bricks were actually shaped as stars and had been hand carved into the bricks — no wonder it has taken 100 years! It was very beautiful inside and out.

Just walking around and seeing the houses is so fun. I love the southern look of these big porched-houses.

The next day we spent most of our time at Patriot’s Point — Home of the USS Yorktown, an air-craft carrier from WWII. You can read all about that in my Patriot’s Point post.

On our last day, we visited the Angel Oak Tree. This thing is something to see! This tree is between 300-400 years old. It’s 65 feet tall. Its trunk is 31 feet in circumference. Its longest limb is 89 feet long! And did I mention it’s free to go view this masterpiece? These pictures don’t even do it justice. It’s really hard to capture how big and magnificent this one tree is.

What about the plantations? Travis and I only had time to visit one plantation since we were only visiting for three days. We chose to visit the Charleston Tea Plantation, because I love me some sweet tea! And it’s the only tea plantation in the United States.

We took a trolley tour around the grounds to learn about how they grow the tea. Then we took a tour inside their factory to learn how it goes from a leaf on a plant to the tea we drink. It was pretty interesting. I enjoyed looking through the gift shop and tasting all their free tea!

I really wanted to visit Boone Hall Plantation as well, but they are closed in January — just our luck! I do recommend this one though. It’s a “still working” plantation that’s 300 years old. You can tour the plantation house, as well as see the gardens, and slave cabins. There are also plantation coach tours, live performances sometimes, and a cafe. Plus, they have one of the world’s longest oak-lined avenues — which I love!

Other places to see include Drayton Hall — the oldest unrestored plantation house in America that’s still open to the public; Magnolia Plantation and Gardens — America’s oldest gardens, a pre-Revolutionary War house and more; the Aiken-Rhett House Museum — a home that remained in one family for more than 142 years.

Now, let’s talk food! Travis and I love trying new restaurants and the south has so much to offer in that department!

Here are the restaurants we tried and loved:

• Circa 1886 — Inside the carriage house of an old, beautiful mansion. Get the “Smores” for dessert!
• Burnwell’ Stonefire Grill — We recommend the Spring Fever cocktail, and Travis is still dreaming about their filet mignon!
• Toast — great breakfast and mimosas all around.
• Eli’s Table — even better breakfast! You must try the beignets! (They also have lunch and dinner, but we loved our breakfast there.)
• Nick’s BBQ — great for lunch, best BBQ I’ve had in the south so far!

Other places we would have liked to try if we had visited longer:

• A.W. Shucks Seafood and Oyster Bar
• Caviar and Bananas Gourmet Cafe
• Dixie Supply Bakery and Cafe
• Fleet Landing
• Queology
• Poogan’s Porch
• Kaminsky’s Baking Company

Have you been to Charleston? Tell me what your favorite thing to do and place to eat was in the comments!

If you liked Things to Do When Visiting Charleston, you should also check out the Best Places to Visit in Savannah — it’s another city with great history and so many delicious restaurants!