<p>We’ll only be there for a weekend.</p>
<p>Thinking of doing some kind of “official tour” on Saturday but also doing a self walking tour if possible in the historic areas. </p>
<p>Also, if anyone has any restaurant recs, they’d be appreciated!!! :)</p>
<p>We were there a few years ago and D loved the coconut cake at the Peninsula Grill. Also a nice day trip to Fort Sumter is always nice.</p>
<p>For the official tour, I recommend the horse drawn carriage tour. The driver we had was very friendly,knowledgeable and entertaining. Also think you cover more territory and don’t tire out as quickly in the Charleston heat when riding instead of walking.</p>
<p>Ditto PackMom - carriage tour is the way to go. Magnolia’s is popular for good reason and our favorite lunch spot is Fast & French on Broad St.</p>
<p>Went for a long weekend a few days ago. Here’s what we did:
<p>Restaurants: Magnolia: good basic introduction to upscale southern food.
Hominy Grill: Classic southern joint, and fantastic.
SNOB: Excellent creative, upscale southern.
Bowens Island: If you have a car and love fresh steamed oysters, this is the place. About a 20 minute drive from downtown to the water’s edge.</p>
<p>Great suggestions!</p>
<p>Had thought about the Fort Sumter Fort tour…</p>
<p>and I LOVE coconut cake, so will definitely look for that.</p>
<p>and the idea about the carriage tour sounds very relaxing and wonderful.</p>
<p>We enjoy touring plantations…the stories are amazing.</p>
<p>Walking tour of historic district based on web site</p>
<p>where did you find that? I looked for it. Is this a “self tour” or an organized tour? We prefer a “self tour” for walking so we can linger at things that interest us.</p>
<p>I’d focus on the food. Okra gumbo. She-crab soup. Low Country cuisine is good!</p>
<p>I like self tours but have grown to really enjoy organized walking tours. I have done several (mostly in various parts of Europe) and they are usually great as the tour guides add a lot interesting things that I would not otherwise hear about. I even usually do a couple of walking tours in London when I visit my family in England every summer, and I lived in London for several years. I would recommend a walking tour - you can always go back to anything that yu want to see more of.</p>
<p>I’m following your thread with interest. My son moved to Charleston (well, Mount Pleasant which is over the beautiful sailboat bridge over the Cooper River) in December. We has a very quick visit with him in march and had been planning to go back for a longer visit in the beginning of August (which is the only time I can go for more than a few days). But he has decided he wants to come here in early August as there is a concert he has gone to every year with a close friend and he wants to time his visit to go to do that. I was looking forward to going back and actually having enough time to see some sights.</p>
<p>I second the recommendations for the carriage tours. I’ve done a tour several times with Palmetto (the Big Red Barn)–well worth it. The Fort Sumter tours are also excellent (my niece is a park ranger there), and this is the 150th anniversary year of the beginning of the Civil War. This year is the 125th anniversary of the Charleston earthquake; you may see some publicity about that, but I think the special exhibits may not be open yet. There’s a nice garden several miles inland called Cypress Gardens: a butterfly house, nature exhibits, boat rides through a swamp. If you have children, it is a nice break from the overload of historical tourism we usually do in Charleston.</p>
<p>Good recs! Thanks!</p>
<p>We did the carriage last March and absolutely loved it. On another previous visit my daughter and I went on a walking tour of several of the homes. It was fascinating. The market is interesting, and just walking along the battery…so much to see. If you can get out to Isle of Palm beach it’s beautiful and the fish tacos at Poe’s are to die for. Thinking of this is making me want to go back, LOVE Charleston.</p>
<p>*The market is interesting, and just walking along the battery…so much to see. If you can get out to Isle of Palm beach it’s beautiful and the fish tacos at Poe’s are to die for. *</p>
<p>Dumb question…where is “the market” that you’ve written about?</p>
<p>And is Battery Park near Fort Sumter? (probably another dumb question).</p>
<p>We just returned from a weekend trip in Charleston. We have been there a few times, so we weren’t trying to fit everything in. Walk through the open air market - old slave market…this is a few blocks from the main shopping street (lots of stores to shop in here too - big forever 21 store for the teens and higher end stores for parents). The market is local crafts, etc. Fun to walk thru. There is a boat ride out to Fort Sumter and Patriot’s Point. D and H have done this on previous trip.</p>
<p>Battery park…you can’t miss it. Whille you are driving around in Charleston looking for somewhere to park, you will inevitably end up there. When you hit water and can’t go any further and see canons and such…you are there.</p>
<p>Another vote for the open air market. I have walked through dozens of open air markets and the most memorable one I have ever seen was in Charleston. We saw some beautiful jewelry, and many pieces were very reasonably priced.</p>
<p>My d has been in Charleston for 6 years for undergrad and grad school, we are there 4-5 times per year. Carriage tour is an excellent way to see the sites and get some history. There are a LOT of excellent restaurants–Hominy Grill already mentioned is one of my favs, as is Bowen’s Island. We recently ate at Husk, a new locavore restaurant–it’s pricey but outstanding! In addition to others mentioned above, there is Cru Cafe, Poogan’s Porch and many more. If you are there on a Sat., you can visit the ‘Hunley’ submarine from the Civil War in North Charleston, but it’s only open on Sat., just google it–it was found on the seabed and raised a number of years ago. Also, the beaches are excellent no matter which one you go to.</p>
<p>Plantations: Drayton Hall is my favorite, mostly because it’s the oldest one left since it didn’t get burned during the Civil War as did all the others. </p>
<p>Also, Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island has a lot of history, it’s been around since the Revolution and was used through WWII.</p>
<p>Enjoy, Charleston is a GREAT place to visit!</p>
<p>Go to Patriots Point - the USS Yorktown was really cool, and you get an incredible view of the Ravanel Bridge from the flight deck (it’s one of the biggest cable-stayed bridges in the country). There is a submarine there too.</p>
<p>I’ll cast a vote for the horse-drawn tour, too.</p>
<p>Ditto the recommendation for Drayton Hall. We also enjoy Boone Hall. The main house isn’t historic (1930s or so) but the plantation has the original brick slave houses and a great interpretative program about slave history on the plantation.</p>
<p>M2CK - I used to live in the Charleston area. I loved to go downtown and just wander the historic district south of Broad St. You really can’t go wrong with any activity down there. The plantations are great; so are the county parks. I wouldn’t invest the time in Fort Sumter unless you’re really a Civil War buff or Patriot’s Point unless you’re a Naval vessel buff - not that they aren’t worthwhile, but they take up a lot of time and the activities are limited while you’re investing that time. You’ll enjoy strolling in the Waterfront Park on the Cooper River - the fountains there are designed to be interactive and splashable. Hyman’s Seafood Co. on Meeting St. is one of the more affordable options if you’re looking for seafood. If you cross the Cooper River Bridge going north from town, veer right towards Mount Pleasant and go 3 or 4 miles, you get to Shem Creek, where all the shrimp trawlers dock… Shem Creek is lined with seafood restaurants. PM me if I can offer more feedback. Enjoy!</p>
<p>We really enjoyed doing a walking tour of the historic south side of the city and touring several of the homes that do tours. The market is OK but you can find better prices on baskets in Mt Pleasant. Beaches are very nice too. We usually went to Isle of Palms. We liked Sticky Fingers for casual BBQ. Mixed results at Hominy Grill and Jestine’s Kitchen.
Very good antiques at Moore House. But not cheap.</p>