3 day weekend itinerary:

Friday:

After arriving in the afternoon or late afternoon and settling in your hotel or Airbnb, you are ready for a packed weekend in Charleston. Pro-tip, research what restaurants you might want to visit during your trip and make reservations ahead of time. Some restaurants will be fully booked for normal dinner hours on Fridays and Saturdays. I sent my family possible restaurants before leaving for Charleston and spent some down time in the car calling restaurants or booking on OpenTable.

 

Restaurant choices will also depend on where you are staying. Are you located in downtown and within walking distance? Or are you staying in Mount Pleasant and will need to drive and find parking? If you are staying in the downtown areas I would recommend the restaurants on Queen Street (Eli’s Table, Poogan’s Porch, Husk, 82 Queen). Queen Street intersects with King Street, which is where the busy downtown bars, restaurants and shops will be. After dinner you can walk up and down King Street and maybe stop for a drink at one of the many bars (Uptown Social, Uncorked, Felix, Stars Rooftop, Charleston Beer Works, the Cocktail Club, Proof). Make a mental note to walk King Street during the day so you can also go shopping.

 

If you are staying in Mount Pleasant or somewhere that requires a drive into downtown, I would recommend going to Shem Creek for dinner and drinks on your first night in Charleston. Shem Creek is in Mount Pleasant and where they filmed Outer Banks Season 1. There’s tons of waterside bars and restaurants and a more chill environment if you’re feeling tired after traveling to Charleston. You can switch the Queen Street and King Street adventures for another night on your trip!

 

Saturday:

 

Saturday be ready to really dive into Charleston’s history. There’s so many options for trolley tours, horse-drawn carriage tours or walking tours to see and understand more of Downtown Charleston. You can learn about the Battery, Rainbow Row, and see some historical homes and slave markets. Visiting a historic city in the South, I think it’s important to acknowledge the darker sides of history. Here are some possible museums or tours you can take: Old Exchange and Dungeon, Old Slave Mart Museum, Museum at Market Hall (Daughters of the Confederacy museum), Old Charleston Jail, The Charleston Museum

 

If you have a car during your trip, you can also visit the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens or Boone Hall Plantation. My family visited the Magnolia Plantation and went on a nature tour. We saw lots of wildlife (too many alligators to count), beautiful magnolia and palmetto trees, and the fields that used to grow rice. The general admission for the Magnolia Plantation also comes with a slavery to freedom tour where you can walk through slave quarters and learn how each era of slavery affected the americas and the plantation.

 

If you are interested in maritime history or warfare, there are also lots of tours available for that. You can tour the USS Yorktown, Fort Sumpter (will include a boat ride out to the fort) or Fort Moultrie.

 

Keep in mind, these tours will take an hour or more each, so I would dedicate your morning to one part of history, take a break for lunch and then spend your afternoon somewhere else. That will leave you with time for dinner and drinks after, while also appreciating the historic side of Charleston.

 

Lastly, I would recommend seeing the Angel Oak on James Island at least once in your life. The beautiful and immensity of this tree is truly something you will never forget. Southern live oaks are native to the southeast and low country, and this Angel Oak is estimated to be almost 500 years old.

 

Sunday:

 

After a busy day in downtown yesterday, Sunday is the perfect day for a beach day. This might be variable on your accessibility to a car, but Folly Island and Sullivan’s Island are both great options for beaches around Charleston. Folly is going to be more touristy than Sullivan’s, but they’ll feel very similar. It’s an Atlantic coast beach so water is on the darker side, sand is hard-packed dark sand, there are large tide switches, and in general there aren’t a lot of shells. Folly Beach will have a pier you can walk out on and the Morris Island Lighthouse. On Sullivan’s Island, I would highly recommend Hometeam for a BBQ lunch or dinner. If you’re looking for a fun day snack and drink, I would recommend the Co-op, which is famous for their frozes (frozen rose). You could spend a half or whole day at the beach depending on what you want you’re vacation to be!

 

If you spend a half day at the beach, I would recommend doing the afternoon so that you can spend a morning walking through the Charleston City Market. The Market is open everyday almost all day, and there are hundreds of local vendors. This is a good place to get gifts for loved ones, clothes, or decoration for your room or home! After taking your time walking through here, I would go the Rainbow Row with a cute outfit on and take pictures! The vintage and colorful homes make such a cute backdrop for pictures. You could also walk to the battery and take more pictures in White Point Garden park. Lastly, don’t forget to see the Pineapple Fountain, which is located on the water but farther north towards Queen Street. The pineapple is a symbol of hospitality in Charleston.

 

General restaurant recommendations:

This itinerary is just inspiration for you’re trip! I’m going to recommend a few other places I didn’t include in the itenary so that you have lots of options for food and drinks. Reminder again, it’s a good idea to make a reservation ahead of time!

• The Citrus Club (rooftop bar in the Dewberry Hotel)
• Camelia’s (at Hotel Bennet- very pink, picturesque, bachelorette party vibes)
• 5 Church and Tempest (next door to each other, get drinks at one and dinner at another)
• Pearlz or 167 Raw (for oysters)
• Halls Chophouse (veryy expensive, located on King’s Street)
• Fleet’s Landing (on the water in downtown Charleston, very touristy now but still good)
• Le Farelle (best pasta ever)
• Salty Mike’s (also known as Marina Variety Store, very chill restaurant at a Marina)

Recommendations