Things to do in Charleston
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Charleston
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Festival spring begins, oyster season, azaleas late March, 60s to 70s F and prices high and rising.
Peak and best all round window, 70s to low 80s F, low humidity, most expensive and most booked.
Spoleto transforms the city late May to mid June, heat and humidity arrive in earnest by June.
Summer beach season, low to mid 90s F with heavy humidity and afternoon storms, worst sightseeing weather.
Crowds vanish after Labour Day, water stays warm, but hurricane risk peaks, buy refundable rates.
The other best window, 60s to 70s F, often driest, oyster roast season reopens and king tides are highest.
Mild, festive and underrated, 50s to 60s F, cheapest peninsula hotel rates outside holiday weekends.
Worst month overall, heat, humidity, hurricane peak and the thinnest events.
What's on
- Lowcountry Oyster Festival early Feb
Oyster roast season in full swing in the cold R months.
- Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE) mid-Feb
The country's big wildlife art and sporting weekend, the city full and outdoorsy.
- Charleston Wine + Food Festival Usually early March
The food event of the year, book everything months ahead.
- The Charleston Festival / Festival of Houses & Gardens mid-Mar-mid-Apr
Opens private homes and gardens across the historic district.
- Cooper River Bridge Run early April
A 10K over the Ravenel Bridge.
- Credit One Charleston Open late Mar-early Apr
Women's tennis on Daniel Island.
- Charleston Jazz Festival April
Jazz across the city in the peak spring window.
- Art Charleston April
The Gibbes led art week in April.
- Spoleto Festival USA + Piccolo Spoleto late May-mid-June
17 days of opera, theatre, dance and music that transform the city and its prices.
- Sweetgrass Festival June
Celebrates Gullah Geechee sweetgrass basket culture.
Worth the trip for
Best things to do in Charleston
International African American Museum
Built on the wharf where many enslaved Africans arrived, it reframes everything else you see in Charleston.
The Battery
The signature harbour promenade past antebellum mansions, White Point Garden and Rainbow Row, best early.
McLeod Plantation Historic Site
The honest plantation visit, interpreting the site through the enslaved people who lived and worked there.
Fort Sumter National Monument
The island fort where the Civil War began, reached by a narrated harbour ferry with rangers on site.
Aiken-Rhett House Museum
Preserved as found with slave quarters, stables and kitchens intact, the most unflinching house museum in town.
Nathaniel Russell House Museum
The grand restored showpiece house museum, famous for its free flying staircase.
Old Slave Mart Museum
A tiny museum in a former slave auction gallery that carries far more weight than its size suggests.
Gibbes Museum of Art
The city art museum with a Charleston lens, set in the gallery dense French Quarter.
Where to stay in Charleston
Historic District / downtown peninsula, south of Calhoun
first trip, all-round base
Almost everything worth doing and eating is walkable, and the free DASH shuttle fills the gaps.
Cannonborough-Elliotborough
food-first repeat visitors
Charleston's most interesting current restaurants cluster here, a 10 to 15 minute walk to King Street.
Upper King / NoMo fringe
best value on the peninsula
Newer hotels are cheaper and walkable to Upper King dining, but walks south get longer and quieter late.
Mount Pleasant
families wanting space and beach access
Suburban polished with Shem Creek dining, 10 minutes drive downtown and closest to the barrier island beaches.
Folly Beach
trips where the beach is the trip
Surf town rentals and great mornings, but 25 minutes or more from downtown dining.
Kiawah / Seabrook Islands
resort and golf trips
Gated, pristine, world class golf and beach, deliberately removed from the city.
Think twice about
- North Charleston motel corridors (I-26 / Ashley Phosphate Rd / Rivers Ave / airport strips)
A separate city 20 to 30 minutes from the peninsula, car dependent, with persistently higher crime in parts.
- West Ashley strip motels on Savannah Hwy (US-17)
Highway sprawl, nothing walkable, and a drive to everything.
- Summerville, Goose Creek or Ladson marketed as Charleston
35 to 50 minutes out, so the nightly saving evaporates in rideshares and lost mornings.
Best restaurants in Charleston
FIG
Mike Lata's seasonal Lowcountry dining room, still the one dinner most locals say to build around.
Vern's
A starred neighbourhood bistro with house sourdough, pastas and roast chicken in a tiny room.
Chubby Fish
The day's local catch as crudo, curries and whole fish in a small no reservations room worth the queue.
The Ordinary
A grand former bank hall turned seafood palace, the definitive Charleston oyster experience.
Husk
The Lowcountry landmark that recentred Southern cooking on heirloom local ingredients, with a beloved bar.
Rodney Scott's BBQ
Whole hog smoked the Pee Dee way, order the plate with crackling skin.
Lewis Barbecue
Texas transplant brisket and beef ribs that sell out, with counter service and weekend lines.
Bertha's Kitchen
Gullah soul food pilgrimage for okra soup, Charleston red rice and fried chicken at lunch.
Outdoor things to do in Charleston
The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort
Pete Dye's seaside bucket list round, host of a Ryder Cup and brutally wind dependent.
Wild Dunes Resort
A resort round at roughly a third of Ocean Course money.
Patriots Point Links on Charleston Harbor
The best view per dollar in local golf, with harbour views of downtown and Fort Sumter.
Charleston Municipal Golf Course
The beloved recently renovated locals' round, known as the Muni.
Shem Creek
Guided marsh paddling past shrimp boats, with dolphins, egrets and a creekside lunch after.
Folly Creek
A wilder marsh paddle than Shem Creek, best at a falling or low tide for wildlife.
Sullivan's Island
Quiet residential beach, the locals' favourite, with the best small food strip on Middle Street.
Isle of Palms
Family friendly beach with amenities and county park facilities, livelier than Sullivan's.
Best hotels in Charleston
Charleston Place
The big polished grand central splurge, with spa, rooftop pool and Charleston Grill under one roof.
Planters Inn
A Relais and Chateaux location play, home of Peninsula Grill by the Market.
Market Pavilion Hotel
A location play in the French Quarter and Market hotel cluster.
HarbourView Inn
Harbour edge French Quarter position in the central hotel cluster.
The Spectator Hotel
A 1920s styled boutique near the Market with butler style service.
The Vendue
The art hotel with the rooftop everyone visits anyway.
Hotel Bennett
The modern luxury pick overlooking Marion Square, with rooftop pool and a champagne bar.
The Dewberry Charleston
A former federal building turned mid century design hotel facing Marion Square.
Is Charleston expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | $150 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | $350 a person |
| Splurge | $750 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- International African American Museum: a few days ahead
- Fort Sumter National Monument: a few days ahead
- The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort: months ahead
- Charleston Harbor: a few days ahead
- FIG: weeks ahead
- Vern's: weeks ahead
- The Ordinary: a few days ahead
- Wild Common: weeks ahead
- Book peninsula hotels first for March to May, October, Spoleto and Wine + Food weekends, the city sells out.
- Book FIG, Vern's, Wild Common and Charleston Grill as soon as windows open, often 30 plus days.
- Book IAAM timed tickets and the Fort Sumter ferry for weekends, and Ocean Course tee times months ahead for prime slots.
Is Charleston safe?
- The visitor peninsula is busy, lit and low crime, watch for card skimmers and never leave valuables visible in a car at beach lots.
- Stay on lit populated streets south of the Crosstown late, and rideshare door to door after Upper King bar nights.
- Charleston floods on sunshine at king tides and heavy rain, never drive through standing water downtown and check road closures on wet days.
- Summer heat, alligators in Lowcountry freshwater, rip currents at Folly and Isle of Palms, and fast afternoon storms are the underrated risks.
- Check your government's current travel advice before you go.
Charleston travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Horse drawn carriage tours give a pleasant ride but a variable history script, walk the Battery and pay a historian or Gullah led tour instead.
- City Market souvenir depth trends to imported trinkets, buy sweetgrass baskets from the weaver at the front halls.
- Boone Hall centres the big house, for slavery centred truth McLeod and Drayton Hall do it better.
- Most Market area she crab soup and praline tourist menus are the weakest versions in town.
Getting around Charleston: public transport and more
- Walk the peninsula, about 2 miles tip to top and flat, and use the free DASH downtown shuttle.
- Do not rent a car for a peninsula only trip, hotel parking is pricey and street parking is patrolled.
- Airport CHS is about 20 to 25 minutes away in North Charleston, rideshares and taxis are easy.
Who Charleston suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Great |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Great |
Make Charleston your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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