Hello hello! Today I'm sharing everything that Kenny and I did on our recent 3-ish day (really about 48 hour) trip to Charleston, South Carolina. We have been to Charleston a couple of other times in the past, but this has been our first time since I started writing my blog, so I'm excited to chat about our trip and our favorite places to go, including places we didn't make it to this time but enjoyed during past trips!
We spent five nights visiting Charleston and Savannah during our trip, which was so much fun and I'm so glad we went to both cities in one trip. They're only about two hours apart, so it's not too much to visit both in the same trip, and I definitely recommend doing so if you have enough time. We covered a lot of ground in those several days, so wanted to break up my trip recap into individual posts for each of the cities. Savannah's will be coming later this week, so stay tuned for that!
+ If you're planning a trip to Charleston, be sure to save this post for reference!
Charleston is one of my most-loved places that I've ever visited. One of my favorite things about Charleston is its relaxing vacation atmosphere. Whenever Kenny and I have been there, it has felt like most of the people around us are also on vacation or celebrating something and are just in that mindset of pure relaxation, and it's contagious.
One thing that surprised us during this trip was how busy it was everywhere! The other two times we've visited Charleston have been in mid-October when the weather is still lovely but not as hot as the summertime. It's been busy before but nothing crazy. This time though it felt SO crowded everywhere we went! Most restaurants we went to had a 1-2 hour wait, and a few places we didn't even try to get into because there were so many people waiting to get in (and it didn't seem like this was because of reduced capacity due to COVID regulations, most places seemed to be at close to full, if not full, capacity). I didn't expect late April to resemble peak season, but apparently it was pretty close! Because of that, I think I would prefer to visit Charleston in early to mid-fall again next time we go.
Where We Stayed
For our third trip to Charleston, Kenny booked us a room at the Indigo Inn. It is affordable and so beautiful! There are many GORGEOUS luxury hotels in Charleston, but there are affordable options in just as good (or better) locations with beautiful rooms and plenty of amenities. The Indigo Inn is technically on Maiden Lane but it backs up to Meeting Street (one of the main streets in downtown Charleston), so it'd right in the middle of the action. They have complimentary breakfast each morning and happy hour with wine and cheese every evening (each of which had been amended to meet COVID regulations), which are lovely to enjoy in the courtyard. It has real keys rather than key cards, which I find charming. One thing to note is that all of the rooms open to the outside motel-style, so keep that in mind if you prefer more traditional hotel rooms. One major benefit of this hotel for us was that they have their own parking lot right outside. Most hotels downtown have designated parking (for a surcharge), but it is often several blocks from the hotel. I think the parking for the Indigo Inn was about $15 per day (about the cheapest you can find downtown), and it was SO convenient to have reliable parking right outside.
The Indigo Inn reminded us a lot of the Meeting Street Inn which we stayed in our first time in Charleston, and come to find out, they are sister properties, so it makes sense. They are very comparable as far as room size, amenities, price, and decor. After staying both places, I slightly prefer the Meeting Street Inn solely based on location (it's a little further south on Meeting Street than the Indigo Inn), plus they have a small pool which is nice. We also had a small balcony when we stayed at the Meeting Street Inn, but I'm not sure if that's standard for all of their rooms or not.
We've also stayed at the Francis Marion Hotel, which I would recommend as well. It's pretty much exactly at the halfway point between lower King Street and upper King Street (across from Marion Square), which is where most of the action is in downtown Charleston. It's more of a "traditional" hotel feeling with more levels and hallways, and it also has a few ballrooms. They were hosting wedding receptions all weekend the last time we were there, which I found fun and exciting. They also have a beautiful lobby with HUGE fresh flower arrangements, which I enjoyed seeing every time we went in and out! I don't remember them having free breakfast or happy hour, which isn't a huge deal but something to note. They do have a Starbucks connected to the hotel at the ground level, which is nice if you're on the go.
Thursday
We hit the road down to Charleston a little before 7:00am on Thursday so that we could get down as early as possible. It can usually take between seven and eight hours to get from Virginia to Charleston depending on traffic, and I had booked a sunset cruise that evening, so I wanted to make sure we made it down in plenty of time!
Luckily we made great time getting to South Carolina, and had time to check in leisurely and relax a bit. We enjoyed happy hour in the hotel courtyard, which was so lovely! They had mini wine bottles and cheese and fruit boards prepared for guests to grab and go, and the wine was surprisingly good. I snagged a couple of bottles to bring on our sunset cruise, which was BYOB!
Around 6:00, we headed to the wharf for our sunset cruise that I had booked with Charleston Sailing Adventures. We love doing sunset cruises whenever we travel to beachy locations (although this was a harbor cruise!) and it was so much fun. There were probably only 12-15 people on the boat and it was super romantic and relaxing. It wasn't a guided tour, but the guys running the sail did tell us some fun facts along the way and they were super nice. They took a bunch of photos for us, and even asked Kenny to help when they were getting ready to switch one of the sails! 😂 We saw a dolphin as we were heading back to the wharf at the end of the cruise, which was a perfect way to end the evening!
Another great way to spend an evening in Charleston that we didn't do this time around but have done a couple of times before is taking a ghost tour! I believe that both of the tours we've gone on in the past have been through Bulldog Tours, who also do food tours and history tours. We really enjoyed both of our ghost tours in Charleston, but our favorite was the haunted jail tour, so that one is a great option if you're trying to decide.
After our sunset sail, we headed to King Street for dinner at The Rarebit. I was excited to try it there because they have a decent vegan menu (if you're new to the blog, Kenny and I don't eat meat and I prefer to eat plant-based as much as possible). We both got the Impossible patty melt with fries and we really enjoyed them! The fries were super good and we loved the atmosphere of the restaurant. Typically, the atmosphere of a restaurant is just as important to me as the food, so I'm very selective. 😂 After dinner, we headed back to the hotel after a long day of travel and fun!
Friday
On Friday morning I had big plans of getting out early and having brunch somewhere, but we ended up taking it easy and having breakfast in the hotel courtyard, which was really nice. Even though breakfast was grab and go to accommodate for COVID regulations, they still had a good variety of options.
After breakfast, we got ready for the day and basically just started walking aimlessly. 😂 Charleston is hands down the most beautiful city I have ever visited, and I could spend days just walking around and admiring the beautiful houses and historic buildings. We walked The Battery which we have driven through before but never experienced on foot, and it is SO beautiful.
After The Battery, we made our way up to Charleston City Market and browsed our way through. If you've never been, it's a sizable open-air market that spans several blocks and has LOADS of fun stands with locally made goods and souvenirs. I find a lot of similar markets sell a lot of cheap or tacky stuff, but Charleston's market has a ton of really beautiful things that aren't hokey souvenir cheapies.
While we were at the market, I got a hand-painted magnet from a local artist who had so many beautiful pieces! She even wrote the year on it for us, which was so special. Kenny and I have made it our tradition since our honeymoon to get a magnet from everywhere we visit, and we always have fun picking one out. We had a hard time deciding which one to get this time because there were so many beautiful options!
I also got a couple of beautiful pieces of silver jewelry at the market. I've always wanted a Charleston rice bead bracelet ever since we first visited the first time, so much so that I almost ordered one on Etsy last summer. I'm so glad I waited so that I could get one at the market and get it sized perfectly. I absolutely love it and I've been wearing it almost every day!
After walking the city market, we headed over to King Street to do some shopping. King Street has an abundance of pretty boutiques and stores, you could spend the whole day there browsing! We didn't get much, but we saw tons of cool stuff. They have an Urban Outfitters that's in a huge old theater that is so beautiful! I went in less for Urban Outfitters and more to fantasize about what the theater used to be. 😂 It's even more magnificent than in this quick photo I snapped, and there's a balcony behind where I was standing to take it, too! You can see more photos of it here, I just find it so fascinating!
We walked past Jeni's Ice Cream and got tantalized to go in for an afternoon snack. I got salted peanut butter with chocolate flecks and Kenny got gooey butter cake, which were both delicious. They also have rosé sorbet, which I've had before and is wonderful as well.
I was dying to hit up a rooftop or two in the beautiful weather, so after we got done on King Street we walked over to the Market Pavilion Hotel for a pick-me-up at their rooftop bar. I ordered the "refreshtini" which was composed of Hendrick's gin (my favorite!) and cucumber-infused lemonade, and was super refreshing, as the name implies. We also got some super average, super overpriced chips and salsa, which I would not recommend. 😂
The hotel has beautiful views from the rooftop, and a pool! The pool looked so refreshing, I think it would be so much fun to stay there. They also have a beautiful restaurant in the lobby of the hotel that Kenny and I both thought would be fun to go to. The decor and overall feeling of it sort of reminded me of a small version of The Breakers in Palm Beach.
After our rooftop rendezvous, we stopped at one of the Booze Pops trucks that we had kept seeing around town. I got a spiked ice and it was so much fun to eat, but they are STRONG, so if you're not into liquor I'd recommend ordering something else - they have a bunch of different options, as well as regular ice cream like you'd get from a traditional ice cream truck.
After enjoying our time at the Market Pavilion rooftop so much, we wanted to continue our rooftop tour of Charleston as we waited for dinnertime. We tried Élevé, which was right across from our hotel (and looked beautiful!), but they were booked for reservations and we didn't feel like standing around and waiting for one of the first come, first served spaces, so we headed to the The Vendue, which I've also wanted to try the past couple of times we've visited Charleston. They had a long line too, so we decided to scrap the rooftop idea in favor of walking Waterfront Park during sunset instead, which I think we enjoyed even more. We were happy to get some cute photos together with the pineapple fountain, too!
While we're taking rooftops bars and restaurants: Kenny and I have also visited The Watch which is on the rooftop of the Restoration Hotel and they have a beautiful view of the sunset, so that's another nice option if you're looking for a rooftop to relax on. They also serve brunch (which I think many of the other rooftops do as well).
After our sunset walk, we were ready for some dinner! I wanted to try Blind Tiger because it looked good and we've never been there before, but when we got there they had a long wait for a table. We called one of our other favorite places, O-Ku, and they only had about a 30 minute wait, so we headed up there. WELL, by the time we got there it was up to almost a two-hour wait, so that backfired on us. 😂
We made the most of it by walking up and down King Street, which is a totally different scene at night. On the weekends, there are almost always wedding receptions going on in the courtyards between hotels and restaurants, and I always love peeping in at them on our way past because weddings make me so happy and the ones in Charleston are always BEAUTIFUL!
Once our table was ready at O-Ku it was getting late, and we were so ready for dinner! O-Ku is an Asian restaurant with a southern twist. They have a bunch of sushi, yummy small plates, and authentic entrees. We got edamame, a vegetable roll, and fried cauliflower, which were all delicious. Even though it was late, it was still packed in there, so it's definitely a popular spot! After dinner we were close to deceased, so we headed back to the hotel to knock out.
Saturday
Saturday was our last partial day in Charleston before heading to Savannah. We got checked out of our hotel in the morning, and then I wanted to get brunch at Miller's All Day which one of our favorite spots. I figured there'd be a significant wait since it was the weekend (which there was), so we put our names in and then walked up to the farmers market to browse and kill time while we waited to eat. I just love farmers markets! We shopped around for a while and saw some good things but didn't get anything. I do regret not getting some martini olives I spied, though!
After the farmers market we still had a bit to wait and I wanted some coffee, so we stopped at La Macaron because it was the first coffee place we saw and they weren't serving any at the farmers market. I got a cappuccino which was really good, but I do wish we had held out for a local place! They serve pastries and gelato there; we got a couple of macarons and a croissant but they were nothing special. It was crowded in there by the time we left though, so it must be popular.
Once our table was ready, we headed back to Miller's for brunch, which we highly enjoyed! Kenny got a breakfast platter and I got a Bloody Mary (of course) and the braised okra with grits. The okra was good, but I should've gotten something a little lighter since it was so hot out! I definitely recommend Miller's if you're in Charleston, I originally went on a recommendation from Julia Berolzheimer and I'm so glad we did. The atmosphere is so cool, they have a coffee bar in-house so you can get drinks to-go, and they also have a photo booth, which is such a fun touch! It's $5 for two strips of photos, but worth it as a cute momento of your trip.
After brunch, we were off to Savannah, which is only about a 2 hour drive from Charleston. I'll stop this post here, and be back later this week with a recap of the Savannah leg of our trip, so I'll see you back here for that!
xoxx, Laura
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