Charleston City Market Waterfront Park The Charleston Battery Rainbow Row Rooftop Lunch King Street Charleston Brewery District Downtown Charleston Folly Beach Trip Takeaways
Charleston is such a charming, historic, laid-back, southern town. Each year, a group of my high school girlfriends plan a trip for a long weekend somewhere, and we thought Charleston would be a great pick for our girls trip since we could also visit our friend who lives just outside the city. We booked our flights for mid-July and planned to stay a few nights at her house and booked 2 nights in a hotel on Folly Beach. We flew from Akron/Canton airport to Charleston airport on Breeze airlines - I have to say I was thoroughly impressed with this new airline - as their name alludes, they did make our travels a 'breeze'.
Day 1: Touring Downtown Charleston
Charleston City Market
After our late evening flight, we settled in for the night and got up to head into Charleston to tour around the sites. The forecast was calling for another balmy day - heat index reaching into the 100's. We found some metered parking nearby and parked for a few hours. Our first stop was at the Charleston City Market. This is such a cool historical city market, over 200 years old, with vendors all throughout this indoor/outdoor market spanning 4 city blocks. There are a wide variety of vendors - food, art, jewelry, crafts (hand-woven grass baskets), souvenirs, toys, Christmas ornaments, clothing/hats, and many more unique items. As you walk through the market browsing the vendor shops, you'll have to stop for a horse-carriage crossing (and be careful not to step in poop). They offer many historical tours throughout downtown.
Waterfront Park & Pier
After walking through the City Market, we walked down Concord Street to Charleston Waterfront Park & Pier. The sun was beating down, but it was such a beautiful day. We walked out onto the pier overlooking Charleston Harbor and Cooper River bridge. This used to be a bustling harbor, but now it is a picturesque quiet park with walking paths, fountains, benches, and swings. We had to take a picture in front of the infamous 'Charleston Pineapple Fountain'!
The Charleston Battery & White Point Garden
We made our way back to the car and drove down to The Charleston Battery, where we were able to find some free street parking. The Charleston Battery is a fortified seawall and promenade. The wall stretches along the shore of the Charleston peninsula. We walked the promenade along the Charleston Harbor. There are expansive historical mansions overlooking the water. Across the street in White Point Garden park, we strolled along the oyster shell paths through the massive oak trees draped in Spanish moss. This historical waterfront park has many monuments, a gazebo, and cannons that date back to the Civil and Revolutionary War era.
Rainbow Row
The history surrounding Charleston's famous 'Rainbow Row' is quite intriguing. If you aren't familiar, Rainbow Row refers to the rows of pastel-colored houses along East Bay Street near The Battery. These historic homes were built around 1740 and after the Civil War this area was pretty run-down. In 1931, in an effort to restore the area, Dorothy Porcher Legge decided to paint a few homes pastel pink, and others followed suit. Each of the row houses are privately owned, but there are city ordinances in place to keep their pastel colors. Today, as you visit, you are bound to encounter a bachelorette party, engagement photo session, or even a bride and groom using the homes' beautiful colors as their backdrop.
Rooftop Lunch & King Street
By this time, we needed to cool off after walking around in the heat all morning. We drove over to The Watch Rooftop Kitchen & Spirits and got an indoor (air-conditioned) table overlooking downtown Charleston and the Cooper River Bridge. Fun Fact - Charleston has a historical ordinance still in effect that no building can be taller than the tallest church steeple, so there are no tall buildings, leaving many places the opportunity for a rooftop view of the water and bridge! I got a 'Strawberry Blonde' cocktail that was so refreshing. It was Strawberry infused Bacardi, Southern Amaro, Velvet Falernum, Lime Juice and Pineapple syrup. We ordered the 'Truffle Fries' and the 'Grilled Chicken & Pimento Cheese Nachos' for appetizers and I ordered the 'Shrimp Roll' sandwich - all of the food was SO good!
After lunch, we walked down King Street, which is downtown Charleston's shopping district. There are a variety of retailers - fashion, art, antiques, home décor, and some of the best restaurants. We stopped in some of the high-end boutiques - Louis Vuitton and Gucci - but only window-shopped!
Night 1: Brewery District & Downtown Charleston
Charleston Brewery District - Lowcountry Trolley
We headed back to our friend's house to get ready for the night. Our plan was to take the Lowcountry Trolley to the Charleston Brewery District. The Lowcountry Trolley runs on Saturdays from 1pm-9pm for a free hop-on/hop-off loop through the Charleston Brewery District. They make a full loop (10 brewery stops) every hour and have set times at each brewery. This was so great! They had karaoke and music by request on the short ride to the next brewery. Our first stop was at Edmund's Oast Brewing Co. They have a huge outdoor patio and courtyard area. You can walk up and order your drinks right at the outdoor bar area and find a perfect spot to sit. I ordered the 'Sour Mango Papaya' fruited sour beer. It was very tasty. They had over 20 beers on tap and also wine slushies!
The next stop was at The BrewLab. A large crowd just left, so we had the place to ourselves. We ordered some appetizers and I had a Chicken Quesadilla for dinner. My drink of choice here was the 'Tropical Vibrations', a Guava Sour Ale. Everything was really good!
After dinner and a few drinks at The BrewLab, we hopped on the Trolley for a few stops and went to Revelry Brewing. We went up to the rooftop bar and they had some live music. The beers were good and we had a great time. It was after 9pm by the time we were ready to leave, so the trolley was no longer running. We called an Uber and decided to head into downtown Charleston.
Downtown Charleston
Our Uber picked us up from Revelry with a 55lb Sheep-a-doodle in the front seat. Her name was Charlotte, and she rode on my lap for our ride downtown. This made for quite the ride to remember.
We arrived downtown and went to Republic Garden & Lounge - which is featured on the Bravo's TV series Southern Hospitality & Southern Charm. We got there early so it wasn't that busy, but the club has a DJ and VIP booths all around. We were lucky enough to meet a few of the cast members from Southern Hospitality - Grace Lilly, Joe Bradley, and Maddi Reese. We also met Austen Kroll from Southern Charm, and Winter House and Everett Weston from Summer House. I was completely fan-girling. It was so cool to meet people that you watch on TV and have normal conversations with them. They were all really nice and it was such a cool experience.
After dancing the night away and meeting Bravo-leberties, we walked across the street to see Craig Conover's store - Sewing Down South. Unfortunately, it was closed at this time of night, but it was all decorated for Christmas in July.
Day 2: Folly Beach
The next day we were set to check-in to Tides Folly Beach. We were able to get into our room right away. We had a Double Queen room with a balcony overlooking the water. Tides is the only hotel on Folly Beach, so most visitors stay in condos or Airbnb rentals. The lobby was very nice and the rooms were okay, but could definitely use some TLC. Our sliding door was all clouded up and you could barely see out of it and the door itself was so hard to open, we rarely did. But the room definitely served us for what we needed. The location was perfect and we walked everywhere!
We made our way down to the beach for the afternoon. Since it was later in the day, the beach attendants let us use the chairs for free for a few hours. We relaxed and enjoyed the sun and water. After a few hours at the beach, we went up to get ready for dinner and out for the night.
Our first dinner on Folly was at Taco Boy. It was very close to our hotel and we each ordered some tacos and a cocktail. The tacos were really good! They have a wide variety of options from fried chicken to surf & turf and everything in between. After we ate, we walked down Center Street and stopped into The Bounty Bar. It was 'Session Night' so there were live artists having a jam session. It was very busy and it seemed like this was a local place and most people were regulars and knew each other. We had a few drinks and walked down to Planet Follywood. This is a laid-back bar with $1 bills lining the walls. We got a table and some drinks and enjoyed many laughs until they kicked us out promptly at 2:00am.
Day 3: Folly Beach
The next morning, we were all moving pretty slow after our late night out. We decided on brunch at The Lost Dog Café. It was already so hot outside, we decided to wait for a table inside. The restaurant was so cute inside - they have framed pictures of people's dogs covering the walls. (I don't know how you qualify to get your dog's picture on the wall, but I want to look into it!) I ordered the special of the day - The Folly Benedict - crab-cake and shrimp-cake eggs benedict. It was really good and hit the spot.
After brunch, we went back to our room to get ready for the beach. We rented umbrellas and chairs for the day and as soon as we got situated, a huge storm cloud rolled in and the lifeguards closed the beach for lightening. Luckily, we were able to wait it out and the storm passed. The beach attendant was correct - he said it's known as 'The Folly Bubble', often times storms roll through and somehow Folly stays out of the storm. It ended up being a great beach day. I will say, the sand was so hot, people were running to get from the dry sand down to where the water was coming up for some relief. I definitely felt like I burned the soles of my feet! The water was a little rougher than I'm used to on the Gulf, but it was very refreshing and nice. There is just something about the saltwater and sand on your toes.
For dinner we went to the restaurant in the lobby of our hotel, Blu Beach Bar & Grill. It was a pretty fancy place, but our waitress was great - she even offered to take our picture out on the patio. The cocktails and food were delicious. I ordered the scallop dinner and it was some of the best scallops I've ever had. Since Folly Beach is pretty small, and we were there on a Sunday & Monday, there weren't many bars to go to. So we went back to Planet Follywood. It was a quieter night, but we met some fun people and had a blast and again hung out until they kicked us out at 2:00am.
Day 4: Folly Beach & Home
The next morning was check-out day. I went out and enjoyed the balcony views for a bit and even watched some surfers out catching waves early in the morning. Once everyone got up, we cleaned and packed up to check-out. We walked across the street to brunch at Rita's Seaside Grill. We sat in a booth - and I just have to comment on how weird these booths were. I felt like a giant at this table. The bench seats were so high up and close to the table, we could barely squeeze our legs in to slide in the booth. Since we were sitting up so high, we felt like our heads were going to hit the pendant light. When our food came, I felt like I had to hunch over so far because the table was down below my waist. But anyhow, I ordered the Sausage Biscuits and Gravy and it was really good, despite the booth struggle.
After brunch, we went back to Tides to go relax by the pool. It was so hot out, that the water was almost too warm to be refreshing. But we stayed for a few hours before heading back to our friends house for our last night of vacation.
Overall, Folly Beach was a really cute, quiet beach town. There aren't many hotels and no high-rises. There aren't even many souvenir shops. We were there Sunday-Tuesday in July and the nightlife was pretty minimal. If you are looking for a quiet, relaxing, beach trip I would definitely recommend Folly Beach.
We spent our last evening at our friends house. We floated in the pool for a bit, had some snacks on the deck, and relaxed for the evening before we flew out the next morning. Her and her husband made us steak fajitas and margaritas for dinner. We sat around the kitchen table for hours just chatting and making plans for our next girls trip! This trip was a great mix of touristy & beach relaxing. I can't wait to see where our next adventure takes us!
Trip Takeaways:
Charleston is a very cute, historical city. It is so pretty and it has a really nice, walkable downtown with many sites to see and visit.
The Lowcountry Trolley Brewery District tour was AMAZING. I really want to look into making this happen around Cleveland!
Folly Beach is a very relaxing, quiet, small beach town. If you are looking for touristy things and nightlife, this might not be your best option, but if you want a quiet beach to relax this is definitely your place!
Until next time, Charleston!
I look forward to sharing my next adventure with you!
-Steph
More photos available for viewing: Charleston, SC Photo Album
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