Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston has one of the most beautiful historic districts in the United States, a serious food scene that has attracted national attention for two decades, and a history that includes being one of the primary entry points for the transatlantic slave trade – roughly 40 percent of all enslaved Africans brought to North America arrived through Charleston Harbour. Both things are true simultaneously, and the better tourist experiences here engage with both rather than treating the city as pure antebellum scenery.

Historic Downtown

Rainbow Row on East Bay Street is the most photographed block: 13 Georgian houses with pastel facades in pink, yellow, blue, and green, maintained in the colours that traders and merchants used to identify their shops in the 18th century. They are genuinely beautiful and they are, from an architectural standpoint, one of the most significant intact blocks of colonial commercial housing in America.

The Battery is the waterfront promenade where the Cooper and Ashley Rivers meet, with Civil War-era cannons and a view of Fort Sumter in the harbour. The houses lining White Point Garden on this end of the peninsula are among the best examples of Charleston’s distinctive architecture – double porches facing south and east to catch the sea breeze, a vernacular design unique to the city.

Fort Sumter National Monument, accessible by ferry from Liberty Square, is where Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War in April 1861. The National Park Service rangers do honest, nuanced interpretation – the fort is simultaneously a reminder of military history and a meditation on what people were fighting to preserve.

Plantations

The plantation sites outside the city are the most contested ground in Charleston tourism, and the most important to visit if you want to understand what the city’s wealth was built on. McLeod Plantation Historic Site on James Island is the most direct and historically honest: it focuses specifically on the enslaved people who lived and worked there, using the standing structures and landscape as evidence. Less scenic than Magnolia or Boone Hall, more honest.

Magnolia Plantation and Boone Hall are more traditionally touristic with their gardens and oak alleys. Both now include programming about enslaved workers alongside the landscape history. The oak alley at Boone Hall – draped in Spanish moss, still intact – looks exactly like a Hollywood movie set, which is partly because it has been used as one.

The Food

Shrimp and grits is the signature dish and the best versions in Charleston are better than they sound if you haven’t had them. Husk on Queen Street is the James Beard Award-winning standard bearer for Southern regional ingredients; expect a reservation requirement and prices to match the reputation. Chez Wong (before you ask: no, that’s Lima) – in Charleston, Husk is the meal to book.

Leon’s Oyster Shop on Ann Street does fried chicken and oysters in a former auto-body shop with the corrugated-metal-and-neon aesthetic that the whole American South has perfected. Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit on King Street makes biscuits that will recalibrate what you think a biscuit can be – get there early.

Where to Stay

Belmond Charleston Place is the city’s grand hotel, centrally located, genuinely excellent service. Zero George Street is a boutique hotel in a cluster of restored 19th-century buildings in Ansonborough, one of the better smaller options. B&Bs in the historic district, particularly around South of Broad, tend to be well-maintained and more characterful than chain options.

When to Go

Spring (March through May) and autumn (September through November) offer the best weather and avoid the peak summer humidity. The Spoleto Festival in May/June is one of the more significant performing arts festivals in America and worth planning around if the arts are your reason for visiting.