Charleston Travel Guide – What to Do, Where to Eat

Over the summer I traveled to Charleston, South Carolina with one of my best friends for a long weekend getaway. I love researching travel destinations and making itineraries, so I made a pretty in depth guide for us. We were there for 4 days, and 3 nights in August and we stayed at the Francis Marion Hotel. Overall, I loved the city and thought a long weekend there was perfect. I would have loved to have stayed another day and made it out to one of the beach communities as well.

I flew Southwest out of Midway airport direct to Charleston and it was a quick and painless flight. I then ubered to my hotel and that took about 15-20 minutes. We did not rent a car because the city is so walkable. I would recommend renting a car if you plan on going out to the beaches or plantations. Otherwise, you would be fine without one. 

We stayed at the Francis Marion Hotel across from Marion square and right in the heart of Charleston. The prices are very reasonable and the gym had Peloton bikes, which was really nice! Across the street there was a farmer’s market in the park, which was cute to check out.

One of the best parts of Charleston is the food. Every restaurant was delicious and there is so much variety in the type of food. I first had breakfast at Beech and had a delicious acai bowl. After walking around, we ate at Pearlz Oyster bar, which was casual and hit the spot. It is also around the waterfront park, which is nice to stroll through.The fanciest restaurant we went to was Husk. I would definitely recommend making a reservation in advance here, but it is well worth it. When doing my research for different restaurants, Husk kept coming up as one of the go-to spots and I would agree.

For lunch the next day, we ate at Leon’s. Another fantastic restaurant that is a bit of a walk from where we were staying, but I’m glad we made the trek. It was so good we considered coming back again. I had the catfish sandwich. Another great spot for lunch is Lewis BBQ, which is Texas style barbecue.

Sadly, we could not eat at every restaurant in Charleston. So I will leave a list of other restaurants that we wanted to go to, but did not get a chance to. There are also a number of coffee shops and dessert places that came highly recommended.

The bar scene in Charleston is thriving, and when we were at a number of bars we saw many bachelorette parties. One of my favorite bars was Prohibition, which was very popular on Saturday night and the cocktails were delicious. We also really enjoyed the Cocktail club. There is a whole string of bars on King street that you could easily bar hop.

One of the best things to do in Charleston, is to just wander around and look at the beautiful houses and of course rainbow row. I would recommend just walking around the South of Broad neighborhood and look at the houses as well as the water. We also rented beach cruisers and biked around. We rented through Affordabike. We also walked through the Charleston city market, which is a great place to buy a souvenir, but not somewhere to hang out for long. There are also cute boutiques along King Street to do some shopping.

Overall, it was a great trip to Charleston and I would love to come back. It’s a good spot for families, girls trips or a romantic trip. The food is excellent, fun bar scene and even better scenery. If you see a cheap flight, maybe think about booking it.

More Dinner Recommendations

• Poogan’s Porch (southern style)
• Darling Oyster Bar (seafood)
• Stella’s (Greek)
• 167 Raw bar (seafood)
• SNOB Slightly north of broad (southern)

Breakfast

• Breizh pan crepes
• Callie’s hot little biscuit
• Circe Grotto (sandwiches)
• Taco Boy
• Xiao Bao Biscuit

Coffee

• City Lights coffee
• Second State coffee
• Sugar bakeshop

Drinks

• Prohibition (cocktail bar)
• Vintage Lounge (wine bar with live jazz)
• Felix Cocktails et cuisine (cocktail bar)
• Citrus Club (rooftop at the dewberry)
• The Cocktail Club
• Blind Tiger Pub