Charleston Guide

My husband and I took a little kid-free parent’s weekend to Charleston and had the most amazing time! If you haven’t been to this southern city yet, put it on your wanderlust list stat!

When We Went

A mid-April trip to Charleston was perfect weather wise. Our forecast had an entire day of rain in it, but that held off till after 7 pm that night, which was fantastic. The temperature ranged from 65-80 degrees while we were there, it was the perfect temperature for sightseeing.

Where We Stayed

Mills House Hotel

Our hotel was a fabulous pink building right in the heart of historic Charleston. The Mills House had everything we needed, central location, reasonable prices, gorgeous spaces, and a pool (even though we didn’t end up using it.) The location was honestly unbeatable, two of our reservations were DIRECTLY across the street and every other spot was a close walk away. I would totally recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Charleston, we had no complaints!

What We Ate

Oh gosh. What didn’t we eat is more like it. I think Charleston might be my new favorite food city…and I’ve lived in both New York and San Francisco. We did not have any meal that was less than spectacular and that goes for the service as well…southern hospitality is a real thing! One thing we did notice was the portion sizes were legit everywhere, especially compared to the portions we’re used to in NYC and SF. This however, made it difficult for us to order dessert anywhere…we really failed on that front. Don’t worry though, we’re already planning our return trip! We did two meals per day and it worked out really well since they were so huge. Alright so here is the list of where we ate and what we ordered (Tim and I prefer to order multiple small dishes and share everything so we can get as many tastes as we can) so here goes:

Breakfast/Brunch

Hominy Grill

Order: Bloody Mary’s, Griddled Banana Bread, Shrimp & Grits, Charleston Navy Biscuit

Hominy doesn’t take reservations, but they have an awesome garden area outside and a bar window so you can order a drink while you wait. We went on a Sunday at 10:45 am and it was a 45 minute wait for the two of us. However, the time flew with a Bloody Mary in hand and it was well worth the wait. Hands down my favorite dish of the weekend was the shrimp & grits here. I have never considered myself a big shrimp and grits fan, but Charleston did not steer me wrong in the grits department and Hominy really knocked them out of the park! Tim who doesn’t even like shrimp and was also so-so on grits was similarly blown out of the water. Everything we ate was delicious, the Shrimp & Grits is a must-order.

Poogan’s Porch

(We had to cancel this reservation because it was the last day of our trip and we literally were stuffed to the gills…we didn’t eat until 2:30pm that day.) However, this place is directly across the street for the Mills House Hotel and we’ve only heard amazing things about their brunch…next time!

Lunch

Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit

Order: A variety of biscuits

This is a grab & go spot for warm biscuits and biscuit sandwiches. It has two locations in the city. This was our first stop when we arrived because we were starving and the hot little biscuits do not disappoint! We just got a variety, they’re 3 for $5. Next time we’ll have to try their sandwiches.

Husk

Order: Pimento Cheese Grilled Crostini, Crispy Pig’s Ear Lettuce Wraps, HUSK Cheeseburger (award-winning), Open-Faced Brisket Sandwich

We went here for a 2pm lunch just because that was the only reservation time we could get two weeks out. Definitely book Husk as far in advance as you can! This restaurant is in an old Victorian house and was directly across from our hotel. All of their food is southern sourced, and their menu changes frequently. We had to get the Pimento cheese app because everyone in this city is always talking about Pimento cheese, we had to see what the hype was about! It was delicious of course, but I haven’t found a cheese I didn’t like, so that’t not really a fair judgement. I didn’t love the Pig’s Ear Lettuce Wraps, Tim thinks if I didn’t know it was Pig’s Ear I would have liked it more, but what can ya do. We love a cheeseburger, but don’t like ordering them when we’re at new places like this, but when they were out of the fish fritters, our server convinced us to try the award-winning burger…and it was certainly tasty, and a little different so it was actually a great order. The brisket was equally as good, and not too heavy.

Dinner

Magnolia’s

Order: A few different cocktails, Fried Green Tomatoes Over Grits, Pan Seared Sea Scallops Over Skillet Cornbread, Sweet Chili Rubbed Ahi Tuna

Make a reservation for this one in advance too. White tablecloths in a sophisticated dining room made this southern cooking meal feel elevated. Magnolia’s has been around since the 90’s and as our first official meal in Charleston, we were impressed. The two apps we got: fried green tomatoes, and the scallops are NOT to be missed, I am drooling thinking about them right now. Their cocktail menu is extensive and different as well.

Leon’s Fine Poultry & Oyster Shop

Order: Frozen Gin & Tonics, Hush Puppies, Fried Brussels Sprouts, Char-Grilled Oysters, 2-Piece Fried Chicken

A little bit off the beaten path, this rustic restaurant is in an old garage with a trendy vibe. They have fried chicken, oysters, rose on tap and frozen gin & tonics…what more could you ask for?! They don’t accept reservations, but we went at 5pm on a Sunday and walked right in…however by 6 pm there was quite a wait! Tim has been complaining that he’s “off of Brussels sprouts” every time I make them, until he ordered these fried ones and told me if I made them like this, he’d eat them everyday. Everything was delicious, we recommend watching the amount of fried items you order because there are just too many good choices, but it makes for an uncomfortable (long) walk home.

Dessert

River Street Sweets

Like I mentioned, we did a terrible job of leaving any room at restaurants to eat dessert. Huge regret. However, our guilty pleasure the entire trip was pralines from River Street Sweets. Pecans are grown in SC and pralines, if you’ve never had them, are basically a gooey mix of pecans, butter, sugar, and cream. They are amazing, especially when hot & fresh. Originally out of Savannah, River Street Sweets has a location in the Old Market area of Charleston…again just a hop, skip and jump away from our hotel…one night it rained and Tim made us leave the hotel to run over and get pralines because he needed them so bad.

Rooftop Bars

We did our own rooftop bar crawl on Saturday night and it was super fun. We started our crawl at around 7 pm after an early dinner, and seemed to beat a lot of the crowds that would come out later. The three places we went to below are super close to each other, only a few blocks away…we even stopped back at our hotel between Vendue & Pavillion to change into some warmer attire. Because Charleston doesn’t have very many tall buildings or any skyscrapers, the rooftops are really only a few stories up, but you can see across the city and to the harbor. All of these have food & drinks.

Vendue

Pavillion

Eleve

(Stars Rooftop is a little farther away from these three, but we went there for my friend’s bachelorette a few years ago and we loved it.)

What We Did

Walk

Our favorite thing to do when visiting a city is to just walk around and see where our journey takes us. Charleston is a very walkable city, and every block is more gorgeous in architecture and landscaping than the next. There is also a ton of history around every corner (we stopped at every statue and every sign on every historical house we saw…Tim lives for that kind of stuff). Some areas we explored:

King Street

The main strip, a street that’s over 300 years old that houses restaurants, shops & tons of boutiques (If I wasn’t with Tim on this trip, more time would have been spent shopping, it’s probably for the best though!) The Skinny Dip was my favorite boutique, I wanted just about everything in there! (There’s also a Skinny Dip on Nantucket if you’re in the Boston area.)

Old Market

This is just a little market of shops that was established in the 1790’s and houses a variety of vendors (including Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits and River Street Sweets). This area was more of just a walk-through for us, we aren’t big into tchotchkes (I didn’t know how to spell that word until I had to look it up) or souvenirs, but we did enjoy poking around in the evening at the night market, there was live music and we had had a few cocktails. We also found this amazing burnt wood art shop, Fire & Pine, that makes the coolest map and patent art…we want to get this football patent piece for Wyatt’s room “big boy” room.

Rainbow Row

This is obviously a must-do when in Charleston. It’s just a row of 13 historical, colorful houses right downtown, but it’s probably the most-photographed spot in the city! There are plaques along the street that tell you a little about the history.

Tours

We didn’t do any tours in the city this time, we wanted to explore on our own. But I have heard amazing things about the food tours…just make sure you book well in advance! When I planned a bachelorette party in Charleston a few years ago we went on a pub tour which was super fun for some boozy history.

We also debated going on a Carriage Tour, but didn’t get to it. The were ALL over, so we did manage to hear snippets of info just walking the streets. I think next visit, I’d like to try one to get a more comprehensive overview of the city.

There were a lot of historical house & garden tours going on when we were there, this might be seasonal, but if that’s something you’re interested in, definitely check it out.

Fort Sumter (where the Civil War began) was on our list, but unfortunately the last day we were there it was a bit on the chilly side and you have to ferry to the Fort and we didn’t feel adequately dressed. These tours run right from the city a few times a day, it’s recommended to book at least a day in advance.

Trips 30 Minutes from the City

We had a rental car because I knew we wanted to do a few things outside of the city: go to a plantation & the beach.

Boone Hall Plantation

We debated for a long time between all of the major plantations in the Charleston area, and narrowed it down to Magnolia + Boone Hall. We finally landed on Boone just because it was one flat rate for everything, we didn’t want to have to deal with deciding what we wanted to see and purchase additional tickets once we were there, we just wanted to walk and see what we wanted to see. (Also Boone is “Allie’s summer house” in The Notebook, so that was also a contributing factor.) The entrance to Boone was an avenue of southern live oaks that were planted in 1743, it was quite the sight! The plantation itself had a mix of self-guided and tour options, and highlighted the history of the plantation (the oldest working one in America) and the house itself. We spent about 2 hours here taking in the culture before driving back over the Ravenel Bridge to the city.

Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island

The weather on our “beach” day wasn’t quite warm enough for an ocean dip, but we took the car out to Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palms for a walk on the beach. These vacation beaches are cute areas that feel like you’re miles from a city. (When I planned my friends bachelorette here we went to Folly Beach which was probably a bit more hopping, and a little less family friendly.)