Charleston is hands down my favorite US city. The town is steeped in history and tradition, with beautiful architecture and some of the tastiest food.
One of the best things about Charleston is that it is located right off the water and is within 30 minutes of three different beaches.
This 3 days in Charleston itinerary covers our latest trip to the southern city. We have been to Charleston before and had already seen most of the popular attractions.
This post highlights a more laid-back itinerary for our three days in Charleston. You can easily add additional attractions to your days as well!
Day 1: Explore the City
We live a short 5-hour drive from Charleston, which gives us the perfect excuse to come to visit all the time. The nice thing about being able to drive is that we had a car to explore the outskirts of the city.
If you are flying into Charleston, the airport is about 20 minutes outside of the downtown area, and you can always rent a car if you need one.
We stayed at the Francis Marion Hotel located on King Street. We like this hotel because it is right in the middle of all the shopping and restaurants on the northern side of the downtown area. It is also only a mile walk to the Battery on the southern end.
We drove into town on a Friday afternoon, checked into our hotel, and decided to spend the afternoon exploring the city.
There is a large parking deck next to the hotel where we were able to keep our car for our stay. Just a warning, it is usually about $20 a day to park your car no matter where you stay. The Francis Marion Hotel also offers valet parking for $28 a day if you prefer the convenience.
King Street is the main shopping area in downtown Charleston. Here you will find a variety of antique stores, boutiques, and luxury shopping. We headed down towards the Battery, our favorite part of the city. On the way, we popped into some of the local boutiques and art galleries for some shopping.
The Battery
The Battery is located on the lower end of the downtown area. It is full of beautiful historic homes, many dating back to the late 1700s. Now, these homes range from about two million to about ten million dollars.
We spent a chunk of the afternoon walking around the quiet streets admiring the homes and gardens.
A couple of my favorite streets to walk around are Church Street and Meeting Street. Tradd Street is also a famous street which many tours will take you down. One cool part of many of the homes in the historic plaques on their sides.
The plaques give a history of the home and its original tenants. If you want to learn more about the history, there are several carriage and walking tours that will take you around the area and give you a little more information about these homes.
If you walk all the way down to the end of the Battery you will hit the waterfront and White Point Garden. The park was used as a defense during the Civil War.
It is now a place many people come to relax in the shade. Walking around the park you will see many memorials and sculptures that give tribute to the war heroes who battled here.
Rainbow Row
From the Battery, we made our way over to Rainbow Row and the Waterfront Park. Rainbow Row is a street-lined row of homes from 83-107 East Bay Street.
The homes were used as businesses for merchants and are now residential properties. They were restored in the 1930s to the pastel-colored homes people know today. With 13 homes, it is the longest cluster of Georgian row houses in the United States.
Waterfront Park
Right near Rainbow Row is the Waterfront Park. The park runs along the Charleston Harbor and is full of green space and shaded picnic areas.
Many people know the park from its pineapple fountain, where visitors like to sit around. Many people love taking pictures in front of the fountain, as well, so make sure you come early in the day to get a chance without any crowds.
The park runs all the way down to the Battery with great views of the boats coming in and out of the harbor.
Dinner at the Darling
After spending a few hours exploring the city, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. We had made reservations at the Darling Oyster Bar, which is our favorite restaurant in Charleston.
One thing we have learned is to make reservations for dinner no matter what time of year you visit. All the restaurants we have been to were packed full of customers and only took reservations.
The Darling Oyster Bar is on the north part of King Street, where many of the restaurants and nightlife are. It was only a 10-minute walk from our hotel.
We love this restaurant for both the quality of the food and the atmosphere. It is also one of the more reasonably priced restaurants in the city.
The Darling has a very vintage feel with green couches and a black and white tiled floor. It also has a long bar that runs down the middle of the restaurant and divides it into two sections.
The main thing people come here for is their oysters. During the week, the Darling does have a happy hour with $1 oysters and drink specials. We started with a dozen oysters and ½ a pound of shrimp cocktail.
One of my favorite cocktails is the London Fog. It is a gin drink with lavender and lemon flavoring that comes garnished with a beautiful flower. I also really like their Paloma, and if you come for Sunday brunch make sure to try their Bloody Mary!
After our oysters, we each got the Lobster and King Crab roll for our entree. It is one of the best lobster rolls I have had in Charleston and comes in a toasted bun. With our stomachs full we decided to head back to the Battery and walk around some more.
Nighttime Walk
I highly recommend strolling the streets at night. The homes are even more magical when they are lit up after dark. Many of the doorsteps are lit with beautiful historic lanterns and there is a soft glow of street lights down the small roads.
It is also nice if you are visiting during the summer months. During the summer, the night times drop to the low 70s and you get the additional breeze coming from the harbor. The streets are also mostly deserted at night time so it makes for a romantic stroll.
Day 2: Drive Outside the City
Breakfast at Miller’s
For our second day, we decided to explore outside of the downtown area. We started with breakfast at Miller’s All Day. They have a wonderful breakfast menu and some delicious coffee choices as well.
Miller’s does not take reservations and is on a first come first serve arrangement. You can however sit at either of the two bars if there are openings.
One thing about this restaurant is they always overestimate the wait. They told us it would be an hour and a half to be seated when it ended up being only about 40 minutes.
They even put your name on an online waitlist so you can see your position in line for a table. There are several cute boutiques around the restaurant so many people get a coffee to go and walk around while they wait.
Their cinnamon roll is a must-have to start with. It is made from scratch using biscuit dough instead of the usual batter and can easily be shared between a couple of people.
I ordered a chai tea latte to go with it. Since the cinnamon roll was sweet I opted for the vegetable frittata as my entree, which was delicious.
Farmer’s Market
After breakfast, we stopped by the Farmer’s Market located across the street from our hotel in Marion Square.
The market is open every Saturday until about 1 pm. There were a bunch of booths serving street food, as well as fresh produce stands, arts and crafts, and unique local products.
We especially liked one of the local painters who had a booth displaying all her watercolor paintings of Charleston.
After exploring the market, we picked up our car and headed to Middleton Place. The estate is located about a 35-minute drive north of the downtown area. It is near Magnolia Plantation and Drayton Hall as well, which are also beautiful historic mansions to tour.
Middleton Place
Middleton costs $29 for entry into the grounds and an additional $15 if you would like to tour the home. If you purchase tickets online, the cost is only $26 for adults.
You still have to check in at the ticket booth either way. The cost is worth it though, the estate is absolutely gorgeous.
The home tours run every hour and take you through the home where you can see remnants of the family’s personal possessions that survived the war.
Only one of the original house buildings remains intact, the other two were demolished during the Civil War, and some of the rubble still remains.
Other parts of the estate include the stables and farm. One of my favorite parts was seeing the sheep running around loose around the property. The estate also includes horses and other farm animals.
If you get hungry during your visit, there is a small market located near the parking lot. Here you can grab refreshments and sandwiches as well as souvenirs. For a sit-down meal, there is a cozy restaurant located right next to the house on the property.
We did not pay for the house tour but spent a good couple of hours wandering around the different sections of gardens. I would recommend grabbing a map at the ticket booth which shows you the different areas of the property and gives you some historical information on each.
We were amazed at how old some of the trees were. One tree, in particular, dates back to almost 1000 years ago and is so large that they have placed medal poles in place to help support the weight of its limbs.
Our favorite part of the property was the area behind the house that takes you up to the marshes. We actually saw two baby alligators in the water while we were walking around and tons of other wildlife.
Sullivan’s Island
From Middleton Place, we drove to the other side of Charleston to Sullivan’s Island. Of the three beaches in the area, this is our favorite. Sullivan’s has some of the most beautiful beach homes around worth millions of dollars each.
What we like about the beach here is there are no high-rise hotels or touristy shops. The “downtown” area includes only a few restaurants and shops and the only real accommodations are home rentals, which are quite pricey. Because of this the beach is much less crowded and kept in pristine condition.
Parking can be a little bit of a challenge since there are not really any parking lots. There are a few smaller lots near the restaurants where you can park for free, but most people drive around until they find a spot on the side of the road.
We usually park closer to the Sullivan Island lighthouse and walk a short distance to the beach.
This area is never that busy and gives us good views of the ships coming in and out of the harbor. You also have views of all the beautiful homes that back up onto the beach.
Dinner in Sullivan’s
After spending the afternoon at the beach, we grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading back to our hotel. Poe’s Tavern , Obstinate Daughter and Mex 1 Coastal Cantina are all popular restaurants on Sullivan’s that each serves delicious food.
After being in the heat all day, a margarita and some tacos sounded perfect so we decided to walk to Mex I Coastal Cantina for some food.
I’ve had almost all of their fish tacos and I’ve never been disappointed. The fresh Catch and Santos Shrimp are probably my favorite though! If you’re looking for a little more food, their baja bowls are good as well and come with about 10 choices for proteins.
Late Night Drinks
Saturday night we were pretty tired from being in the sun all day. We ended up finding a quiet bar on King Street to grab a couple of drinks followed by ice cream at Jeni’s.
We were both honestly still full from dinner, but the smell of freshly made waffle cones was too hard to resist.
Looking back, I should have stopped and taken a picture of our ice cream waffle bowls, they were delicious!
Like every night in Charleston, we walked around exploring the city before going back to our hotel room to get ready for another day.
Day 3: Beach Day
Boone Hall Plantation
One of the main places I wanted to go see was Boone Hall Plantation. This beautiful plantation was the setting for part of the movie the Notebook. It is one of the most traditional southern plantations to still exist with a beautiful tree-lined driveway.
Like many other pre-Civil War plantations, it was used as a slave plantation. Something that Boone Hall has dedicated their time to is the education of the era.
Tickets to enter the estate cost $26 each and include access to the entire estate and entry into the house. The house was actually rebuilt in the 1900s and is still used as a private residence, so you are unable to tour the upper floor or take pictures.
Tour guides will answer your questions about the house during your visit, and other tours available will take you around the property.
Lunch and the Beach
From Boone Hall, we headed back to Sullivan’s island for the rest of the afternoon. We stopped by Poe’s Tavern for lunch and then headed to station 21 to layout on the beach.
This part of the beach was a little more crowded than the normal area that we go to, but still extremely quiet!
Dinner at 82 Queen
Dinner was spent at 82 Queen located off of Queen Street in downtown Charleston. It is a unique restaurant with lots of different rooms and areas for guests to lounge around.
The back of the restaurant has a large open courtyard with outdoor seating, but there is also a bar area and several small dining rooms that can be rented out for private events.
This was the first time we had come here and liked it so much we ended up coming back for breakfast the next day. We both had heard about their award-winning crab soup, which lived up to its reputation.
Thankfully, we were able to get a seat at the bar without making reservations but made sure to make them for breakfast the next morning.
For breakfast, I tried their french toast which was absolutely amazing! By far one of my favorite breakfasts I have had in a long time. This was one of our new favorite restaurants in the city and we were glad that we came across it on our trip.
Conclusion
Charleston is such a wonderful city with lots to offer. Whether you are looking to do lots of exploring, or just want a laid-back getaway, it has something for everyone.
Like I said earlier, this past trip was spent as a leisurely getaway. If you are visiting Charleston for the first time or can spend more than just a weekend there, I would check out my other two travel guides.
These go more in-depth about all the things you can see and do here. My travel guide also has an itinerary for first-time visitors!
Enjoyed this post? Here are some other North American destinations!
Nantucket
- Travel Guide: Plan the Perfect Trip to Nantucket
- 4 Day Itinerary: What to Do in Nantucket
- Foodie’s Guide to Nantucket: The Best Places to Eat
- The Top 15 Things to Do in Nantucket
Charleston
- The Complete Charleston, SC Travel Guide,
- The Top 20 Things to do in Charleston, SC
- Zero George Review – Charleston, SC Hotels
Other North American Posts
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