Charleston, South Carolina is a charming, historical city with amazing food, rich American history with stories of pirates and Revolutionary War, vibrant houses, and wonderful surroundings steeped in Spanish moss and stories. I spent a few days there with my two young kids and these are our favorite family-friendly things to see, eat, and do for a first-timer in Charleston, South Carolina.

A collage of images from Charleston, South Carolina.


If you are here for the recipes, I totally understand and you might want to have a look at some of our favorite Southern recipes like this homemade banana pudding, smothered pork chops, sweet potato casserole, or pecan pie instead of scrolling through this post. Because I’m about to share way too many of my favorite trip photos from our recent visit to the Palmetto State.

After spending some time visiting Savannah, Georgia with my college roommate and her family, my husband had to fly back home to California for work, but I decided to venture a little further to Charleston, South Carolina with our girls and go explore as long as we were all the way out there. I'm so glad I did because we had a wonderful time and saw so many interesting things!

We stayed at The Mills House in the heart of historic Charleston, which I loved because it meant that a lot of what we wanted to see was within walking distance for me and my two little travel companions.

An image of The Mills House entrance in Charleston, South Carolina.

Truthfully, Charleston is just so charming and beautiful that my favorite activity of all was just strolling around the streets of the city, admiring the beautiful window boxes, looking at restaurant menus, and letting the girls take their time enjoying the waterfront parks.

An image of a historic church steeple in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of two girls on the sidewalk in Charleston, South Carolina.

I’m sharing my favorite, including recommendations from readers who told me about some of their favorite Charleston ideas as well.

Best Things to See in Charleston, South Carolina

Rainbow Row

This waterfront collection of brightly-colored homes on Charleston's Easy Bay Street are a draw to anybody looking to capture an Instagram worthy photograph. The buildings are from the 1700's and were once used by merchants, then fell into disuse and were considered something of a slum until they were revitalized in the early 1900's. This article has even more fascinating information about Rainbow Row, including specifics about some of the homes.

An image of houses on Rainbow Row in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of a mom and her two young daughters on Rainbow Row in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of a girl looking at flowers in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of a yellow house on Rainbow Row in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of wrought iron gates on a pink house on Rainbow Row in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of a girl on the sidewalk on Rainbow Row in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of a window box filled with flowers on Rainbow Row in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of two girls sitting on a bench whispering on Rainbow Row in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of bright pink flowers through a wrought iron gate.
An image of a white flower.
An image of two girls on a bench.
An image of wisteria growing on a street in Charleston, South Carolina.

Pineapple Fountain at Waterfront Park

Pineapples are a common motif seen around Charleston, if you look. Historically they have been a sign of hospitality, and the large Pineapple Fountain in Charleston's Waterfront Park has become a symbol of the Holy City that makes for a lovely resting spot. Apparently during the summer months people will splash in the fountain to cool off!

The girls really liked swinging on the bench swings that are installed along the covered pier and running along the boardwalk overlooking the marshes and Cooper's River.

An image of girls swinging on a bench at Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of a girl running along the boardwalk in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of the waterfront in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of two children playing at the Pineapple Fountain in Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of the pineapple fountain at Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of a child playing in the water of the pineapple fountain at Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of the pineapple fountain at Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of two girls playing at the pineapple fountain in Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of two girls walking through a path in the park in Charleston, South Carolina.

Visit a Plantation

There are a number of plantations in the area surrounding Charleston, but we only had time to visit one. We ended up going to Boone Hall Plantation, partly because it's known for being extremely photogenic, but mostly because Boone Hall offers the best insight into Gullah and slave history out of Charleston-area plantations with special storytelling sessions with an explanation of Gullah traditions, language, stories, dress, and music. It was beautiful and fascinating.

Other options that I would definitely consider are Magnolia Plantation, Drayton Hall, Middleton Place. Drayton Hall and Magnolia Plantation are supposed to be close enough together that you could do both of them in the same day.

I was surprised by the heaviness I felt visiting Boone Hall. I mean, I know about our country's history with slavery and plantations, but being there and seeing the land where the people lived, both slaves and slaveowners, was a unique and overwhelming experience for me.

Despite the beauty of the Spanish moss, low-hanging live oaks, and cypress trees, there is a dark reality to seeing some of the remaining brick structures that were built by slaves to house some of the mansion slaves just steps from the larger buildings occupied by the landowners. Other field slaves lived in even less desirable structures.

Cash crops like rice and indigo brought a lot of wealth to Charleston, but one of the main products created at Boone Hall were bricks that ended up being shipped all over the U.S. to build buildings. It was such an interesting place to visit. 

The girls enjoyed touring both the slave homes and Boone Hall itself, although the actual structure was built long past the heyday of Boone Hall operating as the kind of plantation we think of today. There were also beautiful gardens to walk through, a plantation tractor tour, and some other outbuildings to see.

An image of Spanish moss covered live oaks lining the driveway at Boone Hall Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of girls playing at Boone Hall Plantation.
An image of slave lodging at Boone Hall Plantation.
An image of a bed in a slave cabin at Boone Hall Plantation.
An image of two girls running through the gates of Boone Hall Plantation.
An image of sisters in front of the main house at Boone Hall Plantation.
An image of plants from the Boone Hall gardens.
An image of a brick plantation manor covered in ivy.
An image of the plantation house at Boone Hall.
An image of a girl in front of the manor house at Boone Hall Plantation.
An image of the gardens at Boone Hall Plantation.
An image of two girls walking through the gardens at Boone Hall Plantation.
An image of a girl in the gardens at Boone Hall Plantation.
An image of a girl taking a photo of flowers in the garden at Boone Hall Plantation.
An image of white snapdragons in a garden.
An image of flowers in the garden at Boone Hall Plantation.
An image of the plantation house at Boone Hall in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of the front entrance at Boone Hall Plantation.

Angel Oak on John's Island

This gorgeous old live oak is a bit of a drive from the center of Charleston, but it's definitely worth it. The Angel Oak Tree is estimated to be 400-500 years old and live oaks have been known to live twice that long. It's free to go see the Angel Oak Tree, which is one of the oldest living organisms in the United States.

An image of the Angel Oak tree on Johns Island in South Carolina.

It's massive branches and enormous trunk are quite something to see and you are allowed to walk around and under it as long as you don't climb on the tree itself.

An image of the Angel Oak tree on John's Island in South Carolina.
An image of a live oak in South Carolina.
An image of the Angel Oak tree on Johns Island in South Carolina.
An image of two girls jumping in the air in front of the Angel Oak tree on Johns Island in South Carolina.
An image of the Angel Oak Tree on Johns Island in South Carolina.
An image of the Angel Oak Tree on Johns Island in South Carolina.
An image of a mom and her daughters in front of the Angel Oak Tree on Johns Island in South Carolina.

We also enjoyed the display of beautiful sweet grass baskets that were on display by a Gullah descendant there. You will see these beautifully woven baskets all around Charleston, but they are very expensive and most of the weavers don't want you taking photos of them. After buying a couple of small baskets  for the girls, the weaver told me I could take photos, which I was grateful for.

An image of woven sweetgrass Gullah baskets.
An image of a Gullah sweetgrass basket.
An image of sweetgrass baskets.

Charleston City Market

The Charleston City Market is made up of a number of buildings housing local vendors and artists who bring their crafts and goods to sell. You will see lots of sweetgrass baskets for sale here, along with other merchandise. Most people visit the City Market because this is where the carriage tours leave from. There are also a number of restaurants and sweet shops in the area.

An image of an entrance to the Charleston City Market.
An image of candles for sale at the Charleston City Market.

Fort Sumter

I was really hoping we would get to go out to Fort Sumter while we were in Charleston, but the day we planned to go we ended up with bad weather and high winds, so the ferries to the island were suspended. Instead, we just wandered through the visitor's center for a bit, but we didn't last long because my girls aren't quite old enough to stay engaged long in that kind of a setting.

But I definitely recommend going if you are there and have the chance. Then let me know in the comments what you think and if it's worth it!

Best Things to Do

Horse Drawn Carriage Ride

Okay, I thought this was going to be super hokey, but the girls and I ended up loving the horse-drawn carriage ride through the city. We went with Old South Carriage tours and our beautiful, big horse looked well-cared for, unlike some of the horses we noticed on the street from other carriage operators.

Because it was chilly and had been sprinkling off and on, there were blankets for sharing and we had a nice, leisurely tour through the city, happy to be warm and dry under a covered carriage.

Each carriage, once it is loaded up, approaches a booth and a route is randomnly selected to help keep traffic congestion down since the size of the roads and the speed of the horse-drawn carriages could cause problems otherwise. Which means you never know exactly what tour you will get when doing a carriage-ride in Charleston.

Our guide was very knowledgeable about the city though and explained a lot of the questions I had thought of while wandering around the city for a couple of days. Like he explained the reason for the flower boxes were to perfume the houses back when horses were the main mode of transportation and the streets just outside the homes didn't smell so great. Or how there are all these open porches on the sides of the houses there, which was a place for the occupants of the house to strip down out of their big, heavy clothing and get a little air outside with at least some degree of privacy.

I would definitely recommend this activity for anybody!

An image of a horse-drawn carriage in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of a white horse pulling a horse-drawn carriage.
An image of a horse in a harness.
An image of girls petting a horse.

Pirate Tour

Charleston has it's ghost tours, just like Savannah, but given it's history with pirates, including Blackbeard himself and the Gentleman Pirate, Stede Bonnet, I thought it would be fun and interesting to do a pirate tour. I love pirate movies from Pirates of the Caribbean to Hook to Goonies, and our girls seem to find the idea of pirates and piracy fascinating as well, so I was glad to find a children's tour with Charleston Pirate Tours that was perfect for them. 

Rose was a little intimidated going into it and kept asking me if our guide was a "real pirate".

They each made their own pirate flag, were given a pirate name (Clara was called Captain Coral Leggings for the pink pants she had on and Rose was called Captain Rainbow for her rainbow dress - they were both thrilled and still randomly remind us of their pirate names), signed their name into the captain's log to become official pirates, and learned some sword moves using foam swords that they got to keep.

Then they were each given a treasure map and we made our way around a park, finding landmarks like stacks of cannonballs and a marker denoting where 49 men were hanged in 1718 for piracy. Our pirate guide would tell us pirate history as we walked between markers and clearly knew a lot about the famous pirates of that region.

At the end they found the treasure and were able to choose prizes from the booty. If you have kids, I totally recommend this fun activity. 

An image of a little girl on a pirate treasure hunt.
An image of a girl signing a pirate captain's log.
An image of kids on a pirate tour in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of cannonballs stacked into a pyramid in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of cannonballs stacked into a pyramid in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of a palmetto tree in a park in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of kids playing with a cannon display in a park in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of a cannon in a park in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of a statue in a park in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of a home in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of a stone marker describing the hanging on pirates in Charleston, South Carolina.
An image of kids on a pirate tour in Charleston, South Carolina.

Where to Eat in Charleston

I went with a list of places to eat in Charleston, but the city has so much to choose from that we were only able to hit a few of our top picks while we were there.

Hominy Grill:  I'm officially obsessed with Hominy Grill. So much so that even though we knew we only had a few days in Charleston we chose to eat here twice so we could sample some of the menu offerings we weren't able to try the first time around. The building used to be a barbershop and it's super cute inside with butcher paper over the tables so the kids could color. But sadly, they decided to close after 24 years in business to pursue other projects. The silver lining is that they had a small paperback cookbook for sale at the restaurant with some of their most popular recipes and I purchased one. So hopefully I can recreate some of my favorites and share them on here.

Hominy Grill's shrimp & grits was hands down the best I've ever had. It was like an ah-ha moment where I finally realized why Southerners love grits. And their hummingbird cake was beyond delicious and will definitely be making an appearance on the blog when I get to South Carolina Week for my American Eats series. We also enjoyed the Charleston Nasty (basically fried chicken on a biscuit with gravy), the sweet potato waffle with coconut pecan glaze (I wanted more!) and their signature Hominy Grill jam and buttermilk biscuits. I'm sad I didn't get to try their she-crab soup and bread pudding french toast!

An image of the Hominy Grill sign.
An image of shrimp and grits.
An image of a mom and her daughters eating breakfast at Hominy Grill in Charleston, South Carolina.

Virginia's On King:  Our other favorite restaurant in Charleston, Virginia's On King which specializes in upscale low-country cuisine. They are on the pricier side, but their Frogmore Stew (made with local shrimp, smoked sausage, crab, corn, potatoes, tomato, and lemon) was to-die-for. And Clara loved their chicken & dumplings, which is one of her favorite meals anywhere. If Paul had been with us I know he would have ordered the fried chicken. Virginia's On King also had my favorite cornbread of anyplace we ate it, and I'm trying to figure out how to recreate it at home because it was so good and different from my favorite cornbread! Be sure to get a reservation because otherwise the wait is really long otherwise.

An image of the Virginia's On King sign in Charleston, South Carolina.

Jestine's Kitchen:  Good food, but I don't think Jestine's Kitchen comes close to the culinary excellence of Hominy Grill or Virginia's On King for me. I will say that I tried fried green tomatoes for probably the fourth time here and realized that while they were cooked well, I guess they just aren't my thing because they left me feeling let down.

We didn't get to try Charleston Grill or Husk, but both were on our shortlist. In fact, I thought I had a reservation for Husk one night, but it turns out I had booked it for the Savannah location instead of Charleston. Oops. It looks amazing though, and was my top choice going in to Charleston for a place I wanted to eat. Next time, I guess.

Seafood is really popular in Charleston, given that it's right on the water, and Charleston Crab House and Hyman's for Seafood are both known for their seafood, although you can get seafood options at lots of other lowcountry restaurants, even ones that aren't dedicated to seafood specifically.

Other restaurants that sounded amazing and I want to try next time include 82 Queen, Revival, The Macintosh, Slightly North of Broad (S.N.O.B.) and FIG.

And if you are in the mood for South Carolina BBQ, try Swig & Swine, Sticky Fingers, or Home Team BBQ.

So tell me – have you been to Savannah? Share your favorite things and recommendations in the comments below so I know what to add to my list for our next trip!

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About the author

Hi, I'm Amy

I enjoy exploring the world through food, culture, and travel and sharing the adventure with mostly from-scratch, family friendly recipes that I think of as modern comfort cooking.

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Reader questions and reviews

  1. Great post, and all those places are wonderful. The Charleston nasty biscuit at Hominy is my favorite!I have recommendations for ya if you're gonna be coming back!
    For food in Charleston, Grill 225 is a formal fine dining setting, but well worth it if you have a special occasion. We go there every year for our anniversary, most amazing steaks, and the panna cotta is to die for! Upstairs is the rooftop Pavilion Bar. Stop there for some drinks before dinner, or hit them up for lunch (lobster thermidor pizza, and serrano ham and manchego sandwich are our favorites.) Kilwins on N. Market street has great fudge and candy apples, but Savannahs Candy Kitchen has the best pralines I've ever had. Amen Street Grill on East Bay St for their fried green tomato and pimento cheese BLT. They might just change your mind about the green tomatoes! They also have my favorite she-crab soup. On S. Market go to Kaminskys dessert bar for a fabulous iced mocha and towering chocolate cake. Their boozy milkshakes are good too! The Tattooed Moose is an amazing place to go for lunch and brunch. It's not in the historic district but it's very close. Think fancy hangover food at a hole in the wall college hangout, this place has such amazing sandwiches that there is usually a line down the sidewalk 20 minutes before they open. They are famous for their duck club sandwich and duck fat fries. Family friendly too.

    You mentioned Magnolia plantation, very worth seeing, but try shooting for early April when everything is blooming, then it's incredible.
    When you were at the harbor park, you may have looked across the water and seen a big old carrier ship. That's the USS Yorktown, and Patriots Point, an incredible museum and tour of the carrier. While you're in Mt Pleasant, stop at Reds Ice House for some crab legs.
    Moncks Corner has some great down home BBQ at Browns BBQ, a family run business.
    And if you reeaaaaaaally wanna go out of your way, Seewee Restaurant on Rt 17 towards Awendaw is a must try. Its a little hole in a wall place in the middle of no where, it's very easy to miss if your not looking for it. THAT is southern seafood. Great pies, collards, and fried okra too.

    I've only been to Savannah once, but we stayed at the Gastonian bed and breakfast, very quaint place overlooking a little park, and the staff was incredible. The only place that really sticks in my mind for food there is Elizabeth on 37th. More fine dining, but oh so yummy!
    I hope you find these helpful! These are the places we take our friends and family when we get visitors 🙂

    1. All of these recommendations are fantastic! Thank you SO much! Now I need to plan my next trip back to Charleston to do some of these things that I didn't get to my first time around! I'm definitely trying Amen Street Grill!

  2. What a great list of things to do in Charleston. It is such a great place to walk around and explore. Thank you for sharing!