チャールストンのツアー&アクティビティ

Ranked by traveller reviews: 1) a horse-drawn carriage tour of the Historic District, 2) a guided history walking tour, 3) a haunted carriage or Old City Jail ghost tour, 4) a Charleston Harbor history or sunset cruise, 5) Boone Hall Plantation and its Avenue of Oaks, 6) the Fort Sumter ferry, 7) Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, 8) the water taxi or eco cruise with dolphins and Morris Island lighthouse, 9) a Lowcountry food tour and 10) Rainbow Row, the Battery and Waterfront Park on foot.

Plan two to three days. Day one: carriage tour, walking tour, Rainbow Row, the Battery and King Street. Day two: Fort Sumter or a harbour cruise in the morning, Boone Hall or Magnolia Plantation in the afternoon. Day three: Folly Beach or Sullivan’s Island, a food tour and a ghost walk at night. A fourth day allows Middleton Place, the USS Yorktown or a trip to Beaufort.

The Battery and White Point Garden, Rainbow Row, Waterfront Park and the Pineapple Fountain, the City Market, the College of Charleston campus, the French Quarter’s churches and galleries, the Ravenel Bridge walk, the Angel Oak, Shem Creek’s boardwalk for dolphins and pelicans, and the public beaches at Folly, Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palms. Free walking maps are available at the visitor centre on Meeting Street.

The plantations along Ashley River Road — Magnolia, Middleton Place and Drayton Hall — are 20–30 minutes away; Boone Hall is 20 minutes across the bridge. Folly Beach is 25 minutes, Kiawah’s Beachwalker Park 45 minutes. Further out: Beaufort and Hunting Island (75 minutes), Edisto Island (one hour) and Savannah (two hours). Plantation tours with transport cost from about $75–96.

Take a ghost tour — the haunted carriage, the Old City Jail or a candlelit walk through the graveyards — or a harbour sunset cruise. Then head to Upper King Street’s restaurants and rooftop bars (the Vendue, the Pavilion at the Market Pavilion Hotel), a show at the Dock Street Theatre, a Prohibition pub crawl or live music at the Music Farm and Charleston Pour House.

Winter is mild (50s–60s°F) and quiet, with carriage tours, walking tours, plantations and museums all open and hotel prices at their lowest. The Holiday Festival of Lights runs at James Island County Park from mid-November to New Year, oyster roasts fill the weekends, and camellias bloom at Magnolia and Middleton Place in January and February.

The South Carolina Aquarium and its sea-turtle hospital, the Fort Sumter ferry, a carriage ride, the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier at Patriots Point, the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry, the pirate-themed walking tour, dolphin-spotting on the water taxi, the splash fountains at Waterfront Park and a beach day at Folly or Isle of Palms. Boone Hall’s butterfly pavilion and farm are a hit in summer.

March to May, when the azaleas and gardens peak and the weather is warm but not humid, and September to November. Summer is hot, sticky and busy with afternoon storms; hurricane season peaks in September. Winter is mild and the cheapest time to visit.

Yes — with more than 10,000 reviews it is the city’s signature experience, and the one-hour narrated loop is the fastest way to understand the Historic District before you explore on foot. Tours run year-round; morning slots are cooler in summer, and the evening haunted version adds the ghost stories.