Charleston: Rich History and Southern Charm
In 2023, we found a deal where we could status match our Marriott Gold status for Spirit Gold for a year for just $99. We jumped on it because many of Spirit’s flights were less than $50, and with gold status we could get a carryon and a checked bag, choose from any of the preferred seats, get a drink and snack, and priority boarding all for free!
We’ve used it quite a bit, but it expires in a week, so we decided to play Spirit roulette and use our status one last time. The rules were that it had to be a) a non-stop flight b) to somewhere on the East Cost c) leave after 7pm on Friday and d) have a return flight sometime after 2 on Sunday. After applying all those filters – it came down to Atlantic City and Charleston. We were able to get $85 RT flights to Charleston so it was a no-brainer… Charleston here we come!
We weren’t quite as lucky with hotels as most of the ones downtown where we wanted to stay were super expensive. We ended up getting a cheaper hotel near the airport which actually worked out since we didn’t get in until almost 1:00 am.
Our first morning started with an Uber ride with Leah, whose bright blue hair and personality matched her blinged out blue vehicle interior from the steering wheel cover, to the cup holders to the pillows in the back seat. All of our Uber drivers in Charleston were absolutely fabulous and had tons of ideas for our trip.
We headed downtown with our first stop being Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits. There were sandwiches, biscuits and mini- biscuits 3 for $6 which of course we got an assortment of. We had buttermilk, cinnamon, cheese & chives and blackberry biscuits, and the blackberry jam was to die for! I seriously regret not buying a jar. The line was long and it took a while, so pro tip there is also one in the Charleston Market with a much shorter line.
We stumbled upon a Farmers Marker and spent some time there looking at the craft and food tents. The punnets of strawberries looked delicious and we were sad we couldn’t bring some home. I bought a Christmas ornament to commemorate our trip and Deb noticed a fairy hair booth and mentioned she had always wanted to try it so of course she got a few strands.
We wandered down King Street stopping in all of the shops like the blue bicycle bookstore (I’m a sucker for a good bookstore) and taking in the sights, ending at the meeting point for our food tour with Charleston Culinary tours. Page the tour guide was very friendly, but I’d rate the tour as average. She stopped a couple of places along the way to talk about the area and as a local and the daughter of a harbor master she had plenty of anecdotes and insight that we wouldn’t have gotten elsewhere. One such stop was Philadelphia Alley where she pointed out that in the bricks you could see the handprints of the slave children who made them. That was a hard one for this mama.
We had four food stops. The first was at Charleston Crab House where we had she-crab soup which is a local favorite and is distinguished by having roe (thus she-crab) in it. The soup was ok, but a bit bland. Next stop was for a local Gullah Geechee favorite which was like a less moist jambalaya. The third stop was the one I probably enjoyed the most, Poogans Smokehouse. We had cornbread, collard greens and pulled pork sliders with smokehouse slaw. The sauces were great too and I chose a sweet bbq. The last stop was at Camellias and we were handed carrot cake in a container. It seemed an abrupt way to end the tour and I was expecting something more typical of the area like banana pudding or a praline. Again, you get a feeling for the flavors but it was not in the top food tours I’ve been on.
We visited the Charleston City Market which is a 4 block market of food, crafts and art that has been there for more than 200 years. One of the big offerings was the Gullah tradition of sweet grass basket weaving. They weave them so expertly that some of them will even hold water.
We wandered a bit more visiting the pineapple fountain and waterfront, then decided to take a horse carriage tour. This is a big thing in Charleston and there are a few companies that do it. We went with Palmetto carriage company and our tour guide Mariah was fabulous! I don’t think she stopped talking for the entire hour ride and was very knowledgeable about the area telling us stories and answering all of our questions. The amazing part was that to limit horse traffic in the city, there are five different routes the carriages are allowed to take. You have to start at the horse carriage booth, where they assign you to one of the five routes randomly using a 1960s bingo machine, so you don’t know what you’re going to see until they draw. So Mariah had to know all five routes in depth to be a carriage guide, it was very impressive! We ended up in Zone Five and learned about typical architecture in the city and saw the old jail.
For dessert we went to insomnia cookies and got salted caramel ice cream atop a caramillionaire cookie, figuring we were allowed since we walked 17,000 steps that day.
The next morning we were determined to have shrimp and grits but didn’t want to make the haul back downtown so we went to The Grit Counter in North Charleston. We were worried it would be a grit version of a Waffle House, but it was actually pretty good! You could even get a grit flight to try a bunch of different grit offerings. The smoke Gouda grits were delicious!
Next we took an Uber out to Magnolia Gardens and once again had an amazing driver Bob, who gave us a history of the area and his phone number in case Ubers back were hard to come by, he assured us he would come back for us so we wouldn’t miss our flight.
The grounds were beautiful and it was a nice afternoon strolling through the gardens and along the river. I don’t know if I’d recommend it though. There was a small train ride that only ran every half hour, and was filled to the brim so if you wanted to ride you pretty much had to wait at least a half hour for it. The bigger issue is that it was $39 to get in, and that didn’t even include a tour through the house which was another $15. If you’re a history buff and this is your thing, it might be worth it, otherwise skip it or look for a coupon. $39 is a bit much to see just the grounds.
We got to the airport a few hours early and headed to the Priority Pass lounge. It was a small lounge, but the chairs were very comfortable and the drinks and snacks were good so it helped pass the time. It was super short trip, but a nice way to see a new city.
