Before this trip, I had visited Charleston once before and that was about 6 years ago for a family wedding. I don’t remember getting to see much of the city, so I was excited to go back and explore.
How We Got There
We took the train from Savannah, which was about a two-hour trip. It was pretty uneventful and simple. Seeing two cities in one trip was a great way to get the most out of our adventure. Once we arrived at the train station we took an Uber to our hotel.
Where We Stayed
We were only in Charleston for one night so we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Charleston Downtown Medical Area. The hotel was perfect for what we needed and you get free breakfast when you stay at Holiday Inn Express & Suites. However, we were about a ten-minute drive from the historical section of Charleston and those Uber trips do add up.
What We Did
South Carolina Aquarium – We had some time to kill before we had to be on the boat for Fort Sumter so we decided to check out the aquarium. The aquarium was beautiful and had lots of exhibits to explore. It’s not like SeaWorld, you won’t find whales performing shows. It’s more about the conservation of animals and very educational.
Fort Sumter – Kevin is a big Civil War junkie, so there was no way we could miss out on going to Fort Sumter. Even if you don’t care about the Civil War or history, you get a nice boat ride through the harbor. It doesn’t take long to explore the fort, but it’s very interesting and worth the trip.
Gray Line Tour – As I’ve mentioned before we love a good sightseeing tour of any city we visit. Our tour was about two hours and it pretty much covered everything in the historic district.
Where We Ate
East Bay Deli – For our first meal in Charleston we stopped in the East Bay Deli. I had a list of recommendations, but we picked this place because it was near us when we were starving. Location. It was your standard deli and perfect for what we needed.
Smoke BBQ – We checked out Smoke BBQ for dinner because a local recommended it. Amazing. We split the chicken wings and brisket and I have no idea how we managed to walk out of there.
Virginia’s on King – For our last meal in the city we had lunch at Virginia’s on King. It was right after our city tour and the menu looked great so we walked in. To skip the wait for a table we sat at the bar. I saw someone’s fried chicken and knew we had to have it. We split the biscuits and gravy to start and followed up with the fried chicken and I don’t remember ever having fried chicken that tasted so good. Perfection. Again, not sure how we walked out of there.
Until we meet again Charleston . . .
