Anyone have any vacations planned? We're trying to figure out what we're doing this summer. We're thinking a long weekend in early May to Hocking Hills or Marietta and then a week or so in Charleston, SC later in the summer. 

Cape Cod in July. Thats about it.

Nothing planned. Probably a week or long weekend somewhere close like Hilton Head, or maybe even Myrtle Beach for their water activities at hotels for kids. Tough to go much further currently with 5 and 3 year old. Wife and I have a wedding on 7/1 in Burlington, Vermont. 

Justin, let me know if you have any questions on areas/ restaurants/ activities to go to or avoid in Charleston. Been here about 9 years now. Decent amount of breweries.

Headed to Nashville for a few months starting in July, so I've been researching outdoor activities for long weekends... camping, lakes, offroading, etc.

Loose plans for Amsterdam in August, but still TBD.

posted by iclfan2

Nothing planned. Probably a week or long weekend somewhere close like Hilton Head, or maybe even Myrtle Beach for their water activities at hotels for kids. Tough to go much further currently with 5 and 3 year old. Wife and I have a wedding on 7/1 in Burlington, Vermont. 

Justin, let me know if you have any questions on areas/ restaurants/ activities to go to or avoid in Charleston. Been here about 9 years now. Decent amount of breweries.

Okay I'm gonna pick your brain now.

What would you say are the top 5 things for a tourist to check out to truly experience Charleston? Any historical tours worth taking?

What are your must visit breweries and restaurants? 

If you're a golfer, do you have any course recommendations? 

Would you recommend any specific areas to stay in?

posted by justincredible

Okay I'm gonna pick your brain now.

We will most likely drive down but we’ll definitely have a car even if we fly. Nothing specific, we like outdoors stuff, historical stuff, sports. We’re up for anything really. 

posted by justincredible

Anyone have any vacations planned? We're trying to figure out what we're doing this summer. We're thinking a long weekend in early May to Hocking Hills or Marietta and then a week or so in Charleston, SC later in the summer. 

Pizza Crossing!

Early June we are going to Gulf Shores for a week with my family.

Early July taking my family along with dad and stepmom to Nashville for 3 days. Dad is 66 and loves country music and has never been to Nashville so I’m pretty excited for this.

Doing a Reds road trip series to either Chicago or St Louis….whichever best fits the schedule.

We were going to go to Nashville but there are two Taylor Swift concerts that weekend and lodging prices are insane. 

posted by justincredible

We were going to go to Nashville but there are two Taylor Swift concerts that weekend and lodging prices are insane. 

It’s never greatly cheap…how much more was it?

More than double, I think. 

posted by justincredible

More than double, I think. 

Too much to Shake it off?

posted by Ironman92

Too much to Shake it off?

posted by justincredible

My daughter is the queen of finding the most cost effective deal booked us a house 1.4 miles from Broadway. I think it totaled around $700 for the 3 nights but sleeps 7. Pics looked fine. We’ll see.

Last trip there wife booked a nice hotel with a sweet rooftop pool and bar and was the weekend of the 4th of July….it was I think $450 after all the taxes and parking fee.

Family condo in North Myrtle in July. Haven't used it in a few years as Myrtle isn't my favorite place. But it's free.

posted by justincredible

We were going to go to Nashville but there are two Taylor Swift concerts that weekend and lodging prices are insane. 

Looking downtown only?

I'm not that well versed with Nashville pricing, but some basic research showed me it's going through the fucking roof overall. I thought I would easily get something "baller" when comparing to NYC prices. Yes, your money goes further, but it's still high. ~3k is normal for a nice one BR downtown + amenities. I did not expect that.

posted by Automatik

Looking downtown only?

I'm not that well versed with Nashville pricing, but some basic research showed me it's going through the fucking roof overall. I thought I would easily get something "baller" when comparing to NYC prices. Yes, your money goes further, but it's still high. ~3k is normal for a nice one BR downtown + amenities. I did not expect that.

No we were looking in some neighborhoods we had stayed in previously. Her shows are May 5, 6, 7.

Here's airbnb for May 5-8:

Here's airbnb for May 12-15:

Swifty surge. Damn. 

Maybe try Brentwood. Nice area, but further from downtown. I've also heard Sylvan park is nice, but I've never been. 

It looks like we're going to do a few days in downtown Charleston and a few days at a resort on the beach.

My wife wants to stay in this hotel downtown:

https://www.francismarionhotel.com/

posted by justincredible

Okay I'm gonna pick your brain now.

What would you say are the top 5 things for a tourist to check out to truly experience Charleston? Any historical tours worth taking?

What are your must visit breweries and restaurants? 

If you're a golfer, do you have any course recommendations? 

Would you recommend any specific areas to stay in?

If you want history in Charleston, do not skip Patriot's Point. You can tour the USS Yorktown and some other cool Naval exhibits. It is too bad the removed the USS Clagamore last year, it was an old WW2 sub your could tour. 

posted by justincredible

We were going to go to Nashville but there are two Taylor Swift concerts that weekend and lodging prices are insane. 

Wife and daughter are going to one of the Tampa shows this weekend. It was $250 for a Holiday Inn Express 10 miles from the stadium. 

posted by justincredible

Okay I'm gonna pick your brain now.

What would you say are the top 5 things for a tourist to check out to truly experience Charleston? Any historical tours worth taking?

What are your must visit breweries and restaurants? 

If you're a golfer, do you have any course recommendations? 

Would you recommend any specific areas to stay in?

What resort are you going to stay at? Francis Marion is in a solid location, walkable (within a mile) to most things downtown, though it might be hot as balls. As for your questions above...

Top things to experience Charleston imo...  

Walk from Francis Marion down King (shopping) to Charleston Place and turn up Market Street. That street has a open air market with lots of hand made items, as well as cheap touristy things. 

Drive around or park at the battery and walk around the park and see the old houses and Rainbow Row.

A carriage tour, though controversial among locals, is a good way to see a chunk of the city and not be stuck in a van, though you can't pick which area you get to see, it's a lottery system. (If you prefer by van, the visitor center is within walking distance and has many tours to choose from, also has a small local retail shop and tons of brochures and maps).

I would also recommend a trip to a plantation. There are a few in West Ashley (Magnolia and Middleton) and also one in Mt. Pleasant, Boone Hall, which is still a working farm. I've been to the first 2, but not Boone Hall other than to actually buy produce. 

For history, I would definitely do Fort Sumter. First shots of the civil war, it is also out in the harbor so you get to take a ferry out there and get on the water. I do like some of this historical walking tours. I would recommend Bulldog Tours, but there are others. Besides daily history walks, they also have a nighttime Ghost and Graveyard tour, as well as a really cool tour about the "Dark Side" of Charleston which gets into pirates, brothels, crime, etc. I have been on both the night ones and enjoyed them.

I agree with Brutus, if you have the time, touring the Yorktown Carrier is pretty cool, and you also get to go onto a small destroyer. They did have the sub too but it got too rusty and expensive to keep for touring. 

For outdoors stuff, there are many Kayak rentals, and the one on Shem Creek is cool and almost guaranteed to see dolphins. There are also many inshore fishing charters for 2-3 hours if that is of interest. Shem Creek is also a really cool area with 5 or so restaurants on a decent sized "creek" where boats will dock up 3 wide on each side. Saltwater Cowboys is my favorite, but Red's/ Vickery's/ and Water's Edge are cool too (they all get slammed though).

Breweries and restaurants, too many to say, but I'll try to be brief, and they kind of are dependent on specific areas... Get reservations in as soon as they open up, though many places set aside some for walk ins as well as the bar.

For restaurants downtown, FIG is pretty much the consensus best restaurant in town. Followed by places like Husk, 82 Queen, Magnolia's, SNOB. For raw bar, The Ordinary and Darling Oyster house are good, as well as 167 Raw or Leon's. For seafood, Hanks is good on the Market, and Fleet Landing is also very popular and on the water. 

For area specific outings, Sullivan's Island is one of my favorite. It's the more low key beach, closest to downtown, and you can eat at one of my favorite restaurants Obstinate Daughter (with Gelato underneat), or Poes Tavern (Edgar Allen Poe was stationed at the old fort on Sullivans), or if you like BBQ, Home Team is by far my favorite and they have an awesome frozen drink they are known for, The Gamechanger.  Longboard is also there, but is pretty new and I have only had small bites there, but it was very good.

For BBQ, there are 3 located up the neck of the Peninsula that are all good. There is another Home Team location here, Lewis BBQ (of Texas fame, brisket), and Rodney Scott which does whole hog bbq. 

As for breweries, there are 3 separate areas where you can hit multiple. 

Westbrook is one of the commercially available ones and is in Mt. Pleasant, but they also have a lot of one off barrel aged offerings. Within a mile is also Ghost Monkey and Two Blokes.

Coast and Holy City are two other well known ones and are in the Park Circle are. You also have Commonehouse Aleworks is also close, as is Firefly Distillery which has Sweet Tea Vodka and other products. 

On the Peninsula but up towards the neck, there are a few more all close. Edmond's Oast Brewing (not the restaurant which is also good and close by) has a lot of sours and other interesting flavor beers as well as the normal ipas. Close by is Tradesman's, Revelry, Brewlab, Fatty's, and Munkle. I have not been to all of them. I think this trolley still runs, but it starts at Palmetto which I would not reccommend. https://charlestondaily.net/charleston-brewery-district-trolley-every-saturday/  

I stink at golf. But, anything on Kiawah would be good, but it's very expensive. It looks like almost anything here is over $100 for 18. The municipal course is the cheapest and not bad at all. Patriots Point is popular because it is on the Harbor for a few holes. I've heard good thinks about Stono Ferry (kinda far away) and the course at Wild Dunes.  There are also a few country clubs open to the public in Mt. P, Rivertowne/ Dunes West/ and Charleston National, but I couldn't tell you about the quality.

Where to stay... your wife's pick is a solid area to be in. I would have recommended downtown 1st, and then for more budget options, there are a good amount right over the bridge in Mount Pleasant. There aren't too many areas I would recommend unless you could find a decent Airbnb on IOP or Sullivans. The other beach is Folly, but it is far away and I haven't been there in years. If y'all do want to go to a beach, get there early bc parking fills up quick.

Ok that was a lot, and I'm sure I missed a bunch. So feel free to ask anything about specific restaurants or things to do. 

tl;dr

Here are the resorts she looked at:

Tides Folly Beach: https://www.tidesfollybeach.com/stay/ 

Wild Dunes: https://www.hyatt.com/destination-by-hyatt/wilddunes-charleston-island-resort

I think Tides Folly is quite a bit cheaper in that we can do 4 nights there for the same as 3 at Wild Dunes.

The Wild Dunes links course looks sick but $199 for a morning tee time. I can get something after 4 for $109 but assume the weather would be much worse then.

Thanks for all of the info, I am going to start checking out some of these places online to see if we'd like them. I will definitely be getting oysters, probably multiple times.

For outdoors stuff, there are many Kayak rentals, and the one on Shem Creek is cool and almost guaranteed to see dolphins. There are also many inshore fishing charters for 2-3 hours if that is of interest. Shem Creek is also a really cool area with 5 or so restaurants on a decent sized "creek" where boats will dock up 3 wide on each side. Saltwater Cowboys is my favorite, but Red's/ Vickery's/ and Water's Edge are cool too (they all get slammed though).

Alright, we're definitely doing this. Would you recommend the kayak tour or just renting and going off on our own?