Amount Of Time I Should Plan for Attractions

I%26#39;m planning a trip to Charleston tentatively in June. It will be 7 days including driving (I%26#39;m coming from Raleigh). I%26#39;m really into planning and making sure I%26#39;m seeing the best there is to offer. I am bringing my husband, his parents and my dad along. My husbands dad is retired military, and my husband is a history buff (especially civil war). Here are the things I would like to see:

Patriots Point

Hunley (probably a Sunday)

Ft. Sumter

SC Aquarium

Middleton

Drayton

Magnolia

Boone

Cypress Gardens

Charleston Museum

Carriage tour

Ghost tour (Jailhouse?)

Pirates walking tour sounds neat

Eco-Tour - Crabbing and Barrier Island

Maybe some of the homes

I%26#39;ve come up with a tentative itinerary but need more info on how long I should plan for these events. Am I crazy to try to fit it all in in 7 days? That would mean like 2 plantations a day. I%26#39;ve heard Magnolia isn%26#39;t as good so if I cut one, I guess it would be that one, though their brochure is so nice.

I have some brochures, but is there a travelers guide to Charleston I could order somewhere?

I really want to do the crabbing tour, has anyone done it (nature-tours.com)? I love the idea of catching crab and cooking it right there on the beach and visiting the barrier islands sounds like a lot of fun and maybe a nice break from the historical side of things for a day.

Our plan is to room on a budget so we can spend more on attractions and maybe food. Though the attractions are the priority. We%26#39;re likely to stay in Mt. Pleasant.

Also can you rent bicycles or is it mostly walking? How much is parking? How much should I budget for transportation while in Charleston?

I%26#39;ve read a lot but finally decided to post. I%26#39;m on a mission for information. To be honest I never wanted to visit Charleston until I went to visit family recently in SC. We stopped at a visitor center and I started pulling the brochures out. The rest of our trip I spent planning our trip to Charleston. I guess I didn%26#39;t know what I was missing ;) .

Amount Of Time I Should Plan for Attractions

The things you are interested in sounds great, and I think you can do all of that in 7 days just fine. As for timimg,

Patriots Point - 2-3 hours depending on how into that stuff you are

Hunley - never been there, maybe 1 -2 hours

Ft. Sumter 2 hours, if you include boat ride

SC Auarium - 1.5- 2 hours

Middleton - easily half a day

Drayton - half a day

Boone Hall : 1-2 hours ( I personally would skip this platation)

Cyrpess Gardens: 3 hours

Charleston Museaum - 4 hours, and if it is a rainy day you could spend longer

Carriage Tour - 1 hour

Ghost Tour - 1-2 hours

Pirate Walking Tour -? time

Eco-Tour - unknown, never did this wiht a company only on my own boat and I could spend the whole day

Homes: depends on which one you look at.

As for a nature tour, if you found eco-tours.com and you like what they have to offer, then try them. I also recommend Caostal Expeditions.

Yes, staying in Mt. Pleasant is a great option to help with the budget and is also very central to everything you want to do.

Mostly walking, but you can rent bicycles, especially if you want to bike the new bridge.

As for what I woudl put all together in 1 day, and I realize you maybe don%26#39;t want this advice:

Day A: Patriots Point, and Fort Sumter

Day B: Hunley, Carriage Tour, Ghost tour, SC Aquarium

Day C: Middleton, Drayton

Day D: Magnolia, Cypress gardens

Day E: Eco Tour

Day F: Pirates Tour and homes

Day G: is free or coudl be a travel day or just a walk around day

You could easily mix and match days C and D. And could mix and match days B and F, but the hunley is not dowtown but North Charlston, so I would put that as the first stop for the day.

Amount Of Time I Should Plan for Attractions

I agree with the previous poster~ I don%26#39;t think that you will have a problem fitting everything in while you are in Charleston. Yes~ Mt. Pleasant is a nice place to stay on a budget and you are only a few miles away from Downtown.

Here are just a few ideas in addition to the ones noted bythe previous poster.

~ Patriots Point and Ft. Sumter for one day. Make sure to stop over at Shem Creek and sit and have some drinks or dinner right on the water. The views are great and the area is just cool and relaxing.

~ There is Heritage Passport that you might want to consider. That will give you addmission to all of the historic homes, museums and Middleton and Drayton Hall Plantations. It is a fantastic deal, $39.95 for a 2 day pass or $59.95 for a year long pass.

~Some where in those days when you are Downtown you should make plans to spend some time walking around the city. Discount tickets are sold at the Visitors Center for the Carriage Tours. Those take 1 hour. Walk through the City Market, King Street, the Battery and Waterfront Park.

~Very Important to consider in your planning!! The Hunley is ONLY on Sat and Sun!!! Lots of Visitors don%26#39;t know that and they show up on Monday and are very disappointed!

~There are plenty of Ghost tours. You can also get your tickets for that at the Visitors Center. I don%26#39;t have a prefrence.

~I have never done the eco-tour. Maybe someone else can chime in on that one.

Charleston is a BEAUTIFUL city! I hope that you enjoy your vacation

Yeah, you shouldn%26#39;t have too much trouble fitting most of these in within a week%26#39;s time.

A few (more) pointers -

Eco tour would be nice, but you won%26#39;t find many (if any at all) crabs that early in the season.

Cypress Gardens is nice, but way out of the way from town, I%26#39;d estimate 1.5 hours if traffic is bad. It%26#39;s also not too easy to find so make sure you get a good map.

Make sure you visit the Hunley website and verify times for tours.

Most importantly, just take time to walk the city. Charleston is a magnificent wandering city, with lots of gorgeous, but maybe not so famous, homes and idyllic alleyways. I%26#39;d start at the battery and just criss-cross. A nice June morning would be a fantastic time to do it.

Wow! Thanks for all the responses. I%26#39;ll have to map out where the Cypress Gardens are as I was thinking of doing that right before we head home. That itinerary of things to do in one day is very close to what I came up with so you have given me confidance that I';m maknig some good decisions. I think I just need to rearrange a couple things. Why is Boone Hall not that great?

Are the discounts you get at the visitor center comparable to the discounts you get online? I would rather buy right there then online but the savings are pretty good online too.

I will definitely do the heritage passport but will have to plan around fitting it in 2 days. I am also planning around visiting the Hunley on Sunday.

When is the best time for crabs? Right now we are flexible and if the Caroline Hurricane%26#39;s do well this year then June might not be a good month for traveling anyway. I know the crab trips start in June, but what is the optimal time? I just didn%26#39;t want it to get too hot, but June is likely to be hot anyway (we got married last June a little south of Raleigh, midafternoon was almost unbearable). I know the later it gets in the summer the rougher the weather. Then again we went to Mexico on our honeymoon and did a lot of outdoor stuff and just *made do* with the heat. So I guess it would be ok...

Magnolia and Middleton are quite close together so you would save a good bit of time if you saw them both on the same day.

Now, My husband and I aren%26#39;t interested in old homes. We have many of them where we live. So we skipped both houses at Middleton and Magnolia. The grounds are very special and well worth the time. But skipping the houses allowed us to spend our limited time better. At least, it was better for us. For the same reason, we skipped Drayton Hall.

There is to much to do :( :) . So I%26#39;ve extended the trip by one day, so 8 days, 7 nights Friday to Friday. I need any recommendations you can give. My goal wtih this itinerary is to get Perspective. I want perspectives from each angle to truly enjoy/appreciate the trip. Wedneday and Thursday would be the Heritage Passport days. I am also interested in the Charleston Photo Tour (anyone done that as well? I%26#39;m interested in basic photography), and maybe the Schooner? If we did a harbour cruise, do you think it would just be a repeat of everything else? I think the Schooner seems pretty neat as I%26#39;ve never been on a boat with sails before. But not sure where I would fit it either unless they had evening tours. Obviously we have to eat sometime, hence the breaks in the plans.

Friday - drive down to Mt. Pleasant. Probably get there around noon, probably go downtown and walk around a bit.

2-5pm: A taste of Culinary History Tour, Carolina Food Pros

Saturday - 9-12:30pm Capers Island Wildlife Exploration, Eco-Tours

2pm Old South Carriage Co ride

3:30pm Pirates %26amp; Buccaneers Walking Tour or some other walking tour (recommendations?)

9pm The Haunted Jail Tour, Bulldog Tours

Sunday - 9:30-12pm Ft. Sumter Tour

12:30pm SC Aquarium

4pm Hunley

Monday - 9-11am Magnolia Plantation (with train ride)

3-5pm Gullah Tour - has anyone done this? I think it would be very interesting.

Tuesday - 9am Patriots Point

1:30-5pm Crabbing Clinic with Eco-tours

Wednesday - 9am Charleston Museum, then take as much time as we want to tour the historic homes, battery, and shop.

Thursday - 9am-12pm Middleton Place

1pm-5pm Drayton Hall

Friday - 10am Cypress Gardens, then drive home

Also: Our budget for lunches is around $10 and for dinner, no more than $20 each. Does this sound reasonable? If so, can you recommend some good restaurants that fall into those categories? Some Must-Do%26#39;s? Obvsiously our spending is leaning towards the attractions :) .

On the day that you are going to Capers, I would have more time between Capers and getting on the carriage ride. I would personally take a shower after getting on a boat and going out to Capers, so that afternoon could just be pushed back about an hour or so. Yes, it is possible to eat on that small amount of money each day, but I would probably not do every single one of the walking tours that you want to do, and probably would not go on the dinner cruise, and take some of that saved money towards a nice dinner....because Charleston has great culinary delights. That%26#39;s just my 2 cents.

Sounds like a great plan~ Some quick additional suggestions. Magnolia Plantation is quite big, 3 hours might be cutting yourself a little short. Also the Gullah Tour is Fantastic but the tour times are at 11am and 1pm only!

Thanks for the advice :) . I%26#39;ll probably cut out the Pirates walking tour, move the carriage ride, we don%26#39;t have a dinner cruise...unless you meant the crabbing tour? But that is one of the things I%26#39;m really looking forward to doing (not the usual..and sounds fun). Sometimes nice to get off the beaten track and do something unusual (at least its unusual to me).

Aah yah I was looking at the wrong line for the Gullah tours. They have a 3pm on Saturday but not weekdays but I can rearrange around that somehow.

We can probably do a nice dinner at least once while we are out, that will be a more wait and see when the time comes.

The gullah tour with Alphonso Brown is outstanding, and well worth arranging a schedule around. Friends of ours took this tour recently and found it the highlight of their trip to Charleston.

Boone Hall is picturesque but not authentic - the home was built in the 20th century! Middleton is also rebuilt, but is an excellent period museum and has magnificent gardens.

Drayton Hall is the only unrestored and unrebuilt plantation home in the area. Drayton Hall was never destroyed by war or natural disaster. Drayton remains in its unrestored, unfurnish state. (Also, haunted; or so they say.)