According to simplyyellowpages, the Charleston area offers plenty of opportunities for excursions not far from the city itself.
For example:
- Magnolia Plantation with Bird Sanctuary Waterfowl Refuge: The former rice plantation has been family-owned for over 300 years. Here you can stroll through the garden with its bridges and colorful flower fields, admire the manor house or rent a boat from the canoe rentaland marvel at the beautiful flora and fauna on the Ashley River.
- Shem Creek Park: The Shem Creek area in Mount Pleasant is known for its scenic landscape. You can take a great stroll on the promenades in the park, watch the many boats or pass the time fishing. The seafood restaurants on Shem Creek are also worth a visit.
- Isle of Palms: The Isle of Palms is only twelve miles from the historic old town and offers its visitors not only a wonderful beach and many sports facilities, but also many worthwhile events with live music.
- Folly Beach: Folly Beach is a town on Folly Island and is located around 18 kilometers from Charleston’s old town. It is one of the most famous surfing spots on the east coast and offers a beautiful beach as well as many restaurants, souvenir shops and bars. With a little luck you can watch dolphins and whales on the coast of the island. Or they stretch their legs on the beach and keep their eyes peeled for sand dollars, which are more common there.
- Angel-Oak Park on John’s Island: About a twenty-minute drive from downtown Charleston is Angel-Oak Park on John’s Island. Its main attraction is the Angel Oak, an estimated 1,500 years old, twenty meters high tree with a trunk diameter of 2.47 meters. The longest branch of the “angel oak” is 27 meters long.
- Wadmalaw Island: The island borders John’s Island to the south and west and is a perfect place to pause and enjoy the tranquility of unspoiled nature. Worth seeing are the Charleston Tea Plantation, the only “tea garden” in the USA, the Firefly Distillery and the Irvin House Vineyards, with the latter developing over time into a world of entertainment for young and old. The petting zoo should be a lot of fun, especially for children. But hiking enthusiasts will also find countless opportunities on Wadmalaw Island to indulge their passion.
A trip into the history of Charleston
Charleston was founded by British settlers in 1670 and named after then King Charles, Charles Town. Due to its predestined location on the Atlantic Ocean and the harbor, it was not long before the city, which was renamed Charleston in 1783, flourished. Twenty years after its founding, the town had blossomed into the fifth largest city in North America. However, the city in what is now South Carolina was also prone to attack and was occupied by the infamous pirate Blackbeard in 1718.
But all in all, the city flourished in the 18th and early 19th centuries, a circumstance that was not least due to Charleston’s inglorious importance for the slave trade in the southern states. The city was the hub of the slave trade of the British colonies and was the scene for the sale of slaves to wealthy masters, on whose plantations the slaves had to toil. Many magnificent buildings testify to the time of the rice barons. During the American Revolution, nine of the ten richest families in the United States lived in Charleston. Until 1788 the city was also the capital of South Carolina.
But in 1861 the civil war began. And it was Charleston, or Fort Sumter to be precise, the target of the first shots in the clashes that lasted until 1865. In 1886, the Charleston earthquake largely destroyed the city, and economic difficulties also began for the once prosperous city after the civil war. Between 1901 and 1993, the city played an essential role as a US naval base.
BOONE HALL PLANTATION – NUTS INSTEAD OF COTTON
The driveway of the plantation, on which mainly cotton was grown, is over a kilometer long and lined with ancient oaks. It is considered one of the most beautiful in the USA. The Avenue of Oaks is the most photographed in the USA, known from “Gone with the Wind” and “Torches in the Storm”, laid out in 1743. The Spanish moss hangs wonderfully from the oaks.
Boone Hall is still an active plantation. However, since the beginning of the 20th century, pecan nuts have been harvested instead of cotton.
The nine remaining lodgings for the slaves are remarkable. This so-called slave street consists of neatly restored brick buildings from the middle of the 18th century. The craftsmen and domestic servants who were better off in the slave hierarchy lived here, the farmhands’ apartments were much more modest and further out.
In 1935, a Georgian villa was built on the site where the original house once stood. The old floors and woodwork were used. Only the basement is open for guided tours.
The author Michelle Adams published the book on Boone Hall Plantation in 2008. It tells the story of the plantation and is to buy from Amazon under the following link.
CHARLES TOWNE LANDING MEMORIAL
1500 Old Towne Rd., Between I-26 and SC Hwy. 171, Tel. (843) 852-4200, Open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., $ 7.50 for adults, $ 3.50 for students & children ages 6-15, ages 65 and up $ 3.75, children under 6 free,
On the Ashley River is the memorial where the first Englishmen settled in South Carolina in 1670. You can take a wonderful walk in the gardens. The following can be viewed in particular:
- a 30-minute film “Carolina ” (free) that describes the settlers and what to expect;
- an interpretive center in the main building with exhibitions;
- the ship “Adventure”, a replica of the original merchant ship that the settlers arrived on;
- a zoo with animals that have been in South Carolina since 1670 (puma, wolf, bear, bison, snakes, alligators, etc.);
- the Settler’s Life Area with replicas of the pilgrim houses and demonstrations (candle making, cooking over an open fire, woodwork).
CYPRESS GARDENS – GREAT FLORA AND FAUNA
Here you can find cypresses, azaleas, dogwood and Spanish moss on the Cooper River as well as a rich bird life and some alligators. Footpaths lead through the area, but the “classic” tour is done with the “bateau”, a flat-bottomed boat.
