Charleston is a pretty, walkable city with pastel houses, a harbor with a fort in the middle and three beaches within twenty minutes. It is one of the easiest Southern cities to do with kids because the history is on the water and the water is where the kids want to be.
The first morning
A horse drawn carriage tour is the way to learn the layout and kids love the horses. Then walk the Battery along the seawall past the mansions to White Point Garden, where there are cannons to climb and oaks to run under. Rainbow Row is a block away for the photo. The City Market for sweetgrass baskets and pralines.
Fort Sumter
The boat from Liberty Square takes half an hour across the harbor to the fort where the Civil War started. The rangers do a talk, kids explore the walls and the museum, and there is a junior ranger badge. It is a two and a half hour outing that older kids find interesting and younger ones treat as a boat ride, which is fine.
Aquarium and museum
The South Carolina Aquarium is right by the fort boat dock with a sea turtle hospital, a big ocean tank and an albino alligator. The Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry a few blocks away is for the under eights with a pirate ship.
Patriots Point
Across the bridge in Mount Pleasant, the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier with planes on the deck, a submarine, a destroyer and a Vietnam camp. Kids climb through the whole ship and it takes half a day.
Beaches
Folly Beach is the surf town with a pier and a laid back strip. Sullivan’s Island has a wide flat beach, Fort Moultrie to explore and Poe’s Tavern for lunch. Isle of Palms is the resort one with calm water and a county park with lifeguards and a playground. All are twenty minutes from downtown.
Plantations
Magnolia Plantation has a petting zoo, a swamp garden boardwalk and a tram, and it is the family friendly one. Boone Hall has the oak avenue and the slave cabins with an important exhibit. McLeod Plantation tells the story from the perspective of the enslaved and suits older kids.
Food
Shrimp and grits, she crab soup, and biscuits at Callie’s. Hominy Grill is gone but Poogan’s Porch does the brunch. Jeni’s ice cream on King Street.
Where to stay
Downtown south of Calhoun for walking. Mount Pleasant for a base near Patriots Point and the beaches. Spring and fall are perfect and summer is humid.
Planning South Carolina with kids? Start with the full South Carolina family travel guide, or send me the ages and the dates and I will come back with what is really available.
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