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Area Map

Downtown Charleston

South Carolina has one thing no other state has, and that's Charleston.  You have to see it - no, experience it - to understand what that statement means.  Photos can't capture it, travel videos don't either.  When people in South Carolina feel like getting out of town for a weekend and can't decide where to go, Charleston almost always turns out to be a best bet.  Then again, many people decide to come for the rest of their lives.

Beautiful it is - with cobblestone streets, neighborhoods of restored homes painted in pastels and water lapping along the Battery, where some of the oldest, grandest homes abide.  Enchanting, intriguing, Charleston lures wanderers siren-like to its historic district, much like it lure pirates and gentry two centuries ago.  South Carolina's oldest city, settled in 1670, has withstood earthquakes, hurricanes and Gen. William. T. Sherman to still beckon the begotten.  As a pop song several years ago put it, "Oh baby, she's got it."

Charleston has been named the "Most Mannerly City in the united States" six consecutive years, including 1999, by etiquette expert Marjabelle Yound Stewart.  But that's one of countless accolades. "Most Romantic Getaway," it's been called by Southern Living magazine;  Partners for Livable Communities put it on its top ten most livable places in the country.  Conde Nast Traveler regularly ranks it among the best places in the world to visit.  Quaint, historic inns and opulent hotels provide every luxury and charm for visitors, who come for the gardens, the architecture, the dining, the shopping.

Then there's the Fun Quotient.  Charleston might have the patent on festivals, serving up the huge Oyster Festival in January, the huger Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in February, and the internationally respected Spoleto Festival USA arts feast in May and June.  The Riverdogs play baseball in a fine new stadium, and the new $6 million South Carolina Aquarium houses plant and animal life from the Palmetto Stat's mountains to coast.  Add tours for candlelit homes and secret gardens and the Moja Festival each fall, which celebrates African and Caribbean cultures, and you've got a town they can't call sleepy anymore.

City Population - 87,044
Charleston County Population - 316,482