Last updated: September 2026
Charleston is a historic port city on South Carolina's coast, set on a peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers where they meet the Atlantic. Founded in 1670, it's known for pastel antebellum row houses, cobblestone streets, wrought-iron gates, and a food scene built on Lowcountry traditions like shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, and rice-based dishes with deep African and Gullah roots.
The city carries a complicated history as a major hub of the transatlantic slave trade and a center of the Confederacy, and serious visitors should engage with sites like the International African American Museum alongside the more familiar plantation and garden tours. It draws honeymooners, architecture and history buffs, food travelers, and beachgoers heading to nearby barrier islands.
Charleston works well as a walking city: the historic district, harbor waterfront, and King Street shopping corridor are all close together, with beaches and plantations a short drive beyond downtown.
Quick facts
- Population
- 150,227 (2020 census)
- County
- Charleston County, extending into Berkeley County
- State
- South Carolina
- Country
- United States
- Founded
- 1670 as Charles Town
- Elevation
- About 3 feet
- Nickname
- The Holy City, for its church spires and early religious tolerance
- Setting
- Coastal peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers
- Nearby cities
- Savannah, GA; Mount Pleasant and Folly Beach, SC
- Best known for
- Antebellum architecture, Lowcountry cuisine, and Fort Sumter
Things to Do
Rainbow Row
A stretch of brightly colored 18th-century houses along East Bay Street, among the most photographed spots in the city.
View in NearbylyFort Sumter National Monument
Reachable by ferry from the downtown waterfront, this harbor fort is where the Civil War began and now serves as a National Park Service site.
View in NearbylyInternational African American Museum
Opened on the site of a major slave-trading wharf, this museum tells the story of African American history from the Middle Passage forward with unusual depth and care.
View in NearbylyThe Battery and White Point Garden
A waterfront promenade lined with grand antebellum mansions, offering views across the harbor toward Fort Sumter.
View in NearbylyMagnolia Plantation and Gardens
One of the oldest public gardens in America, with sprawling grounds and exhibits that also address the plantation's history of slavery.
View in NearbylyCharleston City Market
A historic covered market running several blocks, home to local vendors and the Gullah sweetgrass basket weavers who continue a centuries-old craft tradition.
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Eat Local
She-crab soup
A rich, sherry-laced cream soup made with crab roe, considered a Lowcountry signature dish served at restaurants across downtown.
View in NearbylyHusk
Founded by chef Sean Brock in 2010 and now led by other chefs, this influential restaurant helped define modern Southern cooking with a menu built largely on Carolinas ingredients.
View in NearbylyShrimp and grits
A Lowcountry staple with roots in Gullah cooking, now served everywhere from casual diners to upscale dining rooms downtown.
View in NearbylyBertha's Kitchen
A North Charleston cafeteria run by one family since 1979 and named a James Beard America's Classic in 2017. Lunch only, queue down the side of the building, gone by early afternoon.
View in NearbylyHannibal's Kitchen
Four decades of Gullah Geechee cooking east of downtown — crab rice, shark steak, okra soup — served to a mostly local room.
View in NearbylyFig
A long-running, chef-driven restaurant on King Street known for seasonal Lowcountry-French cooking and a loyal local following.
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Shopping & Markets
King Street
Charleston's main shopping corridor, running from antique dealers in the lower blocks to boutiques and design shops further up.
View in NearbylyCharleston City Market
Sweetgrass baskets, local art, and Lowcountry foods fill this historic market building near the waterfront.
View in NearbylyBlue Bicycle Books
King Street's used and rare bookshop, trading since 1995, with the best Charleston and South Carolina section in the city.
View in NearbylyLower King Street Antique District
A concentration of antique shops selling Southern furniture, silver, and decorative arts, reflecting the city's long collecting tradition.
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Hidden Gems
Philip Simmons' ironwork gates
Scattered across the historic district, the decorative wrought-iron gates by master blacksmith Philip Simmons are a quiet, citywide art collection worth seeking out.
View in NearbylyUnitarian Church Graveyard
An intentionally overgrown, romantic old graveyard tucked just off King Street, a peaceful contrast to the manicured gardens elsewhere downtown.
View in NearbylyGullah cultural sites on nearby islands
A short drive from downtown, communities on Johns and James Islands preserve Gullah Geechee language, food, and craft traditions worth exploring respectfully.
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Nature & Outdoors
Folly Beach
A laid-back barrier island beach about 30 minutes from downtown, popular for surfing and its funky, low-key main strip.
View in NearbylyAngel Oak Tree
A massive, centuries-old live oak on Johns Island with sprawling limbs that touch the ground, one of the oldest living things east of the Mississippi.
View in NearbylyCooper River waterfront parks
Waterfront Park downtown and the Ravenel Bridge pedestrian path offer easy harbor and river views without leaving the peninsula.
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A little history
Charleston was founded in 1670 as Charles Town, named for England's King Charles II, and quickly grew into one of the wealthiest cities in colonial America on the strength of rice and indigo plantations worked by enslaved Africans. By the 18th century it was the principal port of entry for enslaved people in North America, a history now centered at the International African American Museum, built on the site of Gadsden's Wharf.
The city played an outsized role in the Civil War: the first shots of the war were fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in April 1861. Charleston endured occupation, a devastating 1886 earthquake, and periods of economic decline before a mid-20th-century preservation movement, driven by organizations like the Preservation Society of Charleston, protected much of its historic architecture from demolition.
Tourism and a growing culinary reputation transformed the city's economy from the late 20th century onward, and Charleston is now regularly ranked among the top travel destinations in the United States, a status built on its restored historic district and Lowcountry food culture.
If you only have a day in Charleston
Morning
International African American Museum
On Gadsden's Wharf, where tens of thousands of enslaved people first landed. Start here and the rest of the city reads differently.
Late morning
The Battery and the alleys
Walk south along East Bay past Rainbow Row, then cut back through Stoll's Alley and Longitude Lane.
Lunch
Lower King Street
Anywhere on the peninsula; Bertha's is worth the drive north if you have a car and go early.
Afternoon
Fort Sumter ferry
Roughly two and a quarter hours round trip from the waterfront. Book the sailing in advance.
Evening
Upper King Street
The dinner and bar end of the peninsula, walkable from most of downtown.
Good to know
- The peninsula is compact and walkable; metered street parking runs about three dollars an hour and city garages cap around twenty-four dollars a day. Sundays and evenings are free at meters.
- Spoleto Festival USA runs seventeen days from late May into June and fills hotels and venues across downtown.
- Folly Beach and the Angel Oak are both twenty-five to thirty-five minutes out, and Folly's parking fills by mid-morning in summer.
- Charleston lost a string of long-running restaurants through 2024 and 2025, so confirm anything you have read about before building a meal around it.
- June through November is hurricane season, and summer humidity is genuinely punishing by midday.
Explore more of Charleston
This guide highlights some of the places that help define Charleston. There is plenty more around it — restaurants, hidden gems, history, events, shopping and outdoor places — waiting in the live explorer, sorted by distance from wherever you are.
Places in Charleston
More city guides
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