3 Days in Charleston, SC: Enjoy a Long Weekend Getaway in the Holy City
Take 3 days to explore Charleston, SC, and get a taste for this charming Southern city. No PTO required!
Sometimes you only have a few days to explore a new city, try out the food, and see a lot of popular sites without using any vacation days from work.
Charleston has a walkable downtown with a variety of activities and sights for different tastes. It’s the perfect spot for a family vacation, a couple’s getaway, a bachelor/ette party, or a friends’ weekend away.
I live here, so while anyone can give you a list of things to do, this itinerary uses my local insights to suggest activities that work well together so you’re not on your feet all day or wasting time and money on ubers crisscrossing the city.
It’s the same itinerary I use when family and friends come to visit!
Here’s how I’d spend 3 days in Charleston.
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A 3 Day Weekend in Charleston, SC
While a long weekend isn’t enough time to see everything in Charleston, it’s plenty of time to get a good feel for the food, the history, and the fun.
For first time visitors, I always suggest you start with a stroll in the downtown historic district.
You can go fast or slow, but you’ll still get to see the harbor, the flowers, the live oaks, the cobblestone streets, and the beautiful historic mansions and buildings. Southern ambience at its finest!
But there’s also shopping, restaurants, museums, and galleries to tickle your fancy. Spend the first day exploring downtown.
Next, take a day to explore away from downtown. Charleston is famous for its historic plantations and its beaches. Choose wisely and you can do both in one day.
On your last day in town, go see something that you love.
History buffs will find Fort Sumter or Charles Town Landing interesting. Kids love to explore the aircraft carrier at Patriots Point. Get on the water at Shem Creek, or hop from rooftop bar to rooftop bar.
Whatever fun you’re looking for, there’s a very good chance Charleston can deliver.
Now, let’s get into the specifics for each day of your long weekend in Charleston.
Day 1: Historic Downtown
The peninsula is another name for downtown Charleston. It’s packed full of history, food, and fun, but here’s what I suggest you start with:
- The Battery & White Point Gardens
- Edmondston-Alston House
- Rainbow Row
- Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon
- Waterfront Park
- Charleston City Market
- Carriage Tour
- King Street Shopping
- Dinner or Harbor Cruise
- Ghost Tour
Start your first day exploring the historic district on the peninsula.
Take a sunrise stroll along the Battery, admiring the flowers and views of the harbor as you go. White Point Gardens’ large live oaks glow in the morning light, and you’ll avoid the worst of the midday crowds if you’re here before 10AM.
Continue walking north on Battery Street (which becomes East Bay Street). Fancy colonial and antebellum mansions line the waterfront.
The Edmondston-Alston House is open for tours every day except Sunday. Pop in for a peek into colonial Charleston’s lifestyle.
When you’re done, keeping walking north on East Bay Street to Adgers Wharf. This is where you’ll find famous Rainbow Row, a row of colorful buildings and one of Charleston’s most iconic photo spots.
You can’t tour any of these homes, so get your photo and keep going north to the intersection at Broad Street.
Here you’ll find the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon. The building was originally used by the British as a prison and then eventually became a city meeting hall, hosting George Washington on his southern tour after the Revolutionary War.
From there, head down Exchange Street to the river where you’ll find Waterfront Park.
Stroll through the shaded paths under live oaks, admire where Charleston Harbor and the Cooper River meet (where dolphins like to play!), take a photo with the famous Pineapple Fountain, swing on a bench at the pier, or cool off in the fountain by the HarbourView Inn.
Next, take Vendue back to East Bay Street and head north again. Pass shops, restaurants, and local galleries on your way to Charleston City Market.
There are two sections: an open air portion and a climate-controlled portion. The market is busy every day of the week almost all year-round. Winter is really the only time it’s not packed.
Local artisans sell everything from cookies to art to sweetgrass baskets. But beware, there are plenty of cheap, imported souvenirs, too. Check for a “made in” sticker before purchasing.
Right next to the market, you can’t miss the horse-drawn carriage tours. These are highly-regulated tours. The companies take great care of their horses, and will tell you all about it if you ask or take a tour.
The city limits how many are allowed on the streets and spaces them out to limit traffic impacts in our already crowded downtown streets.
Which neighborhood you get to tour through is determined by random chance when the carriage guide checks in before heading out.
The good news is there’s no bad route! They’re all interesting with their own unique stories to tell.
If carriage tours aren’t your cup of tea, follow Market Street to King Street and take a right.
King Street is downtown Charleston’s shopping district. You’ll find lots of name brands and a few boutiques, with local restaurants never far away.
To round out your busy day of exploring the peninsula, take a dinner cruise or sunset cruise around the harbor. It’s the perfect, relaxing end to your day after all that walking!
If boats aren’t your thing, consider a ghost tour instead. Charleston is one of America’s oldest cities, and it has a dark past. The ghost stories are plentiful and interesting.
Day 2: Beaches & Historic Plantations
For your second full day in Charleston, let’s explore further afield (meaning, beyond the downtown peninsula). There are several historic plantations to visit in the area, and Charleston has some stunning beaches.
However, you need a car to visit any of the plantations or beaches. There is no public transit to get you there, and you can’t walk from the peninsula.
Pro Tip: Be cautious about using rideshares to visit any of the plantations. Most are at least a 30-40 minute drive from downtown, and the three on the Ashley River are not in a developed area so there usually aren’t rideshares hanging around waiting for fares.
You’ll have to wait if you don’t schedule one ahead of time to pick you up.
While the beaches are busy and have more drivers around, they’re still far from downtown, and you’ll pay a pretty penny for that ride.
You can visit both a plantation and a beach in the same day. It’ll just be a long day away from your downtown hotel. That’s ok! All the local beaches have county parks with decent changing rooms and restrooms available.
So, you could start your day at the beach to beat the crowds, leave around lunch when they get the most crowded, and head for a plantation in the afternoon, to explore under the shade of live oaks when it’s hottest.
Or, do your sightseeing early and lounge away the afternoon on a beach. Up to you!
✳️ There are 5 historic plantations open to the public in the Charleston area: Boone Hall, Middleton Place, Magnolia, Drayton Hall, and McLeod.
Each has its own unique features, but all of them have azaleas, live oak trees, and tours covering the terrible history of slavery in South Carolina and what that looked like at each location.
✳️ There are 4 main public access beaches in the Charleston area, none of which are downtown on the peninsula. Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island beaches are to the north, and Folly Beach and Kiawah Beachwalker County Park are to the south.
They all get crowded, but Folly Beach is probably the most popular. Isle of Palms is my personal favorite as a local, but each beach has its own pros, cons, and amenities.
You don’t want to waste a lot of time in transit between the beach and the plantation, so here’s how we’d pair them to reduce time in the car in between.
- Boone Hall Plantation and Isle of Palms or Sullivan’s Island beaches
- McLeod Plantation and Folly Beach or Kiawah Beachwalker County Park
- Middleton Place, Magnolia Plantation, or Drayton Hall and Folly Beach
If you’re interested in visiting Charleston’s famous Angel Oak tree, it’s best paired with McLeod Plantation and Kiawah beach.
There’s not a lot to do at Angel Oak, but it is a sprawling, twisting, beautiful, large live oak tree worth a photo or two. Keep in mind, though, it’s a county park with operating hours and a strict, no-influencers-without-a-permit photo policy.
You’ll spend 10 minutes taking photos, maybe another 5 minutes in the small park gift shop, and then leave. There’s nothing else to see here. On a busy day, it’ll take you longer to find a parking spot then it will to take pictures of the tree.
Good to Know: Kiawah and Seabrook Islands are private, resident- and guests-only islands. You have to either live there, stay at a hotel or rental, or have a tee time or restaurant reservation to get onto these islands. Their gatehouses will turn you away otherwise.
The only loophole is Kiawah Beachwalker County Park. You can enjoy a small part of Kiawah’s beautiful beach by parking at the county park.
Pro Tip: If you make it back downtown in time for dinner, consider taking your ghost tour tonight instead of on Day 1. Easier on your feet!
Day 3: Choose Your Adventure
Charleston has a lot of different types of fun things to do, so on your third day, I recommend you choose up to 3 of the following:
- Take the ferry out to Fort Sumter National Monument (or drive to Fort Moultrie* on Sullivan’s Island if you don’t like boats).
- Tour the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier at Patriots Point.
- Learn about the colonial origins and original location of Charleston at Charles Town Landing State Historic Site.*
- Explore the South Carolina Aquarium or the Center for Birds of Prey*.
- Visit art galleries or the Gibbes Museum of Art.
- Kayak or SUP at Shem Creek* (and maybe see the local dolphins!)
- Walk or bike across the Ravenel bridge.
- Take a guided sea turtle night walk at Edisto Beach State Park*. (summers only)
- Visit Cypress Gardens* or take a movie filming locations tour.
- Try a food tour and sample some of the best cuisine in the Lowcountry.
- Relax and enjoy the views from Charleston’s best rooftop bars.
- Make your own candle, mosaic lamp, or painting in a guided class.
- Attend a dinner theatre comedy show at Black Fedora’s or a play at the Dock Street Theater.
*requires a car (or a rideshare) to get there from downtown
No matter the reason for your visit, you’ll find something to suite your tastes and make the most of your 3 days in Charleston.
Happy travels!
About the Author: Rachel Means
With six-figure student loan debt and only 10 PTO days per year, Rachel started traveling the world. A decade later, she’s paid off her loans, changed careers, and been to 42 US states and 17 countries. She’s an expert at planning and budgeting for travel and loves to help others do it, too! Read her full story here.
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