OK, after thinking a bit about this, I tried to remember places we might have visited when we were there in the past. I know we went out to
Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island. Bigelow owns it now, but it was still a nice tour - Himself suggested we take the trolley tour through the tea plants. It was interesting, but I think Himself liked it more than I did since he knew less about how tea is grown and harvested than I do.
If you do go there, you'll be traveling along SR 700. Right along the way, on Johns Island, is the
Angel Oak Tree. It is old (at least 400-500 years old, although some people claim it is much much older), and huge, and amazing. When we were there, there was a small building that had a number of women displaying and selling their sweetgrass baskets. Next time we go, I'm making sure I have some $$ set aside to buy one. Like Nantucket baskets, they aren't cheap but they are works of art.
We enjoyed just walking around the Battery, going up and down the streets to look at all the old houses - back before my feet started crabbing all the time. Driving along that route would work, too. [emoji2] We also drove around a lot looking to see if we could find a tea shop. A fictional tea shop. I thought that with a mystery series based in Charleston, someone would have opened a tea shop by now. [emoji38] If you have time and interest before leaving, you might want to read a few books (in order) in
Laura Child's "Tea Shop Mystery" book series.
When we go on vacation, especially if it's someplace new, we like to explore the local cuisine. Our first time down we ate at a now-closed restaurant that was in Mount Pleasant, a prime location for low country-Gullah-Geechee food. This was before Gullah cuisine started becoming a "thing". It appears that it is now gaining some traction,
as this list at Yelp shows. You would probably have to go one by one to each restaurant's website to see if they have anything of interest, but two names I have seen with recommendations elsewhere are Bertha's Kitchen and Hannibal's Kitchen. Not sure I'd want to each somewhere the chef is named Hannibal, though...
If you're interested in that regional cuisine and culture, this website might be helpful:
U.S. Gullah/Geechee Corridor
and this article might be of interest:
Here's why we believe Gullah Geechee cuisine is the next big thing in Southern Food
I'm currently reading a library book about the baskets and culture. It's interesting. Just in case you're curious what the book it, it's "
Sweetgrass Baskets and the Gullah Tradition" by Joyce V. Coakley.
Lastly, this might be of no interest, no use, and not helpful. However, it's a clever marketing and tourist-y thing dreamed up and operated by someone who knows an opportunity when it comes around:
GeecheeEats Food Shuttle
Unfortunately, the typeset is hard to read, and there are spelling and/or grammar errors. You have been warned.
Now I wanna visit Charleston and eat soul food...