Things to do · Charleston · United States
20 best things to do in Charleston
20 sights and experiences ranked for a first visit, with honest notes on time, cost and crowds.
Updated By the AMZBooking editorial team
Photo: Dima Sergiyenko; Please attribute this image as the work of " DiscoverWithDima .", CC BY-SA 4.0
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Quick answer
The essential sights in Charleston are The Battery and White Point Garden, Rainbow Row and Fort Sumter National Monument. Of the 20 picks below, 7 are free, 10 work on a rainy day and 10 suit children. Allow about 4 days to see the highlights without rushing.
Key facts
- Top sight
- The Battery and White Point Garden
- Free sights
- 7
- Good on a rainy day
- Charleston City Market
- Time to see the highlights
- 4 days
At a glance
| Sight | Area | Time needed | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Battery and White Point Garden | South of Broad | 45 minutes–1 hour | Free |
| Rainbow Row | South of Broad | 15–20 minutes | Free |
| Fort Sumter National Monument | Charleston Harbor | About 2 hours 15 minutes with ferry | Mid-priced |
| Charleston City Market | French Quarter and Market area | 1 hour | Free |
| Joe Riley Waterfront Park | French Quarter and Market area | 30–45 minutes | Free |
| Nathaniel Russell House | South of Broad | 1 hour | Mid-priced |
| Aiken-Rhett House | Upper King | 1 hour | Mid-priced |
| Old Slave Mart Museum | French Quarter and Market area | 45 minutes–1 hour | Low cost |
| International African American Museum | Ansonborough | 2–3 hours | Mid-priced |
| Gibbes Museum of Art | French Quarter and Market area | 1–1.5 hours | Mid-priced |
| The Charleston Museum | Upper King | 1.5–2 hours | Mid-priced |
| Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon | French Quarter and Market area | 1 hour | Low cost |
| South Carolina Aquarium | Ansonborough | 2 hours | Mid-priced |
| Patriots Point and USS Yorktown | Mount Pleasant | 3 hours | Mid-priced |
| Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge walk | Mount Pleasant | 1–1.5 hours | Free |
| Middleton Place | Ashley River Road | Half a day | Expensive |
| Magnolia Plantation and Gardens | Ashley River Road | Half a day | Expensive |
| Angel Oak | Johns Island | 30 minutes | Free |
| Fort Moultrie | Sullivan's Island | 1–1.5 hours | Low cost |
| Shem Creek | Mount Pleasant | 2 hours | Free |
The 20 best things to do
Waterfront · South of Broad
1.The Battery and White Point Garden
The raised sea-wall promenade at the tip of the peninsula looks across the harbour to Fort Sumter, with mansions such as the Edmondston-Alston House lining East Battery. Behind it, White Point Garden is a shaded park of live oaks, old cannons and a bandstand. It is the classic start or end of a historic-district walk.
Walk the High Battery at sunset, then head up Church Street past St. Michael's for the gas-lit evening walk back.
- Time needed
- 45 minutes–1 hour
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Iconic
- Views
- Couples
- Outdoors
- Photo spot
Street · South of Broad
2.Rainbow Row
Thirteen pastel-painted Georgian row houses along East Bay Street, built as merchants' houses with shops on the ground floor in the 18th century, form Charleston's most recognisable street front. They are private homes, so this is a look-from-the-pavement stop that fits into any walk between the Battery and Waterfront Park.
Photograph from the opposite side of East Bay Street in the morning, when the sun lights the façades and traffic is light.
- Time needed
- 15–20 minutes
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Iconic
- Architecture
- Photo spot
Historic site · Charleston Harbor
3.Fort Sumter National Monument
Confederate guns fired on this island fort in April 1861, starting the Civil War. The only access is by concession ferry from Liberty Square downtown or from Patriots Point; the trip is about 30 minutes each way with roughly an hour on the island, where rangers explain the bombardment and the fort's later history.
Visit the free Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center at Liberty Square before your boat, and sit on the harbour side for views of the Battery.
- Time needed
- About 2 hours 15 minutes with ferry
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Book ahead
- Ferries sell out on spring and summer weekends; reserve a departure time online in advance.
- Iconic
- History
- Kids
- Views
Market · French Quarter and Market area
4.Charleston City Market
Four blocks of open-sided sheds run from Meeting Street to East Bay Street, with the 1841 Greek Revival Market Hall at the head. Inside are hundreds of vendors selling sweetgrass baskets made by Gullah artisans, local food products and souvenirs. Despite folklore, the market sold meat and produce, not enslaved people.
Buy sweetgrass baskets directly from the weavers, who often make them on the spot and can tell you how long each one took.
- Time needed
- 1 hour
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Shopping
- Kids
- Rainy day
Park · French Quarter and Market area
5.Joe Riley Waterfront Park
This harbour-front park along Concord Street has the Pineapple Fountain, where children paddle in summer, a pier lined with swinging benches and lawns looking towards Patriots Point and the Ravenel Bridge. It links Rainbow Row with the Market area along a shaded promenade.
Claim one of the bench swings at the end of the pier early in the evening to watch ships and dolphins in the harbour.
- Time needed
- 30–45 minutes
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Kids
- Couples
- Views
- Outdoors
Historic site · South of Broad
6.Nathaniel Russell House
Completed in 1808 for a Rhode Island-born merchant, this Federal-style house on Meeting Street is known for its free-flying spiral staircase that climbs three floors without visible support. Guided tours by the Historic Charleston Foundation cover both the family and the enslaved people who lived and worked on the property.
A combination ticket also covers the Aiken-Rhett House, which shows the opposite approach: preserved, not restored.
- Time needed
- 1 hour
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- History
- Architecture
- Rainy day
Historic site · Upper King
7.Aiken-Rhett House
A townhouse complex on Elizabeth Street kept largely as it was found, with faded wallpaper, original outbuildings and the work yard where enslaved people cooked, washed and lived. Its unrestored state makes it one of the most complete surviving urban plantation compounds in the South.
Spend time in the kitchen and slave quarters at the back; the self-guided audio tour is strongest there.
- Time needed
- 1 hour
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- History
- Architecture
- Rainy day
- Off the beaten path
Museum · French Quarter and Market area
8.Old Slave Mart Museum
This building on cobbled Chalmers Street was part of Ryan's Mart, where enslaved people were auctioned in the late 1850s after public sales were banned from the street. Today a small city-run museum explains Charleston's domestic slave trade through records, objects and personal stories.
Pair it with the International African American Museum for the fuller story from arrival to emancipation.
- Time needed
- 45 minutes–1 hour
- Cost
- Low cost
- History
- Rainy day
Museum · Ansonborough
1.International African American Museum
Opened in 2023 on Gadsden's Wharf, where a large share of enslaved Africans brought to North America first landed, the museum traces the journeys, labour and culture of African Americans, with galleries on Gullah Geechee traditions. Its Center for Family History helps visitors research African American ancestry, and the memorial garden outside is free.
Leave time for the African Ancestors Memorial Garden, where the outline of a slave ship is set into the ground beside the harbour.
- Time needed
- 2–3 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Book ahead
- Entry is by timed ticket; reserve online, especially for weekends.
- History
- Rainy day
- Art
Gallery · French Quarter and Market area
2.Gibbes Museum of Art
The Gibbes, in a 1905 Beaux-Arts building on Meeting Street, collects art connected with Charleston and the American South, from colonial portrait miniatures to the Charleston Renaissance watercolours of Alice Ravenel Huger Smith. The rotunda's stained-glass dome is worth a look in itself.
Look for the miniature portrait collection on the upper floor, one of the largest in the country.
- Time needed
- 1–1.5 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Art
- Rainy day
- Architecture
Museum · Upper King
3.The Charleston Museum
Founded in 1773 and often called America's first museum, it covers Lowcountry natural and cultural history, from a whale skeleton and fossil finds to Charleston silver and Civil War material. It also runs two historic houses, the Heyward-Washington House and the Joseph Manigault House.
It faces the visitor centre on Meeting Street, so it is an easy first stop to get your bearings on a rainy morning.
- Time needed
- 1.5–2 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- History
- Kids
- Rainy day
Historic site · French Quarter and Market area
4.Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon
Built between 1767 and 1771 at the foot of Broad Street, the Exchange was a customs house and the place where South Carolina ratified the US Constitution; George Washington was entertained here in 1791. In the brick basement, the British held prisoners during the Revolution, and costumed guides tell the story.
Ask about the section of the original 18th-century sea wall visible in the dungeon.
- Time needed
- 1 hour
- Cost
- Low cost
- History
- Kids
- Rainy day
Aquarium · Ansonborough
5.South Carolina Aquarium
On the harbour beside the Fort Sumter ferry dock, the aquarium follows the state's water from mountain streams to the ocean, with a two-storey Great Ocean Tank of sharks and loggerhead turtles. Its sea turtle care centre treats injured turtles, and visitors can watch patients in recovery.
Combine it with a Fort Sumter ferry from the same dock for an easy family half-day.
- Time needed
- 2 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Kids
- Rainy day
- Nature
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Museum · Mount Pleasant
6.Patriots Point and USS Yorktown
The Second World War aircraft carrier USS Yorktown is moored at Mount Pleasant as a naval museum, with aircraft on the flight deck and hangar, plus the destroyer USS Laffey alongside. Children can explore bunk rooms, the bridge and engine spaces, and the flight deck gives a wide view across the harbour to downtown.
Wear flat shoes; the ships involve steep ladders and narrow passages, and the flight deck is very hot in summer afternoons.
- Time needed
- 3 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Kids
- History
- Views
- Rainy day
Viewpoint · Mount Pleasant
7.Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge walk
The cable-stayed bridge over the Cooper River, opened in 2005, has a separate pedestrian and bike lane about 4 km long. The climb to the centre span gives views over the harbour, the downtown steeples and Patriots Point, and it is a popular morning run for locals.
Park at Memorial Waterfront Park in Mount Pleasant and walk to the top and back; go early or near sunset in summer.
- Time needed
- 1–1.5 hours
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Views
- Active
- Outdoors
- Photo spot
Garden · Ashley River Road
8.Middleton Place
About 25 km northwest of downtown, Middleton Place has formal terraced gardens laid out from the 1740s, with butterfly-shaped lakes stepping down to the Ashley River. The house museum, stableyards and Eliza's House exhibit on the enslaved people who built and worked the estate fill a full half-day.
Combine it with Drayton Hall, a few minutes away on Ashley River Road, for a full day of plantation history.
- Time needed
- Half a day
- Cost
- Expensive
- History
- Outdoors
- Couples
- Photo spot
Garden · Ashley River Road
9.Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
Held by the Drayton family since the 17th century, Magnolia has informal romantic-style gardens famous for azaleas and camellias, a swamp garden with alligators and herons, and restored cabins that tell the stories of enslaved and later free workers. Spring flowering peaks from about March to April.
Take the nature train or boat tour around the former rice fields to see wading birds and alligators.
- Time needed
- Half a day
- Cost
- Expensive
- Nature
- Outdoors
- History
- Kids
- Photo spot
Nature · Johns Island
10.Angel Oak
A Southern live oak on Johns Island, about 20 km from downtown, estimated to be several hundred years old, with limbs that sprawl along the ground and shade a huge area. It stands in a small city-owned park and makes an easy stop on the way to Kiawah or Wadmalaw Island.
Do not climb or lean on the branches; the tree is protected and staff will ask you to step back.
- Time needed
- 30 minutes
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Nature
- Photo spot
- Kids
Historic site · Sullivan's Island
11.Fort Moultrie
Part of the same national historical park as Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island repelled a British fleet in 1776 from a palmetto-log fort — the origin of the palmetto on the state flag. The current fort shows coastal defences from the Revolution to the Second World War, and the beach is a short walk away.
Pair it with a swim at Sullivan's Island and dinner at Shem Creek on the drive back.
- Time needed
- 1–1.5 hours
- Cost
- Low cost
- History
- Views
- Kids
Waterfront · Mount Pleasant
12.Shem Creek
A tidal creek in Mount Pleasant where shrimp boats still tie up beside a boardwalk lined with seafood restaurants and bars on stilts. Kayak and paddleboard outfitters launch from the creek into the marsh, where dolphins are often seen.
Walk the boardwalk into the marsh at sunset, then eat at a deck table overlooking the shrimp boats.
- Time needed
- 2 hours
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Food
- Nature
- Couples
- Active
Pick by interest
| Interest | Best picks |
|---|---|
| Art and museums | Old Slave Mart Museum, International African American Museum, Gibbes Museum of Art and The Charleston Museum |
| History | Fort Sumter National Monument, Nathaniel Russell House, Aiken-Rhett House and Old Slave Mart Museum |
| Views | The Battery and White Point Garden, Fort Sumter National Monument, Joe Riley Waterfront Park and Patriots Point and USS Yorktown |
| Outdoors and nature | The Battery and White Point Garden, Joe Riley Waterfront Park, South Carolina Aquarium and Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge walk |
| Food and markets | Charleston City Market and Shem Creek |
| With children | Fort Sumter National Monument, Charleston City Market, Joe Riley Waterfront Park and The Charleston Museum |
| On a rainy day | Charleston City Market, Nathaniel Russell House, Aiken-Rhett House and Old Slave Mart Museum |
What to book ahead
- Fort Sumter National Monument: Ferries sell out on spring and summer weekends; reserve a departure time online in advance.
- International African American Museum: Entry is by timed ticket; reserve online, especially for weekends.
Plan the rest of your trip
Questions travellers ask
+What is the number one thing to do in Charleston?
The Battery and White Point Garden. The raised sea-wall promenade at the tip of the peninsula looks across the harbour to Fort Sumter, with mansions such as the Edmondston-Alston House lining East Battery.
+What can you do for free in Charleston?
The Battery and White Point Garden, Rainbow Row, Charleston City Market, Joe Riley Waterfront Park and Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge walk. More free things to do.
+What is there to do in Charleston when it rains?
Head indoors to Charleston City Market, Nathaniel Russell House, Aiken-Rhett House and Old Slave Mart Museum.