For our first year anniversary Stephen and I went to Charleston, South Carolina. Let’s just say that we loved it! I’ve been to Charleston before but it’s been about 5-6 years so I was excited to go back especially with Stephen for our anniversary. I wanted to give you all a recap of our trip and hopefully this will be helpful for any of you thinking of visiting as well! PS. Going to link whatever outfit pieces I can below each photo but a lot of things that I am wearing are a couple years old aka not in stock/available!

Where To Stay 

When we travel we usually look for air b&b’s or boutique hotels, and somewhere somewhat close to the downtown area. So when I came across The Inns it seemed like a perfect fit! The Inns consist of a couple of houses in the historic area of Charleston that have been renovated into luxury apartments. They are beautifully renovated and within 10 minutes or less to everywhere we wanted to go in Charleston so it was great. Seeing the photos online we were super excited to stay there, but seeing our place in person–omgsh guys, it was so beautiful! When booking your room you can book a 1BR 1BA, or multiple bedrooms and baths. We initially thought we would just have a 1BR 1BA but since we were staying there during the week and no one else had rented the space (obviously the weekends are a lot busier than the weekends), we had the entire floor. The 1BR 1BA would have been amazing but having the whole floor was the cherry on top! A nice anniversary surprise 🙂 Below are some of the photos of our place that we took upon arrival–you can see some high resolution and even more gorgeous photos on their site. But I would highly recommend staying here if you visit!!

What To Do

We arrived Monday night and left Thursday morning so we had 2 full days in Charleston. The first day we had breakfast and then walked to Battery Park per suggestion of our server. We were told that Battery Park was a beautiful spot to visit because it’s right along the water and there are a lot of beautiful homes in that area. I’m glad that we did this because we got to really walk around Charleston and explore the neighborhoods. Charleston is such a beautiful city and it is definitely worth just walking around and exploring. Every street has the most gorgeous historic homes with most ornate window boxes–it just has so much character. You really can spend hours walking around and just enjoying the scenery. So we walked down to Battery Park through the neighborhoods and then spent some time at the park and walking along the water. Afterwards, we walked back towards King St. to do some shopping. This is the main street downtown where all the shopping is (and a lot of the restaurants are too)! We ended up getting a drink to relax and cool off and then walked around downtown and did some shopping. After going into a few stores we made our way toward the City Market. The market has a lot of individual vendors and a few spots to get food as well. We ended up getting a small bite here and brought it back to our place to relax before dinner.

We decided to spend the second full day at Sullivan’s Beach. Folly Beach and Kiawah Island are both fairly close to Charleston (30-45 minutes) and we thought about going to one of those beaches for the day, but one of our servers recommended that we go to Sullivan’s Beach. She said it was a really nice and cute beach town and that it was super close–it was only 15 minutes from Charleston; right over the bridge. We spent several hours at Sullivan’s Beach that day and then grabbed a bite late afternoon before heading to dinner.

Unfortunately we only had two full days there so could only fit so much in but we had people recommend a few other things to us. Apparently there is a boat ride that you can take around Charleston which is supposed to be great, and there are also horse drawn carriage rides that take you through the city as well. Those might have been other things we would have tried if we had more time there!

Where To Eat

My favorite part of traveling is trying all the different restaurants and food in the area, so it’s always a plus when a city has so many great restaurants to choose from! It was really hard to narrow it down but here are the spots we visited during our trip–would recommend all of these! Also, thank you to all of you guys who gave us recommendations! So many of the places we went to were those that you recommended 🙂

-Poogan’s Porch: We were told that we had to go here for brunch! It’s southern food–fried chicken and mac n cheese but more gourmet versions haha. For brunch they were out of the Mac n cheese (sad!) so we got the pimento cheese fritters and omg they were good. I then got the chicken and waffles, and Stephen got their fried chicken sandwich. Definitely go here if you’re in town but don’t expect too many light options to choose from 😉

-Hominy Grill: Had a few people recommend this spot and it was just a few blocks away from The Inns too! They have breakfast, lunch and dinner–we went for breakfast. I got their Huevos Rancheros and Stephen got their pork belly grit bowl–and then of course we got a biscuit as well! The food was really delicious and the ambiance is nice too–they have a cute outdoor area too.

-Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit: If you want a great traditional biscuit or biscuit breakfast sandwich go here! They have a store downtown but we got a few mini biscuits to go when we went to the city market (they had a location inside). We got the country ham, the blackberry jam, and other meat one (which I cannot remember off hand!)

-Caviar & Bananas: This is a cafe that has breakfast, lunch and dinner options. We went here for breakfast at their city market location before heading the beach. Stephen got their breakfast burrito and I got there sunrise sandwich–both were super good! Have great coffee as well.

-Taco Boy: Went here for a quick bite after the beach! It’s right before you go over the bridge to Sullivan’s Beach. It’s a casual, indoor/outdoor mexican restaurant. If you’re in this part of town and want casual Mexican it’s not a bad little spot!

-The Darling Oyster Bar: We loved this place so much we went here twice! The overall ambiance and vibe is great and the food was really good and reasonably priced. Granted, you’re going to pay more for seafood but we felt like the prices weren’t crazy and that the food was really good. We went here for dinner the second night and started off with a few raw oysters. We just got their “house” ones aka the cheapest ones haha and I thought they were delicious. For dinner we both got the lobster & crab roll. I live for a good lobster roll! For sides we got the French fries and the farrow with butternut squash. We went back here the next night because we just wanted a few raw oysters before dinner. If you like seafood I would definitely recommend going here!!

-UNeeda Sicilian: For our last night (after we got oysters at The Darling) we decided to get pizza and go eat it on our porch. Our server recommended UNeeda Sicilian and this pizza did not disappoint!! Go here if you’re looking to grab a pie or a few slices. They also have a cute little outdoor area you can sit at too.

-Husk: If you go to Charleston you pretty much have to try this restaurant. I had heard so many amazing reviews of their award winning chef Sean Brock that it was an obvious choice for our anniversary dinner. It is southern style food–some dishes more classic while others are a little less traditional. All ingredients are fresh and the menu changes daily. We ordered the cornbread for an appetizer (had to), and I got the cornmeal fried catfish and Stephen got the strip steak. We then had dessert in the bar area later that evening and we got the oatmeal pie (so good!!)

-Jeni’s Ice Cream: Another spot that our server recommended. If you guys haven’t noticed we ask our servers for a lot of recommendations if we are in the mood for something and don’t know where to go next haha. Basically really delicious hand crafted ice cream! Go here if you want good ice cream in Charleston 🙂

-The Ordinary: One of our servers recommended we go here for a cocktail and/or fresh seafood. We ended up just going for a cocktail because the menu was pricer than The Darling Oyster Bar and we were told that The Darling was a really great choice. Our cocktails here were really good–they have an extensive rum list and use rum in all their hand crafted drinks. Both of our drinks were really good. They also have a cute outdoor patio.

-The Vendue: Rooftop bar in downtown Charleston. We walked here after dinner at Husk and it was an easy (and really pretty) walk. This is a good spot if you want some views of the city and to spend part of your evening outside.

-The Rarebit:While I’m sure the food is good here, we were told that they had amazing Moscow mules and that sounded perfect after walking around in the heat for several hours! We stopped by here for an afternoon drink and the Moscow mules did not disappoint. They made their own ginger beer and of course it’s served in the classic mule cup. Super refreshing!!