Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina, is a harbour city whose two forts, Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie, counted 814,658 recreation visits in 2025. The things to do in Charleston split by distance: a fort ferry and house museums in town, plantations and beaches a drive away. For the other Charleston, see our guide to West Virginia.

The tide is the one thing here to plan around, and the National Weather Service keeps its count. We read the figures below on 3 November 2026 on the pages of the National Park Service, Fort Sumter Tours, the plantations and house museums, the airport, the state Department of Revenue, NOAA and the beach cities' parking sites.

The sites of the City of Charleston, Charleston County, the City Market, CARTA and Amtrak could not be read, so we print no fare, hour or price from them, DASH included.

How do Fort Sumter, a plantation and a beach divide up the days?

Fort Sumter, one plantation and one beach make three separate outings, so we would allow three days. That split of the things to do in Charleston is our own, because no source we read gives a length of stay or ranks the sights. The times below are the sights' own, and the miles are our own routing from Marion Square.

Boone Hall and Magnolia are separate trips, one in Mount Pleasant and the other on Ashley River Road. Rainbow Row is the street in this page's cover photograph, and we read no source on its history. Our guide to South Carolina sets the city against the rest of the state.

Why does Fort Sumter cost $43 when the fort has no entrance fee?

Fort Sumter costs $43 for an adult because the ferry is the only way there, and the fort itself charges no entrance fee. Fort Sumter Tours "provides the only National Park Service authorized access", in the Park Service's words. Seniors and active military pay $39, children aged 4 to 11 pay $26, and children of 3 and under go free. Since 1 December 2025 the ticket windows and the boats have taken credit and debit cards only.

The tour lasts 2¼ hours, with about an hour on the fort and about 30 minutes on the water each way. The operator asks you to arrive 30 minutes early, and a ticket is fully refundable until two hours before departure. The Park Service warns of a ticket scam and says valid tickets come only through fortsumtertours.com.

No tours run on Thanksgiving, 25 December or 1 January. The Liberty Square dock is at 340 Concord Street, where the free visitor centre stays open until 4:30 p.m. The City of Charleston's garage at 24 Calhoun Street has a 7-foot height limit, and the Park Service encourages RVs to use Patriots Point.

Fort Moultrie, at 1214 Middle Street on Sullivan's Island, charges $10 for each adult aged 16 or over, by card only, and you reach it by car. Neither fort is on the 2026 list of parks that add $100 for visitors from abroad.

The America the Beautiful pass does not apply to the ferry, so two adults visiting both forts pay $106, of which a pass could cover only $20. Our guide to national park fees for international visitors explains the rules.

Fort Sumter's lifts are an open question, so a wheelchair user should ask before booking. The Park Service's alert that the mobility lifts were out of order was in its feed on 27 October 2026 and had gone by 3 November, and nothing we read says they were repaired.

The operator's tour page says "There is a lift at Fort Sumter", while its home page says "There is no elevator service". The Park Service also says the Patriots Point ferries are "not always accessible" for mobility devices.

What does Boone Hall charge, and how does it present slavery?

Boone Hall Plantation charges $30 for an adult aged 13 or over, $27 for seniors, military and AAA members and $12 for children aged 6 to 12, and under-6s go free. Parking is included, a ticket is valid for any one day, and even the Avenue of Oaks costs full admission. The plantation opens Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. at 1235 Long Point Road, Mount Pleasant.

Boone Hall closes on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Regular tours also stop for two events, usually the last Sunday in January and the first Sunday in December. Fort Sumter Tours sells a Boone Hall and ferry combination for $67, which is $6 less than the two adult tickets bought separately.

Boone Hall says its exhibit "features nine historic cabins, built between 1790 and 1810", and calls them "cabins that once housed the enslaved". Its FAQ page calls them "nine original slave dwellings". The nine themes run from "Praise House" to "Struggle For Civil Rights" and "Exploring The Gullah Culture", at no extra charge. The plantation gives its aim as presenting "the history of slavery in an accurate and educational manner each day".

A live Gullah presentation, described as seasonal, runs three times a day from Monday to Saturday and twice on Sundays. The mansion on the guided tour dates from the 20th century: Boone Hall's home page says it was "built in 1936", and the tour covers the first floor.

Why can we print no admission price for Magnolia Plantation?

Magnolia Plantation prints no admission price on any of its pages we read, and its ticket shop refused our request. Its hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week, with the last ticket sold an hour before closing, and it closes on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission covers over 200 acres and 6 miles of trails, and parking is free. The site suggests 3 to 4 hours at 3550 Ashley River Road.

Magnolia's house tour and its "From Slavery to Freedom" tour come with admission but need a same-day tour ticket issued on site. Each lasts 45 minutes. The plantation's history page says "Carolina Gold Rice, cultivated by the enslaved, provided the vast wealth" of the Drayton family. The page also says "Four restored and preserved enslaved cabins" remain, and that the long white bridge was "built in the 1840s by enslaved workers".

Drayton Hall is a different place, at 3380 Ashley River Road. It opens Wednesday to Monday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., closes its front gate at 3 p.m., and takes no cash; we read no price. Charles Pinckney National Historic Site in Mount Pleasant preserves Snee Farm, "one of his plantation properties", and teaches about "the African people he enslaved". The Park Service lists no entrance fee there.

Middleton Place, McLeod Plantation and the International African American Museum could not be read on 3 November 2026, so we name them without prices or hours.

Where do the Aiken-Rhett and Nathaniel Russell houses show enslaved people's lives?

The Aiken-Rhett House at 48 Elizabeth Street keeps "the original quarters for the enslaved people", in the words of the Historic Charleston Foundation, which runs it. The foundation says those buildings "survive virtually untouched since the 1850s". At the Nathaniel Russell House, 51 Meeting Street, it says Russell was a "merchant and trader of captive Africans". The kitchen house there shows "everyday lives of the enslaved people".

Each house costs $16 for an adult or $24 for both, and $7 or $12 for children aged 6 to 16, with under-6s free. Tickets are sold on arrival. The houses open Monday from 1 to 4 p.m. and Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the last tour starts at 4 p.m. They close on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Patriots Point, home of USS Yorktown and the second Fort Sumter dock, opens daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and its ticket window closes at 4 p.m. Its static pages print no admission price.

How often does the harbour tide gauge reach 7.0 feet?

The Charleston Harbor tide gauge reached 7.0 ft on 52 high tides in 2025 and on 32 in 2026 through 30 September, by the National Weather Service's Coastal Flood Event Database. The Service sets 7.0 ft MLLW as the gauge's minor-flood threshold, 7.5 ft as moderate and 8.0 ft as major. Its record, from 1 October 1921 to 30 September 2026, holds 1,453 high tides at or above 7.0 ft.

October and September are the peak months, with 272 and 259 events over the whole record, and November follows with 180. The highest single month was October 2015, with 22. The Service counts high tides rather than flooded streets, and its page does not say how many of them put water on a road.

NOAA's predictions for its Charleston station, read on 3 November 2026, show no high tide reaching 7.0 ft between that date and 31 December 2026. The highest is 6.78 ft on 25 November. Those figures are astronomical and leave out rain, wind and storm surge, so a real tide can differ. In September and October, read the Weather Service's Charleston forecast before a day on the peninsula.

Which hubs connect daily to Charleston International, and what does the taxi cost?

Charleston International's own list names 57 nonstop airports, and the only one outside the United States is Cancún, flown by Breeze less than daily. A visitor from Europe therefore changes planes. Daily hubs include Atlanta and New York JFK on Delta, Charlotte, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, Philadelphia and Washington Reagan on American, and Newark and Washington Dulles on United.

Taxis from the airport charge a $17 minimum, and a starter outside baggage claim quotes a rate by destination. Uber, Lyft and KreweCar leave from a covered shelter. CARTA runs a scheduled bus to Downtown from another covered shelter outside baggage claim, and the airport's page prints no bus fare. The airport is 11.1 miles from Marion Square by our own routing.

We read no bus route to the plantations or beaches, so plan on a rental car for those days. The Park Service says CARTA serves Liberty Square, and Fort Moultrie is reached by car.

What does beach parking cost at Folly Beach and Isle of Palms?

Beach parking at Folly Beach and Isle of Palms runs from $2.50 an hour to $25 a day, depending on the lot and the month. These are the rates on the parking sites each city links to. Folly Beach's took effect on 1 September 2025, and we read only the lots listed below.

Folly Beach charges from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. Isle of Palms enforces paid parking only from 1 March to 31 October, in lots operating from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the fine for not paying is $50. The city also allows free parking on named streets and stretches of Palm Boulevard, with all four wheels off the road. Charleston County's fees for its two beach parks could not be read.

What do the 9% and 10% leave out of a Charleston bill?

A Charleston bill's 9% sales tax and 10% room tax are only what the South Carolina Department of Revenue collects. They leave out the city's and the county's own accommodations taxes, which we could not read, so we print no total. The department says local governments "can charge up to an additional 3%" and that its table omits locally collected taxes.

The department's rate table, revised in February 2026, reads 9%, 10% and 2% on unprepared food for the city. Folly Beach, Isle of Palms, Sullivans Island, Mount Pleasant and the Charleston County part of North Charleston read the same, so these taxes do not separate one base from another. Our guide to sales tax in the USA explains how these appear on a bill.

How hot is July at the airport, and when does the hurricane season end?

July at Charleston International averages 91°F by day and 74°F at night, on NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals, and brings 21.4 of the year's 64.3 days at or above 90°F. August is the wettest month, with 6.97 inches, and November the driest, with 2.66. Snow averages 0.3 inches a year.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November, by the National Hurricane Center, with its peak on 10 September and most activity between mid-August and mid-October. An average season brings 14 named storms and 7 hurricanes. We read no source on hotel cancellation or evacuation rules for visitors.

How far are Savannah, Myrtle Beach and Congaree from Marion Square?

Savannah, Myrtle Beach and Congaree National Park are all about 100 miles from Marion Square, at 108, 97 and 111 miles by our own routing to the named points below.

Charleston is on Eastern time in both seasons, and none of these drives changes the hour. Clocks go back on the first Sunday of November and forward on the second Sunday of March.