Change is afoot in the Grand Strand. Upscale homes, restaurants and accommodations are popping up in an area long known for its blue-collar budget. Examples include the
Marina
Inn , a luxurious meeting and personal-stay hotel along the
Intracoastal Waterway . It’s part of the sprawling Grande Dunes development, which also hosts a large, oceanfront Marriot resort geared to the meeting crowd in the winter and family fun in the summer. (Its in-house spa is considered among the best around.) High-end private and public golf courses also are part of that development, as are multi-million dollar homes that had more typically been seen in such locales on the coast as Hilton Head and Kiawah islands. Meanwhile, four golf courses by famed golf names like Greg Norman, Davis Love III and Tom Fazio are part of the picture at Barefoot Resort, which also features a new Pete Dye course and its high-end, private clubhouse. Barefoot also features exclusive features such as a Nike pro shop and world-renowned golf instruction. Condo and interval-ownership homes also are part of the picture.
- High-end eateries also are popping up around the
Strand , including such new favorites on the north end as the distinctly metro Umi Pacific Grille seafood and the Sea Blue tapas restaurants and bars, as well as the Buddha Lounge and its trendy Asian-influenced menu. Check out www.myrtlebeachrestaurantnews.com to keep up with that changing scene. Don’t overlook Murrells Inlet’s lineup of seafood stops and nearby
Pawleys
Island , home to chef Louis Osteen’s renowned eateries, including Louis’.
- As high-rises and makeovers of traditional seaside stops change the face of the Grand Strand oceanfront, some longtime proprietors are not to be left out. An example if Steve Chapman, general manager of Island Vista. He’s part of the third generation of ownership of his family’s business. His grandparents started the beachfront operation as an eight-room bed and breakfast. Now their descendants have just completed its $40 million transformation into an oceanfront luxury hotel with large suites, upscale dining, a variety of indoor and outdoor pools and even a carefully groomed lawn for sunbathing. Typical of the Grand Strand, Chapman says, the resort’s prices range from reasonable in the summer to downright low in the off-season. Check it out at www.islandvista.com.
NATURALLY,
SOUTH CAROLINA
- Lake Murray Island for the Birds ... by the Hundreds of Thousands.
Purple martins, America’s largest swallow, gather each summer on a small island in a central South Carolina lake in such numbers that the flock sometimes shows up on the local National Weather Service radar.
The sky gets dark and millions of purple martins fill the predawn and evening skies each day, establishing seasonal digs at Lunch (Bomb) Island in the middle of Lake Murray near Columbia.
Lunch Island, once a practice bombing range for World War II plane crews, is the perfect spot for the birds to roost. By day they disperse for many miles to feed, at night they settle onto the island. Over a period of weeks, their numbers grow dramatically. There are about three-quarters of a million birds and the numbers are still increasing.
July and August are the months to see this natural phenomenon, the largest such roosting sanctuary of its kind in North America. By September, the birds head off to South America on their winter migration.
Evening cruises on the 65-foot Southern Patriot are a great way to see the birds on a pleasant summer night on the lake. Calll (803) 794-8594 or visit www.lakemurraytours.com for more information. For more information about what to see and do in the Capital City/Lake Murray Region is at www.lakemurraycountry.com.
-
- Wildlife/Nature Preserves:
South Carolina has a large number of nature preserves and other protected wild green spaces, from the mountains to the sea. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of acres of land managed by the state’s Department of Natural Resources (www.dnr.sc.gov) and Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism (www.SouthCarolinaParks.com), national and private agencies have large holdings.
- For instance, there’s the
ACE
Basin (www.fws.gov/acebasin), which contains large areas of pristine marshland and shoreline in the Lowcountry. The
ACE
Basin National Wildlife Refuge’s Edisto Unit headquarters near
Edisto
Island is an old plantation home, set in a silent large field full of ancient live oaks and surrounded by marsh to the horizon. Cape Romaine National Wildlife Refuge north of
Charleston (www.fws.gov/caperomain/) is particularly isolated and serene, standing silent sentinel on the ocean’s edge.
- Other national wildlife refuges are maintained on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River near the city that shares its name, on
Lake
Marion and in the
Pee Dee , where the Carolina Sand Hills National Wildlife Refuge (www.fws.gov/carolinasandhills) protects a home for the rare red cockaded woodpecker.
- Speaking of woodpeckers, 22,000-acre Congaree National Park (www.nps.gov/cosw), near Columbia and the largest stand of riverine woodlands of its kind in the country, was originally put under federal protection decades ago because an enterprising politician told everyone who’d listen that ivory billed woodpeckers still lived there. Searchers are still looking for them, including one posse marshaled after the bird’s famous recent sighting in Arkansas, and the swamp-like lowlands are now
South Carolina ’s only national park.
- The Audubon Society also maintains two large sites in South Carolina (www.audubon.org/local/sanctuary/beidler), the 13,000-acre Francis Beidler Forest in Four Holes Swamp in Santee Cooper Country and the 3,100-acre Silver Bluff Audubon Center on the Savannah River near Aiken, where endangered wood storks gather by the hundreds each summer, along with other spectacular birds such as Mississippi kites.
- Take to the Trails: From the mountain passes to the beaches and marsh, walking, hiking and biking across South Carolina is a growing passion for many in the
Palmetto
State . The S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism maintains an unusually robust, award-winning site at www.sctrails.net that contains information on trails of all kinds across the state, including the Palmetto Trail, which when completed will cover 425 miles from stem to stern. The site includes maps, descriptions, directions and more.
- Annual Hawk Watch at
Caesars
Head
State Park : Watch thousands of migrating hawks soar beneath you from your own majestic perch at 3,266-foot Caesars Head. The park is open every day, but the park interpreters will provide a raptor ID program on Sept. 16 and 23 from 10-11:30 a.m. For more information, call 864-836-6115 or go www.southcarolinaparks.com/park-finder/state-park/1648.aspx. Caesars Head and Jones Gap state parks form the Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area, which provides more than 50 miles of easy to very difficult hiking trails through breathtaking scenery, including mountain vistas, deep forest coves, pristine streams and picturesque waterfalls.
- Rafting the
Chattooga
River : Now the boundary between and South Carolina, the
Chattooga
River is one of the most scenic in the eastern and one of the last free-flowing waterways of its type in the country. Besides trout fishing in the cool waters as they spill down through rapids and riffles from the North Carolina mountains, September is a great time to enjoy the end of the rafting season.
Oconee
State Park (http://www.southcarolinaparks.com/park-finder/state-park/750.aspx) with its cabins and campgrounds is a good place to stay for the adventure and there are a number of whitewater outfitters. Here’s a good source for information on the Chattooga: http://gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/us_river/sc_chatt.htm. And here are some paddling outfitters and guides:
http://www.chattoogawhitewatershop.com/
- But It’s Not a Swamp: What
Congaree
National Park is, is the largest contiguous tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the nation and home to some of the tallest deciduous trees in the world. The 27,000-acre park near
Columbia is a designated International Biosphere site and offers hiking, canoeing, fishing, birding and other activities. Guided walks are presented every Saturday at 9:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 1:30. The parks’ Web site is at www.nps.gov/cosw. There also are free canoe tours on Sundays.
- A Swamp and Then Some: September is also a great time to check out a
Carolina bay, those mysterious elliptical depressions of the Atlantic coastal plain that are home to such unusual fauna as insect-eating pitcher plants. Woods Bay State Natural Area offers a close-up look at the unique geology of the
Carolina bays, along with the mystery and diverse ecology of a southern cypress-tupelo swamp. Habitats at 1,540-acre
Woods
Bay also include marsh, sand hills, oak-hickory forest and a shrub bog. More than 75 species of mammals, reptiles and amphibians are found here, along with more than 150 species of birds, changing with the seasons. Visitors enjoy canoeing, fishing, walking, hiking and photography on the 500-foot boardwalk, canoe trail and nature trail.
- One
Swell
Swamp :
Francis
Beidler
Forest , a registered National Natural Landmark, is the world's largest virgin cypress-tupelo swamp forest. Located in
Four
Holes
Swamp , the forest covers approximately and includes trees that may be 1,000 years old or more. 12,500 acres with more than 1,800 acres of ancient trees, some dating back 1,000 years. Boardwalks, canoe trips and night walks are among activities offered by the National Audubon Society at its environmental education center there: http://www.audubon.org/local/sanctuary/beidler/.
- A Tree House Down by the River: How about spending a night or two in a private, fully equipped tree house on a remote stretch of the longest blackwater river in ? Carolina Heritage Outfitters (www.canoesc.com) offers such a setting on the
Edisto
River . Wildlife galore – including alligators, otters, herons, egrets, wood storks, turkey and deer – will be your neighbor. The river itself has long been popular with paddlers and two state parks – Colleton and Givhans Ferry – offer campsites and access (www.southcarolinaparks.com.)
- Outdoor Motor Sports Mecca: Located in the pine hills of South Carolina’s Olde English District (http://www.sctravel.net), Carolina Adventure World (www.carolinaadventureworld.com), four square miles of woodlands that includes 100 miles of all-terrain vehicle and motocross trails (rentals are available), a national championship motocross track, large mud bog, the country’s only permanent Enduro course, go-kart trails, nature trails and the United States’ first canopy walk, like those now so popular in Central America, through the old hardwoods and pines, 100 feet up.
- Gobbling Good Time: The little town of
Edgefield is home to a large organization, the National Wild Turkey Federation (www.nwtf.org). The hunting advocacy and conservation group’s headquarters features a robust museum about the natural and cultural history of ’s favorite game bird. Interactive exhibits play a major role, including an actual helicopter where visitors can sit inside and watch a fascinating, lifelike video through the cockpit windows of a vivid prescribed burn used to maintain suitable habitat for flora and fauna alike.
OUR CITIES AND TOWNS:
- Genteel Gents Set the Tone: Chris Nobles, the public relations manager at the Charleston Convention & Visitors Bureau, likes to say that the front lines of hospitality in this most hospitable of cities are the “greeters,” people such as parking booth attendants, shuttle drivers and front-lobby hotel staff. Clarence Davis and Johnny Alexander are two men worth taking into any foxhole in that battle to keep the “
Holy
City ” atop the annual list of the nation’s most polite cities. They’re the uniformed greeters, bell captains and concierges at the Mills House Hotel (www.charlestonreservations.com/millshouse), an elegant, historic Holiday Inn property in downtown
Charleston . They’ve spent close to 60 years between them on the job, making guests feel welcome, greeting locals and tourists alike passing by on the sidewalk along the intimate King Street setting, and passing on their knowledge of the hometown they so obviously cherish. You might even be able, with a little talking him up, get one of them to reveal his secret flounder-fishing spot.
Lancaster’s Super Sculptor: Tucked away in downtown Lancaster is Bob Doster’s
Backstreet
Studio
Garden and Gallery. From the outside, it looks like a former auto-parts or hardware store, perhaps. Inside is far different. In addition to Doster’s extensive and fascinating collection of paintings and other art works is his own studio. An accomplished artist in metal, Doster’s commissioned work includes a five-story DNA sculpture at the science building at the
University of
North Carolina in
Chapel Hill . Others are in such venues as a Saks Fifth Avenue store in
Atlanta and Apple Computers’ corporate collection. His public art also is widely displayed, including such items as graceful but sturdy benches in downtown
Lancaster . His web site at www.bobdoster.com tells more.
Charming Cheraw: With block after block of immaculate antebellum homes and other buildings in its 213-acre National Register Historic District, Cheraw (www.cheraw.com) is a charming small town (pop. 5,500) with lots of history. Located at the head of navigation on the
Great Pee Dee
River in the state’s northeast corner, it was an important seat of commerce for the region and was served by the steamboat trade and was occupied by
Sherman and his troops during the waning days of the War Between the States, an event well-recorded in the town’s museum. Also well-remembered is jazz great Dizzy Gillespie, who grew up here and is memorialized in a life-size statue in the center of town.
Small-Town Museums: Scattered around
South Carolina are some surprisingly robust local museums. A strong example is the
Union
County
Museum (www.union-county-sc-museum.org) in
Union . Located in a restored, classy old office building, the museum chronicles with extensive, well-done exhibits the long history of the community with Revolutionary War and Civil War artifacts and uniforms, textile mill machinery and even components from the town’s still-extant 1823 Robert Mills-designed jail. Historic old Cheraw also has a smaller but equally interesting museum focusing on the colorful past of this
Pee Dee town. Also not to be missed is the
Elloree
Heritage
Museum (http://www.elloreesc.org/index_files/museum.htm) near
Lake
Marion in the Santee Cooper Country. Highlighting the agricultural history of the region is a specialty here, and a new addition is a taxidermied mule.
Edgefield:
Edgefield Pottery: To many, Edgefield is synonymous with pottery. In the early nineteenth century, a new tradition of alkaline-glazed stoneware was developed using local materials to produce inexpensive containers for local use. By 1850, at the height of Edgefield stoneware production, five large-scale factories existed in the area. The most famous was a man known simply as Dave, a slave and then free man who signed his name and sometimes inscribed apparently self-written verses in his larger pieces, at a time when most African Americans were not allowed to learn to read or write. The county historical society led the establishment of The Old Edgefield Pottery (www.edgefieldpottery.com), which now offers visitors a look at original Edgefield pottery, reproductions for sale and a look at the history of local pottery, which actually goes back more than 4,000 years to the original Native American inhabitants along the
Savannah River .
- Carving His Legacy: One of the highlights in the state’s Heritage Corridor is Ike Carpenter. Sitting in front of his gas station turned woodshop in Edgefield, the third-generation woodcarver crafts kitchen implements, pioneer-style toys and bowls that would do a trencherman proud with tools that often date to the colonial days. A regular on the re-enactment circuit, Carpenter also enjoys guests at his home shop, freely sharing stories of his tools and his trade how much he is enjoying passing his family tradition on to his daughter and young granddaughter. Here’s an article about him: http://www.knowitall.org/sandlapper////Spring2004/Completed-PDF/SC-Heritage-Corridor.pdf
- Gobbling Good Time: The little town of
Edgefield is home to a large organization, the National Wild Turkey Federation (www.nwtf.org). The hunting advocacy and conservation group’s headquarters features a robust museum about the natural and cultural history of ’s favorite game bird. Interactive exhibits play a major role, including an actual helicopter where visitors can sit inside and watch a fascinating, lifelike video through the cockpit windows of a vivid prescribed burn used to maintain suitable habitat for flora and fauna alike.
Greenville :
- A Great Deal on Great Art: For about $3 in admission fees and a couple hours of your time, art lovers and everyone else can admire world-renown collections of original Wyeths and Jasper Johns, two titans of 20th century American art, and reputedly the finest collection of 14th through 19th century religious art outside the ? They’re in the Greenville County Museum of Art (www.greenvillemuseum.org) and Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery (www.bjumg.org) in
Greenville , respectively.
- Beemers in the Upstate: Midway between Spartanburg and
Greenville is the BMW assembly plant (www.bmwusa.com), where more than 5,000 people are employed producing high-end sports cars and SUVs. The plant features the Zentrum, an exhibit hall showcasing the history of the legendary automaker. Nearby is the
BMW
Performance
Center (www.bmwusa.com/bmwexperience/performancecenter/default), where new owners can pick up their cars. The center also features a track that hosts driving schools for everyone from teens learning safety behind the wheel to hard-driving enthusiasts wanting to learn how to push it like a pro.
"Check Out" a bike in
Spartanburg
Sartanburg leaders have rolled out a new way to enjoy the
Hub
City and get some exercise at the same time. It’s a free bicycle lending program called Hub Cycle. For a $15 deposit, the downtown bicycle library offers a bike, helmet, lock and map for up to three months. Just return the gear and get the deposit back. It’s all part of a civic effort to encourage healthy lifestyles. The city also is in the final stages of becoming the first in the state to attain “Bicycle-Friendly Community” status from the League of American Bicyclists. Check out more at www.active-living.org.
Revived Downtowns: Around
South Carolina are revived downtowns – many of them overnight successes sometimes 20 years in the making. For instance, in Conway (www.cityofconway.com), the gateway for millions of travelers each year headed to Myrtle Beach, an effort that began two decades ago has led to the development of a series of art galleries and artisan shops, along with a boardwalk on the
Waccamaw
River that adds a special charm to this waterfront town. Not far to the south is Georgetown (www.georgetown-sc.com), another historic river city whose downtown is full of stylish restaurants and shops and trams give tours of the neatly kept and picturesque homes of the historic district. In the upstate, meanwhile, downtown Greenville (www.greatergreenville.com) has undergone a dramatic renaissance and has a new look with parks and a cantilevered walking bridge over the
Reedy
River and
RURAL LIFE
Lowcountry Farm Goes Back to Roots: Celeste Albers and her family run a 35-acre farm – the Green Grocer - on
Wadmalaw
Island near Charleston whose free-range chickens and eggs, colorful produce and other organic offerings have become the must-have of the haute cuisine scene in the
Holy
City .
- America’s Only Tea Plantation: Just south of Charleston on
Wadmalaw
Island is ’s only tea plantation. The Charleston Tea Plantation (www.bigelowtea.com/act) is home to thousands of tea plants and a processing factory.
Tours and grand old live oaks, along with a comfortable front porch for taking in the remarkable view, also are attractions here.
- Horse Country: South Carolina has three “horse country” communities:
Camden , Aiken and Elloree.
- Elloree (www.elloreesouthcarolina.com), with its charming, revived little town center, is home to a popular trials for thoroughbreds and quarter horse.
Camden (www.camden-sc.org) has long been a national center of steeple chases, as well known to the general community for the parties as the ponies, and Aiken is a breed unto itself. The town has a number of polo fields, a sport popular since the town blossomed in the late 19th century as a winter home for wealthy northerners.
- Aiken (www.aiken.net)has a number of large estate homes, some of which now are public gardens and gathering places, and what’s billed as one of the nation’s largest urban parks, several thousands acres of woods crisscrossed by horse trails. There are a number of other green spaces, including a
Carolina bay, in city limits and the town even has several streets that have never been paved, for the sake of horses’ feet as they are taken from farm to field. Aiken also has a vibrant, old-timey downtown full of shops and restaurants. Bustling year-round, it really fills up during Masters Week in nearby
Augusta, Ga.
- Rice plantations:
South Carolina ’s first true cash crop was on rice plantations. Slaves from
West Africa who knew how to grow the aquatic grain were brought over to create the paddies by using the tidal flow of coastal creeks and great plantations were born. Many of the rice fields now are maintained as hunting grounds for waterfowl while there are still a handful of rice-producing sites in the state.
- Plantation Life: More than 2,000 plantations have been recorded in
South Carolina , and many are still in operation or maintained as historic sites, all in various iterations. Highlights include the 300-year-old Charleston-area landmarks Boone Hall (www.boonehallplantation.com), Magnolia Plantation (www.magnoliaplantation.com), Middleton Place (www.middletonplace.org) and Drayton Hall (www.draytonhall.org). Others have new lives, such as
Brookgreen
Gardens (www.brookgreen.com) in Murrells Inlet, an old rice plantation that now interprets that experience along with boasting the nation’s largest collection of outdoor sculpture. Antebellum plantations, whose owners often included some of South Carolina’s most fiery statesmen, include Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site near Union, Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site near Aiken and Hampton Plantation State Historic Site (www.SouthCarolinaParks.com) between Georgetown and
Charleston . Lots more information is available at www.south-carolina-plantations.com.
HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY
- Archaeology:
South Carolina has a number of active archaeological sites. Three the public are invited to are Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site (www.SouthCarolinaParks.com), site of the first permanent European settlement in the Carolinas; Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site just up river, site of a remarkably preserved colonial village; and the Topper Site (www.sc.edu/usctimes/articles/2004-11/topper_discovery.html) on the Savannah River in Allendale County. There researchers from the University of South Carolina are leading a team that has uncovered what team leaders believe could be the tools and other artifacts from human beings who lived there 50,000 years ago or more. If provable, that would make it the oldest such remains found in North America if not the
Western Hemisphere , and rewrite science’s understanding of pre-history on this side of the globe.
- Revolutionary War: South Carolina saw a lot of action during what was perhaps ’s first civil war. More than 245 skirmishes and battles were fought here during the Revolutionary War, many of which pitted neighbor against neighbor, Loyalist against Patriot, with nary a native European around. Other battles pitted British regulars against outmanned but determined locals, including the legendary Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox,” and Gen. Thomas Sumter, the “Fighting Gamecock.” Major battles are commemorated at Ninety Six National Historic Site (www.nps.gov/nisi) and
Kings
Mountain
National
Military
Park (www.nps.gov/kimo). Musgrove Mill State Historic Site (www.SouthCarolinaParks.com) tells the story of a fierce battle fought there by upcountry Patriots and Loyalists, and Camden hosts a re-enactment each year and maintains historic sites that recall the battle fought there and Lord Cornwallis’ occupation of the city. Charleston, of course, also has its share of Revolutionary War sites, including
Fort
Moultrie (http://www.nps.gov/fomo).
- Civil War: The first shots of the Civil War were fired at
Fort
Sumter (www.nps.gov/fosu) out in
Charleston
Harbor . The nation’s bloodiest era ended four years later shortly after the city of Columbia burned to the ground during a visit from
Sherman ’s Union troops. A ferry now takes visitors from Liberty Square and the
Fort
Sumter museum maintained by the National Park Service out to the fort itself. The only Civil War battle site preserved by the state is at
Rivers Bridge State Historic Site (www.SouthCarolinaParks.com) where the remarkably intact breastworks still stand testament in the silent woods on the banks of the Salkehatchie River to the fierce two days of fighting that marked a final Confederate stand against Sherman’s troops as they entered South Carolina after burning Atlanta.
AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
- Southern Culture/National Heritage Corridor: Bounded at one end by the port city of Charleston and at the other by the Blue Ridge Mountains, the South Carolina Heritage Corridor (www.sc-heritagecorridor.org) contains driving tours of historic, cultural, and natural resources that tell the lively story of South Carolina's centuries long evolution and culture. Learn of rice and indigo, pirates and patriots, slaves and freemen, cotton fields and mill villages, swamps and waterfalls, railroads and back roads, spirituals and bluegrass. The Corridor also maintains robust Discovery Centers complete with museums in Blackville and Edgefield.
GENERALLY SPEAKING:
- Party Time: Food festivals and arts and musical gatherings are a big deal in
South Carolina . Perhaps the premier event is Spoleto (www.spoletousa.org) in
Charleston . There are many others, too, including Greenville’s Artisphere, various arts and music festivals in the gallery and nightclub district called the vista in Columbia, and, of course, the Irmo Okra Strut, the Salley Chitlin Strut, the Pelion Peanut Party, various watermelon and cotton festivals, seafood fests in the Lowcountry, and the list goes on and on. Lists of special events are on the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism Web site at www.DiscoverSouthCarolina.com.
- Golf Capital of :
South Carolina has more golf holes per capita than any state in the union. With more than 380 courses blanketing the state, golfers can find the game they’re looking for, and for the price they can pay. The state’s offerings include some of the highest-end golf resorts on the continent – such as Kiawah Island Golf Resort (www.kiawahresort.com) – and a large selection of excellent public courses, including two at state parks – Cheraw and Hickory Knob (www.SouthCarolinaParks.com).
Myrtle Beach (www.myrtlebeachinfo.com), of course, is considered a mecca of golf, with more than 100 courses in the area. Hilton Head (www.hiltonheadisland.org) has more than two dozen, including
Harbour
Town (www.seapines.com), home of the prestigious Heritage tournament, staged each week after the Masters. Kiawah’s Ocean Course, meanwhile, has hosted the Ryder Cup, with the Senior PGA scheduled for 2007 and the PGA Championship in 2012.
- Meet at a State Park:
South Carolina ’s state parks (www.SouthCarolinaParks.com) offer unique locations for meetings, retreats or reunions. Twenty-six out of the 46 state parks has facilities that will accommodate meetings, family reunions, weddings and other special gatherings. State parks with overnight accommodations and meeting facilities can be found in beautiful locations ranging from
oceanside , lakefront or in the midst of a cypress swamp. First-rate golfing, nature trails, boating, swimming, and other outdoor pursuits are among the amenities.
Public
Gardens :
South Carolina has a number of outstanding public gardens.
Brookgreen
Gardens (www.brookgreen.com) at Murrells Inlet contains the nation’s largest collection of outdoor sculpture amidst the setting of thousands of acres of old rice plantation. “Plantation Row” near Charleston features some of
’s first and oldest continually maintained gardens, now open to the public, at Magnolia Plantation (www.magnoliaplantation.com) and Middleton Place (www.middletonplace.org). Riverbanks Zoo & Garden (www.riverbanks.org) in
Columbia has an outstanding, large walled garden featuring a collection of old roses and a wide variety of perennials, annuals and ornamental trees and shrubs. (It’s also a world-class zoological park.) The
South Carolina
Botanical Garden (). Riverbanks Zoo & Garden () in Columbia has an outstanding, large walled garden featuring a collection of old roses and a wide variety of perennials, annuals and ornamental trees and shrubs. (It’s also a world-class zoological park.) The
South Carolina
Botanical Garden (). Riverbanks Zoo & Garden () in Columbia has an outstanding, large walled garden featuring a collection of old roses and a wide variety of perennials, annuals and ornamental trees and shrubs. (It’s also a world-class zoological park.) The
South Carolina
Botanical Garden () and Middleton Place (). Riverbanks Zoo & Garden () in Columbia has an outstanding, large walled garden featuring a collection of old roses and a wide variety of perennials, annuals and ornamental trees and shrubs. (It’s also a world-class zoological park.) The
South Carolina
Botanical Garden (www.clemson.edu/scbg) is another large, diverse facility, located at
Clemson
University . Also worth a good look, the spectacular rose plantings and river wetlands boardwalk at Edisto Memorial Gardens (www.orangeburgsc.net/Quality/edisto.html) in Orangeburg, the Iris Gardens at Swan Lake in Sumter (http://www.sumter-sc.com/VisitingUs/SwanLake.aspx), Cypress Gardens (www.cypressgardens.org) in the black water cypress swamps near Moncks Corner above Charleston and Kalmia Gardens () in the black water cypress swamps near Moncks Corner above Charleston and Kalmia Gardens () in the black water cypress swamps near Moncks Corner above Charleston and Kalmia Gardens (), Cypress Gardens () in the black water cypress swamps near Moncks Corner above Charleston and Kalmia Gardens (www.coker.edu/Kalmia/) at Coker College in Hartsville.
- The Flavor of South Carolina:
South Carolinians care about their food. They even divide the state by barbecue regions. Mustard-based in the Midlands, vinegar-based on the coast and in the
Pee Dee , ketchup- and tomato-based in the Upstate. And visitors quickly learn: Many of the best places are mom-and-pops and Mom and Pop are typically open only Wednesday or Thursday through Saturday. Sometimes Sunday. Other popular foods? Grits are everywhere. Only Yankees put butter and sugar on them. The Lowcountry has shrimp boats, shellfish seafood and shrimp shacks. Fish camps are a popular retreat, much like barbecue huts, in the Piedmont in the Rock Hill, Chester and
Lancaster areas. And if you ask for tea, it comes iced and sweet, unless you say otherwise.
- A Legacy of Learning: In Trenton, just a few miles from Edgefield, is the
Bettis
Academy (www.sctravelold96.com/places_see.htm). Rev. Alexander Bettis, a former slave, established
Bettis
Academy in 1882 to provide education for African-Americans in
South Carolina .
Bettis
Academy provided both day and boarding options for its students. At one time, it served an area about the size of the state of
Rhode Island .
Bettis
Academy closed in 1950 but has been revived in the form of a small, well-done museum with evocative photos and other exhibits and a gift shop.
- Southern Culture/National Heritage Corridor: Bounded at one end by the port city of Charleston and at the other by the Blue Ridge Mountains, the South Carolina Heritage Corridor (www.sc-heritagecorridor.org) contains driving tours of historic, cultural, and natural resources that tell the lively story of South Carolina's centuries long evolution and culture. Learn of rice and indigo, pirates and patriots, slaves and freemen, cotton fields and mill villages, swamps and waterfalls, railroads and back roads, spirituals and bluegrass. The Corridor also maintains robust Discovery Centers complete with museums in Blackville and Edgefield.
Main Street
full of bistros, stores and people out at night. Other examples can be found across the state, such as Elloree (www.elloreesc.org) in the Santee Cooper area.
- All in Edgefield: A particularly historic little town, Edgefield (www.edgefieldsc.net) is home to 10 of
South Carolina ’s governors, including Strom Thurmond. The nation’s longest-serving senator is buried with a prominent monument in a gracious little cemetery just off the town’s main street. The town also boasts historic homes and a
National
Heritage
Corridor
Discovery
Center , where robust exhibitry tell the colorful story of this agricultural and historical area.
The Three Sisters. Like three siblings each with their own personality, South Carolina’s coast is anchored by three major attractions: Myrtle Beach (www.myrtlebeachinfo.com), Charleston (www.charlestoncvb.com) and
Hilton Head Island (www.hiltonheadisland.org). Each has beaches, golf, accommodations a plenty and lots of great restaurants, and each has its own distinct personality – the hustle, bustle neon lights and outlet and mall shopping of the Grand Strand, the historic charm and growing haute cuisine of Charleston, and the marshy patina of a sunset over the semi-tropical retreat that’s the state’s largest sea island, Hilton Head.
Charleston :
An Inside Look at the
Holy
City : There’s no shortage of ways to get a guided tour of
Charleston . By bike, bus or horse-drawn buggy, local experts are on hand to share the historic sights of the
Holy
City . But to get a really intimate look, why not hire a personal tour guide such as Linda Wohlfeil? Under the name “Absolutely Charleston," (www.absolutelycharleston.com) she tools guests around town in her comfy Cadillac, adding a first-name basis familiarity to the people encountered along the way as she shows off her hometown. And you might even get inside a private club or home where the guests usually aren’t paying tourists.
- Making it His Magnolia: Taylor Drayton Nelson has a plan. The 11th-generation of his family to preside over Magnolia Plantation (www.magnoliaplantation.com), one of America’s first grand public gardens and birthplace of the American trade in azaleas and camellias, Nelson is continuing the legacy of his late grandfather, the storied property’s previous proprietor, by combining a message of conservation, exemplified by the property’s Audubon Swamp Garden, with history, captured, among other places, in the Barbados Tropical Garden, which helps tell the 300-year-old story of the farm’s founder, Thomas Drayton of Barbados, and his contemporaries. Nelson now is adding his own signature; for instance, renovating the property’s slave cabins to help better tell the story of this storied spot and that pivotal part of the history of the American South. Magnolia
Plantation also is the first historic plantation to work with a genealogy association to help African Americans find out if they have ancestors who lived and worked at the site.
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Paddling in a Coastal Lagoon: Fed by the Atlantic, the lagoon at
Hunting
Island
State Park (http://www.southcarolinaparks.com/park-finder/state-park/1019.aspx) is a great way to get your feet wet before taking on the coastal creeks and inlets. And kayaking in general is one of the best ways to get up close to wide variety of wildlife that grace the barrier island ecosystem. The park provides a kayaking class every Friday from 9 a.m. to noon with equipment available and a certified instructor provided. The park also has a fishing pier, marsh boardwalks and trails through maritime forest and several miles of semi-tropical beach, as well as campgrounds and cabins.