Charleston

Founded in 1670 as Charles Town by English colonists and set on a narrow, flat peninsula where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers join to form Charleston Harbor, on the ancestral homeland of the Cusabo, Etiwan, Kiawah and Sewee Peoples, Charleston was the wealthiest and fourth-largest city in British North America by the eve of the American Revolution. In 1931, Charleston passed the very first historic preservation zoning ordinance in the United States, protecting thousands of 18th- and 19th-century Georgian, Federal and Greek Revival buildings and earning its nickname 'The Holy City' for the dozens of historic church steeples piercing its low-rise skyline.

At the southern tip of the peninsula, thirteen pastel Georgian townhouses form landmark Rainbow Row, leading down East Bay Street to the 1830s seawall of The Battery and the Pineapple Fountain at Waterfront Park. Through the cobblestone lanes of the French Quarter and the 1804 Historic Charleston City Market, Gullah Geechee artisans weave traditional sweetgrass baskets, while King Street and the Nathaniel Russell and Aiken-Rhett House Museums showcase the city's architectural legacy. Out in the harbour stands Fort Sumter (where the American Civil War began in April 1861) and the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, across from the deeply moving International African American Museum at Gadsden's Wharf. Within 25 minutes of downtown lie the 400-year-old Angel Oak Tree, the terraced gardens of Middleton Place, Magnolia Plantation and Boone Hall, and the beaches of Folly Beach and Sullivan's Island. Start with our before-you-go briefing and top things to do in Charleston.

Charleston International Airport (CHS) is located 19 kilometres (20 minutes down Interstate 26 by Uber, taxi or the CARTA Route 11 bus) northwest of the Historic Downtown Peninsula. Amtrak's daily Palmetto and Silver Meteor trains connect Charleston directly with Savannah (1 hour 45 minutes south), Washington D.C. and New York. Once on the Downtown Peninsula, park your car in a City of Charleston municipal garage (typically half the rate of hotel valet parking) and explore on foot, aboard the Charleston Water Taxi across the harbour to Mount Pleasant and Patriots Point, or by CARTA bus. See getting to Charleston and how the Water Taxi and parking garages work.

Choosing your base in Charleston comes down to whether you want to be in the walkable historic core or near the water and beaches: stay on the Downtown Historic Peninsula (around the French Quarter, Market Street or King Street) to walk out your door to over a hundred top restaurants and cobblestone lanes; stay directly across the Cooper River in Mount Pleasant (Patriots Point or Shem Creek) for waterfront resorts, easy parking and a 10-minute Charleston Water Taxi ride straight into downtown; or stay 20 minutes out on the sand at Folly Beach, Sullivan's Island or Isle of Palms. Compare all neighbourhoods in where to stay in Charleston.

Stroll past the 13 pastel facades of Rainbow Row, the cannon-lined oaks of White Point Garden at The Battery and the Pineapple Fountain in Waterfront Park, browse Gullah sweetgrass baskets along the four open-air sheds of the 1804 Historic Charleston City Market and walk cobblestone Chalmers Street, take the 30-minute National Park ferry out to Fort Sumter and board the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, tour the free-flying spiral staircase of the 1808 Nathaniel Russell House and preserved 1820 Aiken-Rhett House, visit the International African American Museum (IAAM), stand beneath the 1,600-square-metre canopy of the Angel Oak Tree on Johns Island, explore Middleton Place or Boone Hall, and kayak with dolphins at Shem Creek or swim at Folly Beach. Full list in things to do in Charleston.

Charleston is the undisputed culinary capital of the South Carolina Lowcountry: velvety She-Crab Soup finished with a splash of dry sherry and crab roe, local Creek Shrimp over Anson Mills stone-ground grits with tasso gravy, steamed clusters of salty local Single & Cluster Oysters, whole-hog wood-smoked Carolina barbecue at Rodney Scott's and Lewis Barbecue, crispy fried chicken and champagne at Leon's Oyster Shop, Benne Wafer cookies, and James Beard dining at FIG, Husk and Chubby Fish. Read more in our Charleston food and oyster guide.

Shaped over three centuries by English, French Huguenot, Sephardic Jewish and West African Gullah Geechee traditions, Charleston's landmark 'Single House' architecture, built one room wide with two-storey 'piazza' porches facing south or west to catch the harbour breeze, is unique in American urban design.