EXPLORING THE SOUTH: FOUR NIGHTS IN CHARLESTON & SAVANNAH

Posted by thetwirlingtraveler on October 17, 2019March 22, 2023

OCTOBER 2019

Visiting the Southern States has been a dream of mine for a while. I don’t know exactly what drew me to the Southern States, but I do know that I do not regret visiting. We loved the combination of colorful architecture, the amazing oak trees that are draped with Spanish moss and being able to study some history. We also loved the Southern hospitality, with everybody greeting you and chatting you up. The South is known to be very conservative, but we felt very welcome! This area is not super touristy yet; the tourists mainly consist of Americans doing a city trip. As it is not very crowded in both cities, you can actually relax and you do not have to get up early to take your pictures. In this blog I will explain how we spent our days in the South.

Charleston, South Carolina

I first took note of Charleston when I noticed it on a list of colorful destinations and I know that the famous dance is named after it. Charleston is located on the Atlantic Ocean and features amazing seaside villas that are painted in all sorts of pastels. In 1861, the American Civil War started in Charleston, which gave Charleston a historic significance and therefore there are many historic sites that you can visit. You can take a horse carriage ride to learn more about Charleston’s history (§ 28 per person), but we decided to just walk around instead and read the signs with historic explanations, which you will find scattered through town.

Just a typical example of Charleston architecture!

One of the most beautiful streets of Charleston is Rainbow Row. Rainbow Row consists of pastel colored English style houses (row houses without balconies) that are being lined with beautiful palm trees. Rainbow Row provided the perfect twirling opportunity for my Rainbow dress, so that is of course what I did next… Just an example of the over the top friendly Southern culture: people actually liked that I came dressed up in a Rainbow dress, instead of raising their eyebrows 😉

The historic city center of Charleston is pretty small. You can walk through it in several hours, so you don’t have to do any research; you will likely run into all the sights. One sights that I particularly liked was the City Market; you will find the best souvenirs here. Southern people are really proud to be Southern and they have many nice gifts that are based on Southern culture. Unfortunately our bags were already full, so we couldn’t bring any home… Luckily this nice market does not have a tainted history and slaves were never sold here..

This would be the perfect holiday gift for me 😉

Furthermore Charleston is known for its nice restaurants, art galleries, the beautiful pier from which you can watch the sunset and parks with oak trees and fountains. Below you will find some of my favorite photos, just to give you an impression. Overall this seems like a very girly location, but even Hielke wanted to pose with some colorful houses 🙂

As Charleston is located seaside, there were many good opportunities to watch the sunset.

Lots of movies and tv-series were filmed in South Carolina and it’s not hard to imagine why when you look at these views! (Dawson’s Creek anyone?)

Plantations

In the South Carolina/Georgia area there are many plantations you can visit. When in this area, visiting a plantation is an absolute must. We decided to visit two plantations in the proximity of Charleston: McLeod Plantation and Boone Hall:

McLeod Plantation: We decided to visit the McLeod Plantation as this plantation is less commercially developed than the other ones. The McLeod Plantation focuses on giving tours with historic facts representing the stories of the slaves who had once worked here. Our guide was particularly interested in the support systems of the slaves and the Gullah culture, which was super interesting. We received detailed background stories about some slaves that worked here and we were shocked by the magnitude of the slavery. Many of the slaves in this region belonged to the Gullah culture and they had a shared language, clothing, traditions and religion, which offered the slaves social support. The McLeod family was only a middle class family, but they had 70 slaves working their cotton for them from sunrise until after sunset. The McLeod Plantation is only decorated scarcely, which gives extra weight to the sad history of this place. A tour takes about 45 minutes and costs § 15, after the tour you can walk around freely.

This is the backside of the plantation, which faces the cotton fields. The contrast with the “sheds” below is enormous.

The McLeod plantation hosts several of these “sheds”, which were the houses of slaves. Sometimes families of 10 lived in these. After the abolition of slavery these sheds were still being rented out to African people as they had nowhere to go.

Below you will find some pictures of the decadent, front porch.

Boone Hall plantation: Boone Hall is a very famous plantation and is sometimes criticized as glorifying Southern Culture and neglecting the history of slavery. I was very interested to see the contrast with the McLeod plantation, which mainly focuses on representing the slaves’ perspective. Boone Hall offers several tours: you can tour the property and see the agriculture, you can do a tour of the house and learn about the families that lived here and you can go to the Gullah Theatre. We were very impressed by the Gullah Theatre, where a representative of the Gullah culture explained about Gullah traditions and history and how life as a slave must have been like at Boone Hall. Boone Hall also restored “Slave Street”, a street with slaves’ houses. I found the exhibitions in Slave Street to be very informative, as the concepts of slavery and racism were explained with a timeline, which really helps you put history in perspective. The terrible history offers a strange contradiction with the beauty of this place. North&South and The Notebook were filmed here and Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively got married at Boone Hall. Boone Hall has over 150 weddings per year and the Avenue of Oaks must be an amazing backdrop for your wedding pictures, but I have to admit that given the history, it is a weird place to get married. The entrance fee for Boone Hall is § 25 and gives you access to all tours and gardens. Make sure you take enough time for this one as you can easily spend four hours at Boone Hall. In the end, I was satisfied that we toured Boone Hall as well as McLeod, as they were very complementary.

The Avenue of Oaks was beautiful at the end of the day, with the last bit of sunshine peeking through the Spanish moss.

There used to be several “Slave Streets” at Boone Hall, but this one is completely restored and features an interesting exhibition.

The main house at Boone Hall, which you can recognize from the Notebook (Allie’s house)

I am just missing the white geese from the Notebook… As I am writing this blogpost, Hielke is rewatching the Notebook 😉

Savannah, Georgia

Savannah is another gorgeous city in the South. In Savannah you can also visit plantations, but as we already visited two in Charleston we skipped doing that and did a self guided tour through the historic city center instead. Savannah is located riverside and has a developed riverfront, which is kind of renovated like a theme park, but still a fun walk around. Because of the large harbor of Savannah it has more industrial influences than Charleston, with its pristine marina. Savannah has gorgeous, classical houses and boasts even more oak trees than Charleston. I really loved the oak tree overgrown streets in Savannah. If you walk Bull street, between the riverside and Forsyth Park, you will have seen the most beautiful part of Savannah. You will run into many charming squares with oak trees and fountains and charming houses made of bricks. To be honest, we really liked Savannah, but we did prefer the colors of Charleston.

Example of a typical street overgrown with oaks.

The historic riverside features some cool bridges and stairways!

Savannah has its own little version of Rainbow Row, which was pretty cute.

Wormsloe Historic Site: Just outside of Savannah, you can visit Wormsloe. Wormsloe is a colonial site, from which you can visit the ruins, buildings and nature trails. It has an entrance fee, but we lucked out and were allowed to take some pictures in the other, famous Avenue of Oaks. There seem to be costumed interpreters walking around, so be warned before you visit 😉

Bluff Drive, Isle of Hope: This was my favorite Savannah activity: just outside of Savannah (near Wormsloe) you will find Bluff Drive. Bluff Drive is a street between the swamps and beautiful coastal villas with little piers for their yachts. It is a super relaxing quiet spot, where everyone will greet you on the streets. I can’t believe people get to live in this beautiful spot!

Pumpkin Patch

I was super curious to experience a Pumpkin Patch, not really knowing what a Pumpkin Patch is… It’s not a typically Southern thing to do, but we ran into so many Pumpkin Patches that I had to take some pictures… Pumpkin Patches are held in October. On a Pumpkin Patch many sorts of pumpkins will be displayed for sale. Families come to the patches to buy their pumpkins for their Halloween decorations. I found it a super cute festivity and I can’t believe these pumpkins will just be used for decorations!

Practical information

We stayed at a super, cute, Southern decorated Airbnb just outside of Charleston for € 70 per night. The owner was about our age and drank beer with us for two nights. In Savannah we stayed in a motel for € 55 per night, including breakfast. Both cities have lots of accommodation and if you don’t mind staying outside of the city center it is super affordable. In both cities you can easily park your car on the streets, near the city center. In Charleston we were able to find a free spot and in Savannah we paid § 1 per hour.

If you want to spend some more time in this area, I would recommend combining with a beach vacation. In South Carolina and Georgia you will find several comfortable beach towns, such as Hilton Head and Wilmington.