Travel

Charleston Girls’ Trip Recap

October 8, 2019Shannon Aycock

Me and three of my best girlfriends recently had a girls’ weekend in Charleston – meet (from left to right in the above photo) Leslie, Amanda and Meiling. We have been friends since grade school, and have remained friends ever since, growing even closer in our adult years. I am so thankful to have lifelong best friends (including a few others that aren’t pictured here). True friends are a rarity, so you are blessed if you have just one!

For today’s blog post, I wanted to recap our trip and share some of the places we visited and would recommend. I have been to Charleston many times, and it remains one of my favorite places to visit. This historic city is full of southern charm – if you have never visited, you definitely need to add it to your list! I’ve also included several snapshots from our trip at the bottom of the post!

For this trip, we stayed at The Mills House. This was my first time staying here and we loved it. The location is great. It is in walking distance to several popular areas including King Street and the market. Also to note, this hotel is on the corner of Queen Street, and three of the restaurants I mention below are literally across the street – 82 Queen, Poogan’s Porch, and Husk. The interior of the building is beautiful, and this may sound weird, but the lobby smelled soooo good! Every time we walked in, we talked about the scent and how we needed our houses to smell like that, haha! There is a restaurant in the hotel that includes an outdoor courtyard. We sat out there on our first day and had appetizers and drinks and really enjoyed it. There is also a pool on the rooftop of the second floor. I would definitely stay here again.

One of the things I look most forward to when visiting Charleston is the food! There are so many great restaurants from which to choose. I would suggest making reservations in advance, even for lunch. Some places you can reserve same-day (and if you change your mind, you can always cancel – it’s just good to plan ahead so you don’t miss out on the hot spots!). Below is a list of the restaurants where we ate, as well as a couple of places I have eaten in the past and would recommend:

82 Queen – I have eaten here several times and it never disappoints! It has award winning she-crab soup, the best shrimp & grits, and appetizers like fried green tomatoes and tomato pie! Also their biscuits were out of this world!
5Church – This restaurant is inside an old church, hence the name. It is across the street from the market, so on the weekends, it is very busy. We had lunch here on a Saturday and needed a reservation. Also note that they only offer their brunch menu on Saturdays and Sundays. We each had a chicken BLT which was basically a chicken sandwich with melted pimento cheese and bacon on top – it was amazing! Definitely try to get a table in the actual church area – it was really cool and that’s also where the bar was located.
The Watch Rooftop & Spirits – This restaurant and rooftop bar is located at The Restoration Hotel right off of King Street. There is an interior seating area, and there is also seating on the rooftop area. We went just before sunset to get a view of the city and the sun going down – it was beautiful! We all shared several appetizers – definitely recommend the truffle fries…I can’t stop thinking about them!
Poogan’s Porch – We did breakfast here before we packed up to go home. They had a great menu that included chicken & waffles (what I got!), pecan encrusted french toast, and many other yummy items. Like many restaurants in Charleston, Poogan’s Porch is an old house that was turned into a restaurant, and it got it’s name because of a local dog – it’s a cute story and you can read about it on their website. Rumor has it the house is haunted!
Husk – We did not dine here on this trip, but I have in the past and would recommend it. My husband and I had lunch here on the second floor balcony outside. It is such a dreamy spot, and the food is amazing. They also have a bar next door with an outdoor courtyard – we went here during happy hour one afternoon. Always love sitting outside in a city like Charleston where there is so much to soak in!
Leon’s Oyster Shop – We did not make it to Leon’s on this trip, but I ate lunch here while on a bachelorette trip a couple years ago and it was very good. It also came highly recommend by several followers on Instagram. Would be a good lunch spot.
SNOB (Slightly North of Broad) – My husband and I ate here several years ago for our anniversary. He still talks about the meal he had here!

As far as activities/things to do – there are so many options in Charleston!

King Street – this is where all the good shopping is located, as well as several bars and restaurants. If you are looking for nightlife, then King Street is your place. For shopping, I would recommend hitting it up first thing in the morning as the stores begin to open. That is what we did and it was a lot less crowded.
Charleston City Market – this is located on Market Street and is cool to check out (it’s very big!). There are tons of vendors and you can find all kinds of neat, hand-made souvenirs.
Waterfront Park – The waterfront is one block over from Market Street, so you could easily hit that up at the same time.
Rainbow Row – this is on Broad Street and you can walk to it from the market area. It’s a row of historic homes that are all painted different colors. There are a few pics below – it makes for a great photo opp!
There are lots of options for tours – ghost tours, harbor cruises, historic district tours – here is a top 10 list I found online. I have honestly never done one, but I know a lot of people who have.
Walking around the city and just taking in all of the history and character is one of my favorite things to do (along with the eating, as previously mentioned 🙂 ).

I hope this was helpful…I am already ready to go back! If you have other recommendations, comment below to let other readers know!

I’ll leave you with some of the snapshots from our trip…