3 Days in Charleston

Thirteen houses, Rainbow Row, stand along East Bay Street, numbers 79 to 107. They began as merchants' buildings with a shop below and living quarters above, and by the 1920s the area was close to a slum. Susan Pringle Frost bought several to save them, and in 1931 Dorothy Legge painted her house pink. The neighbors followed, and the pastel row we know is from the 1930s and 1940s, not the 1700s.

Ignore the two stories about the colors, that they helped drunk sailors find their bunk or let enslaved shoppers find the right shop. They're tales. The houses are private, so photograph from the street. Go before nine, when the road is quiet and the morning light is on the fronts.

Ten minutes south, the peninsula ends at a seawall promenade, the Battery, and a 5.7-acre park, White Point Garden. The pirate Stede Bonnet and his crew were hanged near here in 1718. The cannons around the edge include a gun from the USS Keokuk, which fired on Fort Sumter in 1863, and two Confederate columbiads.

Walk the wall along East Battery and look at the big houses across the road. In the southeast corner stands a 1932 monument to Confederate soldiers, one of many in the South; read it as part of the city's story, not as decoration.

It's a ten-minute walk north to the corner of Broad and Meeting Streets, known as the Four Corners of Law. St. Michael's was built between 1751 and 1761 and is the oldest surviving church building in the city. George Washington worshipped here in 1791, and the churchyard holds the graves of two signers of the Constitution, John Rutledge and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.

Walk in for the white box pews, the tall plain windows and the portico, the first of its size in colonial America. Visitors can't climb the steeple. It's a working parish.

For lunch, find a restaurant in the blocks around Queen Street and Broad Street that cooks Lowcountry food seriously. Husk and Poogan's Porch on Queen Street, and Slightly North of Broad (S.N.O.B.) on East Bay Street, are the usual answers, but lunch service varies by restaurant and day, so check the hours or make this your dinner. Order shrimp and grits, the old fishermen's breakfast now on every menu, and a cup of she-crab soup if it's offered.

Look for stone-ground grits and a short menu. Lunch is cheaper than dinner and easier to book.

The Dock Street Theatre at 135 Church Street sits on the site of what is believed to be the first building in America made only for plays. The 1736 original burned in the fire of 1740. The present building began as a hotel in 1809, and Robert Smalls, who later seized a Confederate steamer and sailed it to the Union fleet, worked there as a waiter. It became a theatre in 1935 and its resident company, Charleston Stage, has been there since 1978.

The City says the building is open daily for visitors to view, but access depends on rehearsals. The French Quarter around it is the sure part: narrow lanes and old churches. Go in if the door is open, and see a show if you can.

This is one building, at 6 Chalmers Street, and it matters more than its size. Ryan's Mart opened in 1856 after the city banned public slave auctions. The 1859 building stands where auctions were held until about 1863, and it's thought to be the last such auction gallery left in South Carolina. It has been a museum on and off since 1938.

It's a small museum, and the building itself is the main exhibit. Give it an hour and don't treat it as a photo stop. It's open Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm, and closed on Sundays.

Waterfront Park runs half a mile along the Cooper River. Hurricane Hugo damaged it months before it opened in 1990. A pier reaches into the river with swings and a long view of Fort Sumter, the Ravenel Bridge and the aircraft carrier at Patriots Point.

Come at sunset, around 5:30pm in early November, and sit on the swings.

The Civil War began here. On April 12, 1861, Confederate batteries fired on the Union garrison. After 34 hours the commander, Major Robert Anderson, surrendered. The island is reached only by the ferry run by Fort Sumter Tours, which leaves from Liberty Square (340 Concord Street) or from Patriots Point. The trip takes around 2 hours 15 minutes, with about an hour on the fort.

The ruins are the point: low brick walls, rows of cannon and a small museum, in the middle of the harbor.

The museum opened in 2023 at 14 Wharfside Street, on the site of Gadsden's Wharf. Researchers estimate that around 100,000 enslaved Africans first set foot in North America at the wharf, and traces of it turned up when the museum was built. The galleries follow African American history from West Africa through the slave trade to the present, and a family history center helps visitors start their own research.

Entry is by timed ticket, so book online. Tickets are cheaper for South Carolina residents. The gardens outside were designed by Walter Hood.

The museum takes the early afternoon, so lunch comes after it, a short walk south near Market Street. Go for fried oysters, deviled crab or a red rice and sausage plate, whatever the kitchen does best. If you want Gullah cooking, see the Food section for Bertha's Kitchen, which is out of the way.

Choose a busy room with a line of locals. If the ferry left you hungry, grab a snack before the museum.

The Market Hall dates from 1841, and open-air sheds run several blocks behind Meeting Street. Honest verdict: most of it is souvenirs, T-shirts and candles you can buy anywhere, and prices are touristy.

Come for the Gullah weavers, who make sweetgrass baskets at the stalls. The craft came from West Africa with enslaved rice growers, and the baskets began as rice-winnowing fans. A small one costs from about 20 USD (18 EUR), a large one hundreds. Ask who made it. Market Hall also houses a museum run by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which you should know before you walk in.

King Street is the spine of the peninsula, and it changes every few blocks. Lower King has antiques, the middle has the big shops, and Upper King, from Calhoun Street north, has restaurants and bars. Walk it in the late afternoon from the Market toward Marion Square.

If you want more history, the Aiken-Rhett House at 48 Elizabeth Street is kept as it was found, with intact slave quarters and kitchens. It's a self-guided audio visit of about 45 minutes; check the opening days first.

Charleston eats oysters in the cooler months, and the best of them are small, salty and local. The Darling Oyster Bar (513 King Street) and Leon's Oyster Shop (698 King Street), both on Upper King, serve them raw or fried, and Leon's does fried chicken too.

Sit at the bar, order a dozen and ask what came in today. Both are busy after 6pm, so book or come early.

McLeod is the plantation visit that puts the people who were enslaved there first. It was a Sea Island cotton plantation on James Island. The big house dates from 1854-57; five clapboard cabins remain beside a kitchen, a gin house and a barn. Union troops, among them the African American 55th Massachusetts, occupied it in 1865. The county bought it in 2011 and opened it in 2015, and it is part of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, named for the Gullah descendants of enslaved West and Central Africans.

The 30-minute guided tour is included, and tours run several times a day, so come at opening and check the times. Walk the cabins and the avenue of oaks on your own afterward.

Folly Island is about 12 miles from downtown, a 20-minute drive. Locals call it the Edge of America. Center Street runs down to the pier, with surf shops, beach bars and a long public beach.

Outside summer the water is cool and the beach is nearly empty, which is when it is best for a walk. Walk the pier, then the sand, and eat lunch along Center Street. In summer the town is packed and parking is hard.

At the north end of Folly, end of East Ashley Avenue, the Morris Island Lighthouse stands in the water off the old island of that name.

You can't walk out to it, but the view across the inlet in late light is the best photo of the day. Bring a jacket, because it's windier here than in town.

On the way back to town, Bowens Island Restaurant, at 1870 Bowens Island Road, is a casual place on the marsh, best at dusk.

Order roasted oysters, a Frogmore stew or fried shrimp. Expect a wait.