Charleston, South Carolina

"The most important Southern restaurant of the past decade."

Sean Brock's Husk elevated Southern cooking to a national conversation — a menu built entirely on American South ingredients, in an 1893 Victorian house on Queen Street. The pimento cheese is the appetizer; the whole-hog BBQ when available is the main event. Reserve well in advance.

"The best Lowcountry soul food in Charleston. Where locals eat."

A cafeteria-style Lowcountry soul food restaurant in North Charleston serving fried chicken, collard greens, lima beans, macaroni pie, and rice and gravy — the actual cuisine of the Gullah Geechee tradition. Cheap, honest, extraordinary. The antidote to tourist Charleston.

"The Charleston oyster bar standard. Fried chicken and local oysters."

A Leon's occupies a converted gas station with an excellent selection of local oysters on the half shell alongside some of the best fried chicken in the city. The combination sounds odd; it is completely perfect. Popular with locals and worth the wait on weekends.

"An unflinching account of slavery on a Sea Island plantation. Essential."

A Sea Island cotton plantation on James Island where the history of Gullah Geechee culture and the lives of enslaved people is told without the Lost Cause mythology of most plantation museums. The cabin row, the freedmen's church, and the honest narrative make this one of the most important historic sites in the South.

"The most honest antebellum house museum in America. Nothing has been changed."

Unlike most house museums, the Aiken-Rhett House has been deliberately preserved in an unrestored state — peeling paint, original wallpaper, and intact slave quarters that are treated as primary historic spaces rather than secondary footnotes. One of the most thoughtful and honest historic sites in the American South.

"Where 40% of enslaved Africans entered America. Now a quiet beach community."

Sullivan's Island was the entry point for hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans into North America — the American equivalent of Ellis Island, but the inverse. Toni Morrison called it the nation's missing monument. The island is now a quiet beach community with a historic fort (Fort Moultrie) and a Beach Club accessible to military.

"One of the largest undeveloped estuaries on the East Coast. 350,000 acres."

The Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto rivers drain into a 350,000-acre estuary complex that is the largest undeveloped estuary on the East Coast — Black duck habitat, wood storks, alligators, and the largest concentration of wintering bald eagles in South Carolina. Kayaking access through state and federal lands.

"The Charleston area beaches. Different personalities, both excellent."

Isle of Palms (adjacent to Sullivan's Island) has a public beach accessible by causeway with calm surf and good family swimming. Kiawah Island to the south is a private resort island with limited public beach access but one of the most beautiful shorelines on the East Coast.

"Marsh creek paddling through Lowcountry salt marsh. Dolphins and egrets."

The Lowcountry's salt marsh creek system is ideal for sea kayaking — tidal currents, abundant wildlife (bottlenose dolphins, wood storks, roseate spoonbills), and a maze of waterways that look fundamentally unchanged from 1700. Multiple launch points throughout Charleston County.

"The living culture of enslaved Africans' descendants. Essential Charleston context."

The Gullah Geechee people — descendants of enslaved West and Central Africans in the Sea Islands — maintained a distinct language, cuisine, and cultural practice that persists today. The Heritage Corridor encompasses the Sea Islands from Wilmington, NC to Jacksonville, FL. In Charleston, McLeod Plantation and local cultural organizations provide access to this living heritage.

"17 days in May/June. The most significant performing arts festival in America."

Spoleto Festival USA fills Charleston's historic venues (churches, theaters, warehouses) for 17 days each spring with opera, chamber music, theater, dance, and visual art of international quality. If you're stationed in Charleston during Spoleto, attend at least one event — the combination of the content and the venues is extraordinary.

"Lowcountry marine ecosystems beautifully presented. Sea turtle hospital."

On the Charleston waterfront, the SC Aquarium has a great ocean tank, a Lowcountry marsh exhibit, and the Zucker Family Sea Turtle Recovery — a working sea turtle hospital where injured turtles are treated and released. Military discount available.

"An excellent hands-on museum for young children."

A well-maintained children's museum with pirate ship, water play area, working grocery store, and rotating hands-on exhibits targeted to children under 10. Small but well-executed.