Things to Do in Charleston, SC

The things to do in Charleston, SC, that we could check are the Fort Sumter ferry, the Battery, Rainbow Row, Charleston City Market, Magnolia Plantation, Middleton Place, Patriots Point, Folly Beach and the free DASH trolley. Plan 3 days. Yes, the historic district is walkable. We read each source on 14 October 2026.

Is Charleston, SC, walkable?

The historic district is. The Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau says it is "highly walkable," with many sights, restaurants and shops often only a few blocks apart (charlestoncvb.com, walkable city FAQ, read 14 Oct 2026). The same page names the free CARTA DASH shuttle as the way to rest your feet. Some places need other transport. Fort Sumter is on an island and takes a boat. The plantations are on Ashley River Road. Magnolia gives its address as Route 61, and we did not find a walking route from downtown, so plan on a car, taxi or tour.

The sights, with address, hours and price

Fort Sumter

On 12 April 1861, Confederate forces fired on the US troops at Fort Sumter, which started the Civil War (National Park Service, park home page, read 14 Oct 2026). The fort is on an island in the harbor and you can only reach it by boat.

Getting there: Fort Sumter Tours is the only ferry company the National Park Service authorizes. It leaves from Liberty Square, 340 Concord St, Charleston, and from Patriots Point, 40 Patriots Point Rd, Mount Pleasant. From 27 Feb to 30 Nov the times are 9:30 a.m., 12:00 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. from Liberty Square, and 10:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. from Patriots Point. From 1 to 24 Dec there are fewer boats: 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. from Liberty Square, and 12:30 p.m. from Patriots Point. From 26 to 31 Dec the full schedule is back. There is no tour on Thanksgiving, 25 Dec or 1 Jan. The tour page says to arrive 30 minutes early, and that the trip is about 30 minutes each way plus about an hour at the fort. The quick answers page says the whole tour is 2 1/4 hours (fortsumtertours.com, home, tour and quick answers pages; NPS, hours page; all read 14 Oct 2026)

Price: Adult $43, senior or active military $39, child 4 to 11 $26, child 3 and under free, on the quick answers page. The tour page shows $45.58, $41.34 and $27.56, and says those include a 6% booking fee. Those figures match the first set plus 6%, which is our arithmetic. Tickets are fully refundable if you cancel at least 2 hours before departure, says the tour page

Note: The NPS charges no entrance fee for Fort Sumter. The ferry is paid, and the park says passes and fee-free days do not cover it. The Fort Sumter Visitor Center at Liberty Square is open 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily, and all park sites close on New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas (NPS, fees page and hours page, read 14 Oct 2026). Schedules can change or be cancelled at any time, says the NPS

On 14 Oct 2026 the Fort Sumter Tours home page said the mobility lifts at Fort Sumter are out of order. If you use a wheelchair, call before you book. Parking at both departure points is paid. The quick answers page says the aquarium garage next to the Liberty Square visitor center often fills, so allow extra time.

The Battery and White Point Garden

Note: The Battery is both the sea wall and the park at the southern tip of the peninsula, where the Cooper and Ashley rivers meet. The stone sea wall was finished in 1820. White Point Garden became a city park in 1837, and its memorial bandstand dates from 1907 (South Carolina Encyclopedia, "Battery, The," read 14 Oct 2026). We found no entry fee or hours on that page. We did not check one

The encyclopedia says two earthwork forts stood in the park during the Civil War and were removed afterward.

Rainbow Row

Address: The painted houses stand between 79 and 107 East Bay Street (South Carolina Encyclopedia, "Rainbow Row," read 14 Oct 2026)

Note: The encyclopedia says the buildings date from the early 1700s and first held merchants' shops with homes above. In 1931 a preservationist named Dorothy Haskell Porcher Legge bought and renovated the house at 99 to 101 East Bay Street. She chose pastel colors on purpose to encourage others to restore their buildings. The row was restored over the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Rainbow Row has no hours or fee. We found no source that says the houses can be entered, so look at them from the street

Charleston City Market

Hours: The market's own site says it is open daily, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. One part of the page we read earlier gave 5:30 p.m., so allow for either. It is open every day except 25 December. The Night Market is Friday and Saturday, 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., from 14 March to December in 2026 (thecharlestoncitymarket.com, home page, read 14 Oct 2026)

Address: Market Street, in the historic district. The market's office is at 188 Meeting Street, which may not be where the sheds are (same site; the visitor bureau names Market Street)

The visitor bureau says the open-air sheds have sold local goods, including sweetgrass baskets, since 1807 (charlestoncvb.com, first timer's guide, read 14 Oct 2026). Entry is not priced on the pages we read. We did not confirm that it is free.

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens

Address: 3550 Ashley River Road (Route 61), Charleston, SC 29414. Phone 843-571-1266 (magnoliaplantation.com, home page, read 14 Oct 2026)

Hours: Garden 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily. The last ticket is sold one hour before closing. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Parking is free (same site, daily schedule and FAQ pages)

Price: Not confirmed. The admission price was not on any page of the official site that we could read, and the ticket store did not load for our reader. Resale and blog sites give prices that do not agree, so we do not repeat them. Check tickets.magnoliaplantation.com

The official history page says a man named Stephen Fox got a 400-acre plantation on the Ashley River in the late 17th century. It later passed to the Drayton family, which grew the land to nearly 1,700 acres by the Civil War. Enslaved people grew the rice that made the family wealthy, and the page says enslaved workers carried out the garden design and built the white bridge in the 1840s. The page says four restored cabins where enslaved people lived still stand. The gardens opened to the public in 1871.

The "From Slavery to Freedom" tour is included with admission, runs 45 minutes and is offered from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The Magnolia House tour is also included and runs 45 minutes from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with limited places, says the daily schedule page. The Nature Train Tour is listed there too, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., but we did not confirm whether it costs extra. The FAQ suggests 3 to 4 hours for the gardens and a couple of tours. Leashed dogs may walk the grounds but not join tours.

Middleton Place

Address: 4300 Ashley River Rd, SC 29414 (The Liberty Trail, Middleton Place visit page, read 14 Oct 2026)

Hours: Open daily, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Christmas Eve 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Closed Christmas Day (same page)

Price: Adult, 14 and over, $29 online and $32 in person. Student 14 and over with ID $15. Child 6 to 13 $10. Age 5 and under free (same page)

The official site, middletonplace.org, blocked our reader with an error, so the hours and prices above come from The Liberty Trail, a heritage site that lists Middleton Place. Check the official site before you go. The Liberty Trail page calls it America's oldest landscaped gardens and a National Historic Landmark. It says the Middleton Place Foundation tells the story of the Middleton family and of the enslaved Africans and African Americans who lived and worked there. A signer of the Declaration of Independence is tied to the place, but that page does not name him, and we did not confirm who.

Patriots Point

Address: 40 Patriots Point Road, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 (patriotspoint.org, home page, read 14 Oct 2026)

Hours: The museum is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The ticket window closes at 4:00 p.m. (same page)

Price: Online prices: adult (13 to 61) $28, senior (65 and over) $25, child (6 to 12) $23. Children 5 and under and active-duty military with ID get in free, but only at the ticket window. The ticket covers the USS Yorktown, the USS Laffey, the Medal of Honor Museum and the Vietnam Experience. Parking costs extra, and the page gives no parking rate. A scavenger hunt is a $3 add-on (patriotspoint.org, visit page and home page, read 14 Oct 2026). The page does not say what window prices are, or what ages 62 to 64 pay

The Fort Sumter ferry also leaves from Patriots Point, at the times in the Fort Sumter section.

Folly Beach

Folly Beach is a beach town. The visitor bureau calls it laid-back, with funky cottages, and names the Folly Beach Fishing Pier as popular for strolling and fishing (charlestoncvb.com, areas page, read 14 Oct 2026). We found no source for the drive time from downtown, so we give none.

Address: Folly Beach Pier, 101 E. Arctic Ave., Folly Beach, SC 29439. It is 1,049 feet long (follybeach.com, pier page, read 14 Oct 2026)

Hours: April to October 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day (same page)

Price: Walking the pier is free. A fishing pass is $7 for an adult. Parking in the pier lot is $5 to $25 a vehicle depending on season, and walk-ins and cyclists park free (same page)

Parking is the thing to plan. The city runs paid parking, and its site, parkfollybeach.org, says paid lots are enforced from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. every day and that it changed rates on 1 September 2025 (read 14 Oct 2026). That site did not list lot rates in the part we read. Another site, follybeach.com, a visitor site that carries ads and affiliate links, listed center lots at $10 on weekdays and $15 on weekends from October to February, and $15 and $25 from March to September. We could not match those numbers to the city site, so treat them as possibly out of date. Free street parking exists, but all four tires must be off the pavement. Folly Beach County Park charges a per-vehicle fee. We did not confirm the amount.

The free DASH trolley

Getting there: DASH is CARTA's free downtown shuttle. The routes are the Orange Line (210, College of Charleston and the aquarium), the Green Line (211, Meeting and King streets) and the Purple Line (213, Lockwood Drive and Calhoun Street). CARTA says to use the Transit app to track buses, and gives 843-724-7420 for questions (ridecarta.com, DASH page, read 14 Oct 2026). The page did not list hours or how often the buses run, so we give none

Where to stay in Charleston

We did not check any hotel's rate or room list, so we give no prices. Rates change by date, so look up your own.

The historic district suits a first visit because most sights are within a few blocks, and the visitor bureau calls it highly walkable. Mount Pleasant sits across the harbor. The bureau describes its Old Village as a place with historic homes, live oaks and a small-town feel, close to the beach and downtown (charlestoncvb.com, areas page, read 14 Oct 2026). Folly Beach is a beach stay, and you will pay for parking or find a free street spot. If you do not have a car, the historic district is the easier base, since Folly and the plantations both need a ride.

How many days do you need?

Three days works. Day one is the historic district on foot: the Battery, Rainbow Row, then City Market. Day two is Fort Sumter, which takes about 2 hours on the water and at the fort, and Patriots Point if you left from there. Day three is Magnolia or Middleton on Ashley River Road, or Folly Beach. With two days, drop the plantation and the beach. This is our own advice. No source gives a number of days.

What we checked and what can change

Read on 14 October 2026: the National Park Service pages for Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie (home, plan your visit, hours, fees), Fort Sumter Tours (home, tour and quick answers pages), the Charleston City Market site, Magnolia Plantation's site (home, history, tours, daily schedule and FAQ pages), The Liberty Trail's Middleton Place pages, Patriots Point's site (home and visit pages), CARTA's DASH page, the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (walkable FAQ, first timer's guide, areas page), the South Carolina Encyclopedia entries for the Battery and Rainbow Row, follybeach.com (parking and pier pages) and parkfollybeach.org.

Not confirmed: the Magnolia admission price, Patriots Point window prices and parking rate, whether Middleton Place's prices are current on its own site, the DASH hours and frequency, whether City Market is free to enter, Folly Beach lot rates on the city site, the Folly Beach County Park fee, the Nature Train price, drive times to Folly Beach and the plantations, and any hotel rate. The two Fort Sumter ferry price pages differ by the booking fee, so check the booking page for your date. We did not visit Charleston for this page.