Exploring Charlston, South Carolina with toddlers
We travelled to Charleston, South Carolina in the Spring with two toddlers. We wanted to meet up with family in a place we haven't been to and this looked like a fun city to explore.
When traveling with littles we generally try to find things outside. My kids tend to do better outside-it's more acceptable for them to be loud and they can have fun exploring and learning.
We have a general rule of only one touristy thing per day with littles. We generally try to book things for the morning then come home for nap. Occasionally we will do something small in the afternoon but we find if we do too much it backfires on us with meltdowns later.
1. The Beach
South Carolina and Charleston have great beaches. We had so much fun playing at the beach. I would highly recommend a beach day or two. It was easily the highlight of the trip for my kids
2. Fort Sumter
This is a National Historical Site and the site where the US Civil war began. It is an island that is off the coast of Charleston. You have to pay for the boat to take you there. The boat is run by the national park service and they have a informational lecture with information about the Fort on the boat ride there. We found it to be very interesting. Just make sure you bring some toys/snacks for the boat ride to keep the littles entertained.
Pro tip: If you are the first boat of the day to the Fort (which we were) you can participate in the flag raising ceremony which is pretty neat. The last boat of the day has a flag lowering ceremony which I've also heard is cool.
My only complaint with this is that I wish we had more time on the actual fort. I felt like we didn't have a ton a of time to explore at our own pace before we were being ushered back on the boat. Especially for the price of the tickets
Book tickets at: fortsumtertours.com
3. Patriots Point
This is a Navy museum that is literally on a battleship. It is pretty neat esepcially if you toddler is into boats and airplanes like mine is. My husband is also really into WWII history so he really liked it.
Book tickets at: Patriotspoint.org
Things to know:
1, This place isn't super stroller friendly. We brought one and ended up not using it and having to haul it around a lot which was a pain.
2. To get to the upper levels of the ship you literally have to climb the stairs which are almost like ladder. my toddler loved it but if you don't have a good walker you might want to just opt straight for the elevator.
3. You can book a ticket to Fort Sumter and leave from here but we thought that to be too much for one day so we did them on two separate days. After doing both I would make the same decision again
4. Charles Pickeny National Historical Site
Charles Pickney was one of the drafters and signers of the US constitution. His plantation is preserved as a National Historical park. We decided to do this on a whim because we had some time to kill before our flight took off. This is free and it has some really pretty gardens. Our kids had a fun time just running around the grounds. This would be a great place for a picnic.
5. Fort Moultrie
Another National Historical Park (are you starting to sense a theme yet?!). This was the original fortifications for Charleston before they built Fort Sumter. This fort actually remained active until the 1940s. This is very fun to explore for toddlers and it's neat to look at all the cannons. There is a small fee of $10 per adults to get in but it was free with our National Parks pass.
Other things to do:
1. Walk around Rainbow Row and the pineapple fountain
We ultimately drove past this but we didn't think our toddlers would really care about it so we decided to skip walking around there in person
2. Magnolia Plantation
We were planning on going to this- the gardens are supposed to be beautiful. We ended up opting for Fort Moultrie instead because we didn't have as much time as we thought we would and we didn't think we would have enough time to make it worth the cost of admission.
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