For the past three years, we have taken a trip in between Christmas and New Year’s. It’s the perfect time to travel because it is generally a slow week of work for Matt, the kids are out of school and by the day after Christmas I am ready to get out of the house to get away from the clutter of Christmas and relax. We don’t do big gifts for the kids for Christmas or exchange gifts between Matt and I, so we treat this trip as our Christmas to the family. As the girls get older and understand better, they probably won’t get anything from us for Christmas and the trip will be their only gift. I love ending the year this way and always use this trip as a time to reflect on the past year and make plans for the next. I travel with my new calendar in hand and ready to plan all the things for the upcoming year.
This year, we decided to travel without the kids (trust me, they got plenty of presents this year) and were due to go to Charleston because of our Super Bowl trip lottery. We flew Southwest into CHS. Downtown Charleston is only about a 15-minute ride from the airport and our Uber was about $30. King Street in downtown is where a lot of the restaurants and shops are located. I really loved the feel and look of the city, it is very reminiscent of New Orleans with similar architecture and the slow pace of a Southern town. There is a great mix of shops on King Street, everything from local boutiques, a few bigger chain stores, antique shops and art galleries. And of course, tons of restaurants and bars. We asked one of our waiters what else we should do while we were in Charleston. He said, “We are known for our shops and food.” So we basically shopped and ate our way through the city!
We stayed at The Dewberry Hotel which is in the heart of downtown Charleston and a block off of King Street. It was a perfect location with a local feel and great service. They have courtesy Volvos that will drive you just about anywhere you want to go in town. The service is only one way, so you have to walk or Uber back. Everywhere we went downtown was within about a mile walk so we only used the car service to go to dinner the first night because it was so cold and windy. Rooms are small, similar to that of any hotel in a crowded downtown area. We upgraded to a king suite, because they were offering the 3rd night free, so the price per night was cheaper than the regular room. The room had gorgeous furnishings and plenty of space for the two of us. If we had brought the girls with us, we would’ve needed a double room or to rent an Airbnb.
Once checked in we headed to King Street to find something to eat. We settled on Leyla for lunch because we were starving and it was really just the first place we stumbled on. The food was great, but very expensive for Lebanese food. If we weren’t so hungry, we probably would’ve gone somewhere else. I don’t normally plan out our meals ahead of time when we travel, so we are free to do whatever we discover and don’t have a schedule to keep. Once in town, everyone we spoke with raved about Husk. We could not get a reservation and the wait for walk-ins was about an hour and a half. Since most restaurants take your number and text you when your table is available, we left our info and went around the corner to Meeting at Market for drinks and to watch football while we waited. It worked out perfectly. We ended up with seats in the bar at Husk, which had an amazing atmosphere and the food was a unique take on typical southern food. The oyster appetizer was amazing, highly recommend.
The next morning, we had brunch at Miller’s All Day after everyone we spoke to recommended it. They do not take reservations or call aheads and also had about 1.5 hour wait. We put our name on the list and walked around the shops near the restaurant until our table was ready. The food there was good, service was not the best but they were crazy busy. Maybe we didn’t order the right things, but it was just a typical breakfast place for me, nothing special.
Since we got a late start and didn’t eat brunch till noon, we had mid-afternoon drinks and snacks at 167 Raw on King Street. It was a really cool vibe, we sat at the raw bar and enjoyed watching the guys shucking oysters. We had a dozen raw oysters, chef’s selection, as they had about 8 varieties to choose from. Then we got a few apps and a shrimp taco, which was my favorite.
We were able to get a late dinner reservation at Halls Chophouse, after having a ton of people recommend it. Halls Chophouse did not disappoint! This was the first place on our list of recommendations that really lived up to the hype. The atmosphere, service and food were all top notch. I had the bison and Matt got an American wagyu flat iron steak. Both were amazing. One of the owners even came over to welcome us and brought us complimentary champagne. Definitely a must if you visit Charleston.
For our final day in Charleston, we decided to venture out of town. We found an Avis rental car location downtown and rented a car for the day and headed out to Isle of Palm which was about a 20-minute drive. Pro tip, if you can wait till you’re in town to rent a car, it may save you a ton of money, especially if you really only need the car for a day. When renting at the airport, the taxes and fees imposed by the airport can sometimes be as much as the daily rate on the car. Isle of Palm is such a cute little beach community. We had lunch at the Obstinate Daughter which was fantastic. We spent the afternoon there driving around and admiring all the big, beautiful beach houses. There are little areas to shop and walk around with tons of restaurants as well. This would be a great beach vacation spot with the family. I didn’t see any big hotels as it was all houses that I’m sure could be rented thru VRBO or Airbnb. We headed back into downtown Charleston for dinner at Fuji Sushi. It was a really trendy spot with great sushi and outdoor seating on the roof.
Shout out to my girl Kate at Naptime Kitchen, who lives in Charleston for all the recommendations!
We loved our time in Charleston and would definitely go back!
