Awards & recognition
Best U.S. City to Visit
U.S. News & World Report · 2026
Best Places to Visit in the USA
U.S. News & World Report · 2026
America's Best City
Resonance Consultancy · 2026
Best Small City in the U.S.
Condé Nast Traveler · 2025
Favorite City in the U.S.
Travel + Leisure · 2025
Best Small City in the U.S.
Condé Nast Traveler · 2024
About this city
Also known as: The Holy City
Charleston is a deeply historic, exceptionally elegant coastal metropolis and cultural giant beautifully straddling a massive natural deepwater harbor where the Ashley and Cooper rivers meet the open Atlantic Ocean. Founded meticulously in 1670 as Charles Town to honor King Charles II, the city served as a major Gilded Age merchant shipping empire and the literal starting crucible of the American Civil War. Today, Charleston is globally unrivaled for housing the nation's most flawlessly preserved concentration of gas-lit cobblestone hills, pastel-colored historic rowhouses, and majestic live oak canopies.
Location & Administrative
Transportation & Accessibility
Weather & Timing
Economics & Local Vibe
Practical Tourism Metadata
Suggested stay: 2–5 days
Tour the historic stone bastions where the Civil War began at Fort Sumter National Monument, photograph the iconic pastel storefronts along Rainbow Row, and view grand antebellum plantation houses along the rivers.
Museums & Culture
8
Friends of the Hunley
Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum
Gibbes Museum of Art
Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon
Drayton Hall
Edmondston-Alston House
Nathaniel Russell House Museum
Childrens Museum of the Lowcountry
History & Heritage
4
Religion & Education
1
Architecture & Landmarks
4
Parks & Nature
8Parks & Gardens7
Hampton Park
James Island County Park
Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site
Waterfront Park
White Point Garden
Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site
