I recently returned from 3 nights in Charleston and 2 in Savannah, so wanted to "give back” as this forum was instrumental in my planning. While I didn’t ask many questions, reading trip reports was very helpful, and a good supplement to the travel books I borrowed from the library.

This trip was a mother/adult daughter getaway (I’m the daughter), and our first time in both cities. I flew from Los Angeles to NY the day before and we flew from JFK the next morning using Jet Blue. Arriving at CHS, we had planned to take a taxi into town, but a shuttle was leaving within minutes and only had 2 other passengers, so we opted for that option ($12 pp.) All of our hotels were within blocks of each other, and we were dropped off second. Since it was only 10:30am by the time we got to the hotel, we dropped our bags and headed out to brunch.

Hotel - We stayed at the Indigo Inn, which has a great location right near Meeting Street and Pinckney. The hotel was $209 per night, which while not inexpensive was a huge value for when we visited during peak time in April. The Indigo is right in the historic center a few blocks from the City Market. It has a good-sized (no squeezing into spots) parking lot behind the building ($15 per night), and the rate includes breakfast. All the other hotels in the historic area were over $260 per night, even the chains which are located further north in a slightly more remote area. I found a few B&Bs that were slightly less, but only with one queen bed, and while this may have been ok in the past, I feel old and picky enough where I’d rather be comfy in my own bed. The only less expensive hotel I found nearby was the Days Inn at $164, with a great location, but very concerning reviews on TripAdvisor regarding cleanliness. I decided it wasn’t worth the risk.

While the setup of the Indigo is motel-like in that all room doors open out to a courtyard, our room was a decent size, with two high queen beds and the usual extra furniture. There was plenty of dresser storage, and the room had a/c and a ceiling fan. I’d read reviews on TA complaining about the tight fit in the bathroom, but didn’t notice that being a problem at all (It’s more long and narrow than wide, but has double sinks.) A nice feature is you can take breakfast out to the lovely courtyard. The downside is there’s no other space for eating other than the lobby, which is small. So on bad weather days, you’d have to take a tray of food up to your room (they provide trays.) On the one truly cold day, we snagged two couch seats in the lobby, but it wasn’t ideal. The other two mornings were fine for outdoor dining, however. I wouldn’t choose the Indigo if I was planning a splurge getaway as it’s neither luxurious nor romantic, but for what we wanted (safe, clean, great location, breakfast included as my mother prefers eating early), we were extremely pleased.

Nice! Where'dja eat?

suewoo, I had made reservations at SNOB, Cru Cafe, Magnolias, and 82 Queen, but things didn't exactly go as planned...

We have reservations in Sept. at Indigo Inn, glad to hear your first hand review. Waiting for the rest of your report!

DebitNM, after seeing how wordy I've already gotten (and we haven't even left the hotel!), I was worried this would be too long to read. I feel better knowing at least the hotel info could be of help to someone.

Sun - After dropping our bags, we headed to Toast, just a few blocks away and easy to spot by the large groups of people waiting outside. As a party of two, however, we only waited 15 minutes. Even though it gets rave reviews online as a casual breakfast spot, we went in with reasonable expectations and I’m glad we did. Our food was good - fried green tomato topped with crab cake and poached egg for mom, corned beef hash and eggs for me - but nothing so spectacular to stand out from any decent breakfast. However, as a corned beef hash aficionado (no, really), I have to say theirs was quite yummy. And to be fair, we didn’t try their famous stuffed french toast (though I wish I had), or the bottomless mimosas. Good for a filling breakfast, but saw no reason to return for another meal (they also serve non-breakfast foods.)

Don't worry about wordy. Just be sure to use paragraphs (old joke here)

Once we had our fill of the accompanying grits and biscuits, we headed to the Market area to take a carriage tour, which was a nice introduction to the area (where the carriage goes is determined by lottery.) Our guide told us about the history and architecture of the city, and we learned quite a bit.

After returning to the Market area, we then walked north to the Visitors Center to buy the 2-day Heritage Pass. At $46 each, the Pass was a great deal for us as we knew we’d be visiting most of the nine sites it covers (just the basic admission for Middleton Gardens is $28 on its own.)

Since we’d already decided to start the Pass on Monday, we spent the rest of Sunday walking through different neighborhoods, saving homes and gardens for later days. We walked through City Market, which while I see the appeal for browsing, also found a bit disappointing in that most of the vendors do not sell local goods (clothes and knick-knacks from Asia, souvenirs, jewelry, etc.) This is nothing against the Market since it does not claim to be an artisan fair, and is really more a flea market/shopping plaza. And there are some local craftsmen and artists we met, so they can be found. It was fun for strolling, and we kept in mind a few food items to buy later as souvenirs.

After City Market, we headed south on Meeting towards the Four Corners of Law. Here, we stopped in at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church to walk through the cemetery and view the headstones. One of the topics our carriage driver had talked about was the history of significant churches in Charleston, and it was so interesting to walk through the graveyard reading the headstones and noting the dates (some so old they were completely faded away.) While the church itself was not open at that time, just respectfully walking the cemetery was very lovely and peaceful and quite a fascinating look into history. In some cases we’d stop and speculate on what may have happened, and there was definitely a sadness when seeing a headstone meant for a young child.

From the church, we continued south and took a self-guided walk south of Broad. I’d printed out the walk beforehand, and then added in some notes expanding on the descriptions of the area and some of the history. We really enjoyed looking at the homes and also detouring from the “course” to explore when something caught our eye.

I love that cemetary. And the antique roses in the churchyard are stunning.

One of my many favorite things about Charleston is that ability to take a tour, see stuff you want to come back to, then just walk down and do that.

Hi jv827

Sounds like the Indigo was a find. I'm enjoying reading your trip report as it's bringing back memories from my trips to Charleston and Savannah. I too found it interesting to read the headstones, particularly when it happened to be of one of my ancestors, Richard Furman (1755-1825), who was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Charleston!

Looking forward to reading about your take/time in Savannah. Daniel

I got an AARP/senior price at Indigo Inn. Saved a bit off regular price. Our rate was a lot less, $139 for mid September. Compared to other B&B's, it was a steal.

suewoo - that is so true! I was actually a little disappointed at first that our carriage tour wasn't centered around one of the "hot spots." But it ended up even better that it wasn't.

Daniel_Williams - wow, how wonderful to be able to find that!

DebitNM - the Indigo really does seem to be a great deal for the budget-conscious. While it's more faded than sparkling, I really can't complain about the value or our stay.

Oh, and I'll add that I did get a look at that $164 Days Inn since it was next door to Toast restaurant. Whereas the Indigo may be a little basic, but still clean and nice, the Days Inn just looked run-down, old, and dingy. I read that they're renovating, but for now it still looks like an unclean motel. I was very relieved that we didn't stay there.

Continuing on our walk, we made it to the Battery, and rested a bit while watching the very rough waters. I should add here that when we first arrived in Charleston (this was the third week of April), it was a bit overcast with patches of warm sun and VERY windy. By evening it was cold, and we were glad we’d brought our jackets. During our stay it got warmer, especially by late afternoon, but most mornings and evenings were still pretty chilly.

We headed back to the hotel via Bay Street, which was nice as we passed Magnolias where I’d made reservations for dinner (we did check to see if they could seat us earlier, but no luck as they were full.) We also stopped to read the menu at SNOB, where we had reservations the next night. Unfortunately my mother was not very taken by the menu, so I realized I might need to make some itinerary adjustments for the rest of the trip (while I knew my mother would not complain if we still went, I didn’t think it’d be worth going if she might be silent, but dissatisfied. One nice thing about getting older is we’re both more patient with each other and aware of how to avoid silly mother/daughter fights )

I loved walking on Bay and checking out all the restaurants. It definitely made me wish I had more time in Charleston just to EAT!

Returning to the Indigo, they had wine, iced tea, lemonade, cheese, crackers, and grapes set out for happy hour. I must admit I had more than my share of cheese and crackers over the course of our stay.

Dinner at Magnolias - Very lovely restaurant with excellent service, although maybe a little nicer than my mother had expected (it’s not that Magnolias is overly formal - and we had changed from our traveling clothes. I just think she was hoping for a slightly more casual bistro atmosphere. Though some guests were more dressy casual like us, there were also diners in jackets and ties, dresses, etc. But none of the staff ever made us feel out of place; I think it was just that my mother would have been more comfortable dressed a little nicer. It’s partly a NY thing, I believe. We thought my mother’s buttermilk fried chicken (upscale, of course) was good, but a little dry, but my parmesan crusted flounder was excellent. Unfortunately we were both too full for dessert.

Monday - Breakfast at the hotel and then a very full day of historic homes. From what I can recall, the Indigo’s continental buffet included bagels, toast, danish, yogurt, cereal, boiled eggs, unappealing egg discs (sort of what you’d find in a breakfast biscuit), fresh cut-up fruit (pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes, strawberries), grits, and biscuits with ham and cheese. One day there were also sausages. I found the bagels and pastries to seem a little stale, but was happy eating biscuits, yogurt, grits, and fruit.

Since we were up very early (thanks, mom) and none of the historic homes opened until 10am, we decided to walk north up Meeting to the Charleston Museum, which opened at 9am. This is another instance where having the Heritage Pass came in handy, because in reading about the museum, I must confess it didn’t really interest me. Given the choice, I probably wouldn’t have opted to pay for separate admission. However, since it was included in the Pass and the timing worked out so well, it made sense to go and we had a really good visit. We spent an hour there (which was perfect), and learned a lot about the history of Charleston that came back during our house tours. Later on we would recognize names of key Charlestonians and it’s because of the exhibits we’d seen earlier. It’s a small museum, with special exhibitions (unfortunately they were just striking the recent one), so it’s very manageable. I got a kick out of trying on a hoop skirt in the interactive area (which I’m assuming is meant to target kids, but I'm a kid at heart, after all!)

After the museum, we first stopped at the Joseph Manigault house and then the Rhett-Aiken house (both very near the museum and also included in the Pass.) I’ll be honest, because it’s been a month now, I don’t recall a lot of the details about the homes (actually, I remember the details - just not which ones go with which house.) The Joseph Manigault sticks in my mind because it was the first, and a lot of architectural details we learned laid the groundwork for future tours. This was actually the case with most of the houses, and depending on the particular house style, we quickly learned to start looking for neo-classical touches, false doors to preserve balance, etc. I found that the guides really made a difference in how much we enjoyed a tour, and most were engaging and informative in relaying the history of the occupants and life at that time. I actually learned a lot about the different types of architectural touches found in different homes.

While I have no specific details to share about the Rhett-Aiken house, it was actually one of my favorites. I just can’t remember why!