My wife's wish for a long time is to visit Charleston, SC so I would like to surprise her with 2-3 day trip there on her birthday May 23rd. But we don't have as much money as majority posters on this forum. We can spend $100 per night. Maybe $120 but that would have to include tax and parking. We don't have to stay in the center of the action but we don't want to stay somewhere far away from the center and spend more money for taxis or parking. I read many posts here and checked out many recommendations for accommodations and dining. Everything seems so expensive. We cannot spend more than $20.00 per person for dinner or lunch. We cannot have both meals each day for this price. Is it possible to visit Charleston with a very limited budget or am I dreaming? We can always stay home, I guess, and read your trip reports. Any idea where we can stay and eat in Charleston?

Not everyone on this board is rich! But there are a lot of creative people who can help you plan. Sadly, I am not one of them. ;-)

Although...I will say that you might want to check out Priceline for booking your hotel. You can often do much better on Priceline than you can booking directly.

For food, you might be intereted in Rachel Ray's $40/day guide. This weekend on Food network, they're featuring Charleston. But you can also go here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show..._21061,00.html

Good luck!

Go for it!

You have plenty of time to figure out Priceline bidding and you can get a 3 or 4* hotel downtown in your price range through them. You must read biddingForTravel.com thoroughly to understand the process, then make your bids on Priceline. Someone got the 3* Francis Marion for $119 in mid-April, and another got the 4* Renaissance for $125 in mid-March. That's high season bidding, and your dates are more at the tail-end of the season so you should do OK.

What a nice gift...she will be thrilled. The city is tres romantique!

There are numerous budget hotels, but you could also try Springhill Suites and Residence Inn--both have locations right on the water.
Charleston also has a trolley system with on-and-off privilages. You can visit the Straw Market, have a picnic at the Battery (a beautiful waterfront area), there are beaches nearby--the possiblities are numerous.
One restaurant we really like is California Dreaming. It looks like a castle and is on the water and is pretty reasonable.

Incognito
I don't get it. You've posted that you can pay cash for a vacation home and also have traveled,almost the world. EX:
Author: Incognito
Date: 04/20/2004, 02:50 pm
After traveling many times to Africa, Europe, USA, Canada, Central and South Americas I have to admit that ALASKA wins hands down.
I agree with Kavey about Alaska's astounding natural beauty and animals are spectacular. Just go to Katmai National Park and Preserve for a day of secluded bear watching and you will never forget it.
We loved our safaris in Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana but Alaska has a very special place in my heart.
Galapagos was amazing for wildlife, Costa Rica for birds and friendly people, Greece for history and scenery, Andalusia for Moorish architecture and hiking oportunities, Dordogne for prehitoric cave art, Crete for scenery, Patagonia for seclusion and beauty, Southeast Arizona for its desert scenery, Poland for great hiking in Tatras Mountains, Paris for being Paris, Corsica for astounding vistas, Maldives for snorkeling, Hawaii for its exotic feel, North Carolina for its flowers and greenery, New Hampshire in October.
There are many more places. I have to admit there are more places to admire and love than Africa. And I love Africa! If I focused only on Africa I would never know how many more amazing places are all over the world. Good question, Rocco
What's the deal? Are you pulling our leg?

Thank you beanweb24, Malesherbes and tcapp. I know about priceline but never used it for a very obvious reason. With my wife's illness we have to be ready to cancel any trip at any moment now. Residence Inn and Springhill Suites sounds good. How far are they located from the town? Is there any transportation that you know about? I am going to Google all your recommendations. Thank you for your generous help this far.

cd, did you ever hear or read this statement "Travelnow because you never know what can happen tomorrow?> If you are a frequent visitor on this board you must be aware how often it is recommended not to postpone your travel. I only hope that in two years your situation won't change and you still be able to pay $200 per person for a shore excursions. I didn't know I suppose to tell you about my personal situation and why I visit this board so seldom lately. Do you want to hear details of my wife's illness, do you want to hear about my insurance not paying for her extended hospital stays, do you want to hear we need to save every dollars for any future hospital stay, do you want to hear all details how all this happened in the last 14 months? One thing we are grateful is that we traveled to so many great places. We cannot travel anymore to far away and exotic places but we talk often especially during sad and painful moments about wonderful adventures we had. When did I post that message? Check the dates, cd. That was two years ago and at that time I would never imagine how our lives will be different in such short time. We cannot afford any more long trip and we have to remind close to her doctors, we have to be able to cancel any, even the shortest, trip at any moment. So, cd, hope nothing like that will ever happen to you or to your loved one. Get back to me in two years and report on your life status. You need to hope your life will be the same. Do not postpone your travels, you never know what can happen tomorrow.

I've never been to Charleston, but I've certainly done my share of low-budget traveling. I like to find a reasonable hotel which offers a complimentary continental breakfast...that takes care of one meal. Also, look for accommodations which offer a mini-fridge...you can stash drinks, sandwich fixings, deli meats/cheeses, etc. for lunch. That leaves all of your food $$ for a bit of a dinner splurge. It would also save you cash if you purcased an Entertainment coupon book for Charleston (the books are $15 right now, and come with a member card and coupons entitling you to numerous buy-one-get-one-free breakfast, lunch, and dinner deals at restaurants in every price range). Order at www.entertainment.com. A little creativity will take you far.

That's so sweet of you, Polly. I will check it out right now. Great ideas. Thanks

Incognito
I am sorry. I am sorry that I misjudged you and I am sorry for your wife's illness. You do not owe me an explanation.

We have traveled a lot on limited budgets, still do a lot of the time, and will in the future as we will be retiring in a couple of years.

To conserve our funds, we stop at a grocery store and purchase breakfast foods. Bagels and peanut butter are great. We have even asked the restaurant we have eaten dinner at to hardboil 4 eggs and then have taken them to our hotel for breakfast in the morning with a bagel. We have even brought them from home!

For lunch we have purchased wine, cheese and bread from a corner deli and found someplace with views to enjoy it. For us, half the fun sometimes is seeing how cheap we can get by!

You can do it! have fun and again I am sorry I made you feel like you had to explain.

cd, I understand and maybe I would come to the same conclusion. On the other hand your last post brought lots of memories. Cheese, wine and bread. It sounds like some of our meals in Paris. Memories! We will always cherish memories from every one of our trips. Cd, travel now and travel as often as you are able.

cd recognized your name incognito, and I did too, so she was curious about your past travels, and they do sound extensive, including travel within this 2 year time period: this February to Cayman and last year to Greece and Poland, and plans for April 1 of this year to start hiking the Appalachian trail.

I know cd to be one of the always always, kind longtime posters here, and it was terribly unfair of you to attempt to lay a guilt trip on her--even more so if it's factual! Tacky. JMHO, but now I think something is fishy--not that it matters one way or the other what I or cd thinks! If your wife is ill we all are sorry, but your body slamming cd was uncalled for.

Happy travels.

I thank you too already for your suggestions and still do not think I need to explained what trips I planned and what trips we actually took or what trips we had to cancel. One day you will understand how quickly things may change. Good luck to you and you fellow travellers. Don't forget to be kind to each other. I do admire cd for her/his kindness which she/he expressed in her/his last post. By the way it is April 8th and we are not on Appalachian Trail. Maybe one day

Incognito, my husband and I visited Charleston last year on a limited budget and enjoyed walking around the city sightseeing with our guidebook in hand to explain everything. We enjoyed the cemeteries and churches (all free) and looking at the architecture. We also noticed a poster advertising a college choir performing in one of the churches that evening, so we returned to an enjoyable program, again FREE. As we were walking to the church we were enveloped by a wedding party leaving a different church behind a bagpiper of all things! The congregation walked from the wedding church to (we're assuming) the reception area, and that was so cool to see and it was out of the ordinary and very memorable.

Luckily for us, the accommodations were free due to my hubby winning a sales contest at work (yay!). So I can't help you in the budget lodging area. I do know that parking can be a problem in Charleston during certain times of the year, so it may be to your advantage to stay at one of the historical district properties if you can squeeze that into your budget.

I hope you have a great trip to Charleston.

Try the Day's Inn. It is on the main drag, very near the market, and was pretty reasonable a couple of years ago. It is in an historic building and has free parking.

Also search for hotels on kayak.com. I just did a search and came up with many available rooms in your price range...one caveat being that many weren't in the center of the historic district, and I'm not sure if that's a requirement for you or not.

Another alternate lodging idea would be to do a vacation rental (like a condo). You can search on vrbo.com or a1vacations.com to get ideas.

You say 2-3 day trip with a budget of $100-$120 a night. If you take that money and only do a 2 night trip, you may find you're able to afford something a little more than what you thought and you would have the added benefit of not paying for 3 days worth of meals. Personally, I'd rather have 2 really nice nights without worry than 3 nights spent getting stressed out as the dollars add up.

Good luck planning!

My husband and I returned three days ago from a low-budget trip to Charleston. It can be done. We stayed at the Days Inn in the historic district. I booked online from the Days Inn Website before going and paid about $60 less per night than others who were walking up as I was checking in. The hotel is in a great location and has free parking. It also has a fridge and microwave. There were several places to eat around the historic district that would fit your requirements. Good luck w/ your planning.

Take your wife to Charleston for her birthday. You can do it on your budget. Look into the Days' Inn that's mentioned above. When you get there, go to a grocery store and buy food for breakfast, and lunch or dinner. Don't put off this special trip for her. None of us knows what tomorrow brings.

Your wife will love Charleston. We visited last year and had a wonderful time. Since we visited with children, we did not hit the trendier and upscale restaurants. We really enjoyed our meals at Poogan's Porch and A.W. Shucks. Both were affordable and the portions at A.W. Shucks were large enough to share (I wish I knew this beforehand). You can google both for menu items and prices.

I so agree with your philosophy about not postponing your travels. I'm glad to hear that you have been able to travel to so many wonderful places together and wish you many happy trips in the future.

Thank you xrae, carolyn, beanweb24, kudo96, padams421, and wtm003 for your kind and very helpful messages. I followed your suggestions and checked out accommodations on kayak.com and with Days Inn. This morning there was a room in Days Inn for $127.00. Then I checked one more time about one hour ago and it seems the same room now became available for $89.00. Free parking, small refrigerator and microwave in the room are nice amenities to have. We are booked for 2 nights and are allowed to cancel to up 24 hours before arrival. I greatly appreciate your help and if you have more suggestions for inexpensive, or better yet free, things to do and see in Charleston, please let me know. We are not going to look for any nightlife. The evenings are for resting in those days but during a day we will try as much as my wife's health and our budget permits. We should arrive around noon on day 1 and leave around noon on day 3. From the bottom of my heart I want to thank you one more time. Hope your travels are going to be frequent and successful.

Your travel dates are just on the edge of the Spoleto festival, which begins on May 25. I am sure the hotel rates will skyrocket during the festival, so I would try not to overlap or cheap travel WILL be impossible. The cheapest rate that I could find (and I just put in two nights, 5/21-5/23) in the downtown area was at the Andrew Pinckney Inn. I found a rate of $134. This does not include tax or parking, however, it does include breakfast and the Andrew Pinckney has an excellent location in the downtown historic district.

Now...important question... Will you have a car? If you will have a car, you can save money, although not time, by staying over in Mt. Pleasant. I found rates under $100 at both the Patriot's Point Days Inn and Best Western for the same dates. Granted, you might have to pay for parking downtown, but if you're only paying $70 per night for your hotel, then you can afford the parking out of your original hotel budget.

Eating....there are lots of places that you can eat well on the cheap. One of my favorites is the Boulevard Diner in Mt. Pleasant. Wonderful fresh food, blue plate lunches, fresh seafood with most items in the $10 range. Another money-saving trick is to pick one of the nicer restaurants that you are interested in and eat lunch there. The lunch menus are generally less expensive than the dinner menus, and often feature some of the same items only in smaller portions. If you will check the website for Charleston City Paper, you can find all sorts of restaurant reviews. They often have reviews of smaller cafes that don't appear in many tourist books.

There are lots of fun things to do in Charleston that don't cost a penny. Just walking the streets is fun, because of all the beautiful homes and gardens. It is fun to walk along the Battery, to sit in the swings along the waterfront at the end of Vendue, to watch the children race in and out of the spray of the big fountain, explore Fort Moultrie, walk on the beach at Sullivan's Island or Isle of Palms, windowshop along King St....all free! If you want to see the inside of some of the famous homes, they average about $12 per person and some of the tours are better than others. The Aiken-Rhett house has a really good tour that is well worth the cost, plus the house and grounds are very interesting, since they've been preserved, rather than restored. If I could only afford to tour one downtown house, that's the one I would choose.

I hope this helps a little. Go to Charleston! Your wife will love it!