Please tell me what you think.
 

On April 14th my girlfriend and I fly from London to New York to start a six week road trip. As part of the trip we are spending three nights in Charleston. I have pinched most of my ideas from this forum, but I would be delighted to hear how I might improve our stay.To give you an idea we like walking, watching, photography, live music, good beer, nature and meeting people.We won"t be doing much fine dining, nor will we visit every museum and tourist attraction.
This is what I've got so far:
Tour of the Battery area: park, pier, harbour, architecture, East Bay street and Vendue rooftop.
City market and Farmers market.
Maybe a carriage ride - maybe Middleton Plantation - maybe Magnolia Cemetery?
Downtown area including King Street for looking/shopping?
Folly Beach and Isle of Palms.
I'm struggling with ideas for dining. I have listed - Shem Creek bar & Grill, Yuengling Bar, Tommy Condon's. I don't know anything about Ravenel Beach and I would love any recommendations for good cheap eats, drinks , live music or any great places to sit and watch the world go by. All ideas appreciated. Thank you in anticipation - Richard.

I do apologise. This should have been tagged South Carolina.

OK. I'll start at the top.

In Charleston, you WANT to visit the tourist attractions. "Tour of the battery area" is a good thing to do when you first arrive. You can get your bearings. You may want to take a walking or carriage tour on your first day so you can learn about what you are seeing.

City Market is open daily. The Farmer's Market at Marion Square is only on Saturday mornings.

The King Street shops are nice.If you are there on the second Sunday of the month, it's closed to vehicular traffic between Calhoun and Queen.

Folly and IOP are both fun. It's still a little chilly (for m anyway) to go in the ocean.Go to Bowen's Island for supper when you are out at Folly. I don't know anything about Ravenel Beach either. Do you mean Ravenel Bridge?

Charleston is full of great restaurants. Even though you want cheap eats (Dixie Grocery, Hominy, Jestine's Mustard Seed, Boulevard Diner, Dave's) do treat yourself to one of the iconic restaurants at least for lunch. SNOB has great lunch specials. FIG is my favorite. It's sister restaurant on Upper King, the Ordinary is wonderful, but very popular. Make reservations. Stars, just down the street, has a nice rooftop bar, as does Vendue Inn and Market Pavilion.

Vickery's at Shem Creek has the best sunset view, IMO, so go there for cocktails on your way back into town from IOP. Never heard of Yuengling bar.

This is really helpful Sue. I have crossed out a few ideas and am currently googling my way through your list of restaurants. And of course I did mean to write Ravenel Bridge. Thanks again.

I'm glad it helped. Do you want to walk on the bridge? There is a pedestrian lane. If you park on the Mt Pleasant side you can walk up to the top. I highly recommend doing that. The pier underneath is nice as well.

While you are googling look at Magnolia, Tristan, Amen St, Cypress, Husk, Hank's and Anson.

I would suggest you see Boone Hall Plantation! Its only 8 miles from downtown Charleston.

http://boonehallplantation.com/