micro

Thank you for all those who helped me choose Charleston for a vacation. Now I need help with two options.

OPTION 1: Stay in an ocean front rental on Isle of Palms and drive the 30 minutes(?) to Charleston every day.

OPTION 2: Stay in historic Charleston and be able to walk everywhere when you leave the hotel, but miss out on the relaxing beach.

What would you choose?

doug_stallings

If you want a beachy vacation, by all means stay on Isle of Palms. But if you are going to experience historic Charleston, then I don't see why you wouldn't stay in town.

Daniel_Williams

Hi micro,

I almost commented on your other thread to suggest option 2, but it seemed you absolutely wanted a beach, so I refrained. Now that you're wavering and having read in the last post that you like tourist-centered areas, I'll say this, the downtown peninsula (Historic Charleston) is *really* special. Isle of Palms/ Mount Pleasant are nice enough and I enjoyed seeing them, but the highlight within a 50-mile radius of Charleston for me was the storied, gorgeous-architecture-filled, history-rich streets of the downtown peninsula with its views of the Ashley & Cooper Rivers. Magical. No question for me, if given this choice for a first visit, I'd choose Option 2 and make the beach a day trip. Be sure to take the tour out to Fort Sumter while you're there... you might see dolphins like I did on that boat ride.

Best wishes, Daniel

RoamsAround

It all depends on how much time you plan on spending at the beach.

IOP is nice, especially if you stay at Wild Dunes but if you are going to be driving back/forth to all the historical sites in/around Charleston. There's not too much of historical interest to see (the Yorktown and Fort Moultrie are the 2 most important if memory serves me correct)between IOP/Mount Pleasant and Charleston. Everything else is either in town, or on the opposite sides of the city. The extra 30 minutes or so of driving "each way" is going to get old very quickly. It's too much like commuting for me to want to do that almost everyday while on vacation.

We've stayed in both places on our trips. When we primarily wanted a beach vacation with only a day or 2 doing other things staying on IOP worked out great. However, when we concentrated on visiting the historical sites we stayed on Market Street in downtown and loved every minute of it.

JanetKMR

I would forgo the beach, but I am not a beach person, so it is an easy call for me.

micro

Thank you everyone.

I truly appreciate all the feedback.

Ackislander

I've done both. Several times.

You really can't go wrong with either unless you like cocktails and wine with dinner, in which case you are better off in the city where you can walk everywhere.