Kudos to your son for very discriminating thinking. There is a "sameness" to CW--beautiful as it is. And it is a reconstruction.
GREAT report. Just curious, do you ever check websites like booking.com for prices? BUT you are right on about staying in the Historic District--expensive but the ability to walk is worth it.

Thank you for a great, thorough report. Your son must be a joy to you. Love that he does a travel journal. That is an astute observation about levels of history for a ten year old.
Your comments are most helpful. The mention of living history reminded me of all the costumes, which I think my GD would like, so we are leaning towards Williamsburg now. She is into theater, clothing design, art, etc. She does a travel “sketch book”. She would enjoy at least one of the Plantations on the James River and a stop in Richmond for the museum. Hope she wants to do it.

I am impressed with all the things you found to do for your son in Charleston.
I'm also somewhat surprised he didn't pick CW but I know he liked that trip, too

Sassafrass, when we went to CW, we spent a day visiting Jamestown and another day visiting Yorktown. I enjoyed both immensely (for the history). We also visited a plantation (Shirley) and i have to say, that was underwhelming. Here's our TR from last year. CW and the historic triangle is in the second half of the trip
https://www.fodors.com/community/uni...022-a-1707515/

Yes, I checked on booking.com as well as TripAdvisor and other discount sites to look for the lowest rates. In the end I booked directly with the hotel because the prices came out the same and I know hotels prefer customers booking through them directly instead of via third-party.
And yes, it was worth the extra money. One place I did consider was the Hyatt Place/Hyatt House on King & Spring Streets as it was considerably cheaper. It is really quite further up north; we walked past it when we walked to Xiao Bao Biscuit for dinner one night. But being further away from the historic core means we can't just easily swing back to the hotel for a rest etc.

Next is April vacation and we are going to San Francisco.

Yes, VT, I was pleasantly surprised there was so much in Charleston to keep us busy for 4 full days. I felt that was the right length of time though, if we have an extra day we could potentially visit another plantation. It was helpful to have a rental car so we could visit the places outside of the city.

YK, Thank you. It has been 20 years since I worked in CW. Lots of changes since then.

Yes if you had had an extra day going up to Georgetown and perhaps stopping at some of the small plantations off Route 17 could be a nice trip. I don't think all of them are open but they would be small. Georgetown dates from the Revolutionary War and is a little charmer of a town. And Pawley's Island just a bit further is where the rice planters spent summers to get away from the malarial mosquitoes. Charming little historic district on the beach.

yk— Glad you ended up going to Fort Moultrie and also that you saw dolphins as I did when you took the boat out to Fort Sumter. The boat was busy when I went but the day you went sounded busier! Love the historic peninsula of Charleston, so gorgeous with charming nooks and crannies. A great choice for a history-loving son & February getaway!