Girls Trip to Charleston, SC

Travel

Susie Lynn 08/06/2022 No Comments

My cousin Mary and I took our annual girls trip to a new destination – Charleston, SC! We wanted to give it a whirl in lieu of our usual haunt – Vegas. Plus, I had never been and have been wanting to check it out! We were there for three nights, so here is the ultimate list of things to do on a girls trip to Charleston! Our driving force for choosing to go on a Monday through Thursday were two-fold. One, Mary turned 40 on the day we flew out! Secondly, I knew it would be easier on Vince to watch our kids since they were in school! But don’t you fret, being there during the week was still busy AF and we had a blast!

Girls Trip Day 1:

We flew out of Denver directly to Charleston which was fantastic. If your trip is only a few days, having to make connections and kill half a day in transit is no good. We landed around 6:00 pm, took an Uber to our hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn Charleston Waterfront, threw our bags down and ran straight to dinner. I had read a fuck ton of travel blogs on the top places to eat so I made us two reservations per day! Since it was Mary’s birthday, I wanted her to get some fresh seafood to celebrate. So, we went to Fleet Landing! The restaurant is right on the water and the food was wonderful. The downside was there was some prick yelling at his wife the entire time at the table behind us. (On their 30th wedding anniversary to boot.) But once they left the ambiance improved immensely.

Once dinner was done, we asked our server where a good place would be to grab a drink, sans the college crowd. He recommended Henry’s. It did NOT disappoint! They had a live band, great bartenders, and even better people watching. We closed down Henry’s, then called it a night and headed back to the room.

First stop on the girls trip – Fleet Landing!

Girls trip night 1 — First stop on the girls trip – Fleet Landing!

Girls Trip Day 2:

We started our day sailing with Mental Heeling. It’s a private sailboat that can take small groups out on the water. There was one couple on it, us, and the captain and his first mate. We sailed the harbor for a few hours and it was so great to be on the water. Plus, the dock we set sail from was literally behind our hotel, so we were able to just walk to it. Since no girls trip is complete without some retail therapy, we went shopping on King St. It’s a strip of boutiques and restaurants and is a very pretty walk. Afterwards, we headed back to our room to refresh then headed to the Grand Bohemian Hotel to hit up their rooftop bar Eleve.

The service was pretty shitty, to the point where a couple different tables walked out. The servers took over an hour to get the tables to even take drink orders. We powered through it though, and I did love their decor. They had massive planters that were lit up with black lights and a cozy patio. We had dinner, grabbed a cocktail, and called it a night since we were pretty wiped. On our way out of the hotel we checked out the art and sculptures they had in their lobby.

Day 2 of our girls trip started with sailing — Shops on King St.

Day 3

For our last full day of the trip, we started with kayaking Shem Creekhttps://experiencemountpleasant.com/waterfront-at-shem-creek/. It was by far our favorite experience Mar and I have enjoyed on one of our girls trips. It was all thanks to a tip from one of our uber drivers who said it was one of his favorite places to hang out. We rented kayaks and hit the water where we had dolphins swimming past us. We spent a couple hours just enjoying the water and dolphin watching, then grabbed lunch and a beer at Red’s Ice House. This bar spoke to our souls as it has a hole in the wall vibe but is a fairly large bar. They had a ton of great local beers and their hush puppies (and all of their food in general) was fantastic!

Then we went back to our room, showered and got dolled up for another night out. This is where I made a poor decision. The night before, our hotel water had been temporarily turned off while they worked on a pipe issue. After they turned the water back on, I refilled a bottled water I had polished off with some tap water. (A decision I figured was safe because hey – we are in the states.) I got so sick from it, that after just an hour or so of Mar and I being back out and about, I had to go back to the room. I’ll spare you all the rest of the gory details. While it was an anti-climactic ending to the last day of our trip, we still had a blast leading up to it.

And the next day of our girls trip began with a morning on the water kayaking in Shem Creek! — I took it as a good omen my favorite brewery was represented

This was the first trip Mary took where she ever saw dolphins! It was quite exciting — I took it as a good omen my favorite brewery was represented

Day 4

Our flight didn’t leave until late afternoon, so we started the morning with breakfast at Millers All Day which was so damn delicious! I got the cheddar grits, a blueberry turnover, eggs, bacon and lavender iced tea and it did not disappoint. Next, we hit up Rainbow Row to see the colorful houses, and then checked out The Battery – a landmark defensive seawall from the Civil War. Afterwards, we still had time to kill, so we grabbed a beer right by our hotel at Salty Mike’s Deck Bar. If you haven’t gotten the theme by now, we ate and drank our way through South Carolina. Overall we had an absolute blast on our annual girls trip! In fact, I’d rather go back there again in a heartbeat!