In about December of last year, I had a talk with my mom about us both wanting to go away somewhere for a while just to get a break from the mundane, day to day grind. It had been almost 6 years since I had been on a vacation at all, so as you can probably imagine, I was dying to go away some where.

We had a couple destinations in mind, but ultimately decided on Charleston because it fit well with all the things we were looking for in our next destination. It’s a place we’d never been to and offered plenty of activities as well as beautiful views.

The day we left, I was so excited and being that we had a 7 hour drive, I felt like we we’re never going to get there. Is it just me or does it always seem to take forever for you get to where you want to be when your going on vacation?

We arrived at our Hotel at around 3 pm and got checked in and freshened up before we decided to go out to eat.

**Side Note: I completely failed on the blogger front because my intentions were to take a bunch of amazing photos, but I ended up with very few. I wish I could say I had a good reason, but I don’t. I guess I was having such a good time that all plans fell to the wayside.**

We stayed at the King Charles Inn, which is on meeting st. about a block away from king street which as most locals know, is a major shopping area.

It’s a beautiful hotel with great service. Need a good Restaurant recommendation? They’ve got you. They can even book a Tour for you if you want to know a little history about the town (which it is full of).  We booked a ghost tour because we thought it might be fun to be scared, and while it didn’t turn out to be what we expected (it was more a history of ghosts than actual scary type tour) it was still interesting and we met a few people from different parts of the country while on the tour.

After we finished “freshening” up from our long drive we left the hotel to go to dinner. We found a great restaurant close to our hotel called Hyman’s.

Lol, that’s my aunt and mom’s heads in the picture. 

Hyman’s is a well known seafood restaurant in Charleston where it’s visitors include a number of famous singers and actors as displayed on the walls. The service was really good but the food was UHMAZING! Seriously, it was the best seafood I’ve ever had and I’ve been to a lot of seafood restaurants in my time.

After we ate there, we headed back to the hotel and got some much needed rest. There’s nothing better than lying down in bed after a long drive.

The next morning we got up and did a little shopping and walked around town looking at all the different beautiful old houses. One thing I can definitely say about Charleston is that you get plenty of exercise through walking. It’s almost impossible to find parking and if you do, it usually costs an arm and a leg.

I didn’t mind much though because the cool breeze paired with the beautiful scenery and palm trees was very relaxing to me. I’ve always said that I would love to live by water because it calms me so much.

Walking around and seeing a lot of the town made me really  appreciate all the history and beautiful old buildings of Charleston, and while I also live in the south, none of our towns have quite the same historical elegance that Charleston has.

Another thing I really love about Charleston is the almost nonexistent access to free parking and I’m not being sarcastic in the slightest. Why would I possibly love this you might ask?

Well, for starters, yes driving is nice for when you have to drive long distances, but how many times can you say you walked around a town or city (excluding major cities of course)? Not only is it so beautiful and calming but it is the best workout you could ask for. Seriously, my legs hurt the next day from all the walking we did.

I said to my mom and aunt that I would love having a nice little apartment there in the middle of town with a cute little bike I could ride around everywhere and that would be a dream life for me.

That night, we decided to go on a Ghosts Of The South Tour, because I’m fascinated by the idea of ghosts and I though it would be scary and fun.

I think by far the scariest thing on our tour was our meeting place. When we were told to me up with our tour guide in a dimly lit part of town and in front of a random building, needless to say we were a little worried for our safety. Our fears were soon relinquished when we saw the other group of people meeting there as well and we got to talking with them.

This tour was more of a facts and history tour than a scary  one, regardless, we still enjoyed ourselves. One of my favorite spots we visited on the tour was Poogan’s Porch. The story goes that sometimes at night, staff and guests alike have seen the ghost of Zoe St. Amand, a woman whose mental state was deteriorating towards the end of her death and some think she stays behind at Poogan’s because it’s the last place she remembered living after she died.

The actual restaurant was named after a stray dog that kept showing up at the restaurant and would never leave so the restaurant owners decided to name the restaurant after him.

Last thing I wanted to mention about this trip was a cute little shop close to our hotel called Peace Pie. They were recommended to us by the staff at our hotel and what a great recommendation it was! This fairly new shop in Charleston sells all types of amazing ice cream sandwiches. Just look at the menu above and you can see all the delicious offerings they have! A huge bonus was the guy who served us was very friendly and seemed to really enjoy his job! It’s so refreshing to see someone that’s genuinely a happy person!

I would be lying if I didn’t say the one of the reasons why I went to Charleston was because a lot of the scenes from the notebook were filmed there. However, the main locations I wanted to take pictures of were not easily accessible to me so I didn’t get the chance to take those pictures. For one, Boone plantation (the place noah and ally stayed when ally had dementia) charges $20 a person to enter and I didn’t want to pay $20 just to take some pictures.

Secondly, I tried finding the American theater where noah and ally had their first date, but I had trouble finding it, mainly because there was another theater that looked very similar but had a different name and the other reason was because my gps refused to help me navigate king street while walking. It was still a very great trip non the less!

I enjoyed Charleston so much that I would seriously consider moving there. If you ever get the chance to visit, then you definitely should!

Thanks again for reading! Let me know below your favorite travel destination!