Nice Article about Charleston

Oil Spill Tourists Flocking to Charleston

By Rod Pennington

Apparently from Galveston to Tampa the beaches are not as crowded as usual this Fourth of July weekend. Something about the image of oil-soaked pelicans and the live internet feed of crude gushing underwater a few miles off shore has caused the Gulf coast to lose some of it’s charm.

Sullivan's Island, just outside Charleston, SC

Where have all of these sun-seekers gone? Many, apparently, have headed to South Carolina. We were on Sullivan’s Island on Saturday and the beach there hadn’t seen this much action since Hurricane Hugo came ashore in 1989. Normally Folly Beach, on the other side of the mouth to Charleston harbor, is the area packed with tourists this time of year.

Sullivan’s Island, a quiet bedroom community, while not it’s rich cousin of Kiawah a few miles south in Charleston county, still requires a check starting with a “3” followed by six zeros to buy oceanfront. Usually Sullivan’s is where the locals head at the height of tourist season to avoid the crowds. Not this year.

Living in an area on nearly everyone’s list of top ten tourist destinations in America, the folks in Charleston are used to a few visitors. This year, however, they haven’t seen this many Yankees since General William Tecumseh Sherman arrived with the Union Army for spring break in 1865.

USS Yorktown with the Revenel Bridge in the background.

The Historic District is packed. There are so many people on the USS Yorktown at Patriot’s Point it is starting to list. A good tee time or tables at any of Charleston’s outstanding restaurants, forget about it.

Many of the folks prowling the streets are obviously first time visitors. They are easy to spot. They send the entire day walking around the “South of Broad” historic district with their mouths open. With so many antebellum mansions, most with historical markers on their street side wall, it can be overwhelming for a Charleston Rookie, particularly this time of year.

Middleton Place

With the Spoleto Festival just over, all of the gardens, particularly those partially hidden behind stone walls in the historic district, are at their peak. The amazing plantations a few miles up the Ashley River from downtown Charleston are busy as well. Drayton Hall, one of the few southern plantations to survive the Civil War intact, was built before the American Revolution. Middleton Place – where they filmed the movie “The Patriot” – is considered one of the world’s great botanical treasures.

Drayton Hall

After a few soft tourist seasons it is nice to see the local shops and restaurants busy. Y’all come on down. Eat some shrimp and grits and snack on a few benne wafers. Maybe, if you’re nice, those ladies weaving the sweetgrass baskets on Market Street will teach you a few words of Gullah.

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