OurCoast.com :: Outdoors

Courtesy Best Read Guide

Whether you ride down cobblestone streets or walk among fully bloomed flora, you'll find that charming Charleston is the perfect day trip from which to get a true taste of the Lowcountry. Her history and her beauty will soon engulf you. Patriots Point at Charleston Harbor is the city's number-one attraction and home to the USS Yorktown, World War II's "Fighting Lady." And while you're mulling the maritime choices, consider tours of White Point Gardens or Fort Sumter, which was the target for the first shot of the Civil War. Across the harbor, meanwhile, is Fort Moultrie, a battle site during the American Revolution.

The Historic District downtown is the place for a carriage tour or perhaps a walking tour, from which you can see centuries-old churches that have resulted in a Charleston nickname, "The Holy City." Visit the Charleston Museum and its exhibit, "City Under Siege: Charleston in the War Between the States." Or perhaps you must see one of the newest attractions, the South Carolina Aquarium, where you'll see a mountain gorge with cascading waterfalls, as well as the country's deepest ocean tank with several marine animals, including several species of fish, moray eels and sharks. Speaking of nature, Cypress Gardens is a Charleston beauty to behold with its acres upon acres of blooming flowers. Or there's the tranquil beauty of Magnolia Plantation, which draws you back to centuries past. Both Cypress and Magnolia allow you to get closer with nature with the tours they offer. And then there's Boone Hall, the plantation everyone wants to see because it inspired the classic book and movie, "Gone with the Wind." Indeed, Charleston is a destination of choices. That's why many find the Visitors Reception and Travel Center - 375 Meeting Street, phone (843) 853-8000 - to be the best stop to make first. The helpful attendants there will match time with itinerary.