South Carolina

Quentin Baxter is a native Charlestonian, world-class drummer, and musical director of the Charleston Jazz Initiative. “There are a lot of restaurants where the music is part of the experience—this has been a big part...

Since Southbound debuted in 2013, our staff and contributors have logged thousands of miles, consumed millions of calories, and taken countless notes and photos to showcase the very best destinations around the region. Although every place we’ve covered is special, some left a particularly powerful impression. Here, we give you the best of the very best, our favorite spots in the South.

The South Carolina capital’s downtown streets are a hub of eclectic eateries, chic bars, and cultural institutions that crackle with character.

If you want to know a man, visit a place he loved. For the late novelist Pat Conroy, that place was Beaufort, South Carolina.

Stepping off bustling North Market Street into the Planters Inn is like stumbling upon your own secret oasis. The immediate calm of the elegant lobby is merely a precursor to the tranquility of the garden courtyard, where, enchanted amid the lush greenery, you are likely to forget you have a hotel suite waiting to be explored.

Bejeweled at both ends by historic riverfront mansions and ancient live oaks, with a dynamic commercial district in between, Bay Street in downtown Beaufort seems a microcosm of the city: a place where Old South and New South peacefully coexist.

Nestled in the backwoods of Upstate South Carolina, Clemson is home to a vibrant college community and storied football program; it’s also an outstanding example of a small town done right.

In North Carolina, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians found a way to take care of their people: In 1997, they opened a casino on their lands. Now South Carolina’s Catawba tribe wants to do the same. But there is a problem.

To enter Kiawah Island, you must pass through a security gate. To pass through said security gate, you must have a reservation. And reservations are not easy to come by on this South Carolina barrier island.

Established in 2003, Congaree is one of the country’s newest national parks, yet it boasts the southeastern United States’ largest expanse of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest.