- Where
- Coast of South Carolina
Ashley and Cooper rivers - Coordinates
- 32.78° N
79.93° W - Founded
- 1670 as Charles Town
on the peninsula from 1680 - Population
- 150,227 (2020 census)
- Fort Sumter
- First shots of the Civil War
12 April 1861 - Getting there
- Charleston International Airport (CHS)
- Best visited
- Spring and autumn;
hurricane season June to November - Advisory
- United States
(no State Department level)
Tall narrow houses in sugared-almond colours, side porches turned away from the street, and church steeples wherever I looked up. By the road out of town, people sat weaving baskets from grass, and I watched one grow a whole coil while I stood there. Out in the harbour a low fort sat on the water, and the boat there rocked me into a good mood I am still in.
The short answer
Charleston was founded by the English as Charles Town in 1670, named for King Charles II, and moved in 1680 to a peninsula where the Ashley and Cooper rivers meet to form Charleston Harbor, Wikipedia records; 150,227 people lived in the city at the 2020 census. Its economy rests on tourism, the port and manufacturing. Charleston was a primary entry point for enslaved Africans: almost one half of the enslaved people imported to the United States arrived there, Wikipedia records, and in 2018 the city formally apologised for its role in the American slave trade. The historic district runs down the peninsula to the Battery, a seawall and promenade beside White Point Garden, past Rainbow Row, thirteen houses at 79 to 107 East Bay Street painted in pastel colours. Fort Sumter, a National Park Service site in the harbour, is where Confederate batteries opened the Civil War on 12 April 1861. Charleston’s many church spires are one explanation for its nickname, the Holy City; Wikipedia also records that it may have begun as a mockery of the city’s self-regard.
Why it's worth knowing
The houses. Rainbow Row’s thirteen houses date mostly from the late 1700s, many rebuilt after a fire of 1778; the newest, 79–81 East Bay, dates from about 1845, Wikipedia records. In the 1920s Susan Pringle Frost, founder of what became the Preservation Society of Charleston, bought six of them; in 1931 Dorothy Haskell Porcher Legge began restoring 99–101 East Bay and painted it pink, on a colonial Caribbean colour scheme, and others followed until most were restored by 1945. The story that the colours guided drunken sailors home is a popular myth with no source behind it, the article notes. The city survived an earthquake of about magnitude 7.0 on 31 August 1886, which damaged some 2,000 buildings, and Hurricane Hugo, which came ashore at the harbour on 21 September 1989 and damaged about three-quarters of the houses in the historic district.
Gullah. Along the Sea Islands and the Lowcountry, the Gullah people keep a creole language of their own, still spoken by some African American residents, Wikipedia records, though it has declined with development since 1980. One living craft from that culture is the sweetgrass basket, first made for the rice fields; makers have sold their baskets from stands along US Highway 17 north of Mount Pleasant, across the Cooper River, since at least the 1930s, by the Mount Pleasant historical society’s account (indexed). In 1984 the basket maker Mary Jane Manigault, who ran a stand on Highway 17, received a National Heritage Fellowship, the federal government’s highest honour in the folk and traditional arts (Wikipedia).
The field notes
The fort in the harbour
Fort Sumter can be reached only by the concessioner’s boat, from Liberty Square downtown or from Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant; the Park Service charges no entrance fee to the fort itself. Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan’s Island, is reached by car and covers, by the Park Service’s count, 171 years of coastal defence from the Revolution to the Second World War; it charges $10 an adult, and there is no transport between the two forts. Among the city’s museums is the International African American Museum, on Wharfside Street.
High water
The peninsula is low, and its tidal rivers mark what Wikipedia calls a drowned coastline. High tides now flood streets in the historic district on sunny days: the Post and Courier counted 18 coastal flooding events in Charleston in October 2025 (indexed), and South Carolina’s environmental agency predicts king tides on 26 to 29 October 2026 (indexed). Tours, including boats to Fort Sumter, can be cancelled for flooding and storms.
Painted houses along Rainbow Row, 2024.
Photograph: Kenneth Sørensen via Unsplash · Unsplash licence
Broad Street toward St Michael's steeple, 2023.
Photograph: Jake Warren via Unsplash · Unsplash licence
Brick casemates inside the walls of Fort Sumter, 2012.
Photograph: Rennett Stowe · Inside the Walls of Fort Sumter (7639250542) · CC BY 2.0
Sweetgrass baskets on a stall in the City Market, Charleston, 2015.
Photograph: Balou46 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
- Go out at dawn while the pavements are still cool, and look upwards: ironwork, porches, steeples.
- Find the pinkest house on the row. (Compared each candidate against the paper in turn. The paper came away faintly blushing.)
- Take the boat to the fort in the harbour, and see every corner of it before the horn calls you back.
- Buy a basket from the person who made it, and ask before you take their picture. It is somebody’s work, and a great deal of it.
- Walk along the seawall at the end of the day, when the breeze comes off the harbour and the whole town seems to sit down at once.
A sweetgrass basket. Coiled by hand from sweetgrass and bulrush, bound with strips of palmetto, Gullah sweetgrass baskets began as tools of the Lowcountry rice fields, Wikipedia records, and grew into household and church baskets. Makers sell them at stands along US Highway 17 north of Mount Pleasant, as they have since at least the 1930s, by the Mount Pleasant historical society’s account (indexed). Each one is coiled by hand, round and round from a tight centre.
Tally, in the marginIt begins as a tight little knot of grass and goes round and round until it can hold something. I watched one being made for a good part of an afternoon; it grew very little and very beautifully, and its maker never once looked at the clock. I have stopped calling my list slow.
Getting there
How to get there. By air to Charleston International Airport (CHS), or by road. The historic district is compact and walkable. For Fort Sumter, the boats leave from the Fort Sumter Visitor Center at Liberty Square (340 Concord Street; parking in the city garage at 24 Calhoun Street) and from Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant, the Park Service says.
When to go. Spring and autumn are the comfortable seasons; summers are hot and humid. The Atlantic hurricane season, which the National Hurricane Center dates from 1 June to 30 November, brings storms and flooding, and king tides flood low streets several times a year; the National Weather Service and the tour operators post forecasts and cancellations.
What to arrange ahead. For Fort Sumter, as of 20 October 2026 the Park Service’s fees page (updated 31 July 2026) says the fort charges no entrance fee, but the ferry ticket is required, sold only by the authorised concessioner, Fort Sumter Tours, online, by phone or in person; ferry fares are not covered by annual passes or fee-free days, and only cards and contactless payments are accepted. Fort Moultrie charges $10 an adult. Book the boat ahead in high season. Buy sweetgrass baskets from the makers’ own stands, and expect to pay for skilled handwork.
Safety. The State Department’s travel advisories cover other countries, so none applies here. The hazards are the coast’s own: summer heat, hurricanes and tidal flooding, which can close streets in the historic district at high water.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is Charleston?
Charleston is a port city on the coast of South Carolina, on a peninsula where the Ashley and Cooper rivers meet to form Charleston Harbor. Founded as Charles Town in 1670, it moved to the peninsula in 1680; it is served by Charleston International Airport (CHS).
Why are the houses on Rainbow Row painted different colours?
The pastel colours of Rainbow Row, thirteen houses at 79 to 107 East Bay Street in Charleston, date from restorations from 1931, when Dorothy Haskell Porcher Legge painted 99–101 East Bay pink on a colonial Caribbean colour scheme, Wikipedia records. The stories about guiding drunken sailors are unsourced myths.
How do you get to Fort Sumter?
Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, can be reached only by the boats of Fort Sumter Tours, the National Park Service’s authorised concessioner, from Liberty Square downtown or from Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant. The fort has no entrance fee, but the ferry ticket is required and is not covered by annual passes.
Where did the Civil War start?
The Civil War began on 12 April 1861, when Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, Wikipedia records. The fort is a National Park Service site, reached only by the concessioner’s boat.
What are Charleston sweetgrass baskets?
Sweetgrass baskets are coiled baskets made by Gullah makers in the Charleston area of South Carolina, a craft first used in the rice fields. Makers have sold them from stands along US Highway 17 near Mount Pleasant since at least the 1930s, by the Mount Pleasant historical society’s account.
When is the best time to visit Charleston?
Spring and autumn are the comfortable seasons in Charleston, South Carolina; summers are hot and humid, and the Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November. King tides flood low streets in the historic district several times a year.
Why is Charleston called the Holy City?
Charleston, South Carolina, is called the Holy City, a nickname usually linked to its many church spires. Wikipedia records that the term was coined in the twentieth century and may have begun as a joke about Charlestonians’ self-satisfaction.