Arrive in Charleston, SC and check into your Charleston area hotel for a three night stay.  Dinner is on your own this evening.

This morning, enjoy a one hour carriage tour covering more than 2.5 miles and 30 blocks of historic Charleston.  Charleston is notably the most historic city in America and has many historic areas and attractions which are best visited by carriage tour.  Clippity clop your way back to Colonial times where a horse-drawn carriage tour will reveal more than 300 years of history including antebellum mansions, churches, and cobblestone streets.  This is the very best way to see the city and to learn about its rich and vast historical areas and attractions.

The tour is followed by free time at the Old City Market for shopping and lunch on own.  It’s four blocks of open-air buildings where you will encounter a wide assortment of vendors selling high quality products including paintings, pottery, Charleston’s famous sweetgrass baskets, plus both casual and fine dining for lunch.

The afternoon features a boat ride to Fort Sumter Tour, the island fort where the Civil War began.  Historians will provide detailed information about the fort and its pivotal role in the War between the States.  There is a museum with fascinating exhibits and a small gift shop for your enjoyment.

Dinner this evening is included at the Charleston Crab House at James Island.  Charleston Crab House, has been family owned and operated for over 30 years!  This restaurant is waterfront and has amazing views of Wappoo Creek.  All of the menu items are made with the freshest ingredients, from the greens in the salads to the seafood on your plate.  Experience excellent low-country seafood with a waterfront view from the deck (weather permitting). (B,D)

Start the day with a visit to the Boone Hall Plantation, one of America’s most photographed plantations.  Established in 1681, Boone Hall is on the National Register of Historic Places because of its significant brick buildings and its contribution to history of the Carolina Lowcountry.  This tour included the 1936 house and nine original brick slave cabins which feature a Black History In America exhibit.

At the end of the tour you participate in Boone Hall’s Gullah Luncheon Program.  With private table seating underneath the Pavilion located on Boone Hall’s beautiful back lawn you are served a delicious southern style farm-to-table luncheon prepared exclusively for your  group.  During the meal a storyteller will outline the rich history of the Gullah Culture.

The afternoon features a tour of the Charleston Tea Garden.  Here you will see acre after acre of tea plants and learn first-hand how it is made during the Factory Tour.  This visit includes a trolley ride through the Tea Fields.  American Classic Tea is the only tea grown in America.  The gift shop carries a vast variety of teapots and accessories, as well as souvenirs.  Each person receives a cloth reusable “goodie” bag.

If this hasn’t been enough fun so far, dinner this evening at the “5Church Restaurant.”  This is such a cool place.  Great vibe, wonderful food and service!  It is a beautifully repurposed church that is over 100 years old.  It’s incredibly decorated with a cutting edge design, set in a casual yet refined atmosphere.  Serving New American Cuisine.

Following dinner, enjoy a performance of “The Sound of Charleston.”  You’ll hear the sounds that define Charleston, South Carolina and its unique southern charm – jazz, gospel, Gershwin, Gullah, spirituals, Civil War songs – coming to life in historic Circular Congregational Church.

For over three centuries, Charleston’s musical heritage has been as diverse as the people who’ve lived here – haunting spirituals of slaves first arriving in America through the port; Civil War camp songs from both sides in this place where the first shots were fired; pieces such as Amazing Grace and Pachelbel’s Canon that are wonderfully connected to the history of this great city; and, of course, “Porgy and Bess,” inspired and composed in Charleston by the incomparable George Gershwin.  This is but a snapshot of the rich array of music that makes up The Sound of Charleston. (B,L,D)

After breakfast, depart for home. (B)