After our three days spent in Orlando, FL at Universal Studios (you can read our recaps here and here), Nick and I rented a car and set off on our four day, 1,200 mile road trip up the east coast and back home to Pittsburgh. We had a couple stops planned along the way, and our first was beautiful Charleston, South Carolina!
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After recommendations from a couple friends, we went to Zunzi's for lunch. I ordered the falafel and Nick ordered the mushroom sandwich. The food was absolutely incredible, and Nick says the sandwich is possibly the best sandwich he's ever had in his life (in his life, people!) So if you are ever swinging through Savannah, make sure you add Zunzi's to your list of places to check out!
When we arrived in Charleston, we checked in to our Airbnb and immediately headed in to town for dinner and drinks! We had less than 24 hours to spend in this city, so we wanted to make sure we soaked it in as much as possible. With help from friends, family, and A Beautiful Mess's guide to Charleston, we compiled a list of all the places we wanted to visit this time around.
First on the list was happy hour at The Gin Joint! We sipped a few cocktails and took this time to unwind from our long drive. The drinks were wonderful, the atmosphere was great, and our bartender was friendly and helpful. This is definitely a spot I could see myself visiting regularly if I was a local gal!
Next up was some dinner. We sniffed around a bit for some vegetarian options, and ultimately decided to go with the Gin Joint bartender's recommendation: Minero. According to him it had "the best vegetarian burrito he had ever had." (We later heard this sentiment at another establishment, so it must be true!) We decided to give it a go and yes, yes, yes, a thousand times YES! This burrito is out of the park, and if you need any excuses to visit Charleston, this burrito is the only excuse you need.
While we let our burritos digest (they were absolutely monstrous... the waitress told Nick he was the only person she had EVER seen eat the whole thing!), we decided to roam around a bit and see the sites. The streets are teeming with old Southern feel, beautiful architecture, and bright colors. It's a fantastic city to explore.
We made sure to stop and visit the famous Rainbow Row (top photo), however it was tough getting a nice photo with the cars and trees. To round out our only evening in Charleston (this time) we stopped for delicious ice cream from Kilwin's and a few beers from a local brew pub, Southend Brewery.
The next morning we woke up bright and early and headed to the beach! Folly Beach, to be exact. This little town was full of the most colorful beach houses. I wish we could have spent more time there exploring the town, but the 101 degree heat was a little much so we headed back to Charleston sooner than anticipated. We did have time to grab an absolutely delicious breakfast from the Lost Dog Cafe and dip our toes in the ocean!
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Since going to Folly Beach I've had a lot of people tell me they've visited before or their parents visit every summer, etc. I'm definitely going to keep it in mind the next time Nick and I decide to plan a beach vacation!
We planned to get lunch back in Charleston before leaving town, but still stuffed from breakfast, we decided to stop into High Wire Distilling Co. to kill some time. A sample flight of their spirits was only $5 and everything was delicious! We tried their vodka, rum, bourbon, gin, and aged gin. Definitely worth the $5 visit!
Before heading out on the next leg of our roadtrip, we stopped for lunch at Butcher & Bee! We weren't that hungry so we decided to split the fig toast, which was soooo good. I would love to come back here and try more on the menu. We also grabbed coffee from The Daily, which is Butcher & Bee's Stumptown roasting coffee shop. I ordered a latte made with homemade almond milk and homemade vanilla bean syrup. Superb!
The Daily, Butcher & Bee, and High Wire Distilling are all right next door to each other, which was super convenient (breakfast, lunch, and happy hour!) They are also neighbored by a huge Shepard Fairey mural, which was so cool to see.
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And.... that's it! Less than 24 hours in Charleston and we were back in the car to head to Raleigh, North Carolina! We loved seeing Charleston so much and definitely plan on visiting again in the future to hit all of the places we didn't get to see this time around.
Have you visited Charleston or Folly Beach before? Any recommendations for next time? Make sure you stick around because we'll be recapping our visit in Raleigh soon too!
Sarah & Nick
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