A few weeks ago my husband Chandler and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary exploring South Carolina. Neither of us had been to SC before and after doing a ton of research and reading nothing but amazing things we decided to go there for our week-long adventure. Our plan was to visit Greenville for a few nights and then head down to Charleston for the last half of the trip.
We were really feeling adventurous while planning this trip and decided to book a tiny home out in the woods to stay in for our first few nights in Greenville. We have always been so intrigued by tiny house life so we figured now would be the perfect time to see what it's like! Not to mention booking a tiny home is extremely affordable! I'll have the one we stayed in linked below. The actual house was 20 minutes north of the city in a small town called Travelers Rest. It was right in between the city of Greenville and all the hiking we wanted to do so it ended up being perfect! The tiny home was so dreamy and romantic and looked like it was straight out of a novel. There was a rope stairway that led down into the woods to the front door which was so cool. Once you're down at the front door you're surrounded by nothing but woods. If you are needing a place to unwind, unplug and connect with someone you love, this is definitely the place for you. Our stay in Travelers Rest/Greenville was the perfect combination of adventurous mountain life mixed with fun and relaxing city life.
Hiking was probably one of our favorite parts of the whole trip. We hiked Ceaser's Head and Raven Falls all in one day. Other than the view at Ceaser's Head lookout point I would definitely say Raven Falls was our favorite! If you are feeling super adventurous, go the extra 4 hours to the waterfall on this hike! We definitely would've done so if we had known about it beforehand. You can still get a great hike in and see the waterfall from a lookout without going an extra 4 hours on top of the hour or so that it already takes. After our day of hiking, we drove an hour up to Asheville to visit some breweries that Chandler had been wanting to see. We ended up liking Greenman Brewery a lot and met some amazing locals there. After our full day of hiking, we decided to relax in the city the day after and really take in more of Greenville. We actually ended up loving this city so much that we extended our Greenville stay and booked a hotel right in the heart of the city for one more night and shortened our Charleston stay! It's that good. You have to go check it out if you've never been! Listed below will be some of our favorite spots and restaurants. :)
After spending as much time as we possibly could in Greenville, we packed up and headed to Charleston. That little town is an absolute gem. We left Greenville thinking that it would be really hard to top it but the charm and history of Charleston are what really got us. We told ourselves that the last part of the trip was where most of our budget would go. We would get all of our hiking and adventuring out and then come to Charleston to relax and unwind and that is exactly what we did. We booked two nights at The Restoration Hotel and it was magical. This little boutique hotel is in an incredible location, has such a beautiful aesthetic, and an amazing spa. I knew when I walked in and saw that they were using doTERRA products throughout the hotel we had found a winner! Ha. But seriously, if you are looking for the perfect relaxing getaway for a few nights, this place was amazing and walking distance from almost anything you would want to do or see in Charleston. Other than our incredible trip to The Amethyst Spa at the hotel, one of my favorite memories of Charleston was walking down the streets of the city with Chandler, hand in hand late at night after everything had closed. We walked from our hotel all the way down to the water at The Battery. It was a lot of fun!
I won't go on too much longer because we actually recorded a ton of our trip and compiled all of our favorite moments into a video! I hope you enjoy!
Keep scrolling to find our favorite restaurants, stores, and things to do!
Where we stayed and our favorite spots:
The tiny home Airbnb that we stayed at: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15233421?s=51
Hiking: Ceaser's Head & Raven Falls. Both very close to each other and perfect intermediate hikes.
Delicious breakfast place on our way to hike: Cedar Mountain Cafe in NC. They were very accommodating to our plant-based diet which was a pleasant surprise!
Brewery & vegan dinner spot in Asheville: Greenman Brewery was great and had a quieter/classier vibe than most breweries. The staff was very friendly and recommended Rosetta's kitchen to us for dinner. We got the vegan pad thai and it was amazing! I'm still trying to re-create it.
Coffee Underground in Greenville
Methodical Coffee in Greenville - Some of the best coffee we've ever had!
Biscuit Head in Greenville - The vegan biscuits and gravy were SO good.
Tupelo Honey in Greenville - We had a great brunch here.
The Lazy Goat - Not very many plant-based options but it was a really pretty romantic setting with an awesome view.
Poppington's Gourmet Popcorn in Greenville has really yummy popcorn. We went back here twice.
If you love to see shows, ballets, etc. The Peace Center is right in the city of Greenville and had a show going on the entire weekend that we were there. They sell out fast so make sure to book tickets ahead of time. :)
And last but not least, if you end up LOVING Greenville as much as we did, you can get really unique and non-touristy Greenville shirts, sweatshirts, hats, etc. as Billiam Jeans.
In Charleston, SC we stayed at The Restoration Hotel: http://www.therestorationhotel.com
The restaurant at the hotel called "The Watch" was incredible for dinner. Highly recommend!
Charleston in and of itself is unique and beautiful and definitely worth taking a trip to see. We loved just walking along the streets and checking out the local restaurants and shops. :)
These were just a few of our favorites but there were honestly so many other spots that we didn't have time to try out during our visit. We will definitely go back one day with more time to spend exploring and enjoying this beautiful state.
Any recommendations for where we should go next? Leave them in the comments below!
Thank you so much for reading,
-Faith