Charleston Activities and Landmarks

Stand on the site of the first shot in the Civil War. Come face to face with a giant sea turtle. Take a tour of an antebellum mansion. Climb aboard a WWII aircraft carrier. There are so many blossoming gardens, so many photo opportunities and so many reasons to come to Charleston!

 Middleton Place: This was the home of Henry Middleton, president of the First Continental Congress, whose son, Arthur, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Today, this National Historic Landmark includes America's oldest landscaped gardens, the Middleton Place House, and the Plantation Stableyards. www.middletonplace.org

H.L. Hunley Confederate Museum: The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, a hand-cranked vessel fashioned of locomotive boilers, sank the Union blockade vessel USS Housatonic in February of 1864. The sinking of the Union ship launched the age of submarine warfare. The submarine and its nine-member crew mysteriously vanished off Sullivan's Island shortly after completing its historic mission. The sub, which rests in a tank of 50°F water, can only be visited weekends on 20-minute tours.  www.hunley.org

Charles Towne Landing: This 663-acre park is located on the site of the first 1670 settlement. A full-scale reproduction of the 17th-century trading vessel Adventure is an excellent addition to the site. After touring the ship, you can step into the Settler's Life Area and view a 17th-century crop garden where rice, indigo, and cotton were grown. There's no flashy theme-park atmosphere here: What you see as you walk under huge old oaks, past freshwater lagoons, and through the Animal Forest (with the same species that lived here in 1670) is what those early settlers saw. www.discoversouthcarolina.com

Fort Sumter National Monument: It was here that the first shot of the Civil War was fired on April 12, 1861. Confederate forces launched a 34-hour bombardment of the fort. Park rangers today are on hand to answer your questions, and you can explore gun emplacements and visit a small museum filled with artifacts related to the siege. A complete tour of the fort, conducted daily from 9am to 5pm, takes about 2 hours. www.spiritcruises.com

Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum: The 888-foot aircraft carrier Yorktown is on display along with destroyers, cutters, and submarines.  The Congressional Medal of Honor Museum and the Cold War Submarine Memorial are also included.  www.patriotspoint.org

Cypress Gardens: This 163-acre swamp garden was used as a freshwater reserve for Dean Hall, a huge Cooper River rice plantation, and was given to the city in 1963. Today, the giant cypress trees draped with Spanish moss provide an unforgettable setting for flat-bottom boats that glide among their knobby roots. www.cypressgardens.com

The Citadel: The campus of the Military College of South Carolina features buildings of Moorish design, with crenellated battlements and sentry towers. It is especially interesting to visit on Friday, when the college is in session and the public is invited to a precision-drill parade on the quadrangle at 3:45pm.  www.citadel.edu

South Carolina Aquarium: Jutting into the Charleston Harbor for 2,000 feet, the focal point at this attraction, which opened in 2000, is a 93,000-square-foot aquarium featuring a two-story Great Ocean Tank Exhibition. Contained within are more than 800 animals, including deadly sharks but also sea turtles and stingrays.  www.scaquarium.org

Boone Hall Plantation & Gardens: This unique plantation is approached by a famous Avenue of Oaks, huge old moss-draped trees planted in 1743 by Captain Thomas Boone. The first floor of the plantation house is elegantly furnished and open to the public.  www.boonehallplantation.com

Fort Moultrie: Only a palmetto-log fortification at the time of the American Revolution, the half-completed fort was attacked by a British fleet in 1776. Colonel William Moultrie's troops repelled the invasion in one of the first decisive American victories of the Revolution. www.nps.gov/fosu/historyculture/fort_moultrie.htm