Can I leave the airport on a layover in Charleston?

Here is how five hours breaks down at CHS. Leaving the single terminal takes about 15 minutes, and the two rideshare legs together use up nearly an hour. You then need 75 minutes back at the airport for a domestic departure, or two hours for the seasonal London and Toronto flights. TSA at CHS usually takes 10 to 20 minutes, but on Friday afternoons and Sunday evenings the line can run well past that. CARTA runs a cheaper airport bus to the Visitor Center on Meeting Street for a couple of dollars, though it takes 45 to 60 minutes and comes about once an hour, so we'd save it for connections with genuine slack in the schedule. CHS has no public lockers, as at most US airports. Travel with a carry-on, or keep your bag checked through.

Our route for two hours on the peninsula starts at Charleston City Market on Market Street. Gullah weavers sit at the sheds working sweetgrass baskets, and the dry grass smell carries down the aisles. From there, walk south on East Bay Street past the pastel row houses of Rainbow Row to the Battery seawall and White Point Garden, about 1.2 miles on uneven flagstones that take roughly 25 minutes, so wear proper shoes. At low tide the harbor gives off a sulphurous pluff-mud smell that locals swear they stop noticing. Fort Sumter is the stop we would leave out. The Liberty Square ferry and its hour on the island take about two and a quarter hours, which needs a connection of eight hours or more. Skip the white-tablecloth rooms on lower King Street if you're eating alone, since tables there are mostly booked for two. Rodney Scott's BBQ on upper King has counter ordering, whole-hog pork and no reservations.

If your layover falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley is the closest worthwhile stop to the runway, sitting in a conservation tank at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston, which opens to the public only on weekends. With seven hours or more, cross the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge to Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant, where you can walk the flight deck of the USS Yorktown, an Essex-class carrier. Plan on at least two hours on board.

We rate Charleston 6.8/10 for solo safety (see the TTDI Solo-Safety Index), and the details behind that number matter more than the score itself. In daylight, the streets south of Calhoun Street are busy and well policed. After dark, King Street stays crowded with bar-hoppers from Thursday to Saturday, but north of the Crosstown (US-17) the sidewalks empty fast, so take a rideshare rather than walking those blocks. Don't try to walk anywhere from the airport. The Rivers Avenue corridor in North Charleston has higher crime figures and stretches with no sidewalk at all. Car break-ins are the crime visitors report most often, which is one more reason to skip a rental for a short stay. On 19 October it was clear and 17.5°C, but harbor wind at the Battery feels colder, so bring a layer. On an overnight connection on Tuesday 20 October, Chucho Valdés plays his 85th-birthday show at the Gaillard Center.