What should I avoid in Charleston?

The restaurants flanking the City Market between Meeting Street and East Bay post hosts on the sidewalk waving laminated menus at anyone who slows down. That's the signal to keep walking. A plate of shrimp and grits in this corridor runs $28-34 and tends to arrive lukewarm, the cream sauce thick enough to mask the fact the shrimp were frozen. Walk 4 blocks north to Upper King Street instead. Leon's Oyster Shop does a fried chicken sandwich for around $16 that smells like properly rendered lard, served in a tiled room loud enough that you have to lean in to order. The Darling Oyster Bar, also on Upper King, charges around $22 for a Lowcountry boil that steams when it hits the table. If someone near the Market hands you a woven palmetto rose and then asks for $10, that's not a gift. It's a sale.

Carriage tours south of Broad Street charge $40-50 per adult for a 1-hour loop, but a city-run lottery at the corner of North Market and Anson Street determines your route. You might get Rainbow Row's pastel facades, or you might get 45 minutes of warehouse backs along East Bay. Walking those same streets costs nothing and takes 40 minutes at a slow pace. Ghost tours are the other oversaturated product. At least 15 companies run nightly walks, most covering the same stops. The Old Jail on Magazine Street, the Unitarian Church graveyard on Archdale, Poogan's Porch on Queen Street. The $25 ticket buys 90 minutes of rehearsed stories you could find on a free podcast. Mind you, the Old Jail tour through Bulldog Tours is the one locals tend to recommend if you insist on going. Book the 8pm slot, not the 10pm.

August in Charleston feels like breathing through a warm wet cloth. The temperature at 5am might sit at 25°C, but by noon it reaches 35°C with humidity pushing 89%, and the heat index climbs past 40°C. Afternoon thunderstorms roll in almost daily between June and September, dropping hard enough to flood low-lying sections of Calhoun Street within 20 minutes. Hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, and the city sits at sea level. Charleston recorded over 80 tidal flood events in 2023 without a single hurricane needed. No-see-ums, the biting sand gnats that swarm the waterfront, are worst at dawn and dusk near the Battery from April through October. DEET helps. Long sleeves past 6pm help more. Don't plan a full walking day in July or August. Go before 10am, retreat to air conditioning by noon, resume at 5pm when the pavement stops radiating heat into your shoes.

Driving onto the peninsula is the biggest first-timer mistake. Street parking south of Calhoun Street costs $2 per hour with a 2-hour maximum, and the meter enforcement officers write tickets within minutes of expiration. Park at the Visitor Center garage on Meeting Street for $18 per day and walk from there. The peninsula is 1.5 miles wide, so most destinations sit within a 20-minute walk. TTDI rates Charleston at 6.8 for solo-traveler safety. That said, the blocks along upper Meeting Street north of Line Street feel noticeably emptier after 10pm. The city currently holds a 5.8 LGBTQ+ friendliness score. Visible affection draws more looks outside the Upper King corridor than you might expect from a city this popular with tourists.