A coastal drive through the Lowcountry — from Georgia’s moss-draped squares to South Carolina’s painted waterfront
Quick essentials
| Distance — coastal route (recommended) | 127 miles (204 km) |
| Distance — I-95 direct | 106 miles (171 km) |
| Drive time — coastal, no stops | ~2 hours 30 minutes |
| Drive time — I-95 direct | ~1 hour 53 minutes |
| Recommended trip length | 4–7 days |
| Best time to go | March–May or October–November |
| Fuel cost — direct route, average vehicle | ~$20–22 USD |
The drive worth taking
The first thing you notice when you pull out of Savannah isn’t the road ahead — it’s the smell. Tidal water and warm mud, salt carried in on a sea breeze from somewhere just past the tree line. That’s pluff mud: the Lowcountry’s particular perfume, the scent of estuary at low tide, and once you’ve placed it, you’ll know every time you’re back in this part of the world.
The drive from Savannah, Georgia, to Charleston, South Carolina, covers around 106 miles (171 km). By interstate, you’re there in under two hours. But the interstate misses almost everything worth seeing.
The better road — the one that earns the words “road trip” — follows the coast on US-17 and SC-17, threading through the ACE Basin, the Sea Islands, the old port town of Beaufort, and the art-gallery village of Bluffton. It adds about 40 minutes and gives you an entirely different journey.
This guide is built around the coastal route.
Choosing your route
The coastal route (recommended)
Leave Savannah on US-17 North, cross the Savannah River, and stay on SC-17 through the marshes and live-oak corridors of the South Carolina coast. You’ll pass through the fringes of the ACE Basin — one of the largest undeveloped estuaries on the East Coast — and reach Bluffton about 35 miles (56 km) from downtown Savannah. From Bluffton, it’s another 18 miles (29 km) to Beaufort. Continue north through tidal inlets and tobacco-flat farmland, and you’ll reach Charleston’s peninsula after roughly 127 miles (204 km) total.
The road is slow in places, occasionally backed up through Beaufort, and lined with the kind of unmediated coastal geography that the interstate deliberately avoids: saltwater creeks, shrimp-boat marinas, cordgrass bending in the same direction.
The I-95 direct route
Take I-16 East out of Savannah, merge onto I-95 North, and exit at junction 33 onto US-17 toward Charleston. It’s 106 miles (171 km), about 1 hour 53 minutes — practical and efficient. Use it if time is genuinely the constraint. Otherwise, the coastal route is the better choice by a significant margin.
Savannah, Georgia
Allow at least two full days. Three is better.
The Historic District
The Historic District is the largest National Historic Landmark District in the United States — not a designation so much as a scale. Over 20 city squares, each anchored by a monument, a fountain, or a grove of live oaks draped in Spanish moss that moves in slow curtains when there’s any breeze at all. Walking through in the early morning, before the tour groups arrive, is the quietest kind of luxury: brick pavements, painted shutters, the sound of someone sweeping a porch somewhere just out of sight.
The squares are the city’s organizing principle. Walk to Monterey Square — the most intact, with the Mercer Williams House on one flank — and to Troup Square, where a working armillary sphere sits at the center and locals actually use the park. Visit the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon (122 E. Bay St.) and the Owens-Thomas House (124 Abercorn St.), which has one of the most thoughtful presentations of urban enslaved life in the South.
Forsyth Park
Two miles (3.2 km) south of the Historic District’s heart, Forsyth Park is 30 acres of open lawn anchored by a cast-iron fountain that’s been photographed so many times it’s become almost abstract. Come in the afternoon, when the light falls at an angle through the trees and the art students sit on the grass with their sketchbooks.
The park has a children’s playground, a farmers’ market on Saturday mornings, and a concert stage that heats up in summer. If you’re there in the evening, the fountain gets lit from below and there’s usually someone on the north end selling pralines from a cart. Get one.
River Street
Nine blocks of repurposed 19th-century cotton warehouses along the Savannah River, now occupied by galleries, bars, restaurants, and souvenir shops. It’s unapologetically touristy — but it still has texture. The River Street Marketplace carries genuine handmade craft alongside the fridge magnets. The Savannah Riverboat Company runs sightseeing cruises from the docks; the sunset on the water on a clear evening is worth the ticket price.
Moon River Brewing Company is on Bay Street, one level above River Street. Order the Swamp Fox IPA and get a seat on the second floor if you can.
Wormsloe Historic Site
Drive 10 miles (16 km) southeast of downtown and you’ll reach one of the most-photographed roads in the American South: a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) avenue of live oaks planted in the 1890s, their branches interlocking overhead into a corridor of grey-green light. The site — the colonial estate of Noble Jones, one of Georgia’s earliest settlers — has a small museum and trails through tabby ruins from the 1740s. It’s the entrance road that most people come for.
Go early. The gates open at 9 a.m. and by 10 a.m. the car park fills with tour buses.
Essentials: 7601 Skidaway Road, Savannah. Open daily 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission $10 adults, $4.50 children ages 6–17.
Bonaventure Cemetery
Five miles (8 km) east of downtown, Bonaventure is a Victorian cemetery on a bluff above the Wilmington River. The lanes are wide and shaded, lined with azaleas, and the monuments range from modest to monumental — moss-covered stone figures, wrought-iron family enclosures, grave plots that span five generations. It gained national attention after John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, but even without that frame, it’s a genuinely moving place.
The Bonaventure Historical Society runs guided walks on weekends; their volunteers know the stories behind the graves in a way no app can replicate.
Essentials: 330 Bonaventure Road, Savannah. Open daily 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Free admission.
Fort Pulaski National Monument
Eighteen miles (29 km) east of Savannah on the road to Tybee Island , Fort Pulaski was the site of one of the Civil War’s most consequential engagements: the April 1862 bombardment that demonstrated, for the first time, that rifled artillery could destroy masonry fortifications previously thought impenetrable. The fort is extraordinarily well preserved — the scarred brickwork, the interior casemates, the wide surrounding moat. Ranger-led tours give the history real weight.
Pair it with Tybee Island on the same day — Fort Pulaski is 18 miles (29 km) out; Tybee is another 3 miles (5 km) beyond.
Essentials: US Highway 80 East, Savannah. Open daily. Admission $10 adults (free with America the Beautiful pass).
Tybee Island
Eighteen miles (29 km) from downtown Savannah, Tybee is the city’s beach: wide, unpretentious, backed by a scatter of 1950s beach houses and a working pier. It’s not manicured. There are fish-and-chip spots with plastic seating and a lighthouse that’s been standing since 1736. North Beach is quieter than the main strand; the Back River side is where locals paddleboard at sunset.
Sunrise Restaurant on Butler Avenue has been doing proper diner breakfasts for decades. Get there before 9 a.m. on weekends or expect a wait.
The middle stretch: Bluffton and Beaufort
This is the section most road trip guides skip. It’s also the best part of the drive.
Bluffton, SC
35 miles (56 km) north of Savannah, Bluffton sits on a bend of the May River — a slow, tannin-brown waterway ringed by cordgrass and the occasional heron working the shallows. The historic core is small enough to walk in a morning: clapboard houses, an Episcopal church that survived the Civil War, and a concentration of independent art galleries that’s out of proportion with the town’s size.
The Saturday farmers’ market runs April through November. Calhoun Street has the best density of galleries and independent restaurants. The Church of the Cross — built in 1854 and one of the very few Bluffton structures to survive Union Army burning in 1863 — sits directly on the bluff above the May River. The view from the churchyard at low tide, when the marsh flats open up, is one of the quietest moments this entire corridor offers.
Allow 2–3 hours. It’s easy to underestimate Bluffton, and easy to want more time once you’re there.
Beaufort, SC
18 miles (29 km) north of Bluffton, Beaufort (pronounced BYOO-fort) is the oldest European-settled city in South Carolina after Charleston. The downtown rewards slow walking: antebellum homes with double-stacked porches on Bay Street, a waterfront park facing Port Royal Sound, and tabby foundations in the older neighborhoods that predate the Revolution.
The Arsenal Museum at the corner of Craven and Scott Streets covers Beaufort’s layered history — from the Native American settlement at Santa Elena (one of the earliest European settlements in North America) through the Civil War, when Beaufort was occupied early by Union forces and became a center for Freedmen’s Bureau operations. For lunch, Beaufort Grocery Company on Port Republic Street has been a fixture for years; the she-crab soup is the real version.
Allow half a day minimum. If you can stay a night and have dinner at Plums restaurant on Bay Street, do it.
Charleston, South Carolina
Allow at least two full days. Three gives you room to breathe.
The Historic District
Charleston’s Historic District occupies the lower end of the peninsula, roughly south of Calhoun Street, and it rewards slow walking. The architecture is the city’s main event: Georgian townhouses, Federal-style churches, single-houses (a distinctly Charlestonian form where the building faces a side garden rather than the street), and ironwork gates that span every style from delicate to structural. Start at the City Market — not for souvenirs, but for sweetgrass baskets.
The Gullah artisans who weave those baskets have been working this craft in this spot for generations. It’s one of the most visible living connections to the Lowcountry’s West African heritage, and the baskets are among the most significant folk-art objects in the American South. Talk to the weavers; they usually will.
Rainbow Row
Thirteen Georgian townhouses on East Bay Street, painted in graduated pastels — pink, peach, coral, yellow — and photographed from every angle. They’re worth seeing in person because photographs don’t capture the scale: these are full-height, three-story houses, and the row stretches a full city block. The light is best in the morning, when the sun is still low enough to catch the façades directly. By afternoon, East Bay Street is in shadow.
The Battery and White Point Garden
The Battery is a seawall and promenade at the tip of the Charleston peninsula, where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers meet. The houses facing it — tall, white, columned — are the ones on every Charleston postcard. Walk the High Battery (the elevated promenade on East Battery Street) in the late afternoon, when the light turns gold over the harbor. Fort Sumter is visible from here: the low brick outline where the Civil War began on April 12, 1861.
White Point Garden occupies the triangular park at the junction of the two rivers, shaded by live oaks and scattered with Civil War-era cannons. It’s a good place to sit and have no agenda for half an hour.
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
Fourteen miles (22.5 km) northwest of downtown on Ashley River Road, Magnolia Plantation has operated continuously since the 1670s — making it one of the oldest plantations in the South. The gardens cover 60 acres: azalea walks (peak bloom in March and April), camellia paths, a cypress swamp accessible by flat-bottomed boat, and a nature trail through the surrounding wetlands. In spring, the color is near-absurd.
The house tour is honest about the plantation’s full history, including the lives of the enslaved people who worked it. The restored slave-cabin interpretation is one of the more thoughtful presentations of this history in the region. It’s worth building extra time for.
Essentials: 3550 Ashley River Road, Charleston. Open daily 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Garden admission $20 adults, $10 children.
Folly Beach
Eleven miles (18 km) southwest of downtown Charleston, Folly Beach is a barrier island with a distinct character: more surfer culture, more live music, surf-fishing off the pier, and the offshore silhouette of the Morris Island Lighthouse slowly losing its argument with erosion. Between June and August, loggerhead turtles nest on the eastern end of the beach at night; the Turtle Team volunteers mark the nests.
Parking fills by 10 a.m. on summer weekends. The Lost Dog Café on West Ashley Avenue does the best breakfast on the island.
Gullah Geechee culture — the Lowcountry’s deepest story
The Gullah Geechee people are the descendants of enslaved West and Central Africans brought to the coastal rice plantations of the Carolinas and Georgia. Isolated on the Sea Islands, they developed and preserved one of the most complete African-derived cultures in North America: a distinct Creole language, a rich oral tradition, the sweetgrass-basket craft, and a foodways tradition that is, in large part, the foundation of what’s now called Lowcountry cuisine. This corridor — Savannah to Charleston — sits at the geographic heart of the federally designated Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, which runs from Wilmington, NC, to St. Johns County, FL.
To engage with this history meaningfully rather than in passing:
- The Old Slave Mart Museum, 6 Chalmers Street, Charleston. One of the only documented remaining slave auction sites in the American South. The permanent exhibition is sober and necessary. Open Monday–Saturday 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission $8 adults.
- City Market sweetgrass weavers, Charleston. Living craft tradition with direct roots in West Africa. Talk to the weavers; buy a basket if you can — it’s a more meaningful souvenir than anything else in the city.
- Alphonso Brown’s Gullah Tours, Charleston. Community-led walking tours of Gullah heritage sites in the Historic District. Call ahead: (843) 763-7551.
- Penn Center, St. Helena Island, 8 miles (13 km) east of Beaufort on SC-37. Founded in 1862 as one of the first schools for formerly enslaved Black Americans, and a meeting site for the Civil Rights Movement. The York W. Bailey Museum is open Tuesday–Saturday.
Food and drink
What to eat in Savannah
Shrimp and grits is the dish this region built its culinary reputation on. The shrimp should be Georgia brown shrimp — local, in season — and the grits should be stone-ground and cooked slowly with butter. The Grey (109 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.) and Husk Savannah (12 W. Oglethorpe Ave.) are both doing versions that justify the drive.
Fried green tomatoes — unripe tomatoes in cornmeal, fried crisp, served with remoulade — appear on nearly every brunch menu in the Historic District. The Collins Quarter (151 Bull St.) does a version with smoked pork belly that’s difficult to leave half-finished.
Pralines from Savannah’s Candy Kitchen on River Street are caramelized sugar, butter, and toasted pecans. They’re the most honest souvenir in the city.
Chatham Artillery Punch is historically documented, dangerously strong, and typically contains rum, rye whiskey, brandy, champagne, tea, and citrus juice. Order it at a bar. Don’t order a second.
What to eat in Charleston
She-crab soup is a Charleston invention: a rich bisque of blue crab meat, cream, sherry, and — in the traditional version — the orange roe of female blue crabs. Husk Charleston (76 Queen St.) makes one of the most considered versions in the city.
Hoppin’ John — black-eyed peas and rice cooked together and finished with smoked pork — is the Lowcountry’s signature new-year dish, but it’s on menus year-round. Expect it with collard greens and cornbread on the side.
Benne wafers are thin, sweet cookies made with toasted sesame seeds (benne in Gullah). The link to West Africa is direct: enslaved people brought sesame seeds to the Carolinas in the 18th century. Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit (549 King St.) carries them.
A Lowcountry boil — shrimp, blue crab, corn, sausage, and potatoes boiled in spiced water and served on a paper-covered table — is communal eating at its most functional. The Obstinate Daughter on Sullivan’s Island (2063 Middle St.) does a good version in season.
Bars worth stopping for
Moon River Brewing Company — 21 W. Bay St., Savannah. Bay Street craft brewery with a full food menu. Order the Swamp Fox IPA.
Two Tides Brewing Co. — 12 W. 41st St., Savannah. Smaller, quieter, genuinely local crowd.
Revelry Brewing Co. — 10 Conroy St., Charleston. Rooftop terrace on the North End with decent sight lines over the city.
Palmetto Brewing Co. — 289 Huger St., Charleston. The city’s oldest craft brewery, in the Cannonborough neighborhood. No frills, good beer.
Where to stay
Savannah
The Marshall House — 123 E. Broughton St. Savannah’s oldest operating hotel, open since 1851. Period décor, a central position in the Historic District, and a bar that attracts locals as much as guests. Rates from $180/night.
The Grey Hotel — 109 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. A 1938 Greyhound bus terminal converted into one of the most considered hotels in the South. The restaurant is destination-level; the rooms are smaller than the prices suggest but well-designed. Rates from $300/night.
The Bellwether House — 119 W. Gordon St. A nine-room inn near Forsyth Park with wide porches and no corporate geometry. Quiet, personal, and a genuinely different experience from the Historic District cluster. Rates from $200/night.
Charleston
The Vendue — 19 Vendue Range. Rotating gallery exhibitions, a rooftop bar with harbor views, and rooms that feel like they belong to the same building they’re in. Rates from $250/night.
Wentworth Mansion — 149 Wentworth St. Twenty-one rooms in an 1886 mansion in Harleston Village. Opulent in a restrained way, with a full-service spa and an evening wine reception. Rates from $380/night.
The Mills House — 115 Meeting St. A Hilton Curio Collection property in the Historic District — reliable quality, courtyard pool, and a position that makes walking everywhere easy. Rates from $180/night.
Day trips
Hilton Head Island, SC
55 miles (88 km) from Savannah | 80 miles (129 km) from Charleston
A resort island with 12 miles (19 km) of hard-packed beach, a 60-mile (97 km) network of paved bike trails, and a nature infrastructure that the resort brochures tend to understate. Kayak outfitters on Broad Creek run full-morning tours through the surrounding salt marsh. For orientation, drive to Harbour Town Lighthouse (16 Lighthouse Road) on the island’s south end.
Jekyll Island, GA
85 miles (137 km) from Savannah | 175 miles (282 km) from Charleston
The most historically layered of Georgia’s Golden Isles. Jekyll Island Club was the winter retreat of the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and J.P. Morgan in the Gilded Age; the Club Hotel still operates and the cottage district is open for tours.
The island’s north end has Driftwood Beach — bleached, sculptural oak skeletons at the water’s edge that are genuinely one of the stranger sights in coastal Georgia. Twenty miles (32 km) of paved bike trails make it an easy full-day circuit.
St. Simons Island, GA
70 miles (113 km) from Savannah
Quieter than Jekyll and less resort-coded. Christ Church at Frederica (6329 Frederica Road) is one of the oldest churches in Georgia, set in a grove of ancient oaks that blocks most of the sky. The pier area on Mallery Street has good independent restaurants. Fort Frederica National Monument, 6 miles (10 km) north of the village, marks the site of the 1742 battle where Oglethorpe’s army stopped the Spanish advance into British North America.
Beaufort and St. Helena Island, SC
45 miles (72 km) from Savannah | 70 miles (113 km) from Charleston
If you’re treating Beaufort as a day trip rather than a stop on the main route, add St. Helena Island: 8 miles (13 km) east of Beaufort on SC-37, and home to the Penn Center — one of the most historically significant sites on this corridor.
Planning your trip
Best time to visit
Spring (March–May) is the strongest window. Temperatures in both cities run 60–75°F (15–24°C). The azaleas at Magnolia Plantation peak in March and April. Gardens across both cities are in full color, and hotel rates — while elevated — haven’t reached peak-summer levels.
Fall (October–November) is the quieter high season. Humidity falls away, temperatures settle into the mid-60s°F (around 18°C), and both cities slow to a pace that makes the food and architecture easier to absorb. The Savannah Jazz Festival runs in late September.
Summer (June–August) brings the highest temperatures — regularly above 90°F (32°C) — with a humidity that makes walking brick pavements genuinely uncomfortable by midday. Hotel rates peak and both cities are at maximum crowd. The beaches are at their best; the historic districts are not.
Winter (December–February) is mild by most US standards, rarely dropping below 40°F (4°C), and notably cheaper. The cities have a quieter, less performed quality. Some plantations reduce their hours.
How long to allow
Four days is the functional minimum: two in Savannah, one through Bluffton and Beaufort, one in Charleston. Five to seven days is significantly better — it lets you stay a night in Beaufort, adds a day trip or two, and removes the sense of rushing through places that reward slowness.
Getting around
Both city centers are walkable. For anything outside the downtowns — Tybee Island, Wormsloe, Fort Pulaski, the plantations, Folly Beach — you need a car or rideshare. Uber and Lyft operate in both cities and reach most tourist locations, but they’re less reliable on the outer islands.
In Savannah, a hop-on hop-off trolley covers the major Historic District sites and is a useful orientation tool for a first half-day. After that, walking is faster. In Charleston, the DASH free shuttle runs through the Historic District and connects most main sights; bike rental is available from several operators on Meeting Street.
Estimated trip costs
| Category | Budget | Mid-range | Comfortable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation (per night) | $100–$150 | $180–$250 | $280–$400+ |
| Food (per person, per day) | $40–$60 | $75–$110 | $120–$180 |
| Activities (per day) | $20–$40 | $50–$80 | $80–$150 |
| Fuel (full coastal trip, avg. vehicle) | $25–$35 | $25–$35 | $25–$35 |
A five-day trip for two people at mid-range runs roughly $1,800–$2,600 all-in, excluding flights.
Car rental
Compare rates through Kayak or Expedia, or book directly with Enterprise, Hertz, or National. Book at least two weeks ahead in spring and fall — availability tightens quickly. Check your credit card’s coverage before paying for the rental company’s collision damage waiver; many cards include it.
Outdoor activities
Kayaking and paddleboarding
The tidal creeks and estuaries around Savannah, Beaufort, and Charleston are the region’s best outdoor asset. Savannah Canoe & Kayak (414 Bonaventure Road) guides trips through the Back River marshes. Outside Hilton Head (based at Shelter Cove, Hilton Head) runs full-day kayak tours through the ACE Basin. Nature Adventures (800 Island Park Drive, Johns Island, Charleston) paddles the Folly River estuary.
Beaches
- Tybee Island — 18 miles (29 km) from Savannah. Wide, sandy, relatively uncrowded on weekdays. Lifeguards in season (May–September).
- Folly Beach — 11 miles (18 km) from Charleston. The most active beach on the corridor — surf, fishing, beach bars.
- Sullivan’s Island — 7 miles (11 km) from Charleston. Quieter and more residential, with some of the best restaurants near any Charleston beach.
- Hilton Head — 55 miles (88 km) from Savannah. Hard-packed, wide beach ideal for cycling.
Hiking and nature
- Skidaway Island State Park, Savannah — 22 miles (35 km) of trails through maritime forest and salt marsh. The Big Ferry Trail is the most rewarding.
- ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge, between Beaufort and Charleston — exceptional birdwatching along limited public access points. Bald eagles, wood storks, painted buntings, and roseate spoonbills are regular sightings.
- Francis Marion National Forest, north of Charleston — 250,000+ acres with access points from the Palmetto Trail, which runs 425 miles (684 km) coast-to-coast across South Carolina.
Cycling
Savannah has expanding city bike lanes; Savannah Bike Tours (321 Lincoln St.) rents hybrids and runs guided city rides. Jekyll Island has 20 miles (32 km) of paved trail. Hilton Head has more than 60 miles (97 km) of pathway. Charleston’s DASH area is compact and flat enough to manage on any standard rental bike.
Safety and practical notes
Both historic centers are safe for visitors during normal hours, with the usual urban provisos: don’t leave valuables visible in a parked car, and be aware that neighborhoods can change character quickly in both cities.
Heat: Savannah and Charleston summers are serious. June through August, temperatures regularly exceed 90°F (32°C) with high humidity. Plan indoor midday breaks, carry water, and apply sunscreen.
Hurricane season: June 1–November 30. The South Carolina coast is directly exposed; if you’re traveling in late summer or fall, monitor forecasts.
Medical:
- Savannah — Memorial University Medical Center, 4700 Waters Ave., (912) 350-8000
- Charleston — MUSC Health, 169 Ashley Ave., (843) 792-2300
Emergencies: 911.
Travel insurance: Recommended for international visitors in particular. Medical costs in the US without coverage are significant.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a car?
For the road trip itself, yes. Both city centers are walkable — Savannah’s Historic District especially so — but the best stops on this corridor (Wormsloe, Fort Pulaski, Tybee Island, the plantations, Folly Beach, the ACE Basin, Hilton Head) require a vehicle. Rideshare covers most of these in a pinch, but costs add up quickly.
Which direction works better?
Both directions work. Savannah-to-Charleston gives you the more atmospheric city first and builds toward Charleston’s density. If you’re flying, check one-way options into Savannah/Hilton Head International (SAV) and out of Charleston International (CHS) — or reverse. A one-way car rental on this corridor is straightforward and rarely carries a meaningful surcharge.
Can I do it as a day trip?
A long day is physically possible — leave Savannah early, drive the coastal route, spend the afternoon in Charleston, return. But you get nothing beyond a surface pass through one city, and you’ll spend 5-plus hours driving. Two to three days is the minimum for anything that feels like it was worth doing.
What’s the best way to travel without a car?
Amtrak’s Palmetto and Silver Meteor services stop at Savannah (2611 Seaboard Coastline Drive) and Charleston (4565 Gaynor Ave., North Charleston) — both stations are several miles from the historic centers, so factor in a rideshare at each end. Journey time is about 2 hours. There’s no direct intercity bus service of note.
What are the best cultural experiences beyond the obvious?
The Gullah Geechee history of this corridor is, in many ways, its most important story and the one most often reduced to a single bullet point. Alphonso Brown’s Gullah Tours in Charleston, the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, and the Old Slave Mart Museum in Charleston are the three most substantive entry points. The sweetgrass basket weavers at the City Market are the most immediate.
