We are planning to honeymoon in Charleston, SC. Any ideas of where to stay, where to eat, or to do?

Good choice! I used to live there so I will try to help.

Stay at the Mills House Hotel http://www.millshouse.com/ , French Quarter Inn, Charleston Place or in one of the beautiful Bed & Breakfast in the Battery section of downtown. The only place I have stayed myself is the Mills – beautiful.

Some good places to eat are Meritage (a cool tappas restaurant with an outdoor patio), Slightly North of Broad, Hyman’s Seafood, Vickery’s in Mt Pleasant (right on Shem Creek, the shrimp boats bring your dinner right in!), Magnolia’s, Poogan’s Porch (it’s supposed to be haunted).

Thrings to do: Walking Ghost Tour (at night, great fun – Charleston is known to be one of the most haunted cities in the country http://www.tourcharleston.com/ )
The Market (downtown)
Fort Sumter – http://www.nps.gov/fosu/
Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island if you want beaches
USS Yorktown at Patriots Point -http://www.patriotspoint.org/
Middleton Place -http://www.middletonplace.org/
Rainbow Row (of course!)
Historic carriage ride (don’t book this ahead of time! The carriage companies must draw a lottery to see which area they can tour. If you want to do something specific like the Battery try to wait until they know. All of the companies ticket booths are surrounding the Market. You just walk up and buy your tour.)

The best site to go to when you’re planning any trip is Trip Advisor. You can read honest user reviews about everything… rooms, restaurants, activities. Go to the forums to ask questions and read opinions of local experts. Here is T/A’s Charleston page.. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g54171-Charleston_South_Carolina-Vacations.html

Also, contact the Visitor’s Bureau http://www.charlestoncvb.com/ and they will send you an information packet. Sometimes it’s nice to have full-color brouchures to decide what you really want to see.

You should definitely buy yourself a sweet grass basket for a piece of local culture. They can be very expensive at the Market (formerly called the Slave Market because this is where slave’s were brought for trading. Now it is an open-air marketplace where artisans bring their wares.) There are many roadside stands where you can buy a basket – don’t be afraid to haggle.

The 2 beaches I mentioned are great. Sullivan’s Island does not allow hotels, so it is not touristy. There is public access between the residence’s which line the beach. No public facilities. Isle of Palms is very similar, but with a few hotels. If you want to stay at the beach, stay here. You are only 10 min from downtown Charleston. If you go for the day, go to the Isle of Palms Park. For a small fee, you get public restrooms, showers and picnic facilities.

There is so much culture and history in Charleston it is amazing. I miss it and would love to move back there some day. If you want to take a day to do some really touristy shopping, amusement parks, shows, Carolina Opry and too much to mention – take a side trip to Myrtle Beach. 90 minutes away – I lived there too breifly. Don’t go if you are honeymooning in winter. Half of the stuff closes. If you decide to check that out too, go through Myrtle’s Trip Advisor pages first. There is a ton of stuff there.

Any other questions, you can send me a message. Hope this helps…you will have a great honeymoon. Enjoy it!