Charleston Harbor By Boat

During a recent trip to one of my favorite cities – Charleston South Carolina – we opted to take tours of the Charleston Harbor by boat which gives a unique perspective to this beautiful and historic city.

When you visit somewhere as often as we do Charleston, it is easy to develop a habit of trying to avoid the “touristy” things. And we have been visiting the city since I was a little kid. We spent so many family Thanksgiving holidays in the city that I still think a traditional Thanksgiving dinner centers around shrimp, not turkey.

To explain exactly how long we have been going there, I remember when Hyman’s Seafood was not a a restaurant. Anyone who has visited the city since 1986, has certainly heard of – if not eaten at – this popular restaurant. But while the business dates back into the 1800’s, the restaurant itself was not open until Charleston Place and Omni Hotel opened in the mid-1980’s. Prior to that, that stretch of Meeting Street was not a very desirable place to walk and well outside of the “tourist” zone.

One of the iconic symbols of Charleston is the Arthur Ravenal Jr. Bridge. Again, to date myself, I remember driving over the old bridges long before this modern bridge was built. The old bridges were narrow, rickety, and “interesting.”

After so many visits over the years, we decided that we had not been out on one of the tour boats in the harbor in decades. Why not take one? We ended up taking two – one a ride around the harbor with no stops and the other the classic Fort Sumter tour offered by the National Park Service. The photographs below are from those two trips.

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