Our Charleston Babymoon – Where to Stay, Eat and Explore

Over our second anniversary week, we decided to take a little anniversary trip/babymoon to Charleston, South Carolina! Neither Drew or I had ever been and we were so excited to spend some time together before adding a sweet addition to our family and to also celebrate two years of marriage! Charleston was absolutely beautiful and it was the perfect getaway for a relaxing time together!

Over on Instagram I shared lots of photos on stories, and there was an overwhelming response from you guys to share recommendations on where we stayed, favorite dining spots, and things to do! Charleston really is such a charming city with so much history, beautiful landscape, and of course great seafood! Despite one little mishap at the beach with Drew and the stray umbrella, we loved our time there and can’t wait to return in years to come with baby boy!

Here is a roundup of where we stayed, played, and stuffed our faces with every type of seafood imaginable!

where to stay

We stayed at the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina in the Beach Club! I did a lot of research prior to our trip and also looked to some bloggers I love to find this cute little spot! Our goal was to find a place that wouldn’t break the bank, was still super nice, prime location, and also somewhere that would allow for us to relax without too much going on.

The resort is broken into two parts, The Beach Club and Harborside. We decided on The Beach Club as it was a little bit newer and nicer! I was pleasantly surprised by the prices, and the resort itself was really nice and clean! Our room was absolutely adorable, had a beautiful view of the harbor, and the service was great! The property has a fun pool, spa, a pool-side tiki bar, a couple of restaurants, a man-made beach and of course is right on the harbor with a ferry to town. Transportation was a major bonus with the location of the hotel. There was a free daily shuttle from the resort to downtown as well as an option to buy daily water taxi passes (only $14) to travel a short distance across the harbor to downtown. We utilized both and really loved it because it saved money on buying an Uber each time we wanted to leave.

My one and only critique for the hotel is I wish there was some sort of café option to get coffee and an easy bite to eat in the mornings. The Fish House, one of the restaurants on the property did serve breakfast, but I was missing a coffee shop to grab a latte and a quick breakfast. Other than that, we loved our stay and would definitely consider staying there again in the future!

where to eat

167 Raw Oyster Bar – HANDS DOWN our favorite restaurant of the trip. So good, we ate there two nights in a row! Oh my goodness y’all. I will forever dream about the scallop Po’ boy for the rest of time. This restaurant was recommended to Drew by a client who had previously visited, and was also one of the top recommendations any time we spoke with a local, which is how we knew it had to be good! The first night we shared a lobster roll, scallop Po’ boy and potatoes, all so delicious. Drew tried Oysters for the first time, and apparently if you are a fan of raw oysters, this is the place for you. The second night we both got a scallop Po’ boy again because it was that good, and also tried the crab dip which was also superb. Overall, 10/10 – if you visit Charleston you need to go to 167 Raw! Beware, it’s a small restaurant and usually has a wait. Our first night in town it was a 2.5 hour wait, likely because it was Memorial Day, but be prepared for long wait times on the weekends. We decided to go back the next night and it was only about 20 minutes, more than worth it.

Page’s Okra Grill – This was our last lunch in town and recommended to us by our hotel. It isn’t located in Charleston, but is in Mt. Pleasant, just about 8 minutes or so from the hotel. Holy fried food, it was so delicious. Drew and I decided to share fried shrimp, seafood mac and cheese and also the redneck rolls. It was WAY too much food and would have been too much had we only gotten two of the plates. We loved the fried shrimp, but the real MVP was the seafood mac and cheese – definitely will go back for it next time we’re in town!

Fleet Landing – We ate here for lunch the day we bought water taxi passes as it is located within steps of the taxi drop off and is one of the only restaurants actually on the water of the harbor. A local family that was on the water taxi showing the city to some relatives were having lunch here and we decided if they liked it enough to share with their relatives, it must be good! Yummy seafood, especially the hush puppies!

We also ate at Leon’s for dinner as recommended by a friend and it was okay. Decent food, but we waited about an hour and a half and were a little underwhelmed by it to be honest. Not somewhere we would prioritize going back to like 167 Raw or Page’s. Our first lunch in town was at The Fish House, the restaurant on property of our hotel and it was decent as well. Of course any seafood we ate was going to be good being on the coast, we don’t have that luxury in Tyler, so we enjoyed it as much as possible while in town!

Market Street Sweets – this adorable little sweets shop was located right by the shuttle pickup from downtown so of course we stopped a night (or two!) for ice cream before catching the shuttle back to our hotel! The ice cream was delish, and they are also famous for the pralines! Tons of candy and sweet options!

where to explore

Our main goal while visiting was to explore a little and relax a little, and I think we accomplished both of those things! We really enjoyed the resort pool. It is a family friendly hotel, but I felt like it was the perfect combination of being family friendly without being too crazy or chaotic and loud with kids everywhere. The tiki bar served delicious virgin daiquiris and I enjoyed just relaxing and reading while soaking up the sun.

Swim Top // Swim Bottoms // Coverup // Hat // Sunglasses

We also took a beach day and Ubered to Sullivan Island. It was about a 20 minute Uber from our hotel, and was a super nice, not too crowded beach day! We were able to walk back from the beach into town, about 10 minutes and ate lunch at a place called Poe’s Tavern. We rented a couple of chairs and an umbrella from a little local shop right up the road from the beach and it was really easy and convenient, despite the umbrella accident resulting in us having to go to the ER when the metal pole got Drew on the nose! See my babymoon highlight on my Insta stories for that full ordeal 😉

There are tons of historical sites to see if you are a history lover. We decided on this trip to not go on any of the tours, but perhaps in the future may decide to visit again and explore more historical sites! We did a lot of walking downtown taking in the beautiful and historical architecture on literally every corner. While exploring downtown, we did stumble upon Bitty and Beau’s Coffee Shop, and absolutely loved it! This coffee shop is one of 23 locations supporting inclusion and acceptance of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, inspired by down syndrome brother and sister, Bitty and Beau! Such an incredible mission and company and tasty coffee too!