Charleston/Folly Beach Spring Break 2025

A few quick notes from our trip to Charleston/Folly Beach for spring break two weeks ago.

First time staying at Folly Beach. Definitely a different vibe than what we are used to at Isle of Palms, but a cool funky place. We stayed well up the beach from the heart of the island. We rented from Carolina One - found a great 4 bedroom oceanfront house called Slow M'Ocean and were able to rent it for the week for right at $5,000. Our last spring break trip to IOP (2018) we spent easily 2/3rds that much for a 3 bedroom condo.

One thing we learned...double check addresses. At points along the island there are A and B addresses; this is where two houses are built on the same piece of land with A being on the roadside side of the property and B being beachfront. Luckily we were a B, and after walking across the dunes were maybe 20 feet from the high tide line.

It was cool and windy so it limited our time on the beach, but we did take one afternoon and walked down to the north/east end of the island where we could see the Morris Island lighthouse.

We took one afternoon to go into downtown Charleston. Walked through the market then ate a late lunch at Fleet Landing (shrimp & grits were ok, but have had better in the area; waterfront dining view was great) then to Carmella's for dessert (strawberry gelato was amazing) and the pineapple fountain to walk along the water. There was a busker playing trombone by the fountain and my 3 year old loved it. Kinda reminded me of the guys playing in Jackson Square in NOLA.

The next day we went to Magnolia Plantation & Gardens. They have gone from a general admission ticket with multiple add-on options to an all inclusive with the only add-ons being the house or boat tour. It's great for pricing/budgeting but we felt like the nature tram ride has been really shortened both in time and amount of the property you see.

We left Magnolia and had dinner at Bowen's Island. The atmosphere reminded me of The Wreck over in Mt. Pleasant. Food was really good, loved the low country boil. Views over the marsh were great. Wish we had gone later to be there during sunset.

We did take-out from Coconut Joe's one night. The baja fish tacos and shrimp tacos were good. The grouper bites were amazing.

Several places we wanted to try - Rita's, Chico Feo's, Lost Dog, The Washout - we just didn't have time for or weren't sure how the kids would do in some of the places with live music.