Many of Charleston’s best things to do are free. Firstly, the city’s beautiful Historic District – the main reason many people visit Charleston – is free to visit. You could easily spend several days enjoying its stunning architecture and myriad landmarks, from historic places of worship and little graveyards to grand civic buildings, hidden alleys and gardens, quiet parks, and sweeping views over the harbor.
There are many other free things to do in Charleston, too. There are free museums, such as the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History and the Avery Research Center, the latter set inside a historic Black school.
Art can be seen for free at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art and on the lower floor of the Gibbes Museum. Free art walks through Charleston’s French Quarter are also periodically available.
Free attractions near Charleston include the ancient Angel Oak on Johns Island; Charles Pinckney Historic Site and scenic Shem Creek Park in Mount Pleasant; and the haunting Magnolia Cemetery.
See also:
– Charleston festivals
– More things to do in Charleston
– Things to do near Charleston
– Charleston events by month: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
The Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, one of Charleston’s less commonly visited attractions, offers an interesting insight into the city’s educational and cultural history.
The Center itself is located in a historic building formerly occupied by the Avery Normal Institute, operated from 1865 to 1954 as a segregated school for Black secondary students.
Things to see include a recreation of a 19th-century classroom, rotating exhibitions based on the Avery Research Center’s collections, and rotating art exhibitions featuring works from local South Carolina artists and members of the African diaspora.
Daily guided tours explore the history of the Avery Normal School and the later establishment of the Research Center, also discussing the history and culture of Black people in the Lowcountry.
The Center also participates in the Lowcountry Digital History Initiative, which offers a wide selection of detailed online exhibits focused on aspects of African-American history.
The Avery Research Center is located at 125 Bull Street, in Charleston’s Harleston Village. Hours are Monday-Friday, 10am-12:30pm and 1:30pm-5pm. Although admission is free, donations are accepted. More details
The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston is the city’s only fully-free art museum, showcasing the contemporary art of emerging and mid-career artists from the southeast and across the world.
The Halsey Institute has no permanent collection. Instead, its two galleries host rotating special exhibitions (usually about 6 per year), with additional free lectures, film screenings and other programs exploring the art and its broader context.
The Halsey Institute is located at 161 Calhoun Street, in downtown Charleston near Marion Square. Hours, when an exhibition is showing, are Thursday-Friday, 11am-4pm. More details
The Mace Brown Museum of Natural History, part of the College of Charleston, is based around the huge collection of fossils, mostly from South Carolina, donated by local businessman and fossil enthusiast Mace Brown.
The museum displays around 1000 of the specimens from Brown’s collection, including fossilized remnants of prehistoric megafauna such as the giant sloth, giant beaver, saber-toothed cat, and cave bear; extinct species of whale; dinosaur bones; sharks’ teeth (and a megalodon jaw) and more.
The museum is located inside of the School of Sciences and Mathematics Building at 202 Calhoun Street, in downtown Charleston. Hours are 11am-4pm, Thursday-Tuesday. Admission is free, but donations are accepted. More details
Shem Creek Park is a great way to explore the marsh scenery and wildlife of the South Carolina coast without going too far from the city. It is an ideal place for a relaxing stroll, and an especially beautiful spot to watch the sunset.
Located at Mount Pleasant’s Shem Creek (also a popular waterfront restaurant and bar district), right across the harbor from downtown Charleston, the park boasts a 2200-foot boardwalk cutting across the marshes from Coleman Boulevard to the water, with views across the Charleston Harbor and of the shrimping and fishing boats based out of Shem Creek.
Shem Creek Park is located at Shrimp Boat Lane, off Coleman Boulevard. Parking is available on-site. The park is open daily, 5am-12am. More details
Located a few miles from downtown Charleston, the historic Magnolia Cemetery makes for a serene and beautiful escape from the city. The cemetery, boasting scenic river views, historic graves and moss-hung oaks, is an excellent, less-visited spot for photography, walking or even a picnic.
The cemetery, established in 1850, served as the main burial place for many of Charleston’s most influential citizens, with many substantial tombs and monuments and hundreds more examples of ornate 19th-century sculptures and other funerary art.
Magnolia Cemetery is located at 70 Cunnington Avenue, roughly 3 miles from downtown Charleston. Hours are 8am-5pm daily (8am-6pm DST). Admission is free, but donations are accepted. More details
One of the Charleston area’s best-loved sights, the Angel Oak (a southern live oak, Quercus virginiana) has stood on Johns Island for unknown centuries, and is believed to be the oldest surviving oak tree in the eastern United States.
The Angel Oak, more than 180 feet in diameter and with immense curving branches, some resting on the ground, is a dramatic landmark and a popular spot for photography.
The area around the tree has been preserved as a park, operated by the City of Charleston to protect the tree from encroachments from nearby development. A gift shop, parking and picnic areas are available on-site.
The Angel Oak is located at 3688 Angel Oak Road, Johns Island, around 12 miles from downtown Charleston. The park is open daily. Admission is free, but donations are accepted. More details
Charleston Tea Garden (formerly known as the Charleston Tea Plantation), on beautiful Wadmalaw Island, offers a modern alternative to the area’s more famous rice plantations. Tea is both grown and processed here, with over one hundred acres of tea plants, a factory and gift shop accessible to visitors.
One of only a few commercial tea plantations in the United States, the Charleston Tea Garden produces the tea sold as American Classic Tea, along with a variety of flavored teas, which can be tasted on-site.
The factory tour is free, as are samples of tea in the gift shop. A trolley tour of the tea garden grounds, outlining the farming process and other details about production, is also available for a fee.
Charleston Tea Garden is located at 6617 Maybank Highway, Wadmalaw Island, around 20 miles from downtown Charleston. Open daily, 10am-4pm Monday-Saturday and 12pm-4pm Sunday. More details
This small, free historic site in Mount Pleasant, operated by the National Park Service, preserves a portion of Snee Farm, an 18th-century rice and indigo plantation worked by enslaved people. It is the only free-to-visit plantation in Charleston and its vicinity.
The site’s primary claim to significance is its association with Charles Pinckney, one of the contributors to the US Constitution, who used it as a country retreat from his downtown Charleston home.
A visitor center and museum are located inside an early-19th-century cottage. The grounds consist of 28 acres of the former plantation, with nature trails, archaeological excavations, and interpretive signage outlining the history and ecology of the site.
Charles Pinckney Historic Site is located at 1254 Long Point Road, Mount Pleasant, around 11 miles from downtown Charleston. Hours are Wednesday-Sunday, 9am-5pm. More details