Charleston is definitely a magical place and I’m so happy that I was able to visit with my friend Brooke on a campaign with Volvo! I loved being the “plus one” on this trip” and can’t wait to share some of my favorite parts of our experience with you! I’m sharing our personal experience and my takeaways in this post, but I didn’t want to overwhelm you with a giant post, so you can also see a separate post for my TOP 14 Instagrammable Places in Charleston!
We met so many people this weekend! All of the concierge, bartenders, drivers, and fellow travelers were so kind and happy to share knowledge about the city with us, which I loved! Y’all know i like to make new friends wherever I go! We were told that Charleston is the TOP wedding destination in the world. World. What?! Haven’t fact checked that but based on the amount of plantations, bachelorette parties, and bridal boutiques that I saw over the weekend, I wouldn’t doubt it! Charleston wasn’t even on my bucket list, but I’m SO glad I happened to visit. You need to add it to your list if you enjoy cute restaurants, quaint shops, and cities with history!
One thing I learned on one of our adventures is something I’m embarrassed to tell you - I didn’t actually know that Charleston was a port city…yep! (aka they have a ton of seafood!) It’s accessible by highway, train, and sea, so it’s home to a lot of manufacturing companies. That’s why Volvo just opened their new plant there and the reason we got to visit in the first place! We took a helicopter tour with Holy City Heli and it was AMAZINGGG!! First, I had never been in a helicopter and it was both terrifying and exhilarating! It’s so different from an airplane and we just magically lifted off of the ground- it felt like I was in a spaceship or a real life video game!! Anyway, we flew over downtown and then out to the new Volvo factory with a tour guide and I was actually very excited to learn a ton of random facts about the city. FOR EXAMPLE, there’s a white church downtown and the rule is that no buildings are allowed to be built that are taller than the church steeple! How adorable is that?!
We arrived in Charleston on Thursday evening and checked into our hotel, The Dewberry. Omg. Adorable. Southern hospitality paired with high end contemporary design equals hotel perfection. At check-in, we were handed a glass of dewberry tea (oh, it’s an actual berry?! yep!) and everyone was so friendly and helpful. Our room was amazing, and I loved the delish coffee every morning served in the “living room” (lobby!) but my favorite thing about The Dewberry was the people watching! There was a party for a local publication about style and design and WOW everyone was impeccably dressed. Dallas is stylish, but this was different. Dallas is big hair, big diamonds, and big designer handbags…and we think that means “stylish” but these people were CHICCCCCC! Brooke and I were standing outside ready to leave the hotel for the evening and we openly discussed everyone who got out of cars to enter the hotel. “Ohhh those shoes.” “THAT dress.” “omg she is such a stylish old lady!” haha guests young and old were chic chic chic and nobody knocked me over with their YSL purse as big as a suitcase (shoutout Dallas haha!). There is a huge design community in Charleston and omg they are all so stylish.
Personal style definitely evolves with you as you mature and I have been leaning toward a little more neutral items because of blogging, but I LOVE bright colors and bold patterns, so we’ll see what happens next time I go shopping because all of those outfits I saw walking into that event were #goals.
We literally ate our way through Charleston. We marked Google maps with all of our “favorites”/the recommendations that we received from friends, and then we made our eating plan! Restaurant criteria was based on menu items and if a restaurant was Instagrammable. If you watch my stories on Instagram, you saw how cute AND delicious most of the restaurants were! We barely squeezed in a brunch restaurant on Sunday and it turned out to be my favorite restaurant from the whole trip. If you visit Charleston, do not miss SNOB (Slightly North of Broad) because it was totally cute and the food was amazing. I meannn the french toast. Y’all know I take my french toast v seriously, and wow. Just wow. I’ll just leave a photo here for proof. k bye.
See the roundup of all the cute spots we visited in my TOP 14 Instagrammable Places in Charleston post, I’m just going to go ahead and tell you- Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits…..OMG. DEADDD. You saw my Insta stories were biscuit overload #sorrynotsorry because those biscuits were so freaking good and so adorable. On Saturday, we drove our Volvo S60 to Hilton Head for the Concours d’Elegance car show but stopped for a biscuit on our way! I’m so glad that I convinced some of the other influencers to come with us because we had so much fun! Loved getting to hang with a long-time insta friend, Ashley from Austin, and a new friend from NYC- Christopher!
I loved road tripping to Hilton Head because on the way back to Charleston we didn’t have an itinerary, so we were able to stop at the cutest old gas station that was converted to a country store and pie shop! Of course it was adorable so Brooke and I both wandered around forever, tried all the samples and ended up buying a cran-apple pie and bottles of apple cider to bring home!
I had the best time exploring Charleston thanks to Volvo, and of course, thanks to Brooke for bringing me along! We both enjoyed our first trip to Charleston and will definitely be back! Who knows, maybe for a wedding. ;)