You’ll find Post House Inn along a charming street of old-school shops and Southern-style houses in the old village neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant, just 10 minutes from Downtown Charleston.
Planes
Charleston International Airport is a 20-minute drive away from the hotel. From here, a taxi will set you back around $30.
Trains
North Charleston Station serves as the Amtrak train station for the Greater Charleston area and links the city with most major destinations along the east coast and beyond.
Automobiles
It’s unlikely you’ll need a car; Mount Pleasant and neighbouring Downtown Charleston are both compact, pedestrian-friendly areas, plus, the city’s free Dash shuttle service runs three routes around the city should your feet grow weary. Saying that, if beach-hopping and Lowcountry exploring is on the cards, wheels can come in handy. There are multiple rental booths at the airport and street parking around the hotel.
Worth getting out of bed for
South Carolina’s oldest city has been around ever since King Charles (the second one, that is) of England founded it back in 1670. You won’t be surprised then, that heritage-inspired happenings are the order of the day. Explore Charleston by foot on a Lowcountry historic tour (or trade the walking part for a full-blown horse-drawn-carriage ride), visit grand plantations like Drayton Hall and Magnolia Gardens, get lost in the cobblestone streets, or hideout from the heat at the Charleston Museum, where you’ll find artefacts from the city’s cultural and natural history, including a suspended whale that surfaced in the city’s harbour in 1880. If the southern sunshine isn’t too searing, borrow a bike from the hotel and make your way to Sullivan’s Island, a lovely beach town around three miles from the Post House Inn, which is also home to three miles of white sand beaches, a wealth of family-owned restaurants, handsome coastal homes, and some more unusual draws. The Edgar Allen Poe Library, set in a former Spanish-American gun bunker is one such curiosity, just a couple of blocks away from Fort Moultrie, where the macabre master was stationed for a year after he was booted from the University of Virginia for running up gambling debts. Closer to home, Shem Creek is somewhat of a local secret – a lively estuary where shrimpers, boaters and seafood lovers gather. Try your hand at kayaking, paddleboarding or crabbing, saunter down the boardwalk, get stuck into a plate of fresh fried flounder or hop onboard one of the coastal expeditions for great views of the harbour.
Local restaurants
In downtown Charleston, Post House Inn’s sister restaurant Basic Kitchenis a bastion of plant-forward fare (not to mention a welcome relief for vegetarians in a landscape of shrimps and sausage stews). But that’s not to say it’s boring – get into the Southern spirit with the vegan barbecue platter of local collard greens, mushrooms, butterbeans and vegan mac and cheese. Over at Sullivan’s Island, Sullivan’s Fish Camp’s nostalgically nautical pine wood interiors are something to swoon over, as is their menu of fresh fried fish, peel-and-eat shrimp and indulgent sharing plates, like jalapeño and gouda drop biscuits with crème fraîche and honey butter. While you’re out that way, be sure to stop in at the Obstinate Daughter – a loved-by-locals Lowcountry ‘food fort’, where you’ll find chef Will D'Erasmo slinging his signature Mediterranean fare. The headliner has to be the ricotta gnocchi with short-rib ragù and horseradish gremolata.
Local cafés
Just next door, Pitt Street Pharmacyboasts a Fifties-style soda fountain, a long-standing reputation for the best grilled-cheese sandwich in town and some wickedly creamy milkshakes.
Local bars
While there’s not much by way of nightlife in the immediate vicinity (great news for light sleepers), happy-hour hotspot Tavern & Table is just an eight-minute walk away, with gorgeous views of Shem Creek, seasonal craft beers and barrel-aged cocktails to boot. Across the water, however, things get rather rowdy at the Commodore, a destination jazz bar in the heart of the city’s historic French Quarter, where disco balls, velvet curtains and dimly lit nooks and crannies set the scene for nightly live music and spirited dancefloor antics.