My Charleston 2026 Review Series 1 of 20 plus:…read more Explore Charleston! The Charleston Visitors Center is the ideal spot for first time visitors to become acquainted with the City of Charleston. It will serve as the perfect introduction to my 2026 Charleston Vacation Review series. The Visitor's Center introduced my family and I to the City's history and charm. It occupies the historic railroad building that was established in 1856. In 1991 it became the Visitor's Center. This is a linear building incorporated into the historical city grid that is parallel to a transit way which once served as a railroad. Although it is close to a mile from the heart of the city at Market Street, it is surrounded by historic buildings including the Charleston Museum across Meeting Street and the historic Embassy Suites a block south on Meeting Street where we stayed. From the perspective of a transit hub, the Visitor Center introduced us to Charleston. On our leading visit, we boarded the Gray Line City Tour bus in the transit way parallel to the building. On follow up visits we'd catch the free Charleston shuttle (D.A.S.H.) and the Boone Plantation Shuttle. The free Charleston shuttle stops are along John Street. I did take note that it also serves city buses. From serving as a place to board the vehicles that gave us tours of the City, I got to spend time here. First off it served as an air conditioned refuge while waiting for the tours or taking a breather from the summer weather. What I saw inside was a linear building featuring a gift shop, rest rooms, travel center, and mini museum (also called exhibition hall). The Visitor Center that I spent time in provides walls of brochures, maps, human travel guidance and more. The reality for me is that the Internet served as my Charleston tour guide. I passed over looking at the walls of brochures. However, I do admit that it would be nice to take a breather from my phone. Additionally the Visitor Center serves as a miniature museum. While waiting for the tour shuttle, I saw continuous video loops on Charleston with exhibits showcasing the City's history and culture. This includes a sweetgrass basket exhibit. Downbuilding from the Visitor Center is the gift shop. This includes a coffee kiosk that was always closed. The inventory includes Charleston books and bottled water. This is a premier spot for bottled water. At $2, the bottled water is a solid deal. Especially when we were on a walk in the northern reaches of the Historic District or waiting for transportation. The gift shop associates were the only people we associated with at the Visitor Center. Where the Visitor Center is a premier spot for water, it is not one for using a restroom. Previously I mentioned that the Visitor Center is incorporated into the historic railroad building. I get the impression that this historic preservation has created the challenge of accommodating restrooms. As a consequence there is a unisex restroom where men and women share a restroom. This is my first time experiencing a unisex restroom. I can write with confidence that I am not the only one that felt awkward. In conclusion the Charleston Visitor Center was the ideal establishment for us to get acquainted with Charleston, South Carolina. It was advantageous being one block north of our hotel. This is the ideal establishment to commence "My Charleston 2026 Vacation 20-plus Review Series."

Walked here on my first day here. Got a ton of brochures and pamphlets, booked a tour, bought some…read moreitems. Very informative!

While awaiting the trolley, my family and I decided to head into the Visitor Center to cool off…read more When we entered, I was surprised at how spacious it was inside! The ceilings were extremely high, there was art all around us and because it was empty, it seemed even bigger. As soon as we entered we were greeted by a man in the front shop and he let us know that he was there for any questions we had. Since we were just killing time, we decided to just stroll around the building. There was a booth selling drinks and snacks, a nice touch for visitors popping in on their way to tour the city. We decided to head further up the stairs and stumbled into a spot that had tour brochures for so many local Southern cities and some sweet ladies behind the counter to help guide visitors. I ended up walking to the gift shop and began chatting with another sweet woman behind the counter. I was in awe of the most beautiful handcrafted miniature version of the Forsyth fountain and we talked about it for 10 or 15 minutes. It was truly one of the most beautiful pieces I've seen in a minute, obviously delicately crafted with so much love and intention. The woman at the counter told me stories of customers who have purchased the piece for special reasons, such as a mother who flew in to buy it as a surprise cake topper for her son's wedding as he proposed to his fiance at the fountain. How beautiful! Although we weren't there very long, I really enjoyed our visit!

If you're going all the way to Savannah, you should spend a little time visiting the Visitor…read moreCenter. It is very clean and modern and one of the few places with free parking

This location offers a plethora of information and brochures about the offerings of the island!…read more What a great resource to learn about discounts, fun things and places and ideas for adventures of fun and relation which is what the island life is all about!

This Visitors Center is in a former bank. They didn't remove the drive-thru overhang outside, nor…read morethe teller booths with glass windows inside. So it's a little weird but during COVID, the glass partitions come in handy! Equipped with plenty of brochure info and staff available to help you, teller style. Bathrooms clean, free, and no lines!

Stopped in at this advertise low country visitor center which is about a half mile off the…read moreinterstate 95 exit. This house that doubles as a visitor center is a better option for a short bathroom break than the gas stations off the exit. Upon entering, you are greeted by a volunteer who will give you a quick outline of the property and tell you where the bathrooms are. There is enough room for two persons in the very clean and well attended bathrooms. They also sell low country items like gumbo mix, grits, and other assorted sundries. They also sell Knick knacks like post cards, ornaments and travel games. I would recommend giving a small donation of a couple of dollars if you use the facilities. It is not expected but the staff are kind and everything is well maintained. Recommend the stop.

Nice visitor's center with a gift shop and extremely clean restrooms. There's an outdoor seating…read morearea out back and a pet walk next to the parking area. They even had a pet bowl filled with water on the front porch.

Looks new and very beautiful! There are large screens with beautiful pictures of Charleston scenes…read moreand a wall of information brochures . The people at the helpdesk were friendly and informative. All tours begin here and you can also buy tickets keys here . Note : there's a parking garage right opposite to the visitor center on Mary street.

Small location but is nice and neatly kept inside and the lady that talked to us was knowledgeable…read moreand fun! Stop in to pick up the to dos for this area and you can also pick up info on Savannah.

This was our first stop on our visit to Tybee island. We were immediately greeted by a very…read morefriendly employee who provided us with great recommendations. They have shelves and shelves of brochures of things to do in Tybee island and Savannah. They also have a public restroom and gift shop.

On Saturday April the 26th me and my family were coming out of Coligny Beach, my family was a few…read moreyards behind me when I was approached by a man asking me if I wanted to purchase a marijuana. I politely said no with my family caught up to me then the man ask me if I wanted to do a presentation over at the Coral sands. I told him I'm staying at Spinnaker resort, and that my hotel had already taken care of everything. He then continue to follow me and my family as we were leaving going to the parking lot, he drives a little blue car he identified himself as JD even had a dog in the front seat of his car. He basically harasses all the way to our vehicle. He clearly looked like he was homeless, and he had an odor of marijuana that I could clearly smell. I told him three different times that I wanted nothing from him, he then got very upset and said I should take me and my broke family and go back to wherever we're from. So I googled Coral sands and found out that this gentleman worked for a company called hhgs / Hilton Head guest services. Whoever hired that man was clearly overlooking the fact that he clearly looks like he's homeless and a drug addict. bad look for your company. I don't know how people can harass families coming off the beach, how a company would let that happen or even the town of Hilton Head.

My husband and I visited Hilton Head Island during the off season and were called over by a young…read moreman standing in a HHGS kiosk near our hotel. He told us that if we allowed someone to show us a resort, called Coral Sands, we would get a reward. He showed us sweet packages like a dinner cruise, gift cards, and other things. We had free time so decided, "Why not, they're just going to show us a resort?" He then asked us to pay a $20 deposit, probably so we don't flake on them. We get to a plaza off of Office Park road and see our destination, Quest Travel Club. We enter the storefront and are happily greeted by one associate while the other stares at us and another was on a cellphone. The associate gave us papers to fill out and return. We then were greeted by a woman, let's call her Kim, and she brought us over to a room that looked like a cafe. There were about five other couples sitting with five other salespeople when we walked in. Kim then sits us down at a table and starts to really get into her pitch. Basically she tries to use all types of tactics on us, including high pressure when it seemed I was not going to put myself in debt that very second. We politely decline and after firmly putting my foot down Kim flips a switch and turns off her charm. She tells us have a nice day and we figured out on our own where to go next. The next room we went to got us. They were also trying to sell us something but it was not as expensive as the previous offer. They claimed that by becoming a member, I could get crazy low prices on hotels that non members didn't have access to. She, let's call her Olive, also doled out gifts to us to entice us to buy. We decided it sounded good and used our gift card they gave us ($150), the deposit ($20), and $25 from our pockets to pay the joining fee. We were pretty excited and when we got back to the hotel, we started looking at our gifts that we had gotten from the club. They all were not what they seemed so we started doing some digging. The gifts had reviews about them from other people, almost all were negative. So we started to question the club itself but could find nothing on the internet about Quest Travel Club. Finally our detective work paid off and we found out that they had just changed the name recently. Hilton Head Guest Services and Palmera are two names that were and may still be connected to this company. Once that door was open, the negative reviews came pouring out!! So we were lied to and manipulated from the get go all the way to the end. Karma will handle them... that and this review and all the ones to come!

We are a senior couple, experienced travelers, who needed some guidance in planning a two week…read moretrip to Charleston Beaufort and Savannah in June 2026. As this was our first trip to the part of the USA we wanted to experience the South as visitors not rushed as tourists. After finding Kevin we knew we had found the right person to plan this visit based upon travel style. KEVIN EXCEEDED OUT EXPECTATIONS IN THIS REGARD. What I particularly liked was that in the planning stage Kevin provided pre-selected recommendations for Hotels, tour guides and dining. This allowed us to take the time to review his recommendations on line and select those that best fit our travel style. Although budget was not a constraint for this trip Kevin's recommendations were balanced including both private and very small group tours and fine dining plus the hidden places only a local would know for a true taste of the South. Although Kevin laid out the plan we still felt it was "our" trip because of the ability to choose among great options. Kevin plans allow for you a to customize your trip while still having the benefit of an experienced planner. Our tour guides ranged from very very good to TRULY EXCEPTIONAL. We avoided touristy places and had unique experiences that self-internet planner would unlikely ever find.One of the Kevin's strengths was sequencing the order of our tours in both Charleston and Savannah so that one experience built on the other something I could never have done on my own. Every tour guide was on time and never once did we wait to be seated in the restaurants he reserved for us. Kevin provides you with a detailed itinerary down to recommended entrée selections at the restaurants that have been reserved. I'd like to comment on Kevin in trip follow up to questions but I can't. Because of the excellence of the itinerary provided down to how early to leave for activities due to driving times, we never had any need for follow up during the two weeks of out travel. So the question boils down to due you want to have nice trip that you or an out of town travel agent planned on the internet or do you want to experience an EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOM TRAVEL EXPERIENCE. If it's the latter I can't imagine a better choice that Kevin for Charleston Beaufort and Savannah.

Connected with Kevin 6 months before our trip and the most important thing I can say is Kevin…read morelistens to what you want to get out of your trip. Our group of 3 had a main focus on the history of Charleston and Savannah and Kevin delivered. But he knew that we would also need a break and worked in tours that highlighted the charm and feel for each city including a late night stroll with him. His restaurant bookings were so helpful when you travel, finding good places to eat that have a table can be very challenging. To not have to think about where I'm going each night was a blessing. I can't recommend enough having him plan your visit to what you love to do most when you travel.