Carriage, walking tour or trolley?
Charleston's old city is small enough to walk and handsome enough to ride through slowly, so the choice comes down to how you want to move. A carriage seats you under a canopy for an hour. A guided walk asks two hours of your feet and reaches places no carriage can, while the trolley swaps atmosphere for air conditioning. This guide sets them side by side and says who each one suits.
Four ways to see the old city
Each option below covers part of the Charleston Historic District, but they differ in pace and comfort as much as in price.
| Option | From | Time | How you move | Main drawback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carriage day ride (Old South) | ~$50 | 1 h | Seated under a canopy, at walking pace | A city lottery picks your zone |
| Guided walk (Walks of Charleston) | ~$30 | About 2 h | On foot with a guide | Two hours on your feet, hot in summer |
| Old Town Trolley | ~$41 | About 40 min | Air-conditioned minibus | Less atmosphere, less time per sight |
| Your own walk | Free | As long as you like | On foot with a map | Nobody to tell the stories |
The carriage hour
A carriage is the gentlest way round. You sit on a bench in the shade of the canopy while a big draft horse pulls you through the streets at about walking speed, slow enough to photograph a doorway and for the guide to talk the whole way. By Old South's count, an hour in the carriage rolls over some 30 blocks, a little more than 2.5 miles (4 km). Palmetto hires only members of the Palmetto Guild of Certified Tour Guides, who sit a city exam and renew the credential every three years.
The day rides cost almost the same. Old South's historic ride, from ~$50, is our pick, and Palmetto's downtown ride, from ~$50, matches it, while Carolina Polo's hour, from ~$45, is a few dollars cheaper and sold on Viator only. The weak point of every carriage is the route. The city assigns each one a zone by lottery just before it leaves, so you cannot ask for a particular street, as carriage routes and the city lottery explains.
An hour on the bench to get your bearings
Old South's carriages leave its barn at 14 Anson Street, a block north of City Market, for an hour with a certified driver-guide behind a Belgian or Percheron, from ~$50. The listing calls the ride wheelchair accessible, and you can cancel free up to a day ahead.
Two hours on foot with a guide
Walks of Charleston's guided walking tour, from ~$30, is the cheapest guided option here and one of the most reviewed, with 4.9 from 7,024+ on Viator and 98% of reviewers recommending it. Over about two hours it takes in sights such as City Hall, the Dock Street Theatre, the Old Exchange and White Point Garden, where you look out toward Fort Sumter. Its catch is the walking itself. Two hours on foot is a lot in Charleston's summer heat, so book a morning start between June and September.
On foot you can duck into alleys a carriage cannot enter and stop for as long as a building holds you. The listing says the tour runs in all weather and is wheelchair and stroller accessible. What you give up is the rest, since there is no bench and no canopy, and a long route tires small children faster than an hour on a carriage does.
The trolley loop
The Old Town Trolley tour, from ~$41, run by Historic Tours of America, takes about 40 minutes in an air-conditioned minibus. Its single loop runs from the Battery up to Hampton Park and the Citadel, passing Rainbow Row and White Point Garden on the way, with a stop at City Market. It scores 4.8 from 598+ on Viator. The catch is that it is a vehicle on a fixed loop. You see more ground in less time, but each sight gets a passing glance, and the windows put glass between you and the street.
The trolley does have one thing a carriage lacks. Because its loop is fixed, you know it heads for the Battery, whereas a carriage may draw a zone that never reaches the water. On a hot summer afternoon, when heat can stop the carriages, the cool air is a real draw.
A walk of your own
The free option is to walk the old city with a map. The distances are short, since Rainbow Row and the Battery each lie about 15 minutes on foot from City Market. You set the pace and choose the streets, which makes it the natural follow-up to a carriage that missed something. The drawback is silence. Without a guide, a single house is just a pretty building, so read up before you go. What you pass on a carriage tour explains the piazzas and earthquake bolts you are likely to meet.
Who should pick what
- Limited mobility. A carriage asks least of you. Old South calls its day ride wheelchair accessible on both listings. Palmetto has a boarding platform and a ramp, though its Viator listing says it is not wheelchair accessible, so ask first;
- A hot day. A morning carriage, or the trolley's air conditioning in the afternoon. Save the two-hour walk for a cooler day; the best time for a carriage ride covers the heat rules;
- Small children. An hour seated beside a horse holds most children well. Carriage rides with kids covers ages and strollers;
- Short on time. The trolley covers the most ground in 40 minutes, the carriage the most atmosphere in an hour;
- Hungry for history. The walking tour goes deepest, with two hours of stories and time to stand inside the scene;
- First day in town. The carriage, for an easy overview before you decide where to walk.
Doing two of them
You need not pick only one. A carriage on the first day gives you an overview with no effort, and several reviewers say the hour helped them plan the rest of their stay. After that, walk back to the streets you liked or join the guided walk on another morning. A carriage and the walking tour together cost about ~$50 plus ~$30 per person, and what a Charleston carriage tour costs lists every option with tips and parking. If evenings are free, a haunted carriage ride shows the same streets by lamplight; haunted and evening carriage rides compares the two on offer.