Visiting Charleston’s Magnolia Plantation

Hello from a very chilly and cold Seattle!  You can follow my quick trip to the Pacific Northwest on Snapchat or Instagam but until then I want to share some travel pictures of a warmer time.  Last month I had the chance to visit the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens  and it was too pretty not to feature here.  You have seen the photos from the wedding and you have seen the postcards from around the adorable city of Charleston, South Carolina but during my visit last month I also took an afternoon and toured the gorgeous Magnolia Plantation.

They boast that they are Charleston’s Most Visited Plantation and I would believe it!  I love pieces of Americana that have a long history (even though it is max a few hundred years) so when I found out the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens dated back to the 1670’s I was thrilled.   The plantation is 350 acres and on that land there is so much to do that you could spend more than a day – check out all of the tours! 

I chose to do admission (clearly), the historic house tour, the slavery tour, and the un-guided Audubon Swamp tour complete with alligators.   The plantation house tour was given by a native Charlestonian and was a great 30 minute break in the air conditioning but the best part of the day might have been the moving Slavery to Freedom tour.  For 45-minutes I learned about the nearly 400 year history of the slaves on the Magnolia Plantation with cabins from every era!  

Even though I am a grown adult I really loved all of the animals around the property – live stocked in fenced areas that you could pet like the cute donkey above and wild peacocks strolling the grounds . As mentioned above, I am really glad I spent the additional money and bought the full ticket because the two extra hours I spent on the Slave Tour and exploring the swamps really made me feel like I got a full sense of the gorgeous grounds and how life used to be there!