Charleston

Charleston, South Carolina, is one of America's most beautiful and historically complex cities — a city of rainbow-coloured antebellum houses, palmetto-lined Battery waterfront, the oldest trees in the South draped in Spanish moss, and an extraordinary culinary scene that makes it one of the most food-focused cities in the American South. Its beauty was built on slavery, a history it is increasingly confronting honestly. The Rainbow Row on East Bay Street (the longest continuous row of Georgian-style houses in the United States), White Point Garden on the Battery, the Old Slave Mart Museum and the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens are major attractions. The Charleston City Market is one of America's oldest. The food scene — shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, Lowcountry boil, extraordinary fine dining at restaurants like Husk — is exceptional. Fort Sumter (where the Civil War began) is accessible by ferry. The ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge and the beach at Sullivan's Island are excellent.