Experience the best of Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant lies on the east side of Charleston Harbor, linked to Charleston by the Ravenel Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge with two diamond-shaped towers. The Old Village, near the water, keeps its small historic houses and a quiet main street, and Shem Creek, a tidal creek where shrimp boats dock, is lined with waterside restaurants and boat tours.

Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum has the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, a destroyer and a submarine, and boats to Fort Sumter leave from the point. Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, and the beaches of the Isle of Palms are a short drive away. Boone Hall Plantation is known for its avenue of oaks, and sweetgrass baskets woven in the Gullah tradition are sold at stands along Highway 17. Bulls Island, a wild barrier island, is reached by boat.

Lowcountry cooking dominates: shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, Frogmore stew, boiled peanuts and oysters roasted over open fires in winter. The salt marsh glows green and gold at low tide, azaleas bloom in spring, summers are humid, and late summer is the stormy season.