The Horse Carriage Ride

What could be more southern than taking a horse carriage ride through the streets of Charleston, South Carolina, which is 349 years old?  My wife and I have driven many Uber/Lyft passengers in the Charleston area, but Sunday was the first time we visited as tourists.  We went with our youngest daughter and had a great time.

One of the best ways to see the city is to take an hour long horse carriage ride which costs between $25-$28 a person.  There are five carriage companies in downtown Charleston and they all have to check in with the city government which has a representative sitting in a little white shack on a street corner.  Each carriage has to give the name of the horse(ours was Gary) and how many passengers are in the carriage.  The government official uses a Bingo ball to randomly select which route each carriage will take so there aren't a bunch of them on one particular route.  None of us can remember how many routes there are, but it's at least five.

Our tour guide has been doing this for 18 years and he was really good.  It was amazing to watch from the first row seat how he steered the horse and stopped it just by moving his hand slightly.  He was distracted too, since he was speaking to us non-stop as we rode through the town.  At one point there was a few musicians playing music on the steps of a building.  The horse clearly did not like the music and he had to be calmed down since we had a red light in front of us.

Charleston is known for two things, the food and the architecture.  The houses and churches were not just old, but they really did have that "southern charm" about them.  The design of the houses were very unique. Some places had been modernized and some clearly were not.  Our guide pointed out a number of older and smaller houses that were used for slaves at the time.  These small houses are today called carriage houses.

The weather was perfect that afternoon, sunny and breezy.  It was a relaxing ride through the streets of Charleston and I would highly recommend seeing some of the city the old fashioned way-in a carriage.