heatherwillmom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2009
- Messages
- 1,181
We are at the Isle of Palms beach right outside of Charleston,SC. We have been coming here for several years now. We always take a day or two to go into Charleston. There are so many different things to do there. We do museums, carriage rides, tours, harbour rides, trips to forts, etc. We have a few favorite places that we like to eat, but we try to do some different other things each time. This time we went to the Charleston Tea Plantation. I had been wantig to go for a while & we finally go around to going there. It is the only tea plantation in America. Everyone liked it. It is a little drive from downtown, but the drive was beautiful. It is actually on Wadmalaw Island. We entered through the gift shop & we immediately greeted by an employee who explained that they had free tea samples & it could be taken on the tours. Being from the South, we drive a lot of iced tea. It was some of the best that we had ever tasted. The factory tour was free & you watched video screens for the show. It only took about 15 minutes. They had a trolley tour that went around the plantation. It was listed as costing $10 per person but they had a special family rate so the 5 of us cost only $33. It lasted about 25 minutes. There was a audio tape of one of the owners describing the plantation. The driver also had a microphone that he discussed the plantation as well. We went back ito the gift shop afterwards. The had a good selection of the tea that they grow in different flavors. They also had tea cups, special tea spoons, tea glasses to steep your tea in, tea bag holders, etc. I ended up buying some different teas, a spoon to strain tea leaves, a tea bag holder, & tea hand lotion. As we were gettig ready to leave the gift shop, DH told me to go on & he would catch up. He said he neede to go to the bathroom. When he came out of the gift shop, he also had a gift bag. He had gone back & bought me a tea chest full of tea bags in different flavors & a mug that said "Charleston Tea Plantation" on it. It was a great side trip. If anyone is traveling to Charleston & has a little time, I highly recommend this tour. From the time we left downtown until we returned, driving there & back and the time we spent touring was almost 4 hours. We had scheduled it into our day & it was well worth it.
__________________
__________________
