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Downtown Charleston City Bus Tour

Join Us for an Informative, Fun Tour Around Town

Guests will enjoy a relaxing, informative 1.5 hour tour of downtown Charleston as a knowledgeable tour guide shares 350 years of history driving through the streets of the Lowcountry. You will enjoy highlights such as the Citadel Military College, Hampton Park, the City Market, the historic district including the residential area, Rainbow Row, a number of historic churches, White Point Gardens and the Battery.

 

Tours run daily morning and afternoon year-round excluding Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. To check availability and book a tour, click the button below. Remember when you book to use our coupon promo code for a discount at checkout!

Discount code: travelingink10

Buy Discounted City Bus Tour Tickets for downtown Charleston.


 

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Boone Hall Plantation

There's a Lot to See at Boone Hall

Take a stroll down the Avenue of Oaks and see why Boone Hall is recognized as "America's most photographed plantation". Guests can enjoy a guided tour of the plantation house, walk through the gardens, take in the rich history of the Gullah culture presentation, the butterfly pavillion, plantation coach tour, and more.

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About Us

Our Mission

The mission of Traveling Ink is to encourage people to be more intentional with life, people, and travel. We help facilitate this mission with two main services, travel planning and team building. We want your time spent with us to be enriching and fun. And, if possible, we want you to fall in love even a bit more with Charleston, SC.

Charleston carriage tours are highly recommended to travelers visiting Charleston for the first time. © Audra L. Gibson. All Rights Reserved.

Charleston Travel Services

While we encourage travel all over the world and quite frequently road trip out for a long weekend trip, we focus our travel services on the Charleston Lowcountry. After all, you can serve folks best in the travel industry when you are extremely well acquainted with the area where you are encouraging the travel.

Being well acquainted with Charleston has been a part of the character of Traveling Ink from the start. Our team spends copious amounts of time out and about in Charleston visiting attractions, testing tours, attending events, and, yes, eating Charleston cuisine for your benefit. We do that research so that we can make unbiased recommendations for people visiting the Lowcountry (and quite often for locals who just want to enjoy their city more).

None of the tours or attractions we recommend pay to be featured on the Traveling Ink site. We reccommend the tours and venues we do because we are confident that guests will enjoy a quality experience there. These are the same places and activities we recommend to our family and friends when they visit Charleston. Since one size does not fit all when it comes to a tour or a meal, we try and offer a variety of reccommendations and will happily plan a full vacation itinerary for a couple, business associate, family (or family reunion) in need once we find out what is important to your group. We offer this planning service at no extra charge to your party, so there's no reason not to give us a call to pick our brains about the city we love.

Challenge your group with one of Traveling Ink's team building activities in Charleston, SC. © 2017 Audra L. Gibson. All Rights Reserved.

Charleston Team Building

You may wonder what travel and team building have to do with one another. We realized over time that many of the tours and activities that we recommended to travelers were also a great fit for groups trying to build community and strengthen their group dynamic. We've also built some of our team building offerings from the ground up taking advantage of many wonderful locations and activities in Charleston.

These activities quite often allow for team building in a non-traditional environment for groups looking to think outside the box when it comes to team building. There's nothing wrong with a Myers Briggs test, but we'd rather get your team to come together tackling a scavenger hunt in downtown Charleston, noshing on some Charleston cuisine, climbing around a ropes course, or participating in one of our team building events that supports a local charity.

We can help you plan and execute team building for a one time event or conference or as often as once a month. We offer options that can be brought to your office or meeting space as well as options out and about for those looking for a change of scenery. You may select from one of the activities in our team building section or let one of our team planners build a custom experience for your group. We look forward to making building community with your team fun!

 

Traveling Ink founder, Audra Gibson. Photo © 2013 Hannah Lane Photography. All Rights Reserved.
Hanging out at the Traveling Ink Launch Party. Photo by: Hannah Lane Photography.

Our History

Traveling Ink was launched in April of 2013, but the research for the site came long before the springtime launch. Founder, Audra Gibson, spents years in the Charleston tour industry working in various capacities for two of the downtown carriage companies. She already loved the city of Charleston (living downtown for a time will do that to you), and soon fell in love with serving travelers from around the world.

She saw a gap in the hospitality industry here however, in that many of the travel sites were advertising driven and a number of the folks giving recommendations had never actually been to the attractions they were telling people about. There's too many wonderful things in Charleston not to send folks to the best, so she set out to research and recommend the Charleston attractions she would recommend to her own loved ones when they visited town. As the company grew, she expanded Traveling Ink's reach to be able to offer the ability to search for hotels, plan events for groups both large and small, and even hire your own private concierge for the day if helpful.

Find What's Helpful For Your Time In Charleston

What services are most helpful to you? Please click below or browse using our navigation above to find resources for your group. We always encourage our guests to reach out for help. If you can't find something easily on the website, just give us a call at 843-633-1338 or fill out a contact form and someone will get right back in touch.

Attractions

Attractions

Let us help you find tours that match your interests.

Let's Go!

Team Building

Team Building

Design an awesome group or community building experience.

Let's Go!

Hotels

Hotels

Let us help you find the perfect hotel for your stay.

Let's Go!

Resources

Resources

Find transportation, restaurants, and other resources for your trip.

Let's Go!

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Charleston Attractions and Tours

There are many reasons why Conde Naste Travel Magazine has named Charleson it's Top US City multiple years running. Charleston is home to superb shrimp and grits, she crab soup, historic homes, blooming gardens, world class women's tennis, glistening harbors and tidal creeks, warm sandy beaches, America's only tea plantation, Darius Rucker, and Bill Murray. The list goes on and on. It's easy to see why hundreds of thousands of people visit every year, and why some decide to pack up their homes and make Charleston a permanent residence.

 

There are quite a few attractions in Charleston that make the city, well, attractive. Below are some of our favorites. Whenever we can, we try to offer discounts, so look for our coupon links or discount booking codes associated with the tours and attractions featured. Click below or browse our Charleston Attractions section to find out more.

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Charleston Trivia Hunt Assistance

Thank you for participating in Traveling Ink's Downtown Trivia Hunt to benefit Camp Happy Days! Below, please find helpful information on the Charleston hunts.

Trivia Hunt Time Frame and Distance
One-Hour Trivia Hunt
This trivia hunt is more compact, with stops staying primarily in the downtown commercial district closer to the open-air Charleston City Market. The hunt completion time is an estimate. The actual completion time will depend on the individual or individuals completing the hunt and may run shorter or longer than one hour. The approximate distance is slightly less than one mile.

Two-Hour Trivia Hunt
This hunt branches further into the residential district heading south toward the battery and back toward the Charleston City Market. As in the shorter hunt, the time of completion is an estimate. The actual time needed to complete the hunt will vary from party to party. The approximate distance for this hunt is two miles.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do I need to include my phone number at purchase?
The phone number you enter during purchase should be for the cell phone you'd like to use to complete the trivia hunt. Your trivia hunt questions will be texted to this number.

What if I need to stop or delay the trivia hunt following my purchase?
Participants may pause or stop their hunt at any time for any reason. If chosing to delay completion of the hunt, paid participants may return to finish the hunt at any time within 3 months of original purchase.

Do Text and or Data Rates Apply?
Text and data rates may apply depending on each participants individual carrier and plan.

I have a group of four people. Do we all need to purchase the hunt?
Participants will need to purchase the hunt for as many cell phones as they'd like to run the hunt. For example, if your group of four would like to split up into teams of two, you'll want to purchase two hunts (one on each separate team members cellualar device). Or, if everyone in your party would like to have the hunt on their device, the group is welcome to purchase four hunts. However, if the group will be staying together the whole time, only one participate need purchase the hunt if preferable. Remember these trivia hunts do support a fantastic non profit, so the more hunts that are purchased, the more money Camp Happy Days raises to help support children and families battling pediatric cancer.

Am I allowed to use my phone's applications to help me on the trivia hunt?
Yes. Please use whatever is helpful to you to complete the hunt. Each of the questions has multiple choice options, so a browser will not be necessary to answer, but it may help you answer them on the first try! Your phone's GPS may also be helpful, but is not necessary.

I have a question that hasn't been answered above. Where can I get help?
If you still need assistance or have a question that hasn't been addressed above, please call 843-633-1338.

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USS Yorktown and Patriots Point Museum

Glimpse Back Into Naval History

Guests will take a step into military history when they enter the Patriots Point Museum, home of the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier, the USS Laffey Battleship, the Vietnam Experience Exhibit, the Cold War Memorial, and the Medal of Honor Museum. Tours depart in the morning and guests will have approximately 4 hours to explore the exhibits of these amazing examples of maritime and WWII history.

 

Apollo 8 Capsule replica aboard the USS Yorktown. © Audra L. Gibson. All Rights Reserved.
An interactive replica of the Apollo-8 capsule is one of the many educational exhibits aboard the USS Yorktown.

 

Check Availability and Book Your Patriots Point Ticket

This ticket grants guests access to all the Patriot's Point exhibits above including access to the flight deck of the USS Yorktown. Transportation from any location downtown to the museum and back is included. Guests may purchase lunch on-board but the cost is not included in the fees below.

Purchase Ticket and Transportation to the USS Yorktown and Patriots Point Museum

 

*It is highly recommended that guests wear comfortable walking shoes as many exhibits involve going up or down narrow staircases aboard the ships.

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*Traveling Ink cares about the safety of our guests and affiliate partners. While the site will attempt to provide up to date, accurate information, please understand that Covid 19 may cause last minute cancellations or alternative service offerings. We trust our affilate partners to make good safety decisions for guests and team members and stand behind their efforts to make wise choices. Traveling Ink is a Charleston travel and event planning expert, not an infectious disease expert. So, when in doubt, consult the CDC, World Health Organization, or your trusted physician for advisement. Stay safe out there.

Client Testimonials

  • A Charleston resident suggested a Traveling Ink concierge might be able to help me. It didn’t take long for me to realize that this was one of the best pieces of advice I could have received. My friends thought I was an organizational wizard even though I kept telling them it was Traveling Ink, not me.

    ~ Nicky H.
  • We so enjoyed our time in Charleston. Thank you for all your insight! I am recommending your services to everyone I know who is traveling to Charleston!

    ~Kathryn C.
  • Traveling Ink planned the three full days we would have in Charleston, how we would get from one place to another, places to eat, and what the costs would be. To add to the challenge, we had to change the day of one of the main attractions because rain had been predicted. They handled all the changes with out missing a step.

    ~ Harriett H.
  • These Charleston pros do a phenomenal job in any setting. Audra was our point person and is a pleasure to work with. She is laid back and can work with any request.

    ~ Nicole P.