7 Days in Folly Beach, South Carolina 2023

Here’s how our family spent 7 days in Folly Beach, South Carolina. A quirky little beach town right outside of Charleston. Our kids are currently 8 and 5. All of my suggestions are both kid and budget friendly.

Our family recently took a one week vacation to one of our favorite places, Folly Beach in South Carolina. We spent seven sunshine filled days and received a much needed break from the COLD Maine winter weather. Several years ago we accidentally stumbled upon this quirky little beach town and the hotel we stay at, Tides Folly Beach. We’ve fallen in love with this town and returned multiple times since that first visit.

Day One ✈️

Travel

Our trip began with a bus ride to the airport followed by a plane ride to Charleston. Our children are 5 and 8 and these ages are so easy to travel with. Not that long ago I was packing tons of activities and snacks, changing dirty diapers in small cramped bathrooms and trying my hardest to calm screaming babies and toddlers. Now the kids sit in their seats and enjoy whatever screen time they are provided. We didn’t even use the bathroom on the plane. Not once! We were even able to pack all of our things into one backpack each, which I recently wrote about in this blog post. So for anyone who is in the thick of it with young children right now, it will quickly get so much easier!

After an uneventful flight (yay) we picked up our rental car and groceries, checked into our hotel and unpacked.

Checking out the Pool

After we were settled the kids immediately wanted to swim. The pool is one of our favorite things about Tides. It’s right next to the beach, the perfect size for our kids and heated to at least 85 degrees, which makes it usable no matter what the weather.

For dinner we ordered takeout from BLU, the hotel restaurant, which we ate in our room. We watched a little TV and then all quickly fell asleep.

Day Two 🍩

Our First Sunrise of the Trip

The kids woke up bright and early with EXTRA excitement for our first full day of vacation, so we embraced it and headed down to watch our first Folly Beach sunrise of this trip. It was a relief to my body to walk outside at 6:45 AM to 58 degrees, green grass and be barefoot in the sand. A much needed break from the northern Maine winter climate.

We watched the sun come up, the kids splashed in the water and played in the sand for a bit, and I took approximately 8 million pictures. See below. 🤣

Sullivan’s Island

After watching the sunrise we headed back up to our room for breakfast and to prepare for our adventure of the day. Todays goal was to cross an item off of my bucket list, find a whole sand dollar. Jamie read online that Sullivan’s Island beach is known for sand dollars, so that’s where we headed.

On the way we stopped at Annie’s Hot Donuts, in Mt. Pleasant. Here you can customize fresh donuts and watch them make it for you.

We arrived at Sullivan’s Island and enjoyed the sunny and warm weather.

Our tummies were full of donuts, the sand was soft, the shells were plentiful. Life was good. But no sand dollars.

We decided to head out and try a different spot on the beach, but as we were getting ready to leave…I found a whole sand dollar! Mission accomplished.

Sandal Shopping

After that victory we headed back to the hotel, stopping to buy Jamie and the kids each a pair of sandals. We never know what the weather is going to be like in Folly this time of year. It’s their spring so we’ve had trips when it’s been 40 degrees and we’ve had trips when it’s been 80. This trip looked like it was going to be just about perfect with 70 degree weather throughout. They needed their feet to be free and enjoy it. We had some fun at the local touristy beach shop, Treasure Island trying out different sandals and eventually settled on some fantastic clearance flip flops for the three of them.

Back at the hotel we ate sandwiches in our room and then headed down for a swim in the pool, where we introduced the kids to the game Marco Polo. We only slightly regretted this decision.

Dinner at Rita’s

After the pool we headed back to the room to get changed and then decided on Rita’s Seaside Grill for our first night out to dinner. They have a covered patio with outdoor seating and it’s directly across the street from our hotel. One of my favorite thing about staying at Folly Beach and Tides is the proximity to their cute downtown and restaurants. Everything is walking distance from the hotel and they have a wide assortment of restaurants to choose from. At Rita’s I ordered the shrimp and grits, always my favorite. Rita’s serves their kids meals on a frisbee, which of course was a big hit.

After dinner we took the newly acquired frisbees to the beach to try out. Then we headed back up to the room for showers, cookies and some TV before bed. 

Day Three ⛵️

Morris Island Light House

Our plan today was to explore each end of Folly Beach island. We started off at the northern end at Morris Island to see the light house. There was a short paved walkway that lead to the beach where you could view the lighthouse from the distance. This walkway was covered in spray painted graffiti.

At the end of this walkway is the beach and the lighthouse. 

We didn’t plan to stay here long; however, after exploring for a couple of minutes a man across the water near the island the lighthouse is on began shouting to Jamie. He was hard to understand because he was so far away, but he said something along the lines of his sailboat was beached and he lost his phone and radio. He then ran back to his sailboat. Jamie called the police and they quickly arrived at the beach, followed not long after by a small rescue boat. The police officer said they rescued the man, and he was ok.

That was quite the turn of events we didn’t expect. Thankful though that we were able to be there for that man at that point in time to facilitate the call he needed to get help. 

Workmen’s Cafe

After that turn of events we decided to head to the Workmen’s Cafe for lunch. My grandmother was from the south and her cooking is something I have fond childhood memories of. This cafe was the closet thing I’ve gotten to it. I had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and a super yummy biscuit and sweet tea. 

After lunch we went back to the hotel to change and then headed to the southern end of the island to Folly Beach County Park.  There is a five dollar day use fee. We collected shells, looked in tide pools and the kids ran around on the beach. Jake lost his new frisbee, which was a bummer (don’t worry we want back to Rita’s later on in the week and he got another one). Then we headed back to the hotel and went in the pool for a bit.

For dinner we got takeout from The Drop in Deli and ate in our room.

After dinner Anika really wanted to swim in the pool at night. The pool is lit up and glows blue so we went for a bit.

Day Four 🌇

City of Charleston

Today we headed into the city of Charleston for the day. Our day got off to a slow start and by the time we made it to Charleston the kids and I were a whole lot of hangry. We also needed to use the bathroom so we stopped at the Charleston Public Library. They had a display of sculptures created by local art students, which Anika loved. She also found two Babysitters Club books (with the original covers) on the free books cart, so this stop was a big win for her.

We got sandwiches from the The Brown Dog Deli for lunch and headed down to the waterfront park to have a picnic. Afterwards the kids waded in the pineapple fountain for a bit.

At this point we were all ready to return to the hotel, so we made our way back to our car. On the walk we stumbled upon the Charleston City Market and wandered through for a bit.

More Pooltime!

Once back at the hotel we got changed and headed down to the pool. It was raining out but the pool was heated and it was fun to swim in the rain. 

After the swim we decided to head to Loggerheads for dinner. We sat outside at a table that was an old truck turned into seating. I got a fried fish sandwich of some sort that was great. It was light and fresh and came with a side of potato salad that was also equally delicious. The waitress offered to make the kids Shirley Temples, which of course was well received. 

After dinner we walked over to Bert’s Market to check it out. It’s definitely worth a visit. Kind of like a small grocery store for hippies that has all kinds of fun stuff as well as sandwiches and desserts.

Day Five 🏝️

Today we started the day with a walk on the Folly Beach Pier. It was a little windy!

We followed this up by changing into swimsuits and heading down to the pool. One of the kids requests this trip was to swim as soon as the pool opened.

The kids swam for an hour or so and then we headed back up to the room to get changed and leave the hotel for an adventure. We headed south to Kiawah Beachwalker Park.

After that we got an ice cream at Salty Dog Ice cream, just a bit south in Seabrook.

Then we headed back to the hotel and decided to do takeout from the Drop In Deli for dinner again.

Day Six 🍕

Baguette Magic

We started this morning on a quest for some yummy pastries and boy did we find it. Baguette Magic in Charleston was amazing! We split a couple of different croissants and their version of pop tarts. Everything was delicious.

Botany Bay Plantation and Beach

We like to do at least one “off the beaten path” activity every time we visit South Carolina. In the past we’ve seen sturgeon in all phases of development at the Bears Bluff National Fish Hatchery and learned all about fire trucks and fire at the North Charleston Fire Museum. These things were either free or insanely cheap and some of our favorite vacation experiences. Today we decided to drive down to Edisto, an island about an hour south of Folly. Here we stumbled upon our off the beaten path activity, The Botany Bay Plantation and Beach.

Botany Bay Plantation is a free driving tour of old southern plantation grounds. As you approached the entrance you’ll need to grab a free day use pass and can also find a handout that includes descriptions of the things you will see as you drive the loop on the plantation.

After driving the tour you can choose to go in a separate direction and head to the beach. There’s a parking lot and then about a 1/2 mile walk to the beach, but it’s so worth it. Its untouched beautiful South Carolina shoreline.

Taking shells, rocks or anything is prohibited so we were able to see some absolutely gorgeous shells that otherwise would have been snatched up as souvenirs.

They also call this the “boneyard beach” due to the many sun bleached trees that are on the beach.

Kings Farm and Market

On the way back we picked up a key lime pie at Kings Farm and Market, in Edisto. It was 12.99 for this beautiful pie and was worth every penny. I may have eaten it straight out of the box with a fork on the drive back to the hotel. They had tons of other delicious looking items here too.

We were all pretty tired when we arrived back at the hotel and decided to keep it simple and get a pizza to eat in the room for dinner. It wasn’t a stellar day for healthy food consumption….but hey, we were on vacation.

We decided to end the day with a night time swim in the pool before heading to bed. 

Day Seven 🏊‍♀️

Our last day of vacation! Today we decided to have a hang out at Folly day. We went to the nearby Publix to pick up a few groceries to get us through our final day. Then the kids swam in the pool while Jamie and I watched them happily from some lounge chairs on the side. We took a break from the pool and sun and ate sandwiches in our room for lunch and then we all headed back to the pool for one final swim of the trip.

We decided our last meal in Folly would be dinner at Rita’s. I had bbq ribs, cornbread and some sort of southern beans. It was delicious.

We went back to the hotel where I bought the kids Sponge Bob Pops from the hotel store and let them watch an episode of Sponge Bob on TV while they ate them. They were very happy to end their vacation this way.

Day Eight ✈️

We packed up and headed home. This trip was wonderful and we will be back. I cannot recommend the Folly Beach area and the Tides Folly Hotel enough. It’s a kid friendly, laid back easy family vacation spot.