We first discovered Folly Beach when Anika was just about to turn three and I was quite pregnant with Jake. On a whim, we took a final trip as a family of three to Charleston, South Carolina. It had been on our list of places to visit for a while and checked all the boxes for us; short flight, beaches, warmer temperatures, and affordable. On our first trip to Charleston, we only booked the flight and rental car and stayed open to everything else. We happened to stumble upon Folly Beach and planned to stay for one night. Things changed when we fell in love with this adorable tiny beach town and we ended up spending our whole trip there. It is such a great spot to vacation with young kiddos due to the access to the beach and walkability to restaurants. We recently made our third trip to South Carolina and Folly Beach with our kids and we all still love it. Here’s a little breakdown of our recent trip.
Day One
The first day of our vacation was all about traveling. We arrived at the airport, checked our bag and car seats, went through security, got some lunch and hung out and watched the planes (and went to the bathroom approximately 300 times) while we waited to board.
The kids did great on the flight. A favorite memory from the trip was about an hour and a half into it, it was like Jake finally realized we were up in the air. He looked out the window and started joyfully screaming look out there, look at the sky, you can see the clouds…etc. The sweetest part about this was his immediate desire to share this with his sister. He kept yelling at Anika to look outside! Look out the window and see the sky!
We successfully landed in Charleston and their airport is awesome. It’s small and so easy to manage. We got our rental car at the airport, stopped at the Harris Teeter for groceries and finally made it to our hotel for the week, Tides Folly Beach.
It was about 6:30 pm at this point and we were all pretty exhausted. Sandwiches in our room were about the best we could do for dinner and I can’t tell you how wonderful that dinner was. It was so nice after a long day of traveling to sit on a hotel bed and watch our kids happily devour a ham sandwich, listening to the ocean outside our balcony.
Day Two
We started off our second day of vacation exploring our hotel and the immediate area. This is our third time staying at Tides Folly Beach and it never disappoints. I love that we see familiar super friendly faces each time we come back. It’s an absolute perfect spot to vacation with young kids. The hotel is right on the beach and there are so many cute restaurants within walking distance that we never have to leave, unless we want to. But we do because there are tons of fun days trips within 30 minutes of Folly Beach.
We left our hotel room and explored a bit to see what was new.
We decided to check out the Folly Beach Pier first.
The kids ran around and we all did some bird watching. Next we headed to walk downtown Folly and see what had changed since we’d been here last.
We headed back to the hotel so we could check out the beach. The kids immediately took off their shoes and starting running in the sand and water, looking for shells and frolicking.
After their clothing was sufficiently wet and sandy, we all headed up to our hotel room for lunch. Then Jamie took the kids for a swim in the pool. I’m pretty sure this was their favorite part of the day. The water was heated to a warm 85 degrees.
On our way back up to the hotel room we checked out the workout room. Anika was a big fan.
Next we headed to Walmart to pick up a couple of things and then decided on the Chick-fil A that was nearby for dinner. We had heard it was better the farther south you get and can now say with 100 percent certainty that is correct. After dinner we headed to the hotel and got ready for bed.
Day Three
We knew this was going to be our worst weather day this trip. 45 and rain was the forecast. We had a couple of hours until the rain started so we went down to Folly Beach County Park to check things out. It was cold and windy so Jake wasn’t into it. I took him back to the car while Anika and Jamie explored and looked for shells a bit longer. When they got back Anika had a handful of shells with holes in the top. Her plan was to make shell necklaces with them. She also very excitedly told me they had found a tree that had shells hung up on it and she got to add one too.
After we left the beach we decided some inside fun would be our best option today. We headed to the North Charleston Fire Museum. It had great reviews and said there was stuff for kids. The cost was six dollars a person for Jamie and I and free for kids five and under. It ended up being the perfect rain day activity. As we walked in the kids immediately got excited at seeing the giant old fire trucks.
There were some kid specific activities that were so fun. The fire truck stimulator was awesome. We all got to ride in a fire truck while the kids took turns driving. When you started the simulator a screen popped up in front of you making you feel like you were on your way to a fire. There were so many buttons to push, a siren and horn to put on and the seats even rumbled a bit. It was a hit.
Anika loved making her own fire badge.
The mini playground area with fire ladder and fire pole was also a hit.
The last thing we did was check out the small theater that had a show about fire safety. We learned what we can do to prevent fires in our home. It wasn’t just a movie. The stage twirled and it had animatronics. Mist even sprinkled down out of the ceiling. The kids had so much fun, but also learned a lot too.
As we left the kids were each given their own fire hat. After getting some lunch out we were all exhausted. We headed back to the hotel room for naps/tablet time and spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our room and eating sandwiches for dinner.
Day 4
The weather for the day was cold (high of 45) and windy. The sun was out though! Our plan was to use a Groupon I had purchased for the Magnolia
Plantation. We arrived at the plantation and it was not just cold, but windy cold. Just about 40 degrees. Had it been 40 degrees in New England in February this would have seemed warm, but we weren’t dressed for it. We decided to give it a try and see how things went.
We started with the petting zoo area. It was cute. One thing we noticed was how incredibly calm all the animals were. They had absolutely no reaction to us being there, good or bad. Except for a giant goose that seemed to befriend Jamie. They hung out and took a little walk together.
Anika and Jake petted a deer.
After the zoo we toured the garden. This is where things went down hill for us. It was cold and windy. We tried to go through it quickly and saw some beautiful things, like this incredible red bridge over the water, but the kids were cold and just wanted to go back to the car.
We made our way out of the garden and saw the plantation house from the outside. It was incredible. The pillars were massive. Pretty quickly after this, the cold got to us all and we headed back to the car.
On the way home we stopped at Publix for a few groceries. The kids loved the mini carts and free cookies.
We headed back to the hotel for nap time followed by dinner out at Wiki Wiki Sandbar. The food was great and so was the decor. It included a giant paper mache octopus suspended from the ceiling. But the best part about this place was that they had pineapple done whip.
Day 5
Today our plan was to head south to Kiawah. Our first stop was the beach, Kiawah Beachwalker Park. Although brisk, there was sun and zero clouds and not much wind so it felt great to be outside. The kids ran around.
We found washed up jelly fish and horseshoe crabs.
Jake and Jamie played some game with magic wands while Anika and I drew pictures in the sand.
After this we headed to Kiawah’s little town where we had a picnic lunch at one of the outside tables. It had warmed up quite a bit at this point and was beautiful. We wandered for a bit and went into a toy store to look around. Anika found this little mermaid toy that she had been wanting for a while.
Then we went to Rita’s for dinner. The kids got their meals on frisbees and I got shrimp and grits so we were all happy.
We went to the beach after dinner to play with the kids newly acquired frisbees. The sea foam was intense and both kids went for it. It was fun watching them play in it.
We stopped by the pool and Jamie and the kids stuck their feet and fully clothed legs in the water. They were already wet, so why not?
We went back up to the hotel room and pretty quickly the kids went to sleep.
Day 6
Today our plan was to head to Isle of Palms. We stopped at Fractured Prune Donuts on the way. We got to create a custom donut that they made right in front of us.
After our bellies were full of donuts we went to the beach and playground at Isle of Palm and hung out for a bit.
Then we stopped by Sullivan’s Island Beach on the way back to look for sand dollars. We heard this was the place to go to find them. Jamie and Anika successfully found a ton of broken ones, but we are still on the hunt for a whole sand dollar.
Next we went back to the hotel for lunch in our room. Jamie took the kids to swim in the pool after lunch and Anika got to use her new mermaid toy that she bought at the store the previous day.
That night we went to Surf Bar for dinner. Despite the place looking kind of rough, the food was so good. The steak and cheese was the best I’ve ever had and the pasta salad that went with it was great too. The prices were perfect, especially the kids meal. It was five dollars for a huge chicken tender kids meal plate that the kids split. I ate some of their fries and Jamie ate some of their chicken tenders, since there was so much leftover food.
After dinner we went back to the hotel and all ended up curling up and watching Shrek Forever After together before going to sleep.
Day 7
The last day of our vacation didn’t go quite as we would have expected. During the night my eyes started to hurt. By morning it was pretty obvious I had conjunctivitis. I had been sick all week, but mostly ignored it and took ibuprofen because I assumed it was just a bad cold. I was determined we were going to enjoy this vacation! But when the eye thing happened I knew it was time to get checked out.
Jamie researched online and found a walk in clinic that was well rated. First thing that morning we got dressed and headed out. Jamie and the kids sat in the car listening to an audiobook while I saw a doctor. She was great. Long story short, after a couple of tests and an examination I walked away with a diagnosis of the flu, conjunctivitis and concern that the fluid in my lungs was indicating things were turning into a secondary infection of pneumonia. She prescribed me some antibiotics and eye drops.
After all this we kept things pretty low key for the rest of our final day. The kids played at a nearby playground while we waited for my prescriptions, we ate lunch and Jamie took the kids for one final swim in the pool. Jamie walked down and got us a takeout pizza for dinner. This has turned into our last night at Folly tradition and I love it. We spent the evening in our room eating pizza, cookies and making the kids watch HGTV with us. A perfect way to end a vacation.
Day 8
Travel Day home! We were sad to leave, and not super happy about the day of traveling ahead of us, but are so grateful we all got to spend this time together in one of our favorite places.
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