
If you haven’t heard yet, Reese Witherspoon just came out with a new book, called Whiskey in a Teacup, and is doing a book tour! I convinced my aunt Ashli (who loves Reese Witherspoon as much as I do) to go to one of the tour stops with me and we chose Charleston, South Carolina.
Neither of us had ever done Charleston before so we were equally excited to see Reese and to explore the city a little bit. Because of hurricane Florence, the tour date (and our trip) got pushed back a week which meant we had to shorten our trip to a quick 36-hour vacation, but we definitely made the most of it!
Where We Stayed

We stayed at the Mills House Wyndham Hotel and initially chose it because its pink. This may not be the most important hotel criteria when it comes down to it bit that’s what hooked us! It’s a southern style hotel located in the Historic District and was the perfect location for our stay, right in the heart of everything.
The hotel itself is gorgeous and we had a great time walking around it just taking in the beauty of it (and lots of photos, duh). We did have some trouble our reservations as their computer system doesn’t really seem to be…the best… but overall, we had a very nice stay. It’s an older building and we could see signs of wear, like wall sockets coming loose and old carpet, but really it was a beautiful place to stay.
We had a pool side room with a private porch that had the most beautiful wrought iron gate. The pool was just a few steps away and it was like our own little paradise when the pool wasn’t busy. We really didn’t get to spend that much time in the room but the time we had was fabulous.
What We Did
Day 1
We started out around lunch time and went to Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits for some food. I’d read great reviews about the shop, but it was even better than I had expected! Seriously, if you only eat one meal in Charleston, it should be here. It’s in a small little store space but it super cute and the biscuits were unbelievable. I also got the Callie’s cookbook as a souvenir and it’s full of delicious looking Southern recipes. (You can see the cookbook in the header photo at the very top of this post!)
I wasn’t really sure one biscuit would be enough but with all the goodies added on to my biscuit sandwich, I was stuffed. Ashli and I both ordered one of the specials (the goat cheese biscuit with whipped goat cheese, jam, and arugula on a biscuit) and a mini cinnamon biscuit to share.
Callie’s is on King Street, a historic street in downtown Charleston known for great shopping and trendy restaurants, so after we inhaled our delicious biscuits we walked around and enjoyed all that King Street had to offer.

My favorite thing about Charleston, other than the food and the people (in that order), is the architecture. While we walked around King Street I was in awe of all the beautiful buildings with their incredible details, colorful paint, and wrought iron accents. I’m sure we looked like mad tourists, but we couldn’t help but take pictures of practically everything we saw.

Close to Callie’s is the Blue Bicycle Booksused bookstore. They were the hosts of Reese Witherspoon’s book tour stop in Charleston and such a fun little shop. They have used, rare, and local books with lots of shelves to look through and an adorable kids section. For all my fellow book overs, I definitely recommend popping in to check out their collections.
On Cannon street (which runs perpendicular to king Street) we stopped by Sugar Bakeshop for a quick pick-me-up and drooled over all the delectable looking treats. While admiring the shop front we noticed that their address is 59 ½Cannon – don’t you love that? As we walked around we noticed a few other places with fractional address and thought it was the coolest thing. I’m not sure why they’re like that so if anyone knows please share in the comments!
Another cute shop we happened upon with a fractional address (74 ½ Cannon) was a cute little card shop called Mac & Murphey. It’s a small little shop but if you love pens, paper, and stationary like I do, you’ll like this place. My favorite card from their card wall was one that read, “In times like these just remember that nothing can stop you from ordering a pizza” – my new life motto. My once broke college self who lived on microwave mac & cheese and didn’t have money for ordering pizza might disagree, but I love it all the same.
It was a fairly hot and humid afternoon so after a few hours of traipsing around King Street we went back to our hotel to cool off and get ready for our evening events (i.e. meeting Reese, hearing her talk about her book, and eating really good food). After a quick catnap we put on our “meeting Reese outfits”, touched up our makeup, and were on our way!
The concierge at our hotel told us the best way to get around would be bike taxisand she was definitely right – we were very happy to not have to worry about driving around downtown Charleston and find parking.

The event was at the Charleston Gaillard Center and again I was agog at the beautiful building. Our “meet & greet” with Reese was more greet, less meet since the people push you through so quickly but she was very nice and so tiny! For the 3 seconds we got with her Ashli did all the talking, which is good because I’m not even sure I could remember my own name in that moment much less how to make proper sentences.
It turns out we actually have the whole “six degrees of separation” thing with Reese (which basically makes us BFFs, don’t fight me on this) as one of Ashli’s friend’s sister is best friend with Reese, so Ashli told Reese they had told us to say hi and just as she was about to say something the mean line people made us move on. But we have photo proof that we met her! Which I’m really thankful for since it all happened so fast and I, being quite in shock at actually meeting her, barely remember it.

After the meet & greet Reese we all made our way into the theater and got to hear Reese talk about the book and different stories from her life. The whole thing was sort of interview style with Emily Giffin as the moderator. My favorite part was hearing Reese talk about coming into Hollywood with all her Southern ways and making friends by baking casseroles.
Once “the show” was over we fought our way out of the building and took a bike taxi to High Cotton for dinner. This was another recommendation from our concierge (thank you, Karen) and the food was delicious. Since we were all dressed up from the event we wanted a nice dinner to cap off our evening and this place did not disappoint with their swarthy and classy atmosphere.
We took our dessert to-go so we could enjoy it while lounging about the hotel room in our bathrobes (always my favorite way to eat cake) and it was a fabulous end to a wonderful day. Even though we didn’t get to see everythingon our Charleston to-do list we definitely got in as much as we could in one day and got a great taste of the city.
Day 2
Ashli and I strategically planned our flights out the next day so that they didn’t leave until later in the day, giving us a few extra hours to explore Charleston. After our day in the downtown area we decided to spend our last four hours visiting one of the city’s historic plantation.
Deciding which plantation to go to was tough but we decided on Middleton Place Plantation and it was perfect. The plantation is actually a National Historical Landmark and has 65 acres of gardens and the biggest (and oldest: 900 years old!) oak tree I’ve ever seen in my life.

There are different guided and self-guided tours on the property that include touring the gardens, a carriage tour, and a tour of the house. This was my first time touring a plantation and it was definitely one of my favorite things we did on this trip.
Other plantations we considered (that will be on our list for next time!) were Boone Hall Plantation and Magnolia Plantation. If you love history and/or beautiful places, you’ve got to visit at least one plantation while you’re there.
For a full list of things to do and food to eat in Charleston, check out this post.

Aimee Lerman says
Your trip looks fabulous! I haven’t been to Charleston so this is definitely a post to save with a bookmark.
I’d love to see you a do “36 Hours in Austin” – your hometown! I have seen outsiders’ versions and they fall for the touristy stuff that I don’t think we would ever actually do as people who live here, especially if we’re hosting visitors who really only have 36 hours. (Are you really going to spend six of your 36 hours waiting in line at Franklin BBQ? I just don’t think so…)
Clara says
Glad you enjoyed the post! I had so much fun visiting and exploring the city.
I’ve been working on a few different “Austin tips from a local” type posts so stay tuned 😊 And thanks for the suggestion!