Bruce Smith/Associated Press

A carriage tour stopped briefly on a street in the historic district in Charleston, S.C.

Stephen Morton for The New York Times

The Battery neighborhood on the tip of Charleston overlooks the the Ashley and Cooper rivers.

Selina Kok for the Boston Globe

Rainbow Row on East Bay St. is said to be the longest cluster of intact Georgian row houses in the country.

Selina Kok for the Boston Globe

The Charleston City Market, established in 1807, reopened in 2011 after a $5.5 million makeover.

ExploreCharleston.com

Fort Sumter.

Rainbow row houses.

AP Photo/Bruce Smith

Fort Sumter is seen at Fort Sumter National Monument. Several shells lodged in a wall of the fort where the Civil War began were conserved.

AP Photo/Paula Illingworth

Visitors walked toward the Ashley River at Drayton Hall Plantation.