Aiken-Rhett House, Charleston

This is a beautiful historic home that you can experience through a self guided tour, because it is self guided I would not recommend for small children since there isn't much to keep their interest.. I recommend parking in a parking area downtown then walking to the House, depending upon which garage you park at it's a super short walk plus the House is located in a beautiful area. Once you walk up to the door it will either be open or you ring a bell and someone will assist you(part of the tour crosses in front of the door so they do this for safety purposes). You pay at a register, you are given an MP3 player, and then put your things in a free locker and take the key with you on the tour so you don't have to worry about anyone taking anything. An employee instructs you on how to use the player and you are off on the tour. In my opinion a self guided tour is so nice because you can stop the tape to read plaques and look at the different artifacts or architecture in the rooms. Overall, it is a beautifully maintained home full of history and lots of cool things to look at.

Great place to visit to get a feel of the real history of Charleston. The private tour with a set of headphones lets you move at your own pace. Its interesting to compare the type of preservation of this house compared to type of preservation of the Nathanial Russell house. They have discounted tickets for visiting both.

We really enjoyed our tour. The staff was super friendly. Our 6 and 9 year olds enjoyed it as well. Kids were given a scavenger hunt that we all enjoyed. Self-guided audio tour was very informative. Quite an experience to walk through the house and slave quarters.

10 stars!! I've seen and visited a lot of historic homes, buildings, etc, but this was by far one of the most beautifully, time frozen places I have ever seen. It's very important to note that this place is not restored, it is preserved! So you will see it virtually untouched with chippy walls, creaky uneven floors, original furniture, and so much more. I especially loved the slave quarters because you could truly see and feel how they lived back then and the difference their plain, small rooms were from the lavish Aiken house. It was just amazing and eye opening. I loved being able to self tour with our head sets so we could see it at our own pace and marvel over everything. I would definitely return again!! We spent 3 days in Charleston seeing a lot, and this was our favorite!

Very neat little tour. As the website description states, really everything is left in the state it was found with perhaps exception of the art gallery area. The $12 entry comes with a guided audio tour that walks you through the property and tells the story of the family, history, and renovations this home has been through. Will warn that part of this has you your outside. Also note that most of the home has no air conditioning (exception being the gallery area) but they do place fans throughout to help with air flow.