Patriots Point, Mount Pleasant

If Patriot’s Point isn’t at the top of your Charleston agenda, rethink it! This is the absolute, hands-down must-see thing in Charleston. You get to go inside navy ships - large and small and understand the lives of a sailor and other military personnel aboard these ships. It was my first experience on a navy ship, so it was very informative and eye opening. I will say, there are a lot of tight quarters, narrow halls, and dozens of steep ladders/stairs to climb as your tour up and down and across the ships. I walked about 3 miles in total across 3.5 hours that we spent. We had to hurry through - and it still took us 3.5 hours. We thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it. The Vietnam experience is unique and worth walking through. The self guided tours were pretty well labeled so you can navigate your way through. Plenty of hands on things you can touch and watch, too.

We have visited a couple of times, and the museum is excellent. You can make this a quick trip and spend a couple of hours or an entire day. If you love military history, you could stretch this and make it a two-day trip if you want to see every little aspect, including the other ships.