Weekend Girls Trip to Charleston, South Carolina

Every now and then it's great to get away with your girlfriends. Whether it be at a happy hour or a weekend vacation, every gal needs her pals to loosen up and relax with.

This past weekend my friend Sarah of "Life of a Frye", twin sis, mom and two aunts boarded a Southwest flight to Charleston, SC for a quick getaway. I have ALWAYS wanted to visit Charleston and was so pumped to hear that this was going to be our girls trip destination.

On Friday morning before dawn, I headed to the airport for our 7 a.m. flight. Although early, all of us were pumped and excited for the weekend ahead. After a connecting flight in Houston, we landed in the historic town around 12:15 p.m. EST.

We headed straight to our hotel to drop off bags before grabbing a bite to eat. We stayed at the beautiful Renaissance Charleston Hotel in the Historic District. The hotel was located in a great area and within walking distance from almost everything we did and everywhere we ate.

Although historic on the outside, the decor on the inside was of the modern taste. I thought they did a great job! Check out our comfy rooms. My mom's and my room even had an adorable balcony that looked out over Society Street.

After freshening up, we ventured on foot down the historic Kings St, full of high-end shops and other cute boutiques, until we landed upon Market St., where the old trading market is located.

We ended up stopping for lunch at The Rooftop at the Vendue Hotel after a recommendation from a friend. They had great drinks and yummy appetizers we chowed down on.

Sarah, of "Life of a Frye" and I at The Rooftop.

After a quick bite, we meandered down to the pier to take a look at the water. Not going to lie, it reminded me of our Texas coast- brown and muddy. Oh well... I wasn't going to get in it anyways.

Then we strolled back to the covered market to browse.

Dinner was at the world-famous Hank's Seafood Restaurant. My goodness it was divine! From the food to the atmosphere to the outstanding service, I highly recommend enjoying a meal here during your stay. It is on the pricey end, so be prepared to spend more.

We crashed early that night since we had all been up for almost 20 hours by then. When Saturday morning rolled around, we were all refreshed and ready to explore.

A great way to see a lot of historic Charleston is by carriage ride. There are dozens of carriage tour companies in the area, but we selected Palmetto Carriages Works for a private tour. You don't have to get a private tour, and register for a group tour, as well.

We absolutely loved our tour, and what made it even better was that it was our tour horse, Loretta's, very last day on the job. She was retiring that Saturday and heading up north to live out the rest of her life in blissful retirement.

Check out how adorable she is!

It's hard to grasp just how historic of a place you're in until you listen to the stories these tour guides tell about the properties. I can't believe some of these buildings have been occupied in some fashion since the 1700s! INSANE!

We couldn't go to Charleston without visiting at least one plantation. After asking several people, we settled on visiting the Middleton Plantation, located about a 30-minute drive away from where we were staying.

The entry fee was a tad steep at $28. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the entry fee was just to walk the grounds and we had to pay an ADDITIONAL $18 to get into the museum house. We opted out of doing that, although we really wanted to, and decided to give ourselves a quick tour.

Honestly, we were all a tad bit disappointed in the plantation. Although beautiful, we felt it wasn't worth our time and money seeing it. Maybe if we had gone to another one?

We ventured back to the hotel via Lyft and got ready for dinner that night. The restaurant was literally across the street from our hotel, so we took our time relaxing and getting ready.

We ate at Muse , an Italian-inspired menu. It was D-E-L-C-I-O-U-S! Honestly, there wasn't one meal we ate this past weekend that didn't satisfy me. I got lamb chops that I forgot to take a picture of because I was too excited to start eating.

Since we were all feeling good after dinner, we decided to hitch an Uber to the Palace Hotel, a bar co-owned by Shep Rose, one of the stars of Southern Charm, a reality TV show based in Charleston.

Don't let the name fool you, this bar looks and feels nothing like a luxurious hotel, but it was still fun, nonetheless. I hadn't been to a bar like this in YEARS so it was fun to relive my college days with some of my favorite people.

After a few drinks we called it a night and headed back to the hotel. Early Sunday morning we headed back home.

I would DEFINITELY travel back to Charleston again because a day and a half was by far way too short to fully enjoy what this great city has to offer.

Until we meet again, Charleston...