Just some of the great local events coming up…
29th Annual Lowcountry Oyster Festival, January 29th at Boone Hall Plantation – aw-shucks, they’ve got 80,000 pounds of oysters! http://www.charlestonrestaurantassociation.com/lowcountry-oyster-festival/
SEWE – 30th Annual Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, February 17th-19th – all things wildlife, from art to demos: http://www.sewe.com/
Charleston Wine + Food Festival, March 1st-4th – becoming one of the hottest tickets in a town known for great food: http://charlestonwineandfood.com/
65th Annual Festival of Houses & Gardens, Historic Charleston Foundation, March 22nd -April 21st – peek inside some of the peninsula’s most charming homes and secluded gardens: http://www.historiccharleston.org/news_events/festival.html
35th Annual Cooper River Bridge Run, March 31st – walk or run 10K across the beautiful Ravenel Bridge with about 40,000 other folks! http://bridgerun.com/index.php
39th Annual Family Circle Cup Tennis, Daniel Island, March 31st - April 8th – come watch the top female tennis players in the world battle it out on the courts: http://www.familycirclecup.com/
36th Annual Spoleto Festival, May 25th - June 10th – spectacular world class performances come to Charleston: http://spoletousa.org/
Piccolo Spoleto Festival, May 25th - June 10th – more than 700 events over 17 days, featuring artists and performers from across the Southeast and beyond… http://piccolospoleto.com/
94th PGA Championship, at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, August 9th -12th – see the best golfers in the world play at one of the most challenging (and beautiful) courses on earth: http://www.pga.com/pgachampionship/2012/news/ocean_course_2012.cfm
Tourist-mecca Charleston has landed another accolade.
Alongside London, Paris and Budapest, the Holy City, currently Conde Nast Traveler's No. 1 tourist destination in North America, made travel guide Fodor's Top 21 places to go in the world this year.
Only one other U.S. tourist spot made the list: Oahu in tropical Hawaii.
Pushing Charleston to the forefront of the must-go destinations are great restaurants, plush hotels, beautiful scenery and numerous festivals, according to Fodor's.
The travel guide honed in on Charleston as a "buzzy destination" and a foodie-centric city that's leading a Southern food revival, especially among a couple of Charleston's newer restaurants.
At Neighborhood Dining Group's Husk, which opened just over a year ago, and McCrady's, the travel guide cited chef Sean Brock for delving "into the history of southern agriculture in an effort to reintroduce heirloom produce and incorporate long-forgotten local ingredients, providing a flavor of the South that's gone untasted for decades."
At Grocery, which opened last month on Cannon Street, Fodor's said chef-owner Kevin Johnson "pays homage to old-school groceries with a menu dictated by the catches and harvests of local anglers and farmers."
Fodor's nod to the city is not surprising, Brock said.
"Charleston has the perform storm," he added. "It has incredible hospitality, incredible weather, incredible food with an incredible history to back it up. Our buildings are beautiful, and we preserved our history with respect."
The travel guide's recognition of his efforts in the kitchen is also personally gratifying, Brock said.
"People are starting to taste the difference and become more interested in the story and the history of food when it wasn't processed or engineered or polluted," the chef said. "Food was simply better then, and we need to get back to that. Farmers are finally embracing the old-fashioned way of producing things. Chefs are becoming tighter with the producers, and guests are getting tighter with the chefs … and all of those things are adding up."
Fodor's also singled out the 62-room Planters Inn for its 18th-century charms as well as the award-winning Peninsula Grill.
Hotel and restaurant owner Hank Holliday said it was gratifying to see his staff rewarded for their efforts, but he said Charleston's newly discovered stature took many years of plugging away by Mayor Joe Riley and the hospitality industry.
"It just didn't happen overnight," Holliday said. "It's been long, long years of hard work."
He said the attention heaped on Charleston is because it offers "a wonderful experience and a wonderful product."
Helen Hill, executive director of the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau could not have been happier. "We are thrilled," she said. "This is a great start to the new year."
She called Fodor's one of the authorities on travel and lauded them for recognizing what millions of visitors already know.
"There's lots to do here," Hill said. "It's a combination of an historic destination with a rich, urban feel and beautiful beaches. There's not many places in the world to go to get that in one destination."
--- by Warren Wise, The Post and Courier
Charleston is a great place to be!
Charleston is distinguishing itself from other cities culturally and economically. In addition to Husk, Bon Appetit's best new restaurant in America, here are other recent rankings representing the accolades to our city. While reading, remember Rhett Butler's words before that famous last line of "Gone With the Wind," "I'm going back to Charleston, back where I belong." To which Scarlett O'Hara replied, "Please, please take me with you!"
Food Network magazine
Evo Pizzeria, One of the top 50 pizzas in the U.S.
National Geographic
50 Best Places to Live: The Next Great Adventure Towns (2008)
Businessweek
No. 23 --City of North Charleston in America's Most Fun, Affordable Cities (2011)
GQ
Coolest Small Cities in America (2010)
Travel + Leisure
America's Favorite Cities Survey (2010, out of 35 cities):
No. 1 Friendly city
No. 1 Bed and Breakfasts/Inns
No. 1 Noteworthy neighborhoods
No. 1 Antique stores
No. 1 Stylish boutique hotels
No. 1 Attractive people
World's Best Awards (2011):
No. 2 Best Cities in U.S. and Canada
U.S. News and World Report
No. 20 Best U.S. Vacations (2010)
AmericanStyle
No. 4 Top Arts Destinations, midsize cities (2011)
Lonely Planet
No. 10 Top 10 Cities (2010)
Conde Nast Traveler
No. 2 Travel Destination in the U.S. (2010)
TripAdvisor Readers' Choice Awards
No. 17 Best Romantic Vacations, anywhere (2011)
No. 7 Best Romantic Vacations, U.S. and Canada (2011)
No. 14 Best History and Culture Vacations, U.S. and Canada (2011)
No. 20 Top Destinations, U.S. and Canada (2010)
No. 2 Great Food & Wine, U.S. and Canada (2010)
No. 4 Culture and Sightseeing, U.S. and Canada (2010)
No. 3 Top Girlfriend Getaways in the U.S. (2010)
United States Tennis Association
Best Tennis Town in the U.S. (2010)
Outside
Best Towns (2010)
Southern Living
No. 1 Best Southern City (2009)
No. 2 Best Neighborhood for Shopping -- King Street (2009)
No. 10 Best Family Destination (2009)
Parade
Five Great American Cities
Augusta Chronicle
Best Romantic Getaway (2011)
Best Romantic Getaway (2010)
Best One-tank Getaway (2010)
Forbes
No. 40 Best Places for Business and Careers (2011)
Milken Institute
No. 19 Best Performing Cities (2010)
Portfolio.com
No. 4 Small Business Vitality (2010)
--- as published in The Post and Courier
Register now for the second annual Charleston Marathon, which will take place January 13 – 15 and includes a full marathon, half marathon, 5K, youth marathon and a 30- or 60-mile bike ride. The course starts at Calhoun Street and winds through the historic Charleston peninsula, passing Rainbow Row and White Point Gardens/the Battery, ending up at the Navy Yard at Noisette. The race is fast becoming a new Charleston tradition, and proceeds benefit a nonprofit supporting fine arts programming in public schools. Performance groups made up of kids who benefit from the programs will dot the race course, entertaining and encouraging runners. Click here for more info on the weekend full of events: charlestonmarathon.com/
Registered participants will receive 10% off your booking of an Exclusive Property for that weekend! (not to be combined with other discounts, new contracts only).
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