Last month a few of my sorority sisters and I went on a day trip to Charleston from UofSC. I did some research about things to do and where to eat, and kept coming up with expensive options. I don’t know about you, but as a college student I am not looking for 5 star restaurants with the best seafood, more like a yummy but cheap salad or burger. Thus, I decided to give you a guide of everything we did and how we kept it on a college student budget.
1st stop: Harken Cafe
We found this cafe while walking and searching for a coffee shop. We got put on a long waitlist for a lunch table so we came here to tide us over. This cafe has the cutest retro and earthy vibe inside! They serve pastries, sandwiches if you come for lunch and of course coffee. This is perfect for the college student budget because you can either get a cheap $10 lunch or a quick coffee for $3.50 to start your day!
2nd Stop: Parking Garage
We parked at Charleston County Parking Garage at 85 Queen St, Charleston, SC 29401. They charged $1 for 30 minutes and the max fee was $18. We were on King Street for about 4 hours and paid $8 which I was pleasantly surprised with the final cost for such convenient parking.
3rd Stop: Millers All Day
This restaurant has such cool decor on the inside and the food is amazing! Hence, there was an hour long wait. But good things come to those who wait, and said good things were chicken and biscuits. My fried chicken biscuits were only $7 which made my college student checkings account very happy. This is located right on King Street and I definitely recommend you go!
Next: King Street Shopping!
This is where you have to stick to your college student budget! King street has so many great shops from high end brands to unique boutiques. We had so much fun wandering around stores and trying on clothes. I got a great sweater from H&M for $8 and Blue Light Glasses from Francesca’s for $15. (ps. why does the internet try to sell me $100 ones?!)
Late Afternoon: Rainbow Row
As we hit the golden hour part of the day, we headed over to Rainbow Row! A trip to Charleston isn’t complete without stopping by here. However for our group of girls, it was more like a full on photoshoot than just a drive by.
Just around the corner, we walked around Battery Park and admired all of the expensive houses.
Last Stop: Folly Beach
We unknowingly went to Charleston during restaurant week which meant that several restaurants were completely booked for dinner. Then, we decided to avoid the traffic and long wait and head to Folly Beach for sunset and dinner. Parking in front of the beach was $5 for the whole day but probably could have gotten a better deal. We ate at Snapper Jacks which is a great seafood and bar food restaurants full of sports tvs and an incredible outdoor patio (too cold for us). I got a burger for $11 and then we decided to split a $7 chocolate cake to finish off the incredible day. I would say this place is very college student budget friendly.
Total cost excluding my shopping: $36.50
I am pretty pleased with this final cost for the day because it included parking, and 2 meals and a snack. When I was looking at blogs about Charleston, many people were suggesting restaurants where I would end up spending $35 on one meal not the whole day! $35 per meal is simply not in a college student’s budget.
1 comment
Comments are closed.