Charleston Walking Tour: Rainbow Row to the Battery
Walk from Charleston’s old market to the Battery, past pastel houses, churches and grand residences.
South Carolina
Things to do in Charleston on foot
2 tours in Charleston
Haunted Charleston Walking Tour
Walk from the Battery to the Old City Jail, where Charleston’s ghostly reputation meets its surviving streets and stones.
Charleston on foot
Charleston was founded in 1670 and spent its first two centuries as one of the richest ports in North America, built on rice, trade and the labor of enslaved people. The old city on the peninsula still shows all of that within a short walk, and there are two walks here. The Charleston Walking Tour runs from the City Market to the Battery in eight stops. On Chalmers Street you stand outside the Old Slave Mart, believed to be the last surviving slave auction building in South Carolina. At the Four Corners of Law, St. Michael's Church shares one intersection with city, county and federal power. You pass the Heyward-Washington House, where George Washington stayed in 1791; Rainbow Row, whose pastels date from the 1930s rescue of a run-down waterfront; the Nathaniel Russell House; and the Edmondston-Alston House, which had a front-row seat for the start of the Civil War. It's 2.4 miles and takes about 1 hour 20 minutes with the stories. The Haunted Charleston Walking Tour starts at White Point Garden, near where the pirate Stede Bonnet was hanged in 1718, and ends at the Old City Jail. It passes the Old Exchange and its Provost Dungeon, the Dock Street Theatre, St. Philip's Church, the Circular Congregational Church and the Unitarian Church graveyard. At each stop you hear the legend and then what the records say. It's 1.9 miles and takes about 1 hour 8 minutes. Both walks are flat and stay on the old peninsula, so you can do one in the morning and the other after dark.
Charleston: questions people ask
Which Charleston walk should I take?
For the city's history by daylight, take the Charleston Walking Tour from the City Market to the Battery. For pirates, prisons and graveyards, take the Haunted Charleston Walking Tour from White Point Garden to the Old City Jail.
Is Rainbow Row on a tour?
Yes. It's the fifth stop on the Charleston Walking Tour, on East Bay Street, where you hear how a single pink house started the row's colors in 1931.
Where does the Charleston ghost walk start?
At White Point Garden on the Battery. It ends at the Old City Jail on Magazine Street, 1.9 miles later.
Do I need a guide or an app?
No. Both walks are self-guided, so you can start whenever you like. unlock the rest to hear it on the web or in the Stories app, which also works offline.
Is there a self-guided tour of Charleston?
Yes. 2 tours, including "Charleston Walking Tour: Rainbow Row to the Battery", are on Stories. Unlock it once for your group for $4.99 and play it in your browser; the app plays each story as you arrive.
Every Stories tour plays in your browser, no app needed. How it works
Know someone headed to Charleston? Give a walk as a gift, emailed on the day you pick.