Middleton Place Plantation

Steve’s take

America's oldest landscaped gardens — laid out in 1741 — with a working stableyards where blacksmiths and potters demonstrate colonial-era trades. The butterfly lakes and live oaks draped in Spanish moss are peak South Carolina. Middleton Place doesn't shy away from the enslaved people's history either, which makes it a more honest and educational visit than most plantation tours. About twenty minutes from downtown Charleston. Beautiful, important, and real.