Beaufort

Beaufort is a small city of about 13,607 people on Port Royal Island in South Carolina's Lowcountry, chartered in 1711 and the second-oldest city in the state. Where Hilton Head, its metro neighbour to the south, is resorts and golf, Beaufort is history and marsh grass: a grid of antebellum houses under live oaks, a waterfront park on the Beaufort River, and the working water world of the Sea Islands around it. The Marine Corps shapes the area too, with Parris Island and the air station nearby, but the centre belongs to the 18th and 19th centuries. Spanish moss and tidal creeks do most of the decorating.

The historic district is the sight. Bay Street runs along the water past shops and restaurants, and behind it the neighbourhood called the Point holds the great houses: columned, shuttered and set in gardens of azalea and moss-draped oak. The John Mark Verdier House, now a museum, shows how a merchant's house worked in 1804. Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park gives the town a lawn on the river, with swings facing the marsh. Across the causeway on St. Helena Island, Penn Center preserves the school founded for freed people in 1862, part of the Reconstruction Era National Monument. Hunting Island State Park, about 15 miles east, adds a wild beach, a lighthouse and a campground. The Beaufort History Museum, in the 1852 Arsenal on Craven Street, tells the town's story in one compact visit.

Beaufort eats Lowcountry: shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, Frogmore stew and fresh catch along Bay Street and in the small restaurants of the historic district and Port Royal, the neighbouring town to the south. The food scene is modest but genuine, weighted toward seafood and Southern kitchens rather than chains. Evenings are early and quiet, a drink on a porch or a walk along the waterfront as the light goes. The Beaufort International Film Festival brings a crowd each February, and the Water Festival takes over the waterfront park in July.

Stay in the historic district if you can, in the inns and bed and breakfasts among the old houses, where Bay Street and the Point are all walkable. Chain hotels sit along the highway corridors at the edge of town, and Lady's Island across the bridge has more. There is no passenger rail; the nearest commercial airport is Hilton Head Island Airport, about 20 miles south, with Savannah's airport under an hour. Palmetto Breeze buses serve the county, but sights like Hunting Island and Penn Center really need a car.

March through May and September through November are the sweet seasons, warm without the summer humidity and with gardens or fall light at their best. Summer is hot, humid and buggy, though the water is never far. Winters are mild, with the film festival in February the main event. One to two days covers the historic district and Penn Center; add a beach day for Hunting Island.

Beaufort is the Lowcountry detour between Charleston, about 70 miles northeast, and Savannah, about 40 miles southwest, reached by U.S. 21 from Interstate 95. Hilton Head Island lies a short drive south for beaches and golf. On a coastal road trip it is the historic, live-in overnight between the two big port cities, slower and older than either, and the natural base for the Sea Islands.