Charleston Plantation Tour: Middleton Place Magnolia Gardens Lunch

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Free cancellation

1/6

Duration4h–6h

GroupPrivate

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Three centuries of family gardens, 65 acres of working plantation grounds, and lunch included.

A private Charleston plantation tour combines admission to Middleton Place and Magnolia Plantation and Gardens with air-conditioned transport and a box lunch. You travel the Spanish Moss Canopied River Road to West Ashley, explore both sites at your own pace with self-guided access, and learn how each plantation shaped antebellum life in the lowcountry. The tour runs 4 to 6 hours and includes pickup from your hotel.

4h–6h

Step-by-step itinerary

Visit Magnolia and Middleton Plantations

Ride Spanish Moss Canopied River Road
Explore Magnolia Plantation gardens
Visit Middleton Place gardens and stable yards
See water buffalo and other animals
Learn about rice cultivation and phosphate mining
Visit Blacksmith, Carpenter, Pottery, and Textile Shops

The Experience

You get picked up from your Charleston hotel and driven through the Spanish Moss Canopied River Road to reach two of the area's most significant historic plantations. The route itself is part of the experience—the landscape signals where you're heading before you arrive. A live guide travels with you and answers questions along the way, though both plantations are explored on your own schedule once you're there.

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens holds the oldest unrestored gardens in America, with sections more than 325 years old. The same family has owned the property for over three centuries, and each generation added their own plantings—camellias, daffodils, azaleas and countless other species bloom year-round, building toward the spring peak. You walk the 65 acres at whatever pace suits you. At Middleton Place, you see the Stable Yards with water buffalo, gulf coast sheep and cashmere goats brought to the lowcountry for their climate resilience, then visit the Blacksmith, Carpenter, Pottery and Textiles Shops to understand how people on the plantation actually lived and worked. The site also covers the cultivation of rice and phosphate mining that sustained the area through the 17th and 18th centuries.

A box lunch is provided during the tour, and bottled water travels with you. Both plantation admissions are included. If you want to add a house tour or nature boat tour at Magnolia, or other add-ons at Middleton Place, you arrange those directly with each site at checkout. The vehicle is air-conditioned, and the tour works for families with infants and strollers, as well as for visitors with mobility needs.

What’s included

Air-conditioned private vehicle with pickup from your Charleston hotel.
admission to Middleton Place and Magnolia Plantation and Gardens.
box lunch.
bottled water.
a live English-speaking guide in the vehicle.

Good to know

Easy physical levelWheelchair accessibleStroller friendlyInfant seats availablePets welcome

Operated by GCT

Is this one for you?Book this tour if you're arriving without a car or staying somewhere without easy plantation access—the driver handles the route along the Spanish Moss Canopied River Road, and you spend your afternoon walking the gardens and grounds instead of navigating between two sites on your own.