Hello! We have a quiet summer Airstream-wise and are itching to get out on the road! To scratch that itch, we’re starting to plan our next Airstream adventure in November. We have two weeks between plans in Southern Pines, NC and Burlington, NC, so that seems like a perfect opportunity to go Airstreaming. Where should we go?

We initially considered going down to northern Florida to revisit some of our favorite towns from our Florida trip in January 2022, but later settled on a shorter loop focusing on some coastal areas in the Carolinas we’ve never been to.

Here’s what we’re currently thinking

We’ll start with a couple days in the Southern Pines, NC area, known for golf, horses, and a historic downtown. We’re considering Idlewild Farm Stays, a full-service RV park a mile from the Carolina Horse Park and 15-20 minutes from downtown Southern Pines.

From Southern Pines, we’ll head three hours south to Georgetown, SC, the third oldest town in South Carolina. The waterfront community has a charming downtown, and at least one brewery. Fun fact for those of us with ties to Boston: the foundation of Tom Yawkey, former owner of the Red Sox, has given a ton of money to programs in Georgetown County, including the creation and maintenance of 20,000 acres of coastal wildlife refuges. We’re looking at staying at Hidden Marina Campground in Georgetown.

Two hours south of Georgetown, and and hour south of Charleston, is the laid-back beach town of Edisto Beach on Edisto Island. The main draw to us here is the beachfront camping on a dog-friendly beach at Edisto Beach State Park. Even though it’s just a two-hour drive from Georgetown to Edisto, we’re considering stopping in North Charleston for a night at one of the three breweries that are Harvest Hosts locations.

Just over an hour south of Edisto is the beautiful old town of Beaufort, SC. Beaufort, SC (pronounced “byew-fort”) is not the same as Beaufort, NC (pronounced “boh-fort”), but they are both quaint and historic coastal towns. Beaufort, SC is the second-oldest town in SC (now we know the second and third oldest, can you guess the oldest?) and we’re looking forward to exploring town and maybe getting out on the Intracoastal Waterway. We’re eyeballing Green Acres campground in Beaufort.

Next up, an hour south of Beaufort: Hilton Head Island. Is it too touristy? We’ll see. There are two big RV campgrounds on the island; we think a friend advised us to stay on the north side of the island, so we’ll have to confirm that before choosing a campground. Hilton Head has lots of breweries and restaurants, and we’re most excited about the bike paths crisscrossing the island.

And then we turn inland! Did you know there’s a national park in South Carolina? Congaree National Park has over 20,000 acres of wilderness to explore on foot or by kayak. I haven’t looked at any specific hikes or kayak rentals yet, so I don’t know our plans in the park, but we’ll likely park the Airstream at this campground halfway between Congaree and Columbia. Columbia should be interesting as it’s the state capital and the home of the University of South Carolina. Plus, it has a gazillion breweries.

From there, we’ll keep driving northwest a couple hours to Greenville, SC. We’ve taken the Airstream to Greenville before and are happy to return. Downtown is bustling and walkable and there’s a great brewery scene. We liked the campground we stayed at before, but it was a bit too remote; Harvest Hosts has a brewery option and a church option that look interesting and more convenient.

And you know if we’re just over an hour from Asheville, we’re going to go to Asheville. It’s our favorite. We may try a new place to camp, though: a downtown brewery is a Harvest Host. If we do that, we’ll need hookups the following night as it’ll be our last before parking in my sister’s driveway, so we’ll likely do a night in Black Mountain instead of a second in Asheville. Which is perfectly fine with us because we absolutely love Black Mountain!

Here’s a rough map of what our trip would look like. It’s a pretty sweet little loop! But this trip is, what, four months away, so who knows what the actual route will look like…

[EDIT Nov 2024: here’s what we ended up doing!

• Raleigh NC
• Georgetown SC
• Edisto Beach SC
• Charleston SC
• Beaufort SC
• Hilton Head SC
• Columbia SC
• Greenville SC
• Asheville NC

end edit]

Thanks for letting us plan out loud! Let us know if you have opinions in the comments!