We visited Georgetown in November 2024 as part of our two-week Carolinas in November trip.

From Raleigh, it was a 3.5-hour drive down to Georgetown, the longest driving segment of our two-week trip through the Carolinas.

Georgetown is the third-oldest city in South Carolina, behind Charleston and Beaufort, both stops on this Carolinas trip. It was founded in 1729, and became a leading producer of indigo, then prospered with rice, then lumber, then commercial fishing and tourism. The historic downtown area is charming and makes for a pleasant stroll past interesting architecture on one side, and boats and birds on the other. And despite our cousin’s memories from college, Georgetown does not have a bad paper mill smell!

Campground

We’d booked a site at Hidden Marina and Campground, but had no assigned site or gate code, and couldn’t get through to the office all day as we approached from Raleigh. Fortunately, as we waited by the closed campground gate, someone drove up behind us who had the gate code and let us in.

Another person golf carting around the campground suggested we just pick a spot, so we chose a primo water-view campsite near the cabins and waited to see if we’d get in trouble.

We eventually got the gate code later that night. The campground has a boat ramp/pier area where we spent a lovely hour or so in the dark enjoying the water. A factory down the river belched smoke and made dragon noises–was that the mysterious paper plant?

Despite the communication glitches, we liked Hidden Marina and would stay there again.

Activities

From the campground, it was a 10-minute drive to Georgetown’s sweet little historic downtown. Bugsy and I explored the Harborwalk, a boardwalk winding along the water past shops and restaurants, while J looked for a bar showing the Commanders game.

He landed at Winyah Bay Brewing Co, which was empty but welcoming for humans and dogs. J had a lager, and I had a prosecco, and the Commanders… lost.

While Bugsy and I roamed around, we noted that Buzz’s Roost on the water was dog-friendly and had the game on. (Also, Corner Tavern looked nice for post-game with waterfront seats and poboys.) After the game we landed at Buzz’s Roost, a dive bar with TVs and fried pickles and cocktails. A first for us: order fried pickles and you can choose chips or spears! Service and pickles were not what we hoped, but we enjoyed watching flying fish and anhingas and turtles in the harbor.

For dinner, we sat at the bar at Root, which had salads on the menu, and we were in need of vegetables.

In the morning, we came back into town for coffee at Urban Brew, a cute cafe space shared with Bluebird Vintage. Our lattes were good, but the wifi was terrible. Maybe it was a glitch as it was a very popular and friendly neighborhood hangout.

We came into Georgetown not knowing what to expect, and we ended up really liking it! It was a good stop! But it was time to move onto Edisto Beach, two hours south. On the way–

–a half hour south of Georgetown, we stopped for hike on the Palmetto Trail at Buck Hall Landing.

There’s good trailer parking at the boat launch and even better at the trailhead overflow, and the campground there looks really nice! The trail was a pleasant, easy, flat, buggy outing.

From our research, for next time:

• Rollin Local sushi restaurant looks good but it was closed while we were in town on a Sunday
• Between the Antlers (lunch only on Sunday) – not highly rated on Google, but the atmosphere looks good
• River Room highest rated on Google, waterfront tables