One Perfect Day in Georgetown: A Front Street Walking Itinerary

Georgetown rewards people who slow down. The whole historic district fits in a walkable few blocks, which means a single day here can hold five museums, a harbor walk, a long lunch and an afternoon of shopping without anyone checking a watch.

Here’s how to spend it.

9:00 a.m. — Start at the Clock Tower. The Old Market Building at 633 Front Street is the natural starting point, and not only because it’s the most photographed spot in town. The Town Clock, added in 1857, was the first building in Georgetown placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Inside is the Rice Museum, where dioramas, maps and artifacts trace the crop that made this county one of the wealthiest in the colonies. By 1840, the Georgetown District was producing close to half the rice grown in the United States.

10:30 a.m. — Walk the Harborwalk. Behind Front Street runs a boardwalk along the Sampit River, lined with docked boats and back-porch restaurant seating. It’s a quarter-mile of the best views in town and it takes as long as you let it.

11:30 a.m. — The South Carolina Maritime Museum. At 729 Front Street, this one tells the other half of Georgetown’s story: the ships, the shipwrecks and the harbor that connected this town to the world. The centerpiece is the century-old Fresnel lens taken from the North Island lighthouse.

12:30 p.m. — Lunch on the water. Front Street’s restaurants back directly onto the harbor. Click here to view all of the restaurants Georgetown has to offer!

2:00 p.m. — The Kaminski House Museum. Built around 1769 and sitting on a bluff above the Sampit River at 1003 Front Street, the Kaminski House is a Georgian manor filled with 18th and 19th century American and English antiques. Tours run on a set schedule rather than continuously. Learn more about them here.

3:30 p.m. — Shop Front Street. There is not a single national chain in the historic district. Every storefront is locally owned, which means the antiques, art, books and boutiques here are genuinely unlike what you’d find anywhere else.

5:30 p.m. — Stay for sunset. The light coming off the water at the end of Front Street is the reason people come back.

One day is enough to fall for Georgetown. It is not enough to finish it.