Go this November for: cool festivals, hot restaurants, and places where you can touch grass
November is one of the drier months in ever-humid Charleston, so it’s the best time to get in on some Lowcountry buzz before everything slows down (yes, even more slow than Southern slow) for the winter off-season. The Charleston Literary Festival is set for November 6 to 15 this year, and will feature authors like Barbara Kingsolver, Claudia Rankine, Tayari Jones, Roxane Gay, Susan Orlean, Curtis Sittenfeld, and Hernan Diaz, just to name a few. There’s also Charleston’s family-friendly Harvest Festival on November 7, with hayrides, pumpkin decorating, kids’ crafts, and live bluegrass music performed by local bands. Additionally, in the eleventh month of the year, Charleston’s fall foliage and camellia blooms will be on display; check them out at the recently redesigned Colonial Lake, as well as at the Caw Caw Interpretive Center, which in 2025 added 35 acres of ecologically valuable land. What will be missing from Charleston are the crowds, so you’ll have less competition for dinner reservations at the hottest spots in the Holy City’s exciting dining scene. Some of the new arrivals: Bareo, where Filipino comfort food are redone with Japanese culinary techniques (an opening by chef Nikko Cagalanan and his culinary team at popular Kultura); Kaia, with a menu of Asian-inspired dishes enlivened by chef Raheem Sealy’s Caribbean roots; and The Crossing, a Mediterranean-meets-Lowcountry dining room that overlooks Charleston Harbor, located in The Cooper, a waterfront hotel that opened this spring.
How to plan it: All of the major US airlines offer great connectivity to Charleston (CHS). If you want to try something new-ish, book a flight on Breeze Airways, founded in 2018, which is developing CHS into its main hub with direct flights from Palm Beach, Los Angeles, and Richmond. November is the tail end of the hurricane season, so bring a raincoat.
Where to stay in Charleston, South Carolina: