Magnolia Plantation Day Tour with Transportation
Recommended by 91% of travelers
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Charleston, USA
- 5 hours (approx.)
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Magnolia Plantation sits well outside Charleston, which puts it out of reach without a car. This half-day tour includes round-trip transfers from the Charleston Visitor Center, and a guide who walks you through the plantation house on arrival. Choose either the nature train ride through the gardens or the boat trip along the Ashley River to finish.
- Combine a guided tour of Magnolia Plantation House with free time to explore its grounds
- Cover up to six miles (10 kilometers) of trails across 66 acres of gardens
- Spot alligators and wading birds from the Audubon Swamp Garden boardwalk
- Beat the Charleston heat, and travel there and back in an air-conditioned minibus
What's Included
- Round-Trip Transportation
- Air-conditioned vehicle
- Entry into the 66-acre Magnolia Plantation
- Guided Tour of the Magnolia Plantation House
- Exclusive, choose the Nature Train Tour through scenic trails and gardens, or the Wildlife Boat Tour
- Explore the Wildlife Center, home to a variety of rescued animals and native species
- Infants 3 and under are free
- Gratuities
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- 375 Meeting St, Charleston, SC 29403, USA
Look for the Old Town Trolley Tours bus and the driver at the Charleston Visitor Center where all the tour busses depart. Please arrive 20 minutes prior to your tour time.
End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.Start time.9:30 am
Itinerary
1
Magnolia Plantation & Gardens
4 hours • Admission Ticket Included
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Wheelchair accessible
- Service animals allowed
- Infants must sit on laps
- Most travelers can participate
- For accessible transportation, please contact tour operator 24 hours in advance to schedule and accessible vehicle
- Service animals are permitted. Pets and emotional support animals are not permitted
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 25 travelers
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.6
based on 122 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
Beautiful grounds, very informative and interesting. Tour guides were amazing and knew their facts. Did the Slavery to Freedom Tour, Magnolia House Tour and "Train" ride around the property. Lovely day.
Really great and meaningful experience that highlights the history of Charleston built on the labor of human trafficking of African slaves. Brings to reality the cost-existence of hardship realized by the people and the beauty of the area. Great information and wonderful presentaters.
Wonderful and educational tour with very knowledgeable guides. Highly recommend. Minnie was excellent.
The tour bus driver/guide Captain Matty was awesome. He was knowledgeable and very entertaining as he drove us to and from the plantation. Throughout the drive he included the historical facts/stories about Charleston, Carolina and the Plantation. What’s I found interesting about Captain Matty his voice reminds me of Ted Lasso and he looks like he could be from the Kelce family.
The tour we had of the Magnolia Plantation included three tours that are optional at assigned times or you can explore the plantation on your own or take the tours. We had the plantation house, Group Slavery to Freedom Tour and the tram ride around the plantation. The tour of the main house is definitely good and lasts 45 minutes. They talk about some family history, the history of the plantation and some of the furnishings. The second included tour was a 30 minute presentation by a young woman, I believe her name was Danica. She talked about how the enslaved people were captured in Africa, transported across the Atlantic and ultimately wound up at the plantation. She also talked how the original cash crop of the plantation was rice. She described living and working conditions and how life evolved after the Civil War when many former enslaved became employees of the plantation. They also have a number of cabins that represent how they lived through the years. Finally the tram around the plantation, honestly I don’t think it’s worth the time since all you do ride around dense forest vegetation for 45 minutes and never see the gardens except for mansion towards the very end. You could use that time better exploring the gardens on your own.
Guide on the way to plantation was very entertaining.
House tour and freedom tour were good. The boat tour was not running and did the tram tour. It was boring. Was expecting to see more plants and animals and there was nothing. Tour guide would have put us to sleep if it wasn't for the fack that the ride was extremely bumpy. Walk the grounds instead.
The tour was very good, the only suggestion I would have is to add maybe one more hour to it. It was very compressed with three guided tours at the plantation, 45 minutes each. Matty our driver/guide to the plantation was knowledgeable and entertaining. The slavery tour at the cabins with Millie was outstanding. Her deep knowledge, passion for the topic and to educate the audience made the experience a lasting one. I certainly learnt a lot. The young lady at the Magnolia house was also an excellent guide. The train tour gave an overview of the plantation areas. The signage of the areas needs some improvement though, we had 15 minutes to get from one tour to another and we literally did not find the direction towards the Magnolia house.
With the three tours in a row there was no time to eat or just walk around on our own. It is such a lovely place, it would have deserved a bit more time.
Overall, it was a great experience, beautiful place with dedicated guides. Highly recommended.
Tour of the cabins and the women who gave the lecture at freedom row was excellent And very knowledgeable.
Enjoy the train ride around the property. The driver was also very good in pointing things out.
The signage needs to be improved. Very confusing. Luckily, there were people there to ask that work there.
The grounds were magnificent. Loved all the flowers and plant life. Great combination of forest and swamp. I took the train ride, and our guide was knowledgeable. The lady who did the slave presentation was skilled and a former educator. I had a great day.
Meeting location convenient, comfortable van, safe driver. Reasonable price, included entrance fee and one optional tour. Magnolia Plantation is a magical experience.
We loved the transportation we took to the plantation. The driver was humorous and very informative on history narration as we drove there.
Some negatives:
1. The talk from slavery to Freedom was delivered at too fast a pace and was therefore very difficult to process. I am 64 and had trouble as did my whole family. The content we could gather was interesting
2. It wasn’t clear where to meet for the Slavery to Freedom tour.
3. The house tour was informative and tour guide was great but we were disappointed this was not a grand manor house we imagined we were going to see
4. The tour of “the gardens” was very disappointing. These are not gardens at all. We rode through light fire station and swamps. The word “garden” is the wrong description for what we saw.
5. The lunch was dreadful.
We had a wonderful experience with Marine Mike! He was friendly, knowledgeable, and very well organized. He started the tour on time, provided all our tickets and even bug spray for Magnolia Plantation, and made sure everything was coordinated perfectly. He was very energetic and enthusiastic and shared an interesting history about Charleston and the Ashley River, with plenty of laughs along the way. He was right on time for pickup, and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Magnolia Plantation. Highly recommend the tour with Marine Mike!
The shuttle ride over to and from with Captain Matty was highly entertaining and educational with information about Charleston’s history. My opinion is that he reminded me of Ted Lasso. We really were moved and humbled by listening to John talk about Slavery to Freedom. The house tour was nice with Adam. You have the option of a boat ride or train ride. We opted for the train ride and it was okay. We saw some alligators in the pond and saw pops of pretty colored flowers. The tape that was played to narrate was a bit long. Seeing the property was enjoyable. Overall, nice deal, because a cab or uber would likely have cost more.
We really enjoyed the tour! The staff were friendly and knowledgeable. We learned a lot and saw even more! Highly recommend the train tour.
The tour guides are very friendly and knowledgeable. The history of slavery was very well presented. The house itself is not terribly interesting, and the trolley through the grounds was also mostly of interest to gardeners and nature preservationists. The experience overall is very well done.
The key advantage to this tour is the transportation to the plantation. Otherwise everything is self guided on the property. Certainly way cheaper than an Uber or Lift out to the property and back.
I thought I would have time to spare on this tour but there was so much to see, the history of it all, the tours, the tour bus driver, all great, this made our trip to Charleston and I would highly recommend
Beautiful & interesting but much distance to walk from one part to other. so need to be able to do as is only way. Lovely, welcoming staff.
Upon arrival from our tour bus, the guide told us mosquito repellent can be purchased from the desk. There should have been an indication from Viator that it would be highly suggested to wear it. The spray you could purchase had no deet in it and it did not work with the swarms of mosquitoes on the train ride. Spent more time swatting them away than listening to the tour guide. Vert uncomfortable ride for everyone aboard. Also the overall experience could be shortened to just 3 hours which would be plenty to experience the plantation and walk around
We spent a wonderful day at Magnolia Plantation. Our driver Wendi was great, prompt and pleasant. The tour of the mansion (given by Allen) as well as the train ride was informative and nicely done. The slave tour, however , was very difficult to understand. He presented an enormous amount of information. His delivery was extremely fast and made understanding of his material difficult.
I would not hesitate to visit Magnilia!
The gardens are more impressive than the house, but the history was interesting, and the tour guide was knowledgeable.
Excellent adventure to the plantation. Major Ted was a great guide. The grounds are beautiful and the experience was memorable
Visited in June. Weather was very warm, the bugs were out (bring bug spray). The tour itself was really great. The grounds were beautiful.
We opted for the Boat tour as late as the morning of the tour. When we got on the boat is when our driver was informed that the boat tour was no longer available due to the swamp being drained for maintenance. The optional train (pulled by a "tractor") was scheduled but then a T-storm came through. Otherwise, the tour of the camp was very moving. The irish gentleman did a fabulous job keeping true to history without bias and painted a picture of the lives of the slaves. The house tour was very well done as well. She shared history and personal details of the Drayton family that made the tour fun and interesting. Overall, I would recommend!
Great tour, Magnolia had a lot to do and see, our driver Dan was very informative and added a sense of humor to the day.
The grounds are beautiful. Staff is very friendly and very helpful. The house tour has too many people. Everyone does not fit in the room and the guide started speaking.As soon as he entered the room.
This tour gave us great history and insight into the Magnolia plantation as we enjoyed a guided tour of the plantation house, a very passionate history of slavery, and a guided motorized tram – train tour around the property to enjoy the nature on this estate. It was a very comprehensive tour that was well worth the cost. “Lieutenant” Dan was the driver- guide from Charleston to the Magnolia plantation, and he gave us some history and insight into the plantation days of Charleston. My wife and I would strongly recommend this tour for anyone seeking the history and sites of the plantation days of long ago Charleston.
This was an absolutely amazing experience. We had basically 3 tours built into our tour. I think the order varies day to day. On our tour the first tour was the Slavery to Freedom tour. Then we did a tour of the Magnolia Mansion. Our last tour was a train ride around the entire plantation. Unfortunately the boat tour was unavailable. Definitely something I would recommend if you visit Charleston. Lots of history here.
The plantation was beautiful! The tour guides were very knowledgeable about the plantation. The slavery to freedom tour was so educational and I felt I really took away feeling that I need and want to learn more. The train ride was ok. It showed how beautiful the grounds are but the train itself was so jerky and loud we couldn’t hear the guide at all. So I felt like we missed a lot of information throughout that tour. But the train itself can make you a little nauseous with all the start and stop jerking.
Overall a great visit, the plantation and is beautiful. The slavery tour was poignant, the guide did a masterful job describing the pain and suffering of slaves!
Our driver Lt. Dan was so amazing and helpful. He also answered any other questions we had, but the plantation tour itself was very interesting and fun.
The shuttle service from downtown Charleston was a huge bonus and our driver, Brian was great. The grounds of the plantation were beautiful, the talk about the slaves that worked there was informative. The choice of a boat tour or train tour was a nice addition.
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