Pin itFour rounds across two resort courses and two public tracks, with Charleston's best free attractions filling the gaps.
4 Days
Best Value Trip
$1200–$2000/person
4
Easy
The Charleston area's best golf doesn't all carry a Kiawah Island price tag. This itinerary skips the resort's premium green fees entirely and builds a four-round trip around courses in the $50 to $279 range, none of which require an apology. Two Tom Fazio designs at Wild Dunes, a Rees Jones layout along the Intracoastal Waterway, and an Arnold Palmer course on the Wando River: that's a design lineup most destinations would feature as their top tier.
Charleston & Kiawah Island, South Carolina
Trip at a Glance
Fly into Charleston International Airport and drive 35 to 45 minutes to Isle of Palms. Check into Isle of Palms Resort by Wyndham, where full-kitchen units start at $150 to $300 per night and sit within five minutes of the Wild Dunes gate.
Morning round at the Links Course at Wild Dunes Resort, the stronger of Wild Dunes' two offerings. This was Tom Fazio's first solo design commission when it opened in 1980, and the most recent redesign in 2015 brought the layout and conditioning to a standard that reflects how far Fazio's reputation has travelled since.
Drive 20 minutes to Charleston National Golf Club in Mount Pleasant. Rees Jones designed the course in 1989 along the Intracoastal Waterway, threading through natural wetlands, lagoons, and pine and oak forest.
The free hot breakfast at the Hampton Inn serves a practical purpose on departure day. Check out and drive 20 to 25 minutes to Charleston International Airport.
Trip Logistics
Plan the Practicalities
Isle of Palms Resort by Wyndham ($150 to $300 per night) serves as home base for two nights, with Hampton Inn Charleston Historic District ($140 to $230 per night) covering the final night. A rental car is essential and runs $40 to $80 per day. Total driving across the trip is modest: Isle of Palms, Mount Pleasant, Johns Island, and downtown Charleston all sit within 35 minutes of each other. The best value window is June through August, when green fees and hotel rates drop to their lowest levels. The trade-off is heat: afternoon temperatures in the upper 80s to low 90s with regular thunderstorms. For a balance of value and comfort, late October and November offer shoulder-season pricing with temperatures in the mid-60s to mid-70s.
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