Well we enjoyed being picked up and taken into Charleston, we didn't realize it didn't come with a tour guide. The bus ride took about 2.5 hours to get into Charleston - the driver was very nice, the bus was a big limo bus which was very nice.
Unfortunately as we drove towards Charleston, there was no information or history of the area that we were passing through. When we got to Charleston, we were dropped at the bottom of market and instructed that we would be going on a carriage ride. The carriage ride was informative and the driver personable. When the tour was done, we had about 30 minutes to tour the market. All of us would have liked more time to spend in downtown exploring especially since we were on our own.
We met back at the bus to drive to the marina to get on the boat for a ride around the harbor. The staff on that boat were nice and there was a narrative of what we were seeing in the harbor. When we embarked, we received our box lunch from Jersey Mike's. It was crowded on the boat and had to figure where and how to eat our boxed lunch. I personally am not much for boxed lunches and for some reason thought we would eat at a restaurant in Charleston.
We boarded back on the bus and were driven to Boone Plantation. As we were being driven into the plantation the driver put on a recording about the Boone Plantation but unfortunately it was a little late and we didn't get all the info. When we were there the driver dropped us off and said we had about 1.5 hours to tour. There were no guided tours and we really didn't know where to start so we got off the bus and did exploring. We did enjoy the plantation and were able to get some history.
We all boarded back on the bus for our drive back to Myrtle Beach. It was very quiet on the bus after a long day.
Taking into consideration it's a long day to and from Charleston, having a ride was good. If you want to really spend time in Charleston plan to drive down on own and if possible, stay the night.