A guided tour in a horse-drawn carriage or a stroll takes you to the stable yards, filled with domestic animals, carpenters, blacksmiths and others still performing the crafts of the plantation’s heyday. Eliza’s Cottage, a preserved freedman’s cabin, provides. background on the life of the 2,600 African slaves who once lived and worked on the property. The restaurant offers delicious Low country plantation fare, ranging from okra soup to Huguenot torte, and you can even overnight in a welcoming inn. DISCOVER AMERICA’S OLDEST GARDEN Sited between these two properties and dating back to around 1676, 500-acre Magnolia Plantation has the distinction of being home Middleton Plantation has lovely gardens and takes to 11 generations of the Drayton family and of possessing America’s oldest garden, dating from 1680. Among its other attractions are its Reconstruction-era plantation house, a petting zoo, tram rides and the Audubon Swamp Garden, 60 acres of primeval, black-water swamp reached via boardwalks, dykes and bridges. Farther along Route 61, a turn-off to Route 17 leads through the pretty small town of Summerville, where eight-acre Azalea Park is filled with azaleas, wisteria, pines, dogwoods and 13 bronze sculptures. Next comes Cypress Gardens located near Moncks Corner and Lake Moultrie. Once part of a rice plantation, its footpaths and water trails, traversed by flat-bottom boats, lead through alligator-infested swamps and cypress forests to a butterfly house, aquarium, reptile centre and aviary.