Just north of Georgia, the state of South Carolina was named by King Charles II of England to honor his father. A founding state of the short-lived Confederate States of America, South Carolina today offers tourists a chance to visit the region known as the "Deep South.
Water has always been a large part of South Carolina's attraction for tourists and residents alike. The state borders the Atlantic Ocean and offers warm summers as well as sultry spring temperatures to those who come from colder climes. Less well known is the fact that the state has dozens of lakes that when taken together, cover almost 700 square miles of the state's area. The largest lakes are Lake Marion and Lake Strom Thurmond, the latter named after South Carolina's longest-serving representative in the Senate of the United States. These and other lakes provide visitors staying in waterside vacation rentals in South Carolina with ample fishing, boating, and swimming activities.
Greenville, Richland, and Charleston counties are the most populated areas of the state. In Charleston, tourists can visit Fort Sumter, a federal installation that historians consider part of the 'spark' that drove the United States into the Civil War. Today the fort is a National Monument comprised of three separate sites: a visitor's center, a sister fort on Sullivan's Island, and the fort itself, which can be reached by taking a 30-minute ferry ride from Patriot's Point or from the visitor education center.