South Carolina has a lot of great things to see and do when you are here with your rent a car in South Carolina. The state is lucky to have the port of Charleston at one end, and the Blue Ridge Mountains at the other. Between the two is the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor, which is a scenic drive that features historic, cultural, and natural characteristics of the area that can help you learn about the history and evolution of the state as you travel across it and make stops.

What is the Heritage Corridor?

When you are here with your rent a car in South Carolina, you will find the Heritage Corridor is a space of 240 miles across the state. There are four regions that make up the corridor (Mountain Lakes; Freshwater Coast; Rivers, Rails, and Crossroads; and Lowcountry) and crosses 17 counties along the way. The purpose of the Heritage Corridor is to help you learn about the evolution of the state and its culture. The history you see in the area will help you understand how South Carolina evolved as a state into what it is today. The route was established in 1996 by Congress as a National Heritage Area and was chosen for its uniqueness, both in beauty as well as history.

Discover South Carolina

When you use your rent a car in South Carolina to learn more about the state, you will start in Charleston, a city that traces its roots back to 1670. You can step back in time, visiting plantations and slave quarters where rice, indigo, and cotton helped propel the area into prosperity, as well as misery. One of the first passenger railways in the country was built here, which lead to the creation of small market towns along the rail line. Further west and north, the route will take you through mill towns. At the upper part of the route, you begin to enter the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

Discovering the beauty of South Carolina

When you use your rent a car in South Carolina to discover the beauty of the area, you will begin your trip at Table Rock State Park, and follow the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway. The path will take you through the foothills of the Blue Ridge and past a number of state parks. The route will then take you along the Savannah River Scenic Highway for 100 miles. This takes you through national forests and small towns, until you move east to the forests and farmland in the lowcountry of the state. Finally, you will reach the ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge, a swamp and marshland that showcases the natural beauty of the area. The nature route ends with your rent a car in South Carolina at the coast of South Carolina in the Francis Marion National Forest.

When you are here with your rent a car in South Carolina, you will find that the Heritages Corridor Driving Tours gives you the opportunity to choose the routes that best suit you needs. Are you looking for a route that will showcase the natural beauty of the state or would you like to learn more about the history of the area by visiting a number of stops where important events in the history of the area took place? Or, why not try both by taking one route one way and the other on the way back?

Enjoy this and other scenic North Carolina drives from behind the wheel of one of our fantastic rental cars. If you would like to learn more about the type of cars available for this and other local road trips, check out our online car rental fleet guide.

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