When I entered Juniper, the rooftop bar at AC Hotel, to check out the mocktails, I was overwhelmed by florals. Gobs and gobs of fake flowers festooned every wall of the dimly lit space. Fortunately, floral is just the kind of overload I like. During a long weekend in Greenville, South Carolina, I noticed that the romance of the South was going on, from flowers to beautiful parks to the pink, yellow, and coral flounces of women’s clothing. This clean and friendly town has a way of winning over the hearts of visitors and converting them into residents.
Greenville has been making lists of the best places to live in the last few years. This town of 73,000 is in South Carolina’s northwest corner, also known as “Upcountry.” It’s about halfway between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Greenville is an ideal getaway for a wholesome, outdoorsy weekend in a darling Southern town.
Healthy outdoorsy stuff
I visited in May when the weather was starting to heat up, but it was still good for outdoorsy stuff. I’d come to run the Mountains to Main Street Half Marathon, most of which traversed the green tunnel called the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Once upon a time, the Greenville + Northern Railway followed this route. “Where the tracks were located, roots and everything would push the train tracks out of line,” George Oggero, bike guide for Reedy Rides, told me as he showed me around town. “When you’re going down that train line and hit those roots, it slammed the train around. And it’s much like a jackrabbit would go down the trail.” Thus, the nickname Swamp Rabbit. Instead of being an unprofitable, bumpy railway, this hugely popular trail is now used for commuting and exercise.
But Greenville folks also like to relax in their beautiful parks, especially at Reedy River Falls, Greenville’s centerpiece. Believe it or not, this stunning waterfall was a cesspool not long ago. Like many other South Carolina towns, Greenville produced textiles. It was dubbed the textile capital of the world. “Back in those days, you could tell exactly what color was getting done that day by coming out and looking at the river,” said Oggero. The river is now much cleaner—but don’t swim in it—and locals and tourists hang out at Falls Park on the Reedy. The Liberty Bridge, a 345-foot suspension bridge that connects downtown to Greenville’s West End, provides some of the best views of the falls.
Take a side trip to Lake Jocassee
If you have a car during your Greenville visit, drive 90 minutes to Lake Jocassee. I rented a kayak from Jocassee Lake Tours, which offers guided kayak and boat tours with naturalists. You can hunt for hidden waterfalls if you feel confident in your navigation skills. Or hug the lakeshore like I did (I get lost easily on the water—one point of land looks much like another) and enjoy the lush greenery and occasional turtle sighting.
All South Carolina lakes are manmade. In 1973, the state partnered with Duke Power to build the Jocassee Dam, which created Lake Jocassee. Lots of stuff was flooded. Scuba divers can check out the underwater world of the lake, which includes remnants of a lodge, a girls’ camp, a sunken Chinese boat, and the Mt. Carmel Cemetery! Mt. Carmel was featured in the 1972 movie Deliverance, made just one year before the area was turned into a reservoir. While the bodies were all allegedly exhumed, divers can still see headstones 130 feet below the surface. Some have reported spotting artificial flowers. Cool and creepy!
Hanging around downtown
During my visit, I got a little obsessed with Southern lady fashions. First, the color palette is so different from what I’m used to in the Northwest, where shop windows feature boring Scandi colors like beige, navy, olive, black, and charcoal. In Greenville, it’s all yellow and salmon and hot pink. Then there are the flounces. I spent a lot of time resting my feet post-half marathon on various downtown benches, watching the ladies wander by in romantic fashions. I tried on a few outfits but concluded I couldn’t quite pull off the look.
I also took a soy candle-making class at Greenville Soy Candle Company. My fellow classmates and I got to pick out our scents, colors, and candle names. Most of the class consisted of standing at a table, stirring fragrance and color into molten wax. I chose an understated lemon/verbena scent and a light yellowish/green candle.
Lots of good stuff to eat and drink
As a vegan, I thought I might starve in a South Carolina town. It turned out I ate way more than necessary. If you’re not a vegan, watch out because you will be in danger of overstuffing yourself.
For a healthy breakfast, Southern Pressed Juicery offers acai bowls, smoothies, and detox juices. This was the first place in town to do juice bowls. I talked to the staff and learned that several of them, including co-owner Brandy Cogsdill, are nondrinkers. I had a Mama’s Jam bowl with banana chia pudding, jam, strawberry-banana smoothie and—get this—cacao-kale granola! Okay, I live in Portland, Oregon, and this was still avant-garde to me. It tasted pretty good—but I’ll still probably stick to regular granola at home. But A+ for this creative use of kale!
I also really liked eating in the backyard patio of a Persian restaurant called Pomegranate on Main. Iranian-born restaurateur Ali Saifi opened Pomegranate in 2007. “It’s family recipes,” general manager James Sifford told me. All the food is inspired by his own country, Iran.” I ordered the vegetarian Fesenjan stew made from sauteed Portobellos in a sauce of chopped walnuts and pomegranate juice.
On the afternoon of my half marathon, I went to Crème Shack for rolled ice cream. Sometimes, my old eating disorder rears its head in funny ways, one of them being I get really hungry and then can’t seem to feed myself. Combine that proclivity with Crème Shack’s overwhelmingly complex menu of rolled ice cream options. I walked out twice before I persevered and managed to order ice cream. Making rolled ice cream is a lengthy process involving scraping ice cream and mix-ins together on a slab, cutting them into strips, and rolling them until you get a cup full of weird-looking little ice cream roll-ups. Mine was a vegan chocolate base with bananas and peanuts mixed in. It turned out to be delicious, and eating it restored me to sanity, at least temporarily.
If you’re looking for a delicious mocktail in a beautiful setting, the flower-bedecked Juniper is the place. Front house manager Jan Miles introduced me to the rooftop bar’s current lineup of non-alc drinks. The two most popular, Jan said, are the Kiwi Crush– house-made kiwi cordial with a dab of agave, pineapple juice, crushed ice, topped with a bit of soda water—and Root for Me– blackberry puree with lime juice topped with a little bit of ginger beer and crushed ice. Jan’s favorite is Caught in the Rain, a house-made pineapple cordial with a bit of soda, water, and lime. “We’ve made it a focus and made it a purpose the last time we redid our cocktail menu to lean more towards the low ABV and the spiritless cocktails,” Jan told me. “More people nowadays are more health-conscious and tapering down their drinking and whatnot. So we’re listening.” Lots of Juniper’s clientele choose mocktails, foregoing the hard stuff.
A friendly place to stay
When Joe Hindman opened Modal Coffee & Hostel in Greenville, he was trying to serve the needs of travelers to have a comfortable and affordable place to stay while visiting. “I didn’t open it being like I’m going to make this place super gay,” he said. At the time, Hindman, who grew up in a conservative Christian family, was still discreet about his sexual orientation. “But it’s funny how when you decide to put your passions and everything into a small business, it just gravitates, and your community starts supporting you.”
Modal offers private and shared rooms for the best prices in downtown Greenville. Shared rooms cost $35 per night and include a comfortable mattress with a privacy curtain in a three to ten-bed dorm. Communal spaces include a living room, deck, full kitchen, and a hallway art gallery. The hostel also attracts locals to its coffee shop. I loved that high-quality oat cappuccinos awaited just outside my bedroom door. The hostel is also the site for the area’s largest weekly queer night, as Greenville still lacks a gay bar. “So if you’re sober, you feel comfortable because you’re not feeling pressure; you’re not at a bar. If you have kids, your kids are welcome to join you. We try to make it as inclusive as possible.” Indeed, Modal has won Hostelworld’s award (called a Hoscar) for the most extraordinary inclusive hostel. When I spoke with Hindman, I appreciated that he considered making sober folks feel at home when planning events.
If you go
While I flew in and out of Greenville’s nice, small airport, I had significant delays both ways—in fact, I got an unexpected extra night in Greenville (thanks, American Airlines!). You might want to fly into Charlotte, North Carolina if you plan on renting a car. The two-hour drive could prove much shorter than an airport delay. However, if you fly into Greenville, you can easily get around town on foot, by Uber, and by bike rental. And make sure you pack an extra stomach.
About Teresa Bergen
Teresa Bergen had the great good fortune to quit drinking very young and has enjoyed long-term sobriety. She lives in Portland, Oregon but travels all over the world as a travel writer. She also works in the oral history field, helping to document and preserve history. Learn more HERE.
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