Visitor's Center Mary Street Parking Garage

We pulled in at about 8pm and took an RV parking spot. We noticed people hanging out in the parking garage, but didn’t think much of it. We cranked up our fans to dampen the noise of the guys talking, but it was too much for us. It wasn’t that they were doing anything wrong, but it was an uncomfortable feeling having a bunch of guys just hanging out behind our van, and they didn’t seem to have any plan to leave that area. They would be quiet for a while, then start talking really loud. We left for the James island Walmart after about two hours. It was much more comfortable and quiet.

As others have noted, there were some noisy folks loitering but they didn’t bother with me & left by “bedtime “, it was quieter than I expected overnight. I was the only camper there on a Tuesday though when I arrived after 3 there was an RV parked. They may have been put off by the group. There is a loud nightclub that others have noted, open Thursday to Saturday only. The after 3 & 5pm flat rate only applies until midnight so it was 15 not 7 but still worth it. There are a couple places where parking is not limited or metered near the Battery but some that used to be now has a 6 hour limit & signage for no overnight parking. There is lots of unlimited parking away from the historic center but probably not for very big rigs.

We read the reviews about this place and thought we’d give it a try. We arrived about 2:00 p.m. Getting in the garage was simple and the RV spots were large and worked out great as a place to park for a few hours. However, there were probably 10-15 homeless individuals loitering at the entrance and around the RV area, despite the signs that said, “No loitering, sitting or standing”. They were very loud but seemed pretty harmless. No one approached us. We locked everything up and and set out on foot to explore the area. We came back to the parking garage at 6:30 p.m. and there were still people loitering. They were still very loud. We had originally planned on staying overnight here, but we felt a little uncomfortable, so we left, and paid just $8 and moved on about 20 minutes north to Camping World and stayed there for the night. It was much quieter and we felt safer. The parking garage was great for daytime RV parking, but I wouldn’t recommend it for overnight. This was the only place we saw in the downtown historic Charleston area that we could have parked our RV while exploring, so we are thankful for the city of Charleston’s thought to RV’ers!

This parking garage that has dedicated RV spots (probably 10-12) is the bomb! Smack down where you would want to park and everything Charleston has to offer walking distance. It’s noticeable the amount of random people hanging around 24/7. I spent 3 nights, 2 of them on weekend and it’s pretty quite after midnight. I felt safe enough to stay the night. It’s super well lit and what will most likey disturb your sleep are random drunk peoples getting back to their cars or cars leaving/entering the parkade! Not the random joe’s walking around. Left always before 7AM so only ever paid $18/per stay. I could see how you could easily spend 2/3 consecutive nights there with no issues.

We did not stay overnight, but find the oversized vehicle parking very helpful when spending the day downtown. The largest oversized vehicle/RV that we have seen park here was a 45’ motorhome.
Tip: Plan your route to the visitor center parking, if you might be uncomfortable driving on narrow congested roads. Although most routes are likely possible for a dually truck or small RV – some of the streets are narrow and have cars parking partially in the street, so wider vehicles do need to watch closely as they travel down some of the streets.

Thought we'd give this parking lot a shot and were glad we did! It made for a convenient spot to explore Charleston with many shops and restaurants on nearby King St.

We were there on a Saturday and during the day there were other campers and rigs but by night only 1 other rig was there. You are in a parking lot with no amenities so keep that in mind as there was street noise (and noise from loud bar/restaurant patrons) till about 2am and then all died down and it was quiet.

If traveling with dogs there's a little park across the steeet from the visitors center that they can use and explore.

We paid $5 upon entry and since we left before 8am the next day, that was all we were charged! Sweet!