Mary Street Parking Garage

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!

Admittedly a parking garage in the middle of the city is not the most glamorous spot to "camp". But if you want a convenient and affordable place to park the rig within walking distance of downtown Charleston this parking garage fits the bill. What makes this place special (aside from the location) is that they have 10 or so RV size sites on the bottom level of the garage. I didn't get out the measuring tape, but out trailer + truck combo is around 45' long and we almost fit all the way in. I would say we stuck out beyond the painted lines by less than 5 feet (with plenty of room for cars to pass behind us). The motorhome near us looked to be between 30-35 feet and easily fit in the space.

The cost to park is $16 for 24 hours or $1 for every 30 min. We did notice that after 5pm the garage filled to capacity (it was a weekend) and the cones that had previously been blocking the long RV sites were gone and all available sites filled with cars. We later learned that they have a special flat fee parking rate from 5-8pm. So if you want to come and park overnight with your RV getting there before 5pm is probably a good idea.

The other thing to note is that the clearance height to enter the garage is 12'8" so plan accordingly. Also, there are two entrances to the garage - one on Mary St. and one on Meeting St. The entrance to Meeting St. is less than 7' so DO NOT attempt to come in that way.

Oh yeah, and it's a parking garage in the middle of a city so you can expect some noise. We heard quite a bit of noise throughout the night. There is a parking attendant there 24 hours but there is no security. We felt perfectly safe. Others might not.