Soda City Market is a producer-only market — vendors must make or grow their own products (including out of season/exotic fruits and vegetables, antiques, and vintage items). Everything sold at our market is unique, hand crafted, and produced in the Southeast. The market fields an average of 150 vendors per week, and over 400 unique vendors throughout the year! Soda City Market is Columbia’s weekly Main Street event inspired by traditional European street markets. We are open every Saturday morning 9 a.m. –1 p.m., year-round, rain or shine! This event is HUGE- think Arts & Crafts Festival; it is a lot to take in and you could easily spend 1-2 hours looking at the vendors, shopping, and snacking!

The Main Street District offers over 50 dining options from casual & contemporary to Al fresco and Farm to Table dining. From custom & tailored clothing stores and fine jewelry boutiques to personalized gift shops and an old country store, the Main Street District offers a wide array of shopping options. With 36 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Main Street District is unquestionably the heart of Columbia’s arts, history and culture scene. From the best of independent films at the Nickelodeon Theatre and the award winning Columbia Museum of Art to thought provoking collections at the Tapp’s Arts Center, Main Street’s cultural options offer a variety of entertainment for everyone. Note: This area is also walkable! (I know the flow of this is off I copied it from different sections of the website!)

The CMA features 27 galleries and plenty of ways to explore them, including multimedia tours, scavenger hunts, kids’ totes, and gallery games, plus coloring pages drawn by local artists and hands-on activities in The Cross Hatch. Exhibits rotate regularly! Admission is $15 per person. You could definitely spend 2-3 hours exploring the exhibits and immersing yourself in the art!

Five Points features a diverse group of shopping locations including boutiques and thrift stores. There are several murals scattered throughout the area which are beautiful to look at and fun to find. We really enjoyed checking out Sunrise: Artisan Bath & Body; The Gourmet Shop; A Little Happy; Loose Lucy's; Papa Jazz; All Good Books; Pannerpete Vintage, Revente, and Sid & Nancy to shop! There are tons of little shops that could easily take up hours of your time. There are also several places to eat and indulge in delicious local cuisine in this area. Note: Once in the Five Points area, it is very easy to walk around.

This flat, easy four-mile walking, paved trail follows the old towpath of the Columbia Canal—which had a brief career in the 19th century, but became obsolete because of the railroads. From the parking area, follow the paved walkway past the Visitor's Center and cross the Columbia Canal on the footbridge. Turn right to enjoy a walk/ride atop the levee separating the canal from the Congaree and Broad Rivers. You will pass an amphitheater, a picnic shelter, and several overlooks with benches, which provide a place to stop a minute and enjoy the sounds of birds. This Three Rivers Greenway trail ends at the canal diversion dam, which provides a miniature impersonation of Niagara Falls after heavy rains. On your return, you can vary your walk by descending a stairway and following the lower paved section along the river. Although there is stairway at each end of this section, there is ramp at the Broad River Overpass. There are Adirondack Chairs & places to hang hammocks in this park!

Congaree National Park is South Carolina's only National Park. It is situated about 25 minutes from downtown Columbia. Feast your eyes on some of the tallest trees in the eastern United States, part of the country’s largest contiguous tract of oldgrowth bottomland hardwood forest. Congaree offers hiking, biking, and kayaking. Admission to Congaree is free! Note: It would be wise to pack and extra pair of clothes for post hike, bug spray, and a reusable water bottle (there's a filling station) & indoor restrooms.

It is extremely likely the SC State Fair will be occurring during your visit! It is held at the fairgrounds which is near the USC Football Stadium.