5 Reasons To Love Columbia, SC

Hi ladies!

Reporting live from our new home in Columbia, SC! The last few weeks have been madness with the cross-country move (from Los Angeles), exploring our new town and going to New Orleans for a Mardi Gras wedding last weekend.

During the move, we stayed in hotels for 3 straight weeks while we waited for our things to be delivered, which sounds glamorous (and some of it was, like our stay at The Graduate Hotel in Columbia which is pictured here), but  MAN does it feel good to be all moved in! I finally feel like things are slowing down and that I’m establishing my new normal, so yay for that.

5 Reasons To Love Columbia, SC

If you couldn’t tell from the title of this post, Doug and I are really loving Columbia. I had never even visited this place before we moved, so I was definitely a little nervous! But so far, this city has exceeded my expectations.

I know it’s been a minute since I’ve given you guys a life update, so I wanted to write this post to explain a little bit about why I love Columbia. Not mentioned here is our new apartment…it is AMAZING. I’m still in the final stages of decorating, but I can’t wait to share it with you soon!

Here are 5 reasons why I love Columbia, SC.

1, The Growing Brewery Scene

I love wine, but I also LOVE beer. I was so excited to learn that there were a bunch of local breweries in town, and even more excited that they were all within a 10-minute Uber from our new place.

For Valentine’s Day weekend Doug planned a brewery-hop day, and we had so much fun hoppin around and sipping on brews. Each place was very different from the rest, but all of them had an impressive selection of hand-crafted beer and really fun atmospheres!

I found out that I love sour beers, and my favorite was the Mojito Sour at Columbia Craft. We also visited Twisted Spur & Hunter-Gatherer. Can’t wait to visit more soon!

2. The Antique Shops

Ok, so I’m officially one of those people who goes antiquing every weekend and I’m not mad about it at all. I had never really even thought about going to an antique store until I moved here, but I kept seeing them all over the city and decided to pop into one…SO GOOD!

I’ve been to 5 or 6 shops so far and my favorite is Old Mill Antique Mall. All of the shops have a ton of vintage goodies, but Old Mill had the best/highest quality selection and the nicest and most helpful staff. 

I love going into the shops and searching for Kitschy and one-of-a-kind goods that are so reasonably priced! Just call my Ary the Antiquer. 

3. The Low Cost Of Living

The cost of living in Columbia is about 40% less than Los Angeles. Yes, 40%! 

There is no way for me to articulate how much this has improved our quality of life. We can do more, live better, travel more, spend less and save more. It’s exactly the lifestyle that I needed for this phase of my life!

4. The Delicious Food & Restaurants

Two words: Pimento Cheese.

Columbia is the capital of pimento cheese! The first grocery store I went to had an entire dairy section dedicated to pimento cheese, and at that moment, I knew I was in the right place. If you’ve never had pimento cheese, I highly recommend you change that ASAP (here are some recipes)!

In addition to the beloved cheese, Columbia is home to a ton of incredible restaurants. There is an endless amount of traditional southern-style, BBQ and American restaurants, and plenty of international-food spots as well.

One of the best places to get delicious foods is at the weekly Soda City Farmer’s Market, which takes place every Saturday from 9am – 1pm! There are tons of food stands with some of the best treats in the city: boiled peanuts, fresh paella, crepes, tacos, arepas, pupusas, donuts, macaroons, pimento cheese grits, fresh juices…literally anything you could possibly want.

Here’s my Yelp list with some of my favorite food places + my wish list!

5. The Proximity to Other Big Cities

There are so many historic cities that are a short flight or drive away from Columbia. We’ve already visited Charleston and New Orleans since we moved here, with a long list of adventure destinations on the horizon (like Atlanta, Greenville, Charlotte, Nashville and more).

Charleston was an absolute DREAM! I plan on writing a blog post about that experience, but you can also see our travel guide on my Instagram highlights here.

What Southern cities should we add to our list to travel to?!

Thanks so much for reading! What have been up to lately?!

Xo,