I love to travel and as a foodie, I have a thing for doughnuts/donuts. Every new city I visit, I look for donut shops as the craze for artisan donuts is everywhere. Check out my collection of The Best Sweets in Toronto to see what I mean.  A few weeks ago, I grabbed a girlfriend to help me round up the best doughnuts in Syracuse. Nothing like documenting your favorite spots in your own city. Like any other city, doughnut craze has hit Syracuse!!  I’ve rounded up a few of my favorite doughnut shops with traditional and gourmet doughnuts alike. These are the best doughnuts in Syracuse, in my opinion.

If you are a first time visitor to Syracuse, be sure to hit these shops for some of the best doughnuts you will ever find.

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Weekend getaways to a new city are one of the things the hubs and I are starting to do more of. Luckily for us, we live in Syracuse and we have the luxury of few a metropolitan cities within 4-5 hours driving distance. Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Montreal and Toronto are all within about 5-6 hours drive. Last September, we took a quick trip to explore Toronto for the weekend. It was a new-to-us city and we loved every bit that we saw and ate.

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I know we are almost at the end of fall here in Central NY but with peak foliage season underway, I wanted to share with you guys a few of my favorite activities from my home town. I have travel guides for cities wide and near; New Orleans to Charleston, Florida to Boston but haven’t really shared with you my local favorites in Syracuse.

In this new series, in partnership with Visit Syracuse, I’ll highlight some of the best things Syracuse has to offer, including all the eats. Spoiler alert: there are so MANY things!

To start, here are 5 of the best fall activities in Syracuse and neighboring Central NY. In the peak of fall season, every Syracuse local engages in at least one (and most times multiple) of these fall activities.

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Have you been to Charleston, SC?? If no, then you should be planning a visit and adding it to your travel bucket list. It’s a beautiful city with delicious eats and  great shopping. Everything you need for a getaway and exactly why I fell in love with it this Spring on a recent trip.

Even though I was only there for 3 days on a conference, I had time to explore a little bit of the city and ate A LOT of food. Here are some of the places we ate (including suggestions from locals I didn’t end up using but you SHOULD) and a few must-see things!

DINNER

I love starting my travel guides with dinner as it is the most important meal for a foodie. And since some places require reservations, it’s always great plan accordingly.

We ate at Hominy Grill on our first night in Charleston and we loved the atmosphere. Great food and the shrimps and grits was amazing. Oh I should mention, you are in Charleston, so make sure you have shrimp and grits. The grits are spicy and to die for. Rich flavor and just amazing. There are many other things on the menu but this was a favorite here. We also enjoyed a slice of their hummingbird cake that lead to my obsession to recreate this southern classic.

Other dinner places we didn’t end up making but were highly recommended were SNOB, Husk Restaurant, Eli’s Table and Fleet Landing restaurant (every one says the views are to die for).

BRUNCH/LUNCH

For lunch/brunch, we loved Callie’s Hot little Biscuit. The shop right on King street is perfect as you shop/explore the area.

Try the cheese and chives biscuit!!

We also had an amazing lunch at Butcher & Bee. The roast beef sandwich was to die for and their vegetarian burger is also incredible.

As part of my conference, we also had this amazing taco spread from Mercantile and Mash. The cafe/store is adorable too.

My uber driver also suggested the sandwich food truck at the intersection of Wolf & King – which was right by our hotel. I didn’t catch the food truck but he says it’s a local favorite. Other recommendations for lunch include Xiao Bao Biscuit and Rarebit.

SWEETS

Despite being a dessert lover, I did not spend a lot of time doing my usual sweet crawl. The love for southern food and I barely got to try sweets. But we did stop by Cupcake Downsouth and loved the unique flavors of their cupcakes. I loved the blackberry mojito!

I also had my first occurrence with Jeni’s Ice Cream and gosh is it amazing! Stop by the Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams on King Street.

Finally stop by Glazed Gourmet Doughnuts for one of their gourmet and unique donuts.

ACTIVITIES/SHOPPING

I’ve mentioned King Street a few times but it’s the main shopping street (think Rodeo drive or 5th Avenue) in Charleston and is packed with shops, restaurants and unique finds. Make sure you spend a day walking up and down this street.

The Charleston historic city market is also great for exploring and enjoying southern food flavors. If you are there over the weekend, the farmers market is bustling.

To see the city and all it’s beautiful architecture, I recommend a horse carriage ride. Especially if you are short on time like we were. It’s a wonderful 45-minutes ride with a guided tour by a local.

Finally, walking through Rainbow Row and Battery Park was probably my favorite activities in Charleston. The iconic row of rainbow-colored houses is just beautiful and the quaint architecture is breathtaking. Definitely make a stop for this.

Some other suggestions for exploring that unfortunately our 3-day trip didn’t accommodate include a trip to magnolia plantations, cypress gardens, folly beach and fleet landing.

There you have it folks! All the must EAT places and things to do in Charleston that I cannot recommend enough. I have compiled them all in one place below for easy access. For more ideas visit Explore Charleston.

• Hominy Grill
•  SNOB
• Husk Restaurant
• Eli’s Table 
•  Fleet Landing restaurant
• Callie’s Hot little Biscuit
• Butcher & Bee
• Xiao Bao Biscuit
• Rarebit
• Cupcake Downsouth
• Jeni’s Ice Cream
• Glazed Gourmet Doughnuts
• King Street
• Charleston historic city market
• Horse carriage ride
• Rainbow Row
• Battery Park
• Magnolia Plantations
• Cypress Gardens
• Folly Beach
• Fleet Landing

Have you been to Charleston, SC? What were some of your favorites? Share with us in the comments.

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Are you planning a trip to New Orleans soon? Is NOLA on your bucket list? If it’s not, it needs to be. It’s an AMAZING foodie city with a rich cultural history.

I visited NOLA a few weeks ago with a group of girlfriends. My college roommate turned 30 and wanted a girl’s trip to celebrate and we decided to spend a long weekend eating our way through the city. The food was our only agenda and eat we did. Here are a few of the favorite places we brunched, sipped and dined at.

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It’s been a while since I did one of these Beyond the Oven posts and figured I should update you on things beyond the recipes I share. To be honest though winters and I don’t get along and in my opinion they are for hibernating and cooking comfort foods. Thus, I’ve hardly done anything beyond my kitchen and couch. Until three weekends ago when I decided to thaw out in the sun in Orlando, Florida at Walt Disney World Resort! It’s the best place to seriously thaw out 🙂

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