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Columbia Travel Guide, South Carolina

Columbia is a beautiful city located in the Palmetto state of South Carolina (SC). This is a city offering numerous places of attraction worth visiting while in South Carolina including the sophisticated University of South Carolina that is more than 200 years old.

This state capital is set along the beautiful Congaree River, giving the city the reason for its high tourist inflow. Even the trendy Five Points district is a popular tourist destination of the city where you find shops, restaurants and the distinctive state museum of Columbia.

You also find numerous historic red brick buildings and the mills of Columbia that brought the city its wealth. The Congaree national Park is worth visiting while in Columbia. It boasts of having some of the tallest trees found in North America and offers facilities for picnicking, hiking, bird watching and kayaking.

One of the landmarks of Columbia is the St. Peter’s Catholic Church and another, the Columbia Museum of Art displaying popular American and European works of art. The Sesquicentennial State Park is an impressing park of Columbia that was constructed during the Great Depression.

Climate

The climate in Columbia is rather moderate and split into four seasons. Columbia is rather warm and sunny in summer while the winters here are not so harsh and are accompanied with periodic, average snowfalls. However with Columbia having about 300 sunny days in a year, this city is considered to be the best vacation spot to many.

Fairs and festivals

There are many festivals and fairs organized in Columbia like the South Carolina State Fair and the St. Patrick’s Day Festival which places emphasis on the arts, crafts and tasty delights of the city. The Columbia Festival of Arts was started in 2007 and lasted for 11 days and is expected to return in 2009 with something special for Columbia.

South Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride is another festival of the city organized in commemoration of the state’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. Its main purpose is to educate the masses about these communities and why they should be given basic civil rights.

Entertainment and sports venues

Columbia boasts of many sports and entertainment venues like the Colonial Life Arena that is the biggest arena of South Carolina. The Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center is the only business district convention center of South Carolina and is a great venue for organizing meetings and conventions. The Carolina Coliseum is a venue fit not only for basketball games, but also for other forms of entertainment like car shows, ice shows and concerts.

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