<p>I am signed up for orientation the end of May and will be in Columbia from the
May 28th -30th. Can anyone tell me some fun things they did while visiting.
We will not have a car but can use taxis.</p>
<p>Other than the obvious exploration of the campus, Five Points, The Vista and Devine Street shops, I would suggest taking in a baseball game. We will be playing Texas A&M and, if you don’t know, Carolina has a fantastic baseball team and one of the best stadiuma in the NCAA… We have won the College World Series two out of the last three years! Tickets sell out fast even though the stadium capacity is around 8,000. There is also a fabulous zoo and the State House tours. Have a great tour and best of luck at Carolina!</p>
<p>Might be easier to get baseball tickets since students mostly gone then. Where are you staying? Might be able to give some walkable ideas. If weather is pretty, we love the Riverwalk. Second the zoo and the 5points/Devine street area. Downtown Main st is improving with weekend farmers market, which you’ll miss, but you can check out columbia museum of art and Mast General Store. Look online at columbiacvb (visitor center) and they will send you a visitors guide and you can look online at calendar to see what’s happening in town. The city newspaper is call The State and if you look online on Friday before you came at weekend section or maybe Sunday, it will show what’s coming up that week.</p>
<p>I would also check out student favorites…Sandy’s ice cream/hotdogs, Groucho’s or Andy’s deli, Yesterday’s in 5-points all good choices…none fancy.</p>
<p>Good luck…that should be a great time to be on campus and good early oreintation.</p>
<p>It’ll be hard to get around with taxis.</p>
<p>However, there are some fun things to do within walking distance. Spending the afternoon checking out the shops in Five Points/the Vista is pretty neat. There are a lot of small local stores and it’s nice to kind of get a feel for Columbia that way. You can check out some of the local museums. (The Children’s Museum is my personal favorite.) We also have a neat little movie theater called the Nickolodeon that shows independent films and that might be worth checking out.</p>
<p>Finlay Park is gorgeous.</p>
<p>As far as things not within walking distance… Harbison Blvd is where our mall is. There’s also the Riverbanks Zoo, which I highly recommend.</p>
<p>Finley Park is beautiful but make sure it’s middle of the day. Like many city parks, dusk makes things different.</p>
<p>Regarding the baseball tickets – if the team is continuing to win, the demand will go up as the playoffs approach. K-12 kids will be out of school and it’s a popular place to take kids. Texas A&M is new to the SEC so this will be their first SEC visit to Carolina.</p>
<p>I’ll toss out my favorite place to stay – The Inn at USC, right on campus so walking around is very easy and includes a nice breakfast buffet. And, our fav restaurant is The Blue Marlin in The Vista! </p>
<p>Have fun! Hope you enjoy your four years as much as our daughter did!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I can not wait to visit. We are staying at the Marriott on Assembly so it is walking distance to the Kroger and near the Honors Residence where I most likely will be living. We did stay at the Inn at USC last time and it was very nice
and we loved the buffet breakfast. I checked the baseball schedule and it looks like no games are scheduled for May 28-30? Will they add games as playoff gets closer? We will most likely rent a car now since it will make exploring much easier. Any other tips let me know:)</p>
<p>Marriot’s a great location and you can walk around from there pretty easily, but a car will definitely make your life happier if you have a chance to go to zoo or riverwalk. Plus you can cover more ground if it’s rainy or hot.</p>
<p>Kearbear, I’m sorry – I glanced at the baseball schedule too fast – Texas A&M is in March, not May. </p>
<p>I, too, would suggest renting a car at least for one of the days . You’ll want to know where Target (out Devine Street), Publix (Gervais Place) etc are and all the shopping and restaurants out by Harbison Blvd.</p>
<p>There is a Hertz (?, I think) in the Vista. Columbia can get quite hot, humid and showers/downpours pop out of nowhere. Columbia is also a lot hillier than it appears and walking around can really wipe you out.</p>
<p>Have fun – Columbia and the campus are just beautiful.</p>