Columbia, South Carolina

When you’re in a small city like Columbia and there's a ballet, live performance theater(even puppeteers) an orchestra, great restaurants, tons of bars, and more sports activities than you can possibly experience, you can be pretty sure you’re in a college town. The University of South Carolina calls Columbia home and this is also the capital of South Carolina which means you’re getting more here than cities 3x its size. That means 3x as much fun with only a 1/3rd the population!

It’s no shock that South Carolina is toasty, but Columbia is particularly hot due to its distance from the coast and because its historically light tree shading doesn't absorb or store heat and cool things off a bit.

There is a major planting initiative coming from the University and the Columbia Tree and Appearance Commission that will help with some of this down the road but in the meantime, locals just try to stay inside during the summer months when the sun is shining bright. If you’re thinking about moving here from a northern climate you’ve probably already braced yourself for the southern heat but figured we’d give you one last warning.

As was noted, Columbia punches above its weight for cultural and social experiences. First, you get civic institutions like the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra. You get a live theater scene that includes more than a dozen venues and companies, including Trustus, a renowned professional theater company. You also get the Columbia City Ballet and the Columbia Classical Ballet companies.

The topper to all this is that the University of South Carolina also has departments of dance, theater, opera, music, sports, and arts, all of which offer performances to the public. Trust us, you’ll have something to do virtually every night or day.
The restaurant and food scene in Columbia has also been growing over the last 10-15 years. One joyful oddity to the food scene is the ubiquity of Pimento Cheese on the menus throughout town. The city claims to have one of the oldest published recipes for the cheese from a 1912 cookbook. It’s a thing. We could spend more time researching why instead chose to just enjoy the cheese and move on. Outside of that, you get amazing BBQ and glorious southern cooking (the grits are world-class).

Families gravitate to Columbia in part due to the lower cost of living and growing suburban development. Outdoor play happens along and on Three Rivers Greenway. Tubing, fishing and hiking and biking the trails along the river are all popular options. Saluda Shoals Park is another family destination. It’s an environmentally sensitive riverfront park along the Saluda River and offers Tennis Courts, Baseball Fields, a rope course, a Disc Golf Course, and miles and miles of Wetland Preserve and paved and unpaved hiking and biking trails.

We highly recommend visiting Columbia and staying in the community in a VRBO rather than a hotel to get a feel for living among the locals. You can also receive discounted travel fares via our partnership with Expedia.

Columbia has several school districts serving students. The two big ones; Richmond School District No. 2 and Richmond School District No. 1, score an “A-” and a “B-” respectively on niche.com. The geographical dividing line is pretty much HIghway 20 with District 2 north of the freeway and District 1 on the south side. It should be noted that there are plenty of high performing schools in each district with Round Top and Lake Carolina Elementary Schools and Spring Valley High School in District 2 all getting “A’s”.

Rosewood, Brennan, Satchel Ford, and Brockman Elementary Schools in District 1 all coming in with “A-" on niche.com. And Dreher and A.C. Flora High Schools getting “A’s” and “A-’s,” respectively. There are good options throughout the city if you do your homework.