Daniel Island is not actualy a town or a city, but for reasons we share below, it deserves to be included in this menu.

Due to the narrow marshland of Beresfords Creek, Daniel Island is in fact a true inland island, though by road it feels more like a river-delta peninsula, similar to one that forms downtown Charleston. If you click over to the satellite setting for the map below, and zoom out, you’ll see what we mean. Daniel Island is the southeastern most tip of Berkeley County and has it’s own distinct “town” culture. But despite being separated by two rivers and the municipalities of North Charleston to the west and Mount Pleasant to the right, Daniel Island is actually part of the City of Charleston. To locals, the island was always that massive unpopulated, unreachable ”new world” just off the north side of the old Cooper River bridges. It just sat there for decades serving mostly as farmland, but looking every bit like the mysterious frontier the original explorers would have found… just as the first picture reveals. There simply wasn’t any easy way to get there, unless you wanted to drive north to jump the Cooper River just outside of Moncks Corner, and that can be an hour-long trek.

All that began to change in 1990 when the Mark Clark Expressway (I-526) and its dual deep water bridges gave birth to the pristine island town. In 1997 the Island was purchased by the Daniel Island Company who immediately established their master plan community to award winning status. Aside from the mostly rural northbound Clements Ferry Road, the island’s only road access is by way of the Mark Clark Expressway, and while the island still feels very remote, it’s just 15 to 20 minutes from downtown when the traffic is light, and just a 5 minute bridge hop from the Long Point Road retail district of Mount Pleasant.

Over the past decade, Daniel Island has evolved as a 21st century small town community a legitimate resort feel. The Island has nearly every luxury amenity one would expect from an affluent island community on the South Carolina coast, golf, yachting, restaurants, you name it, they probably have it. Adding to the unique island town feel are Bishop England High School, Charleston’s largest  Private High School (a 3A powerhouse in the public high school league), and BlackBaud Soccer Stadium, which is home to the Charleston Battery professional soccer team. And for a legitimate crowning jewel, the community boasts the Daniel Island Tennis Complex, host of the Family Circle Cup, a nationally televised professional tour event.   If you haven’t visited Daniel Island, go give it a test drive. You’ll definitely enjoy the ride. 

Click here for encyclopedic information at Wikipedia.com

Click here to see a full screen slideshow of Daniel Island in our Gallery!