Spend Saturday at the Soda City Market, which fills Main Street in Columbia. The city is South Carolina's capital, a city of about 147,000 with a large university, a lot of state government and a metro area near 900,000. The University of South Carolina drives much of the energy, from Gamecocks game days to the bars and restaurants in Five Points and the Congaree Vista. The State House, the state museum and the Columbia Museum of Art anchor the downtown.
Visitors also come for Riverbanks Zoo and Garden and for Congaree National Park, a swampy old-growth forest a short drive away. Day to day, Columbia feels like a friendly Southern college and government town, with leafy neighborhoods like Shandon and Forest Acres and living costs a bit below the national average. It is hot and humid in summer, and storms and floods do happen (the 2015 flood is remembered). Crime is above the national median, and car break-ins and late-night incidents near the nightlife districts are the things to watch.
