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A Tour Company
With a Mission

To Share And Nurture Charleston

Our love for Charleston – its history, people, places, food, and culture – inspires our desire to share it. Not just because we want you to love it, too, but because we believe that when we get to know and love a place, we’re exponentially more likely to nurture it – keep it healthy, unique, interesting, and vibrant.

This notion is what we’ve built our business – and our team – on. We designed a sustainable tour model that invests a portion of all ticket proceeds back into the properties we tour, ensuring that Charleston’s most historically significant – and often complex – landmarks, structures, sites, and stories, are preserved for future generations to see, hear, consider, and explore.

We believe walking through Charleston is the way to know and love her. To inhale the perfume of tea olive in bloom. To meet and delight in her people. To see the enslaved mason’s fingerprint in a single brick. To hear church bells marking time. To touch a name from the past etched in stone. Taste the ocean in her food. Feel the heavy gauze of her tropical air. And discover new things on streets we’ve walked before.

That’s why we offer a diverse mix of history, culinary, and ghost walking tours and exclusive access to Charleston’s most fascinating places. That’s why our licensed tour team are also endlessly curious, passionate storytellers. And, that’s why our true mission is more than entertaining, more than informing, it’s ultimately about creating meaningful and lasting connections between people and Charleston, and always, to one another.

A guide showing a house on rainbow row

OUR HISTORY

Our founder, John LaVerne, has a deep love for Charleston, history, and storytelling. While being a tour guide was initially just a hobby, about 60 seconds into giving his first tour, John was hooked – by his enthralled audience and the chance to share his love of Charleston with others. He founded Bulldog Tours to raise funds for the preservation of The Old Exchange Building. The rest, as the tour team says, is history.

Supporting The Community That Supports Us

We are practitioners of and believers in sustainable tourism. That means we invest a portion of all ticket proceeds back into the properties we tour. This ensures that the historically significant landmarks, structures, and sites, integral to Charleston’s charm and culture – these places we love and love to share – are preserved for future generations to enjoy. As of today, Bulldog Tours has raised $5,419,287 for the preservation of our historic site affiliates in Charleston.

Meet OurTeam

Keeping the tours engaging and on time, the customers wowed, the bills paid, and the cats herded takes a dedicated and talented team.

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Bella

Customer Service

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Catherine

BellaCustomer Service

Hometown: Charleston, SC

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
The Provost Dungeon because it is one of the only place in Charleston that has a "basement"
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Any fried fish that is local
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
Right before it rains with the thickness in the air
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Being on the water
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Carol

Customer Service

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Catherine

CarolCustomer Service

Hometown: Haddon Heights, NJ

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
Isaac Jenkins Mikell House on Rutledge Ave
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Oysters
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
Sweet tea
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
The food
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Catherine

Director of Operations

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Catherine

Catherine Director of Operations

Hometown: Mt. Pleasant, SC

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
The Battery, hands down!
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Boiled peanuts and red rice
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
The smell of oysters cooking at an oyster roast!
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Taking a boat ride through the Charleston harbor at sunset!
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Diane

Sales Coordinator

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Catherine

Diane Sales Coordinator

Hometown: Camden, SC

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
the Old Exchange Building
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Hoppin' John and Collard Greens
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
Carriage Barns
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Strolling Waterfront Park
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Erin

Operations Coordinator

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Catherine

Erin Operations Coordinator

Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
The Battery at sunset
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Pimento Cheese
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
The smell of the ocean
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Catching my first shark on a fishing trip
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Gentry

Customer Service

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Catherine

GentryCustomer Service

Hometown: Birmingham, AL

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
Hibernian Hall
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Magnolia's fried green tomatoes
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
Jasmine
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Trying different cocktails at hotel bars
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Ginger

Front Desk Supervisor

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Catherine

Ginger Front Desk Supervisor

Hometown: Lake Wylie, SC

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
Magnolia Cemetery
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Benne Wafers
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
Tea Olive
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Folly Beach around 1-2am
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John L

Director of Maintenance

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Catherine

John LDirector of Maintenance

Hometown: Charleston, SC

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
Magnolia Cemetery
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Stone Ground Grits
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
Pluff Mud
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Sunrise over the Battery and sunsets over the marsh
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John Robert

Assistant Director of Maintenance

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Catherine

John RobertAssistant Director of Maintenance

Hometown: Bridgeport, WV

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
The Battery
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Shrimp and grits
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
Pluff mud
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
My experience at The Citadel
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Keleigh

Customer Service

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Catherine

Keleigh Customer Service

Hometown: Charleston, SC

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
East Bay Street and Wadmalaw Island
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Boiled peanuts, chicken bog, and oysters
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
The warm salty breeze
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Boat days and sunsets
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Lacie

Customer Service

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Catherine

Lacie Customer Service

Hometown: Wellston, OH

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
Chalmers Street
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
She-crab soup
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
The smell of the Magnolias blooming
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Drayton Hall at Christmas time
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Melissa

Customer Service

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Catherine

MelissaCustomer Service

Hometown: Wichita, Kansas

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
Old City Jail
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Local oysters
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
Carmella's desserts
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Dinner at Folly Beach with my love
Meredith headshot.

Meredith

Front Desk Supervisor

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Catherine

MeredithFront Desk Supervisor

Hometown: Charleston, SC

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
Chapel Street or the Benton Rice Mill facade
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Huguenot Torte and boiled peanuts
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
Tea Olive Bushes
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Better than Ezra shows at the Music Farm
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Michael

Customer Service

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Catherine

MichaelCustomer Service

Hometown: Marietta, GA

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Caribbean Food
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
Jeni's Ice Cream on King St.
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Theatre 99
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Stevie

Director of Security

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Catherine

StevieDirector of Security

Hometown: Charleston, SC

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
Anson Street, home of Bulldog Tours!
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Jersey Mikes and Taco Bell
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
The smell of grass where I play golf.
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Helping out the Bishop England basketball team!
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Zach

Director of Sales

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Catherine

Zach Director of Sales

Hometown: Landis, NC

Questions:

1.) What is your favorite Charleston street or historic site/building?
Legare Street and the Joseph Manigault
2.) What is your favorite Charleston food?
Stone Ground Grits
3.) What is your favorite Charleston smell or taste?
Confederate Jasmine
4.) What is your favorite Charleston experience?
Walking the Battery in the late afternoon.
Bulldog director John L with a bulldog puppet on his hand

Meet Our Tour Guides

Engaging, friendly, licensed and ready to regale you with fun facts, intriguing stories, and more.

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Bulldog Tours - Great Tour Guarantee

Our #1 priority at Bulldog Tours is giving great tours. We feel confident that you’ll agree - taking our tour has been time well spent. If you don’t, let us know. We’ll make it right. Invite you on another tour. Refund it. Give you a voucher for a future visit. We know your time is valuable, and we appreciate your choice to spend it with us.

Great Tour Guarantee - 20 years badge
Palmetto guild - certified tour guides badge

Here’s what we cannot guarantee:

You will see a ghost.
Imagine what we could charge if this were a guarantee.
You’ll love the delightful weather in Charleston in August.
It can be off-the-charts hot and humid in the summer.
You’ll love every morsel served on a food tour.
Experience tells us that you’ll enjoy the tour anyway.
You’ll end your tour by swapping friendship bracelets with your guide.
We love our guides and we think you will too, but sometimes people don’t click. Because… people.