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Greenville (South Carolina)

Travel Guide North America USA Southern United States South Carolina Greenville

Introduction

Greenville is a city in the northwestern part of South Carolina in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. It is 160 kilometres southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina, and 240 kilometres northeast of Atlanta, Georgia. The city has a population of 60,000, while the wider Greenville County has well over 300,000 citizens.

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Sights and Activities

Theatres

Greenville's theatres and event venues regularly host major concerts and touring theatre companies. The Bi-Lo Arena and the Carolina First Center host local big name concerts. The Peace Center has recently seen its share of Broadway shows.

Falls Park

The downtown area of Greenville has recently gone through a major renovation. The Falls Park area of downtown Greenville is truly amazing. What once was a trash ridden, rat infested area is now a wonderful place for people of all ages to come. The concrete automobile bridge that went over the waterfalls was dismantled and the "Liberty Bridge" was built.

Other sights and activities

Jones Gap State Park
Caesar's Head State Park
Greenville Drive
Upstate History Museum
Liberty Bridge & Falls Park on the Reedy

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Weather

Greenville has a humid subtropical climate, with generally mild, short winters, hot, humid summers, warm springs, and crisp autumns. Monthly averages range from 4.9 °C in January to 26.0 °C in July, with lows around freezing in the former month. Highs reach 32 °C on 38 days per year, and sometimes breach 38 °C. Winter snowfall is typically light, with a median of only 2.5 centimetres, though much heavier amounts have fallen. Precipitation is usually well-distributed throughout the year. The record low temperature in Greenville is -21 °C, which was set on January 30, 1966, and the record high is 42 °C, set on July 1, 2012.

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Getting There

By Plane

Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) has flights to/from Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Fort Myers, St. Petersburg, Dallas, Detroit, Atlanta, New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, Nashville, Newark, Cleveland, Washington, D.C., Charlotte and Philadelphia.

Greenville Downtown Airport (GMU). 864-242-4777.
Spartanburg Downtown Memorial Airport (SPA). 864-574-8552.

By Train

Greenville's Amtrak Station (GRV) is located in downtown. A short three blocks from Main Street. 1-800-872-7245 (reservations). The Crescent, travels between New York and New Orleans, stopping in Greenville.

By Car

From Asheville/Hendersonville: Take Hwy 25S (Exit 54 on I-26) to Greenville.
From Spartanburg: Take I-85S towards Greenville/Atlanta. Take I-385 into Greenville.
From Columbia: Take I-26W to I-385 to Greenville

By Bus

Greyhound picks up and drops off in downtown Greenville.

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Getting Around

By Car

Everything is accessible by car. The downtown Greenville area has recently built several parking garages when it went through revitalization. There was a time when everyone hated going downtown because there was no room to park.

By Public Transport

Greenville Transit Authority (GTA) operates 11 fixed routes and provides 900,000 rides per year. Call for information 8:00am to 5:00pm Monday through Friday: 467-5000 or 467-5001.

There are routes operating from 5:30am to 8:30pm on weekdays, and up until 6:30pm on Saturday. The standard fare price is $1.25, while transfers are $0.50. The elderly (65+), handicapped and Medicare recipients can travel all day for $0.60, while kids between 6 and 18 travel for $1. It's free for children under 6.

Downtown Greenville has a free Trolley System that lets you park in the local garages and catch the trolley from one end of Main to the other. The kids love riding on the open air side.

By Foot or by Bike

When several people thought that downtown Greenville should be revitalized they invisioned a plan. This plan included a network of walking/biking paths that connected downtown to several local parks. You can stoll from one side of Downtown Greenville to the other without having to cross a road. This path is paved and runs beside the Reedy River. Many doglovers, inline skaters, skateboarders, and joggers love this even path.

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Eat

Greenville has really grown by leaps and bounds over the past ten years. Many national chains have set their sites on Greenville. The Woodruff Road Area has a Red Robbin, Mimi's Cafe, Sticky Fingers, Fuddruckers, Ruby Tuesday, TGIF, PF Changs, and a few others I have yet to try. If you enjoy eating we have many options.

Downtown Greenville has many local mom and pop business. High Cotton is owned by the same company that is in Charleston. Sticky Fingers, Wild Wings, and a few Sub sandwich chains are in an easy to access area. Lemongrass is an awesome Thai Restaurant. We recently got a Starbucks and they will be building a multistory location downtown soon.

The Saturday Market takes place on a roped off area on Main Street during the summer months. Fresh produce, doggy biscuits, and even Shrimp can be found by local sellers. Come on down and give Greenville a try!

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Work

Greenville once was the "Textile Capital of the World". Unfortunately, due to the many changes in the textile industry many plants have been abandoned for places in South America and Asia.

On September 30, 1992 BMW Manufacturing Corporation broke ground in Greenville. This plant is BMW's only U.S. site. With BMW came Michelline Corporation and other automobile parts companies.

South Carolina is expected to add 200,00 jobs between 2006 and 2016. The projected rate of increase is 11% over a period of ten years is higher than the forecast national job growth rate of 10%.

Greenville has two major hospital systems. The Greenville Hospital System (GMH) and St Francis Hospital. Both of these systems are Greenville's largest employers.

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Learn

Greenville is home of several colleges:

Furman University is a private liberal arts college located in the North Greenville area. The Furman Paladines are a great football team. It is known for its campus and Rose Garden's beauty.
Bob Jones University (BJU) is a christian bible college located close to downtown Greenville. It has a nursing program that is ranked high in the US.
North Greenville College is also a Liberal Arts College that is Christian Based.
Clemson University is not in Greenville, but the neighbouring Pickens County.

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Keep Connected

Phone

Post

The US Postal Service is very good and well priced mail system. There are hundreds of big and small post offices in Albuquerque. If wanting to send a letter or postcard it is best just to leave it in a blue mail box with the proper postage. There are also private postal services like FedEx, UPS and DHL.

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