Chumley Cope

The Overarching Goal “Explore Up Close: Virtual SC” is to educate, inform, and inspire South Carolinians (and other visitors) to safely explore our state’s vibrant history and culture, during the pandemic and beyond.

Since 2004, Explore Up Close, has guided trips for thousands of people in South Carolina and the Southeast.

When the pandemic first struck in March 2020, the tourism industry shut down completely, and their business was no exception. Their solution was to launch a Virtual Travel series – designed to safely promote education and exploration of South Carolina’s off-the-beaten track places, stories, and historic sites.

This Virtual Travel series evolved into an online membership program: “The Corps of Discovery”. Later in 2020, they began hosting "virtual" monthly presentations on Zoom for their members, with diverse topics that ranged from Appalachian railroad history to South Carolina's early face vessel pottery. They also created and taught online courses for South Carolina residents and enthusiasts that focused on sharing itineraries for “backroads travel” to highlight the character of a place through authentic experiences with local storytellers and experts, artisans and makers, chefs, and hoteliers. 

They take pride in that their travel in South Carolina supports small, hyper-local museums, arts organizations, historic inns, and restaurants, and believe in the power of sustainably scaled heritage tourism to drive recovery efforts in a post pandemic South Carolina.