Wedding & Event Venue near Clemson, SC

A small college town in South Carolina was named one of the nation’s best — again.

Clemson — home to Clemson University — ranks No. 5 on a list of places where “small-town charm meets campus life.” But the destination didn’t only receive praise for boasting a school.

Clemson also landed in the No. 6 spot on a separate list of the best small towns to visit in the South, according to results published April 9.

The lists come from USA Today’s 10Best, which publishes vacation-related rankings. To determine the top small towns, travel experts nominated destinations from across the country. Then, editors said they narrowed down the choices and allowed readers to spend a month voting on their favorites.

On the resulting lists of readers’ choice award winners, Clemson was the only place in South Carolina to earn spots in the two rankings. The town, a roughly 30-mile drive southwest from Greenville, has about 18,000 residents.

The list of the nation’s best small college towns considered places with 50,000 people or less. 10Best said the winning destinations have “fun, youthful vibes, unexpected dining and shopping options, and plenty of cultural offerings. Throw in a beautiful campus and some regional surprises, and you have a recipe for a great vacation.”

Clemson was praised for drawing in Tigers football fans and for having attractions on and near campus.

“Visitors also enjoy exploring the South Carolina Botanical Garden, heading to the Bob Campbell Geology Museum to view local fossils, or getting out on the water at Lake Hartwell,” 10Best wrote in its report.

Meanwhile, the small-town rankings focused on “charming” Southern destinations with fewer than 25,000 residents. That list also highlighted Clemson’s football games and proximity to nature, while urging travelers to keep their “eyes peeled for tiger paw prints throughout town.”

It’s not the first time Clemson has been recognized on a national scale. Last year, Travel + Leisure named it the No. 1 small college town in the United States. In those rankings, the magazine gave a nod to the city’s “quaint” downtown and referenced the longtime in-state rivalry with the University of South Carolina.

On the latest list, the top-ranked college town was Florence, Alabama, home to the University of North Alabama.

In other categories, 10Best named fan-favorite small towns for food, historic sites and other attractions. The only other place in South Carolina to make one of the lists was Beaufort, which ranked No. 10 among the nation’s top small coastal towns.

In the past, 10Best has told McClatchy News it doesn’t reveal the number of people who vote in its contests.

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South Carolina

January 9, 2025 11:19 AM

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The Clemson Experimental Forest will host Forest Fest from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March 29 at the Issaqueena Trailhead, E. Dam Road, Central, South Carolina.

Free and open to the public, Forest Fest is an interactive event designed to connect youth, families, students and the community with the biodiversity of the South Carolina Upstate, while highlighting the importance of environmental stewardship and natural resource management.

Clemson College began supervising the land that would become the Clemson Experimental Forest in 1939 under a federal agreement. Over nearly 100 years, careful management has transformed what was once depleted farmland into a resource for teaching, research and outreach, as well as a valued community asset.

A recent report found that the Forest is home to approximately 1,200 species of vascular plants, including 44 rare species tracked by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and 17 species recommended for tracking.

Forest Fest is funded and organized by students, faculty, and staff in Clemson Cooperative Extension, the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation, and the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management.

Forest Fest Highlights

This year’s Forest Fest will offer opportunities to:

“There is important research taking place in the Clemson Experimental Forest, and it serves as a training ground where Clemson students develop the skills necessary to become forestry and wildlife professionals,” said Rob Baldwin, professor and executive director of the Clemson Experimental Forest. “But it is equally important as a place where the public can engage with nature, and that is what we hope to celebrate with Forest Fest.”

Activities and Attractions

Activities will include:

Traffic Advisory: Issaqueena Lake Road will be routed one way during the event.

CLEMSON — The Savannah Bananas' baseball game in Clemson football's Memorial Stadium is already sold out, but fans can still watch the wildly popular exhibition team play on TV.

The Bananas announced April 14 that their April 26 game against the Party Animals at Memorial Stadium will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. ET. It will be part of the team's "Banana Ball World Tour" visiting 17 MLB stadiums and four football stadiums during it trip to 40 cities across 25 states.

The game in Clemson will the ninth on the Savannah Bananas' 2025 schedule and the first time they play in a college football stadium. The 81,500-capacity venue will give the Bananas a chance to break their single-game attendance record, which it set last month at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida, with 65,000.

This also will be the second time in the past six months the Bananas will play in Clemson after facing its baseball team in an exhibition game in November at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

"Banana Ball" is about showmanship and entertainment rather than competitive baseball. Its games feature choreographed skits, dances and other activities throughout a two-hour event. The Savannah Bananas are often referred to as the "Harlem Globetrotters of baseball."

How to watch Savannah Bananas game in Clemson 2025

Savannah Bananas tickets for Clemson

Tickets for all of the Savannah Bananas games are going fast. The Clemson game is sold out along with 22 others, according to the team's web site.

According to Savannah Bananas media relations specialist Sam Bauman, the Clemson game sold out in three hours. He added the Bananas discourage buying tickets on third-party platforms because they can be fraudulent and will not be accepted.

Savannah Bananas schedule 2025

Here are the remaining games on the Savannah Bananas' schedule this year. Their complete schedule is here.

Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at dcarter@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00

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CLEMSON VS. MCNEESE

Tigers Headed to 2025 NCAA Tournament

CLEMSON, S.C. — Clemson University men’s basketball earned an at-large bid into the 2025 NCAA Tournament as a No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region and will face the No. 12 seed McNeese in Providence, R.I. on Thursday in the first round.

IPTAY members and fans should be prepared to visit NCAATickets.com or seek secondary options for tickets.

The winner will move on to take on the winner between (13) High Point and (4) Purdue on Saturday. The Sweet 16 and Elite Eight of the Midwest Regional are in Indianapolis.

This marks the fifth time under Head Coach Brad Brownell and second consecutive season that the Tigers have advanced to the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers will be making their 15th tournament appearance overall. All have taken place since 1980.

Clemson enters the game with a 27-6 record, including an 18-2 mark in regular season ACC games. The Tigers have set new school records for wins in a season (27), ACC wins (18) and win percentage (.900) and ACC road wins (9). They finished the regular season with eight consecutive ACC wins – the previous mark of seven was set in 1966-67 and tied in 2022-23.

Clemson’s most successful NCAA runs came in both 2024 and 1980, earning trips to the Elite Eight. In 1980, the first year Clemson was selected, the Tigers won three tournament games under head coach Bill Foster and reached the Elite Eight of the tournament before losing to UCLA. Clemson also made the Elite Eight last season under Head Coach Brad Brownell. The Tigers defeated New Mexico, Baylor and Arizona before losing to Alabama.

The Tigers produced two All-ACC players, including First Team selection Chase Hunter (Atlanta, Ga./Westlake) and Second Team selection Ian Schieffelin (Atlanta, Ga./Grayson). Jaeden Zackery (Salem, Wis./Westosha Central/Boston College) was recognized for his work on the defensive end and was named to the All-Defensive Team. Viktor Lakhin (Anapa, Russia/CSKA-2/Cincinnati) was named Honorable Mention.

Coach Brownell has taken three different programs to the NCAA Tournament. He previously took UNC Wilmington in 2003 and 2006, Wright State in 2007 and Clemson in 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2024. He took each school to the tournament in his first year with the program.

Clemson holds a 14-14 record in the NCAA Tournament that includes two Elite Eight appearances and five trips to the Sweet 16.

Get the latest news on all things Clemson men’s basketball by following us on Twitter (@ClemsonMBB), Facebook (/ClemsonMBB) and Instagram (@clemsonmbb).