SC game is coming up...

22yardpunt

Senior
Dec 20, 2009
1,086
776
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If you have never been to columbia I would go ahead and make plans to do so. Columbia in my opinion has some of the if not the best night life of the sec college towns. plus the look and feel of south carolina is a welcome break from ms, al, ga. Just hop on 20 at bham and it takes you alllll the way to columbia.
 

KurtRambis4

Redshirt
Aug 30, 2006
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While

in college (early to mid 2000s) my friends and I went to just about every stadium for one road game a year. Columbia was neck and neck with Athens, as far as nightlife goes, to me. That place was awesome.
 

af102

Redshirt
May 17, 2009
711
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Whatever happened to the Amtrak party train idea?

I remember someone posting that they worked at Amtrak and were looking into getting a special train run from NOLA>Meridian>Tuscaloosa>Birmingham>Atlanta>Greenville, and then taking buses to Columbia. I'm guessing that fell through?
 

Crucifictorious

Redshirt
Jan 31, 2012
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I attended Grad School at Carolina after leaving State. It was night and day in terms of nightlife, shopping, general atmosphere. I had never lived in a town that large so I was in heaven. Five points was great (Garrett's Grille and Grog will be missed) and the Vista was slowly becoming awesome when I was there. I love Columbia and wish I could get to the game this year. And I experienced 1-21 my first 2 years at Carolina (and we still averaged 80,000 fans per game!).

So if you have a chance go to Columbia, and stop by Groucho's and get an STP for me. Remember to ask for bacon under the cheese.
 

randystewart

Junior
Jan 14, 2009
1,181
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I agree about Columbia being a fun city. However, the gameday tailgating atmosphere is one of the worst in the SEC. I think this is mostly because the stadium is nowhere near campus/downtown.
 

FISHDAWG

Redshirt
Dec 27, 2009
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I agree about Columbia being a fun city. However, the gameday tailgating atmosphere is one of the worst in the SEC. I think this is mostly because the stadium is nowhere near campus/downtown.

for me that's the beauty of it ... easy in and easy out. I've been over there a couple times for games and tailgating was fine ... most of the fans were pretty cool ...... however, downtown sucks - I took bootcamp there in Columbia and downtown was full places and people you would want to avoid
 

KurtRambis4

Redshirt
Aug 30, 2006
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Exactly right.

Their "tailgating" sucked, but the Friday night and Saturday night post-game parties at the bars were even with Athens.
 

stinkfoot

Redshirt
Aug 23, 2012
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they just closed the farmers marketn and made that area into very nice....

I agree about Columbia being a fun city. However, the gameday tailgating atmosphere is one of the worst in the SEC. I think this is mostly because the stadium is nowhere near campus/downtown.

tailgating and practice fields. However, those are all reserved lots as are the fair grounds. They run shuttles from downtown to the stadium so that might be your best best bet. Party in the vista and then bus out to stadium.
 

Palmettodog

Redshirt
Aug 22, 2012
1,416
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Unless you're sitll in college, the place to go now is The Vista,

not Five Points. FP is still a great party area but it's gotten a bad rap lately with a couple of white boys getting beat down by a group of black dudes and several shootings. The Vista is not far away, but offers more restaurants as well as bars. But if your 21-25, then Five Points might be more up your alley.
 

mcdawg22

Heisman
Sep 18, 2004
13,176
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Lived in Irmo for five years and went to a couple of games, my favorite was when a client invited me to his condo at The Spur for the State game. Those condo's overlooking the stadium are incredible, and make for the easiest "tailgating" experience ever. The craziest thing is he had a granite countertop that just happen to have a small tiger paw like splotch that looked exactly like the Clemson paw. He spent a couple of thousand removing that countertop for another one. The others are exactly right, The Vista is a blast, what separates it from Athens, is it has a lot of good Restaurant/Bars where if you want to just hang out, eat and drink while you sit down and watch a game, that's an option.