Savannah is a remarkably charming southern US city. Its historic district is noted as one of the largest, though it is manageable on foot. A highlight is the array of public squares, built into every few intersections during the city’s planning. They are full of live oak trees, aged hundreds of years, from which Spanish moss hang. They provide shade while people watching next to fountains and historical statues. The district offers lots of restaurants, shopping, and sightseeing.
You can visit the city in three days, but we recommend four to five, to enjoy it at a leisurely pace. We cover a trip to Savannah across several posts, each focused on a day’s itinerary.
We recommend taking one of the trolley tours to start of your trip. Any one of them will work, but we liked Old Savannah Tours. The tours cover a lot of ground and provide a great overview of the city to help you get oriented. We recommend going first thing in the morning and taking the entire loop and getting off at the last stop, which is near the river waterfront. The entire loop is usually a couple of hours. If you stop somewhere and pick up another trolley, you’ll see that each tour guide has their own style and stories that they like to tell.
When you get off, explore River Street and the shops along there, grabbing lunch at any of the restaurants. Be sure to peak in the Savannah Street Candy Kitchen for classic pralines, and stop by Savannah Bee Company for a mead tasting and to buy all things made out of honey.
Make sure you cover the Plant Riverside District, where they turned a warehouse into hotels, restaurants and shops. Walk through the lobby, where there is a precious stone display. Behind the buildings, lining the river, is the series of bridges that comprise the Factors walk, where companies used to inspect truckloads of goods like cotton, as they passed beneath them.
You can book a river cruise, but we decided against that because the reviews suggest it doesn’t offer much as an extra viewpoint.
For dinner, we recommend Treylor Park. It offers creative bar food that is reasonably priced. We especially liked the Treylor Park Nachos Grande, which involve waffle fries and fried chicken.
If you have extra time in the evening, wander more of the historic district, through the public squares, to get more oriented. You’ll notice crowds listening to ghost tour guides and the nightlife picking up. Note that the historic district allows walking around with open containers of alcohol, something that you will see plenty of people doing.
Check out our other Savannah Itineraries to see what to do.