Savannah Touring
As Oglethorpe understood in 1733, all expeditions require a plan. Before embarking on any lengthy tour of our moss-draped city, make sure
you prepare a daypack of essentials. For your purposes, an umbrella, water bottle, sunscreen, street map, and camera should suffice. By day, the dress
code for just about everything is tourist casual, so don’t forget to include that souvenir sun visor from the gift store. If you want to beat the
heat, plan your visit between February and May; after that, temperatures climb above 90 degrees.
During business hours, you will need to locate a parking garage. Over 3000 parking meters are also ready and waiting… along
with the meter police. These timed parking reservations are stringently enforced. Make sure you examine each meter carefully for time limits to avoid
fines or towing expenses. Check with
Savannah Parking
Services for convenient, secure garage locations, pre-paid ‘smart cards,’ and general parking information. Currently, Robinson and State Street Garages advertise free parking all week from 6:00PM to 6:00AM. Now you are ready to follow your interests where they lead.
Savannah’s picturesque landscape and historical landmarks are wide-ranging in appeal. They also make for good business. Sign up
for a tour—or combination of tours—to broaden your knowledge of art, history, culture, and our seacoast environment. Historic Downtown,in particular, lends itself well to scenic tours of well-preserved squares, homes, monuments, cathedrals, and displays of decorative ironwork. Be sure, however, to call tour companies for current rates and reservations, as these vary according to the season.
Take advantage of area experts.
Personalized Tours of Savannah
will arrange a tour specific to your own special occasions or events. Likewise,
Tootsy Tours focuses on African and Jewish Heritage. Walk alongside professional architects,
biologists, and historic preservationists. Check out S.C.A.D graduate Jonathan Stalcup's new book
Savannah Architectural Tours for a close look at architectural history, spanning from Georgian to contemporary. Learn about the city at night, and the role electricity plays in architectural invention and evolution.
Ghost walks and cemetery tours are interesting additions to the historical tours. With authentic ties to parapsychology in Savannah,
Sixth Sense Savannah dares to scare with a lively mix of local legend and eerie paranormal testimonials. Perhaps less scary, but more spirited, is the Haunted Pub Tour, guided by
Cobblestone Tours. Nightly (Mon-Sat) crawls depart from Moon River BrewingCompany and Molly Macpherson’s Scottish Pub. Click on Cobblestone tour link for $5.00 coupon off the $10.00 admission. (Must be over 21 to participate)
Cinefiles should zoom in on
Savannah Movie Tours. Visit the shooting locations of
Bagger Vance, Cape Fear, Forces of Nature, Forest
Gump, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,
Something To Talk About, and others. Your walking guide is filmmaker & tour guide, Hollywood Ron Higgins.
When walking is not on the agenda, you may choose to hail an environ-friendly bicycle taxi at
Savannah Pedicab. These charming rickshaws are a fun, quirky alternative to driving and walking. You can also hoof it around town in a Viennese carriage.
Carriage Tours of Savannah provides old-fashioned horse-drawn rides around the downtown and City Market areas. For those who prefer vintage engine power,
Classic Car Tours
offers excursions to Bonaventure Cemetery, the haunted gravesite made famous by John Berendt’s book and novel
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
Larger groups may opt for a trolley tour.
Old Savannah Tours & Transportation includes mini-buses and limousines, in addition to the open-air trolleys.
Belles of Savannah is a new 3-hour tour, which focuses on important women throughout Savannah history. Another new tour spotlights southern dining entrepreneur Paula Deen, and ends with a marsh side meal at Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House.
Exciting adventures are not limited to land, however. Dolphin and fishing tours are also available for the seafarer.
Standard Bay Charters
provides an outstanding list of environmental tour options. Docks for departure and return are located at Isle of Hope, Skidaway Island, Thunderbolt, and River Street hotels. Additionally,
Riverstreet Boat Cruises operates year round, and features an assortment of theme-based tours, including services for corporate and educational purposes. For interactive sleuthing, sign up for the
Murder Afloat Mystery Cruise. Immerse yourself in the saga as onboard actors unfold the drama and subsequent crime.
Square Routes
Most people who tour Savannah's parks and squares appreciate a brief historical background first. If this is not your cup of tea, scroll down to How About Lafayette Square for area highlights.
Savannah (its name derived from the Shawanah Indians that lived along the river in earlier years) is America's 13th colony, planned and then founded, in 1733, by General James Oglethorpe. With help from local native Tomochichi, the city took shape. Subsequently settled and farmed by freed English debtors and the religiously persecuted (slavery, Catholics and alcohol were banned early on - I'm guessing this annoyed many), its colonizers worked hard to establish an ordered society. All of this, and pirates lurked at sea!
A warm and surrendering town, Savannah raised the white flag in 1779 to the British, and again to Sherman in 1864. Savannah must have been a cool Christmas present for Lincoln.
With the invention of the cotton gin and plenty of slave work, Savannah enjoyed economic growth in the early 19th century, producing rice, silk, tobacco and cotton for trade. This is also when those enormous and architecturally stunning homes were built. It was THE place to be, unless, of course, you were a lowly worm on the Mulberry Tree of Life.
The twentieth century brought with it depression and, later, revitalization. The birth of restoration began as the Historic Savannah Foundation creatively organized renovation and preservation efforts in the 1950's. Since then, the city has undergone a series of changes - including the expansion of Savannah's premier art college, SCAD - all culminating in an even more beautiful and prosperous downtown, from its lofts to its sidewalks.
Serious history and design fanatics will want to spend more than a few days in the area, but visitors can glean a fundamental appreciation of the squares (miniature parks, actually) in a matter of hours, really . . . so get going. Pick a square, any square . . .
How about Lafayette Square?
Located on Abercorn, between Charlton and Harris, Lafayette Square is named for the Marquis de Lafayette (Marie Jean Paul Joseph Roche Yves Gilbert du Motier, to be completely accurate), a French noble who, ultimately, helped bring about the British surrender at Yorktown. If you are in town for the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade, this is considered a great square for families and Irish Catholics, since it is also home to The Roman Catholic Cathedral of John the Bapist.
SERIOUS readers should not overlook The Flannery O'Conner Childhood Home. Known for her exploration of Catholic spirituality through the use of Southern "grotesque" imagery and violence, O'Connor is now an iconic Southern literary figure. Currently closed for renovations, this simple 3-story building is quietly nestled at 207 East Charlton St. It's here that she trained her pet chicken to walk backwards! (Yes, a good chicken is hard to find.) Stop by in September when it reopens for tours.
Lafayette Square is also the location of the Hamilton-Turner Mansion. Some readers may also enjoy the mansion's notoriety as the home of Joe Odom in John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Local Savannahians may still remember their Halloween ghost tours. These days it is a luxurious bed & breakfast. You may want to walk through the square at night, where you can see it aglow.
The Low-Colonial Dames House is another draw to the area. Designed by John Norris for Andrew Low in 1847, the home is also famous for being the home of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts.
You are bound to discover Lafayette Square at some point in your Savannah experience. For many locals and students, it's just a nice park in which to relax and eat lunch. The centerpiece fountain was added by the Colonial Dames of America.
