Three days in Savannah: a city plan from 1733 that nobody has managed to ruin

Two nights in the Historic District: the squares and the riverfront, a morning museum and an afternoon in the park, and a last drive out to the oaks and the cemetery.

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Length
3 days, 2 nights
Where you stay
Savannah
Places
8 across 3 days
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Savannah was drawn on paper before it existed. James Oglethorpe laid the town out in 1733 as a grid of wards, each built around a public square, and the plan was extended ward by ward for a century afterwards. Twenty-two of those squares survive, roughly one every two blocks, and walking here means crossing a small shaded park every three minutes whether you meant to or not.

The other reason it looks the way it does is that it was never burned. Sherman reached the coast in December 1864 and the city was handed over rather than defended, so the antebellum houses are still standing while Atlanta's are not.

Three days is the right length. This is a place to walk slowly in, sit down often, eat a great deal and drink on the street, which is legal here in a plastic cup. Do not try to see twenty-two squares. See six properly.

Highlights

  • A cast iron fountain under an avenue of live oaks hung with Spanish moss
  • Cobbles on River Street that came over as ballast in the holds of trading ships
  • The Bird Girl from the cover of that book, moved indoors to keep her safe from visitors
  • Four hundred oaks in a dead straight line, a mile and a half to a colonial ruin
  • A drink in your hand, legally, walking between squares after dinner

Where to stay

Savannah, two nights

The Historic District runs from the river south to Forsyth Park, about twenty blocks, and holds nearly everything a visitor comes for. South of it is the Victorian District and beyond that the leafy streets where people actually live.

Stay inside the squares if you can afford it: the district is full of bed and breakfasts in nineteenth century houses, and the point of being here is being able to walk out of the door into it. The chain hotels along the river are cheaper and put you next to the loudest part of town.

Day by day

Day 1 in Savannah

Johnson Square, the market and the cobbles by the river

Start at the top of Bull Street and walk down. Johnson Square was the first one laid out, in 1733, and it is still the business one, surrounded by banks with the founder of the colony buried under a monument in the middle of it.

Walk west a few blocks to City Market, which is four blocks of rehabilitated warehouses around a pedestrian courtyard, with artists' studios upstairs and a good deal of live music at street level. It is the most commercial corner of the district and also the easiest place to find lunch and a band at the same time.

Then down the ramps to River Street, which is a level below the rest of the city because the bluff drops away to the water. The paving is ballast stone unloaded from ships that came in empty to collect cotton, the buildings behind it are the old cotton warehouses, and their upper floors open onto Factors Walk two storeys above. It is touristy, unashamedly, and the container ships that pass a hundred metres away on their way inland are startling every time.

Have dinner up in the squares rather than on the river, then walk back down for a drink and watch the ships.

  1. 15:00

    Johnson Square

    Leisure

    The first of the squares and the busiest. The monument in the middle is Nathanael Greene's grave, moved here in 1901. Ten minutes, then walk south on Bull Street through three more.

  2. 16:00

    City Market

    Other

    Four blocks of old market buildings, restored from 1985, with studios above the shops and bands playing in the courtyard most afternoons. Free to walk through.

  3. 17:45

    River Street

    Landmark

    Down the ramps or the iron stairs, which are steep and uneven and not the place for the wrong shoes. Ballast cobbles, cotton warehouses and freighters going past at eye level.

  4. 19:30

    Dinner, then a walk with a cup

    Eat

    Eat up in the district rather than on the waterfront, where you are paying for the view. Then have the bar pour the last one into a plastic cup and walk it back through the squares.

With more time: The old power station on the western end of the riverfront has been rebuilt as a hotel and public complex, and the rooftop bar in it is the only high view in a city with no tall buildings.

Day 2 in Savannah

The Telfair, a Gothic synagogue and the fountain in the park

Today walks the length of Bull Street from the squares to the park, about a mile, with three stops on it.

The Telfair is the oldest public art museum in the South, opened in 1886 in a family mansion left to the city for the purpose. It now runs three buildings: the original house, a modern block across the square, and a restored 1819 townhouse with the quarters of the enslaved people who worked in it preserved and interpreted, which is the strongest part of the visit. The Bird Girl statue from the cover of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is here too, moved indoors after the book brought so many visitors that the cemetery she stood in could not cope.

Carry on south to the handsomest of the squares, four blocks down, and to the synagogue on its eastern side. The congregation was founded in 1735 by Jewish settlers who arrived five months after the colony did, which makes it the third oldest in the country, and the building they put up in 1878 is Gothic Revival, which is rare enough for a synagogue to be worth going in for. They still hold the Torah scroll the founders brought with them.

Then Forsyth Park at the bottom of the street. Thirty acres, a cast iron fountain from 1858 at the northern end under a canopy of live oaks, and on Saturday mornings a farmers' market. Sit down. This is what the afternoon is for.

  1. 10:30

    Telfair Museum

    Culture

    One ticket covers all three of its buildings over a week. Start with the 1819 townhouse rather than the mansion; the interpretation of the slave quarters is the reason to come.

  2. 13:15

    Lunch on Bull Street

    Eat

    The blocks between Madison and Monterey squares have the small places. For the full version, the communal fried chicken table that people queue round the block for is two streets east and takes no bookings.

  3. 14:45

    Temple Mickve Israel

    Religious

    Tours run on weekday afternoons for a few dollars and include the museum with the 1733 Torah in it. Modest hours, so check before you walk down.

  4. 16:00

    Forsyth Park

    Leisure

    The fountain is at the north end and the rest is lawns, oaks and a cafe in the old fort at the centre. Free. Best in the last two hours of light.

With more time: The square halfway down Bull Street with the bronze of Oglethorpe in it is where the bus stop scenes in Forrest Gump were filmed. There is no bench there; it was a prop, and it now sits in a museum a few streets away.

Day 3 in Savannah

An avenue of oaks and a cemetery on the river

The last morning needs a car or a taxi, and it is worth the twenty minutes.

Wormsloe is the older of the two: the colonial estate of one of Savannah's first settlers, with the tabby ruins of his fortified house at the far end. What everybody comes for is the entrance, an avenue of about four hundred live oaks planted in 1891 running a mile and a half dead straight, with Spanish moss hanging low enough to touch the roof of a car. Photographs of it do not prepare you.

Bonaventure Cemetery is ten minutes north on a bluff above the river, a Victorian burial ground of oaks, azaleas and sculpture that is one of the most beautiful in the country. Johnny Mercer is here, and Conrad Aiken, whose bench-shaped gravestone invites you to sit and have a drink on him. Free, open every day, and quiet on a weekday morning.

Then the airport, twenty-five minutes west, or the two hour drive up the coast to Charleston.

  1. 09:30

    Wormsloe Historic Site

    Historic

    A state site with a small entry fee. Drive the avenue slowly, then walk the marsh trail to the ruins and the colonial demonstration area. Ninety minutes.

  2. 11:45

    Bonaventure Cemetery

    Historic

    Free and open daily. Get a map at the gate or take one of the volunteer-led walks, because the good sections are not obvious. Allow an hour and go early, before the light gets hard.

  3. 13:15

    A last plate of shrimp and grits

    Eat

    Stone ground grits, local shrimp, and gravy with bacon in it. Any room where the tables are full at noon on a weekday will do it properly.

With more time: Tybee Island is twenty minutes further east: a low, unglamorous beach town with a lighthouse you can climb and a pier, and the only sea within easy reach of the city.

Before you go

Getting in

Savannah's airport is fifteen minutes west of downtown and is an unusually pleasant small terminal, with a glass-roofed square in the middle of it that copies the ones in town. Flights are mostly domestic connections through Atlanta or Charlotte.

Charleston is two hours up the coast and Atlanta four hours inland, so many people arrive here by car as part of a longer route. There is a daily train, but the station is a taxi ride out of town.

Getting around

On foot. The Historic District is about a mile square and the squares themselves make it one of the most pleasant American cities to walk in. Free shuttle buses loop the district if the heat defeats you.

A car is only needed for the last day. Parking downtown is metered and enforced with enthusiasm, and most hotels charge for it.

The open container rule

Within the Historic District you may carry one drink of up to sixteen ounces in a plastic cup on the street. Bars will pour your drink into one on request when you leave.

Glass is not allowed and neither is drinking in a parked car, and the police do enforce both. Beyond that, this is one of the few American cities where an evening walk with a drink is simply how it is done.

When to come

March and April, when the azaleas are out and the humidity has not arrived, and late October into November. St Patrick's Day here is the second largest celebration of it in the country and fills every room in the city.

July and August are hot and heavy, with afternoon thunderstorms most days, and the squares are the only shade. Winter is mild, quiet and cheap.

The thing Savannah gets right is the thing almost nowhere else in America does: it is a city where the plan puts a shaded bench every two blocks, and where everybody uses them.

Go slowly. That is the whole instruction.

Make it your trip

Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.

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Common questions

Is three days enough for Savannah?
Yes, and it leaves time to sit down, which matters here more than in most places. Two days would cover the district and the river. The third buys you the oaks and the cemetery, which are the images people take home.
Savannah or Charleston?
Savannah is smaller, greener and looser, and the squares make it the better city to walk aimlessly in. Charleston is grander, more polished and has the stronger museums and the plantations. They are two hours apart, so the honest answer is both.
Do I need a car?
Only for the last day. The Historic District is walkable end to end and there are free shuttle loops through it. Hire a car for a morning or take a taxi out to the oaks and back.
Are the ghost tours worth it?
They are the local industry and they range from genuinely good local history to theatre. The hearse-shaped vehicles are a giveaway. If you want the history without the ghosts, the architecture and garden walks cover the same streets and tell you more.
When is it too hot?
June through early September, when it is both hot and humid and rains most afternoons. The squares help and the shade is genuine, but a walking trip in August is a slower one. March to May and October to November are the good windows.
What should I eat?
Lowcountry food: shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, oysters roasted in a shovelful over a fire, and fried chicken at the communal table that has been serving the same lunch since 1943. Book nothing except dinner, and queue for lunch like everybody else.