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    Savannah

    United States

    Savannah

    City

    Savannah, on the Savannah River, just before its mouth into the Atlantic and directly on the border with South Carolina, is Georgia's oldest city.

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    9. Savannah
    Savannah, on the Savannah River, just before its mouth into the Atlantic and directly on the border with South Carolina, is Georgia's oldest city. You come for its 22 shady squares under oaks draped with Spanish moss, its 19th-century mansions, and an Old Town you can easily explore on foot.Its street grid with its squares dates back to city founder James Oglethorpe and remains intact today. To the south of the Historic District lies Forsyth Park with its famous fountain; to the north, River Street with old cotton warehouses by the river. On the city's outskirts, Bonaventure Cemetery and the oak alley of Wormsloe await.Like Charleston, Savannah was built on the riches of slave labor. At the Owens-Thomas House and in Wormsloe, you can learn how enslaved people lived in the city and on plantations.
    Savannah is a compact city, whose Historic District on the south bank of the Savannah River is easily walkable. Additionally, free DOT shuttles run approximately every ten minutes through the Old Town, and the also free Savannah Belles ferry crosses to Hutchinson Island. Unique is the 1733 city plan with its original 24 squares, 22 of which are preserved. Highlights include River Street with Factors Walk, the squares around Bull Street, Forsyth Park, and the adjacent southern district with its Victorian villas. For Wormsloe, Bonaventure, and the beaches of Tybee Island, you'll need a car or a tour.

    Sights in Savannah

    Discover the most important sights and attractions

    Forsyth Park
    Park

    1Forsyth Park

    The 30-acre park on the southern edge of the Historic District is the city's green heart. Its fountain at the north end dates from 1858 and is one of Savannah's most photographed landmarks.
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    Chippewa Square
    Museum

    2Chippewa Square

    One of the 22 preserved squares from Oglethorpe's 1733 city plan, surrounded by oaks and historic houses. From here, walk along Bull Street from square to square.
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    Bonaventure Cemetery
    Historic Landmark

    3Bonaventure Cemetery

    The 160-acre municipal cemetery on the Wilmington River is famous for its gravestones under Spanish moss-draped oaks. Here lie songwriter Johnny Mercer and poet Conrad Aiken; admission is free.
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    Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters
    Museum

    4Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters

    The townhouse, completed in 1819 by architect William Jay, is part of the Telfair Museums. The tour includes the rare, largely unaltered enslaved people's quarters above the carriage house.
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    Rousakis Riverfront Plaza
    Shopping Mall

    5Rousakis Riverfront Plaza

    The square is centrally located on River Street, whose former cotton warehouses on the Savannah River now house shops, bars, and restaurants. Above it runs Factors Walk, where cotton merchants once worked.
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    Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace

    6Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace

    At the birthplace of the founder of the Girl Scouts on Oglethorpe Avenue, discover how Juliette Gordon Low founded the first troop in Savannah in 1912. The house has been a museum since 1956.
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    Restaurants in Savannah

    1

    Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room

    Southern comfort food at communal tables: Fried Chicken and many sides. Open weekdays 11 AM to 2 PM only; expect a queue out the door.
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    2

    The Olde Pink House

    The pink mansion on Reynolds Square was built for James Habersham Jr. from 1771 and has been a restaurant since 1971. The Planters Tavern is in the vaulted cellar.
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    3

    The Grey

    Restaurant in the restored 1938 Greyhound Bus Terminal. Chef Mashama Bailey received the James Beard Award as Outstanding Chef in 2022, the first Black woman to do so.
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    Food and Beverages

    Savannah's cuisine is Southern and coastal: marsh seafood, rice and vegetables, plus pecan sweets.
    Shrimp and Grits

    Shrimp and Grits

    Shrimp from coastal waters on creamy grits, a Lowcountry classic you'll find in Savannah, from breakfast spots to fine dining restaurants.
    Southern Fried Chicken

    Southern Fried Chicken

    Crispy fried chicken with sides like Collard Greens, Mac and Cheese, and Okra. Most famously, lunch at long tables at Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room.
    Pralines

    Pralines

    Soft confections of sugar, butter, and pecans. Available in Old Town sweet shops, especially on River Street.
    Lowcountry Boil

    Lowcountry Boil

    Shrimp, corn on the cob, potatoes, and smoked sausage, cooked together in a large pot. Typical for sociable evenings on the coast.

    History and Culture

    In 1733, General James Oglethorpe landed with around 120 settlers on a bluff overlooking the Savannah River, founding Georgia's first city. Yamacraw Chief Tomochichi permitted the settlement, allowing the colony to grow without the wars faced by other early settlements. Oglethorpe designed the city with residential units around public squares, a plan that continues to shape its urban landscape today.Slavery was initially forbidden in Georgia but was permitted in 1749. Subsequently, rice and cotton plantations emerged around Savannah, and on River Street, cotton merchants, known as Factors, conducted trade. In December 1864, General Sherman reached the city after his march through Georgia and offered it to President Lincoln by telegram as a Christmas gift. As a result, Savannah remained largely unscathed.In the 1950s, local women founded what would become the Historic Savannah Foundation, to save old buildings from demolition; in 1966, the Historic District was designated a National Historic Landmark. The city gained global renown in 1994 with John Berendt's novel "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." Additionally, Juliette Gordon Low founded the first group of what would later become the Girl Scouts here in 1912.

    Nightlife

    1

    Peregrin

    Perry Lane Hotel's rooftop bar, with views across the Old Town to the Savannah River bridge, a favorite for sunset.
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    2

    Artillery Bar

    Cocktail bar on Bull Street in the former warehouse of the Georgia Hussars, a colonial-era cavalry unit. The interior mixes Art Deco and Midcentury.
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    Journey and Exploration

    AirportThe Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (SAV) is located northwest of the city. Bus route 100X to the airport is currently suspended, so you'll need to take a taxi, rideshare, or rental car to the Historic District.Train and BusThe Amtrak station is located on Seaboard Coastline Drive, about four miles west of the Historic District. The Palmetto, Silver Meteor, and Silver Star trains stop here. Greyhound intercity buses stop at the Joe Murray Rivers Jr. Intermodal Transit Center on West Oglethorpe Avenue.Car and ParkingInterstate 16 ends directly at the edge of the Historic District, while I-95 runs west of the city. In the Historic District, it's best to park in one of the city's parking garages and then explore on foot.Getting AroundThe free DOT Express Shuttle operates on two routes, stopping at 20 locations in the Historic District approximately every ten minutes. The free Savannah Belles Ferry connects River Street (City Hall Landing and Waving Girl Landing) with Hutchinson Island.

    Accommodations in Savannah

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    Nearby

    Charleston

    Charleston

    Charleston, on South Carolina's Atlantic coast, is one of the USA's best-preserved historic cities. You'll be drawn by its pastel-colored housefronts, cobblestone alleyways, Lowcountry cuisine, and a history that stretches from the wealth of rice plantations to the first shots of the Civil War.The historic core lies on a peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. From its southern tip, The Battery, you gaze across the harbor to Fort Sumter. Beyond the city, gardens and plantations await along the Ashley River, along with the immense Angel Oak on Johns Island, and beaches like Folly Beach.Charleston was one of the most significant ports of the transatlantic slave trade. The International African American Museum and the Old Slave Mart Museum tell this story directly in the city, and many plantations now also explore the lives of the enslaved.
    Georgia

    Georgia

    Georgia in the southeastern USA connects the metropolis of Atlanta with a tranquil Atlantic coast full of marshland and barrier islands. You travel here for Savannah, for the history of the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta, and for nature not typically expected in the Southeast: the Okefenokee Swamp and undeveloped islands like Cumberland Island.In Atlanta, the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park commemorates the USA's most famous civil rights leader, who was born and preached here. Along the coast, historical sites and nature alternate: Jekyll Island was a hunting ground for the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts in the late 19th century and is now a State Park, while on Cumberland Island, wild horses roam the dunes. In the southeast of the state lies the Okefenokee, a vast wetland and source of the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers.Georgia was one of the 13 founding colonies and later part of the Confederacy. The traces of slavery, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights Movement still shape many places you visit today.
    South Carolina

    South Carolina

    South Carolina is the small coastal state between North Carolina and Georgia, and for travelers, almost everything revolves around the Lowcountry: flat marshlands, islands with oak-lined avenues, and cities where the history of the South is visible at every turn. You come for Charleston, for the Atlantic beaches, and for one of the USA's most unusual national parks.The capital, Columbia, is located inland; right next to it, Congaree National Park protects the largest contiguous tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the southeastern USA. Along the coast, diverse destinations await: in the north, the Grand Strand around Myrtle Beach with approx. 60 miles of beach; in the south, Hilton Head Island with bike paths and golf courses; and in between, Beaufort, where a national park tells the story of the Reconstruction era after the Civil War.The state's history is closely tied to rice cultivation and slavery. Many plantations and museums now address this openly, and especially in the Lowcountry, it's worth choosing tours that focus on the lives of enslaved people.
    Orlando

    Orlando

    Orlando lies in the heart of Florida, 80 km from the Atlantic coast, and is the capital of theme parks: Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando with its Epic Universe opening in 2025, and SeaWorld are all located in the south and southwest of the city. You come for the rollercoasters, themed worlds, and shows, but the city itself offers more than many expect, with lakes, parks, and a good restaurant scene.Plan a full day for each of the major parks, and in between, take time for the real Orlando: a stroll around Lake Eola in Downtown, dinner at one of the Vietnamese restaurants on Colonial Drive, or an afternoon in Winter Park with a boat tour across the lakes and the Tiffany glass at the Morse Museum.Orlando is also ideal as a base for excursions: The Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral is about 80 km east, and the Brightline train takes you to Miami in about three hours.
    Florida

    Florida

    Florida is the peninsula in the southeastern USA, between the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, bordered north by Georgia and Alabama. Visitors come for its approximately 2,170 km of coastline, subtropical to tropical nature, and space and colonial history.To the south, the Everglades National Park preserves over 6,100 km² of the largest tropical wilderness in the USA, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979. Southwest of Miami, the Florida Keys string together across 42 bridges to Key West, located about 150 km from Cuba. Roughly 110 km further west lies Dry Tortugas National Park with Fort Jefferson; Biscayne is the state's third national park.On the Atlantic coast, the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island showcases the Space Shuttle Atlantis and a Saturn V rocket. In the northeast, St. Augustine, founded in 1565, is recognized as the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement on the North American mainland. Inland, around Orlando, you'll find major theme parks such as Walt Disney World and Universal Studios.