Feb 07 2008
Visiting Savannah
Savannah is on everyone’s top ten list of cities to visit in the U.S. Its beauty is unsurpassed as it is filled with mystery, gardens, ghosts, history, heartbreak, and charm. She makes you want to take an iced tea or mint julep and sip it on the veranda of some sleepy, deep shaded porch. Her glorious past offers to the visitor an array of delights and pleasures, and when combined with her reputation for impeccable hospitality, the experience of Savannah is delightful.
To get the best idea about the city and what to do, it’s best to buy and “on/off” ticket and take a trolley ride. We recommend Old Savannah Tours at the corner of Liberty and Martin Luther King Drive where your ticket provides you with free parking–a plus as parking in Savannah is at a minimum and it can be expensive.
Get your ticket, walk across the street to the Visitor’s Center and hop on a trolley. Go around once to see the sights and hear the history. Make a note on the map you’ll be given as to those places you’d like to visit, then once the trolley is at the end, stay on and go again. This time, get off at the trolley stops closest to your desired places to visit. After you’ve visited, you can get back on the trolley and go to the next stop, and on and on until you’ve seen all you’ve wanted to see. For a list of museums you can visit, click here: museums.
If you are a walker, this is the perfect city for you. It’s approximately 11 blocks wide from Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd on the west to Price St. on the east; and approximately 20 blocks from River Street on the north to Gaston Street on the south. There are 22 squares scattered throughout, and all have benches where you can sit and rest. Every square has something to see, with the 5 on Bull Street (Johnson Square, Wright Square, Chippewa Square, Madison Square and Monterey Square) being the “most important”–the “crown jewels,” as they are known. There are places to buy drinks and food on almost every square, as well, so the walk is very pleasant.
Public restrooms are scarce. There is one at the Visitor’s Center and there is one on River Street under the Hyatt, but that’s about it, unless you go into a restaurant for food/drink. They frown on your using the restroom unless you are eating or drinking.
For a list of all of the squares and what to see on them, click here: Savannah Squares.
Without a doubt, you will enjoy the charm of this great, historic city of Savannah.
Travel & Leisure Magazine Readers recently voted Savannah as one of the Top Ten Vacation Destinations in the U.S. and Canada.
Rank
2007
Name
Score
1
1
New York
85.03
2
2
San Francisco
84.42
3
3
Chicago
83.53
4
6
Charleston, South Carolina
83.20
5
4
Santa Fe
82.77
6
5
Quebec City
82.53
7
8
Montreal
81.04
8
7
Vancouver
81.02
9
-
Savannah
80.02
10
9
Victoria, British Columbia