travel statsTime Zone:
EST, 3 hours ahead of San Francisco
Travel time from SF (one-way):
~8 hoursDirect flights available:
No
Length of trip: 3 days, plus travel time
Last visited: September 2008
hits & misses(This section will highlight the top 3 hits and top 3 (or less) misses.)
Hits+ Forsyth Fountain (especially at dusk)
+ SCAD (Savannah College of Art & Design) Store
+ Strolling in the Victorian District
Misses- River Street
- Telfair Academy
- Carriage ride packages (You're better off driving / walking.)
itinerary & thoughts
Oh, Savannah...the great belle of the South. I came here for Labour Day long weekend, taking the redeye on a Friday night to arrive in Savannah mid-day Saturday. The city is also known for a more recent phenomenon, John Berendt's book
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, otherwise known just as "the Book" around here. I will definitely say, Savannah did not disappoint, especially in the food department. But I digress...here's what I did:
friday
12:00am - I took the redeye and connected in Chicago. It almost always makes sense to save time (and a night's hotel) to fly redeye when traveling to the east coast...if you can fall asleep on the plane. (But that's a whole other post.)
saturday
12:00pm - Original arrival time in Savannah. Plane got diverted to Charleston due to an accident in Savannah Airport. Go figure.
2:00pm - Finally arrive in Savannah. One thing I *love* about this airport is that the rental car desks are right inside the terminal, and the cars themselves are right outside the terminal (even closer than the regular parking lot). Love the peaches on all the license places. Have to remind myself that I'm in Georgia now. Heehee.
2:45pm - Check in at the
Westin Savannah Harbour Resort & Spa. Note that this hotel is across the river from downtown Savannah, which proves to be nice since you can avoid all of the downtown traffic. A free ferry also takes you to and from the River Street area. The resort also has a golf course right down the street.
3-6pm - Explore downtown Savannah. Stroll down River Street. The reason I gave it a "miss" is because it's just like every other waterfront promenade in America -- lots of bars and tourist trappy seafood restaurants, and lots of ugly souvenir stands. You've been to Lahaina on Maui, or Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, you've been to them all. Don't miss the
shopSCAD Store -- it sells artwork and products made by Savannah College of Arts & Design students, teachers, and alum. Needless to say, it was a beautiful shops that has something for everyone.
6pm - Dinner at
Elizabeth on 37th. The restaurant is in an old Savannah mansion, and is very popular with tourists and the uppity locals alike. I opted for a 7 course tasting menu. More on the actual meal in my
Yelp review. My favourite dish of the evening: zinfandel braised short rib with parmesan crusted red snapper. Yum! After that was a quick food coma in preparation for the next big day!
sunday8am - Early start today, with a very aggressive travel schedule. First stop:
Sentient Bean (see my
Yelp review) for some much needed coffee. Starbucks isn't big around these parts (less than 10 stores in the entire city by my count), and I figured I could support something local. The best part is, Sentient Bean is located right next to the first attraction -- Forsyth Park. The park itself is pretty small by any city's "main park" standards, so you don't really need to budget a lot of time for it. The main attraction of the park (and some say, of the city itself) is
Forsyth Park Fountain, a gorgeous multi-tiered fountain located on the northern end of the park. It's best viewed either early in the day or at dusk when it is lit up.
10am - Breakfast at Clary's (
Yelp review). Yes, the lines are long, and it's in "the Book", but it's practically a Savannah institution. My tip: skip the table line and hop up to the counter. You get more of the interesting conversation with the servers and locals anyway. I ordered country fried steak and loved every bite!
12:30pm - Half-our tour of
Mercer Williams House (aka Mercer House). Tip: even though tours don't start until 12:30 on Sundays, you can actually buy tickets when the Carriage House and Gift Shop opens at 10am (or even earlier online). This way, you get the tour time that you want. The house is definitely a beauty, and the tour more poignant if you have read "the Book." (Yes, there is a theme around this place.) No photos inside the house or in the courtyard, though.
1:30pm -
Telfair Museum of Arts. It's actually three buildings, and you can buy a pass that allows you to visit all three venues over the course of seven days. I visited two out of the three: Telfair Academy, and the Jepson Centre of Arts. I must say, the Academy was a miss for me -- one of the major exhibit halls was closed, and the biggest attraction was pretty much the "Bird Girl" statue (removed from its original home in Bonaventure Cemetary) that was in...you guessed it, "the Book". The JCA on the other hand, is gorgeous. Just the architecture of the uber-modern building alone is reason enough for you to visit.
3pm - Bonaventure Cemetery. Yes, a cemetery. Yes, it was in "the Book." And yes, it's worth visiting. I drove around and through it slowly. It's hard to describe, but there's something very peaceful and beautiful about that place. I think a quote from "the Book" describes it pretty succinctly:
I think how peaceful it is. I think what a wonderful place this is to come to and escape from everything, to just cool out and relax and enjoy the serenity...Looking at these old graves makes me think how generation after generation of the same family are all gathered together. And that makes me think about how life goes on...
-from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
4:00pm -
Tybee Island. It's like the poor man's Hilton Head, and it's only 25 minutes from downtown Savannah. (Bonaventure is on the way there.) It's your standard beach seen, plus some wild grasses and lots of choppy brown water. All in all, not a bad place to escape and just enjoy the ocean breeze in the afternoon.
7:30pm - Dinner at
Cha-Bella. I picked this place after a long and hard search for something that *wasn't* necessary Southern, and was attracted to this place for its use and promotion of organic and local ingredients. The standouts were their butter crust rolls (served with
Savannah Bee Company honey and butter), and the shrimp and butter poached king crab. The rest of the dinner was a sad domino effect of bad experiences, but check out my
Yelp review for more details.
monday
8:30am Stopped for a quick breakfast at
Waffle House (they're everywhere), before a day trip to Charleston, SC. That's a separate post in itself, but just know that it's possible to do in a day.
7:30pm - Dinner at
Lady & Sons, Paula Deen's restaurant in Savannah. Since I wasn't around in the morning to make reservations (you can do that in person, each morning at 9:30am for a table that day), I sat at the bar on the third floor. I skipped the buffet and ordered the Steak and Pie instead, but it was pretty disappointing. The food was really salty, and the quality just OK. Chalk about another point for the success of celebrity chef marketing. After dinner, I walked to
Leopold's Ice Cream, the oldest ice cream joint in Savannah, for a scoop of coconut ice cream. Now *that* was worth the walk.
tuesday9am - Greenbrier Spa at the Westin. I always like to schedule a spa appointment on the last day of a hectic 3-day trip. It relaxes you before the often-long-and-painful return trip home, and reminds that even though it was just 3 days, you still got to go on vacation!
11am - Mrs. Wilke's Boarding House for lunch. OMG. Best. Fried. Chicken. Ever. They have a saying there: "If the colonel made fried chicken as good as ours, he would have been a general." They're not exaggerating. Don't miss out. Go there. They're only open on weekdays for lunch, and the line starts well before the 11am opening time.
1pm - Airport. Journey home. SAV --> IAD --> SFO
the 411stay:
- Westin Savannah Harbour Resort & Spa
eat:
- Elizabeth on 37th (****) - Dinner only, dressy
- Sentient Bean (***) - Coffee, casual
- Clary's (****) - Breakfast / Lunch, casual
- Cha-Bella (***) - Dinner only, smart casual
- Waffle House (***) - Diner, casual
- Lady & Sons (*) - Lunch / Dinner - casual
- Leopold's Ice Cream (****) - Dessert, casual
- Mrs. Wilke's Boarding House (*****) - Lunch only, casual
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