It’s not often Michael and I get to vacation alone. In fact, we haven’t had a solo trip since our honeymoon in 2017! So when my amazing sister and brother-in-law offered to babysit for a whole weekend, I immediately got to planning a weekend getaway.
I haven’t traveled much in general. Living in “The Sunshine State” means most weekend getaways can be local. But an out-of-state trip I’d had on my bucket list for a while was Savannah. I had spent one night in Savannah while traveling home from a veterinary conference with Amelia in tow when she was six months old, and in those short few hours that we strolled historic downtown I was in awe of how pretty it was and knew I’d have to return.
So we settled on Savannah, only a 3.5 hour drive from home. To say that we enjoyed our trip would be an understatement. We both fell immediately and completely in love with Savannah — the historic homes lining the original bricked streets, the perfect grid of perfect green squares, the friendliest people, and the most delicious food! Today I’m sharing the play-by-play of our trip: Where we stayed, what we did, where we ate, as well as what we couldn’t fit in this time (and the reason we have already booked our return… with the kids).
Friday Night
We arrived in Savannah around 5:00 PM and easily found metered parking outside of the carriage house we booked on VRBO. I couldn’t believe the adorable apartment we landed for less than $200/night, complete with original fireplace and lovely courtyard shared with the main house. Our carriage house was in the northeast side of the historic district, just a few blocks from the river, so at night we could hear the passing boats.
Original fireplace and mantle in our carriage house 
View of main house from our front door.
Something I didn’t realize before booking was how many restaurants require reservations for any chance at a table, and how far in advance their reservations book up! However, after calling a few restaurants I learned that The Cotton Exchange on River Street doesn’t take reservations so that’s where we headed. A ten minute walk (and some beautiful but steep old steps) later we were almost immediately seated outside to eat while watching the boats pass. We enjoyed fried gator and cocktails (I had a grapefruit mojito and it was delicious), followed by two delicious seafood dishes and we were stuffed.
Fried gator at The Cotton Exchange 
Plant Riverside 
River Street boardwalk
We spent the rest of the evening on River Street, occasionally stopping in a bar to grab a “to-go” drink, then crossing the street to sit on the boardwalk and sip and snap pictures. We listened to a local man comically play the trumpet (my favorite was his rendition of “Eye of the Tiger” he played as a woman briskly walked by clearly hurrying to a ferry boat or river cruise), and caught the end of a river-side acrobatics performance hosted by a woman on stilts. We walked to the end of River Street and popped in the Plant Riverside not expecting to find a giant dinosaur surrounded by geodes in every size! We ended the night with some live music at a little bar and walked back to our room, where we enjoyed wine on our balcony overlooking the courtyard before heading to bed.
Saturday
Saturday morning I dragged Michael to walk down Jones Street, telling him I had read it was the most beautiful street in America. I believe it. It was stunning. It was at this point that I started begging Michael to let us move to Savannah! We had breakfast at Clary’s, and it was one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had! I was disappointed to learn the Crab Cake Benedict was gone, but the waiter suggested the Salmon Benedict, and it did not disappoint!
Walking to breakfast 
Happy Hayley having breakfast on Jones Street 
Salmon Benedict at Clary’s
After breakfast we took our time heading over the Forsyth Park, where we snapped some pictures in front of the fountain and explored the Saturday Farmer’s Market, walked the park’s perimeter, checked out the Fragrant Garden, and did some people watching. There was a man and (I presume) his young daughter playing a gong, a trumpet player, a violinist, countless artists painting and selling their crafts, couples picnicking, a playground full of kids, and so much more.
Fountain at Forsyth Park 
Fragrant Garden 
Monument in Forsyth Park
We did some shopping after. My favorite stop was in a bookstore that had a few fat cats roaming around (though I can NOT remember the name of it!), where I picked up a few children’s books written about Savannah by local authors and a coffee table book with pictures of Savannah buildings, landmarks and monuments. We grabbed a quick lunch at Treylor Park Hitch (a charcuterie board that was perfection and the best avocado fries I’ve ever had) before heading to the Mercer-Williams House for a tour. At this point our legs were so sore we headed back to the carriage house for a nap!
PS: If you’re going to be visiting Savannah anytime, I highly recommend reading “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” first. It was so cool to recognize many of the places we visited from the book!
Fat cat at the bookstore 
Charcuterie and avocado fries at Hitch 
Mercer-Williams house
I was determined to get dinner at The Olde Pink House restaurant after hearing rave reviews, so without a reservation we got there as soon as it opened for dinner at 5:00 PM and put our name on a wait list. They were wonderful, brought us drinks and sent us to go sit in the square while we waited almost an hour and a half for a table. We were seated at the bar, and the bartenders were the best service I’ve had in a restaurant yet! They helped us choose our drinks and dinner and were so friendly and entertaining. The food was outstanding. Michael had a fried porkchop that was bigger than his head, and I ate a whole fish, which was a first for me, but our helpful bartender showed me how to delicately scrape the fish from the bones so as not to eat any bones. Again, best service ever.
The Olde Pink House 
One of many “haunted houses” we learned of
We almost decided to skip our scheduled ghost tour to stay at the bar for drinks and live piano music, but decided to be on our way. Our ghost tour was a blast, with the most authentic, friendly story-teller (and historian) as our guide. A few tips for ghost tours in Savannah: 1) Bring bug spray. 2) The stories are legitimately scary — I don’t know if they would be appropriate for all ages. But for us, they were entertaining and also provided a ton of Savannah history. After our tour, we grabbed a to-go drink for the walk back to our place, where we passed out immediately.
Sunday
On our last day in Savannah, we were anxious to get home to our kiddos (did I mention this was the first time I’d been away from Adeline overnight since her birth?), but wanted to make the best of our last morning. We grabbed breakfast at the Funky Brunch Cafe, then walked down Broughton Street where we did a little shopping. My favorite shops were the Capital Bee Company, where we tasted honey at their honey tasting bar, and The Paris Market. This place was two stories and the architecture and design of the shop alone was enough to fall in love with! While there, we got coffees for us and macarons to bring back to the kids and our babysitters as a thank you.
Breakfast at the Funky Brunch Cafe 
Steep old stairs leading down to River Street 
Proud I didn’t fall (note touristy Savannah t-shirt!)
We headed down to River Street one last time to stop at River Street Sweets and pick up some candy and other treats to bring home, snapped a few pictures of the crazy steep old stairs, headed to our car and went home. I’m not going to lie, I spent the entire drive home looking at real estate in historic downtown Savannah.
Our Next Trip…
I mentioned we are already planning a return trip earlier. We are headed back to Savannah in October with our kids in tow! I cannot wait to get back! I hope our kiddos love it as much as we do. We booked a house right on Jones Street and have a few things planned for our return, which I’ll share now, because some of these I wish we would have made time for while we were there (like going in to the Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist, I hear it’s beautiful. I mean, look at the exterior!).
- Eat at The Pirate’s House
- Ride the Belle’s Ferry
- Visit Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist
- Schedule a Historic Savannah Hop On/Off Trolley to tour downtown
- Schedule a Trolley Ghost Tour for the older kids (I’ll probably stay back with the babies for this one)
- Visit Tybee Island
- Leopold’s Ice Cream
Any other suggestions for us? Leave a comment on the post if you love Savannah, live in Savannah, want to go to Savannah, or have visited any of the places I mentioned here!
