Kenny and I absolutely LOVED our time in Savannah. We did a ton during the few days we spent there, so this is gonna be a long post! To sum our experience up, here are some of my main takeaways about the city of Savannah:
- It's gorgeous: It's clear from the moment you get downtown, Savannah is undeniably beautiful! We spent a lot of our time just walking around and sightseeing; the architecture and flora are just stunning. Plus, there are endless photo ops!
- It's rich in history: Savannah is just dripping with history. There are countless tours (trolley, walking, ghost...) that you can book to learn about the city, which I highly recommend doing. There are also many signs around to inform you of the history of places. Even our hotel had an entire backstory! There are so many tales to be told, ranging from American history to pop culture. The locals are passionate about the area, so don't be afraid to ask a shop owner or a server any questions you have. Chances are they'll have an interesting tidbit to share!
- It's walk-able: Since we stayed downtown, Kenny and I didn't get into a vehicle at all during our trip, with the exception of the ghost tour we went on. The longest we walked to get to any given destination was 20 minutes, but most places were closer than that. That saved us a ton of money on parking and Ubers! I will say that if you're making the trek to River Street, you will experience a lot of stairs and cobblestone roads, so keep that in mind if you have accessibility concerns.
- You can drink in the streets: You read that right! In the downtown historic district, it's legal carry open drinks outside as long as they're in a plastic container no larger than 16oz. It's fun to be able to take the party with you, as most restaurants will make you a drink to go. Many of them have walk-up windows outside so you can order a cocktail without even stepping inside! You can find more info on Savannah's open container policies here.
- Tons of places to eat (even as a vegetarian!): I do a ton of research on restaurants before Kenny and I take trips, a) because we're foodies and want the best of the best, and b) because we don't eat meat so we want to make sure we have plenty of options available. Savannah had a ton of great places to eat, from casual to fine dining, and we experienced a little bit of everything.
- There's something for everyone: There truly is so much to do there for anyone of any age. Savannah is home to SCAD so there are a lot of young people there, and while the school is a huge presence in the city, it doesn't feel like your typical college town. We saw people from all walks of life living their best lives, from families with young kids, to older couples.
Friday
We had headed down to Kenny's mom's house in Salem on Thursday night to shave a couple of hours off of our trip the next day (Savannah is about an eight hour drive from Harrisonburg). We gassed up and hit the road from Salem Friday morning around 8:30.We hit Charlotte right before noon which was about the halfway point of the drive. We stopped at SouthPark Mall to take a little break to walk around and get some food. We love stopping at Gusto for a quick lunch; Kenny always gets the mushroom flatbread and I get the Thai crunch salad with tofu!
We arrived in Savannah around 5:30. I think I can speak for both of us when I say it was love at first sight! The city is SO beautiful, from the architecture to the landscaping. We headed straight to the heart of downtown to check into our hotel.
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| Outfit linked here |
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| Kenny's jacket |
You enter the lobby from Bay Street at street level, which is technically the fourth floor. To the left of the lobby is a stunning five-level atrium that descends to River Street and has incredible views of the river. Our room was one level down from the lobby on the third floor, which felt like the perfect location.
Our room was absolutely beautiful, with restored wood floors, exposed brick walls, industrial decor and an impressive four-poster king bed.
Kenny chose a river-view room, which I'm so glad he did! We had a small wrought iron balcony overlooking River street with a stunning view of the river and the street below, which is a tourist attraction in and of itself. I spent time out there every day enjoying the view, watching the boats go by, and just taking everything in.
They even left us two turtle "gophers" on the bed which were freshly made by Savannah Candy Kitchen just a few doors down!
When we checked into the hotel, the front desk receptionist told us that there was a manager's reception happening downstairs, so we dropped our bags off, changed out of our travel clothes, and headed down. It was such a fun way to kick off our trip! They had old music playing, a huge appetizer spread, and tons of wine and beer. Everyone there was having so much fun and the bartender, Val, was the life of the party. The reception was supposed to end at 6:30, but it went at least an hour longer than that because Val didn't want to put a stop to the fun!
After the welcome reception, Kenny and I headed out to explore a bit and find some dinner. We stopped at The Grove because I had heard good things about it. The restaurant was booked for dinner, but they had plenty of space at the bar, which was beautiful so we were happy to sit there. We weren't super hungry after the reception at the hotel, so we settled for the fried okra and honey drizzle fries as a snack. I also got the cooler cocktail (grapefruit vodka, basil, orange juice, club soda), which was super good! The bartender there was SO skilled, I was mesmerized watching him make all of the drinks!
After The Grove, we stopped at Tree House to see what was poppin. It's a balcony bar and we could hear a band playing from above, so it seemed like a lot of fun. And it so was! The band wrapped up at 9:00 and the party transitioned right into DJ Phive Star's set. He chose great songs and set such a fun mood right away!
Kenny and I got our Shirley Temple and gin and tonic respectively, and hit the dance floor. Since it was early, there weren't a ton of people dancing at first, but there was one other couple who was dancing right away alongside Kenny and me, so we stuck close by them for the night. We had the best time, and it was the best way to start our trip off!
Around 11:00, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel; we were tired from driving most of the day and wanted to get an early start in the morning.
Saturday
On Saturday morning, we got going and headed to brunch at Soho South. It came highly recommended so I knew we had to try it! I was nervous about having a long wait to get seated since it was Saturday, so we made sure that we got there shortly after they opened at 10:00. There were already several tables seated when we got there, so I'm glad we came early!
Kenny ordered the Grand Marnier French toast and breakfast potatoes, and I got the veggie Benedict. The food was good and I loved the atmosphere, they host a lot of beautiful weddings and events there according to their Instagram!
After brunch we walked to Forsyth Park, home of the iconic fountain and live oaks! They have a farmer's market on Saturday mornings, so I knew that we had to go and browse the local goods. It was chilly that morning, but that didn't keep the crowds away! There were tons of people walking their dogs, jogging, playing with their kids, and shopping the market. I loved the hometown feel it had!
After Forsyth Park, we headed back to Broughton Street to do some window shopping. Broughton Street is the heart of downtown, and gave me major Charleston King Street vibes. It's not quite as bougie, but just as charming and lively.
Around mid afternoon, we decided we needed a little pick-me-up. We headed to the Paris Market and got an oat milk latte (Laura), an Orangina (Kenny), and a couple of macarons. I swear they were the best macarons I've ever had, the texture was phenomenal and the filling was so creamy and just melted in my mouth. I got an oreo and a vanilla - you just can't beat classic vanilla. Before we even left, we agreed we needed to come back! Kenny said it might have been his favorite place that we went the whole weekend.
We shopped around the Paris Market for a while, and there was so much to see. They had home goods, jewelry, books, candy, toys... pretty much everything you can think of!
After our snack at the Paris Market we walked around Broughton Street some more. I stopped by Nourish because my friend who used to live in Savannah loves it there and told me that I had to go. They sell a wide variety of handmade, natural bath products. I picked up some shower steamers in mint julep and lavender & peppermint.
After walking around a while more, we went BACK to Paris Market. 😂 They had so much good stuff that we just had to get a second look! We returned to the cafe and got the THICKEST most delicious almost sugar cookie, and another vanilla macaron.
After our second stop at Paris Market, we walked around City Market for a while. The atmosphere was so much fun! There was live music, and plenty of cocktails available to go. It was fun for all ages, and everyone was having a great time.
Side note: the stairs that lead to and from River Street are no joke! There are many different routes you can take to get down to River Street from street level at Bay Street, but they're all a little treacherous. The walls are plastered with signs reminding you to watch your step; people have had serious falls from them.
In the evening, we headed to Top Deck on the rooftop of the Cotton Sail hotel. I love a good rooftop bar, and I thought it'd be a great place to grab a cocktail and catch the sunset.
I ordered the "midnight sail" cocktail (made with pear vodka, St. Germain, blue curacao, lemon juice and grenadine) which was even better than it sounded! It was surprisingly light and refreshing and not overly sweet (PLUS, it was the perfect shade of lavender to match the sweater I wore). Kenny and I shared the house truffle pretzel which was SO good! It was topped with truffle oil and black lava salt, and served with beer cheese (our favorite), hummus, and mustard for di.
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| Sweater | Jeans | Similar sunglasses | Earrings |
Side note: a guy chatted Kenny and me up in the elevator on the way up to the bar, and it turned out that he's from Charlottesville and graduated from JMU in 2012! It's crazy what a small world it is.
There was such a gorgeous view of downtown and the river from the roof! We saw lots of boats passing by which was fun, and we even saw a dolphin! It was the perfect place to catch the sunset and I had so much fun up there hanging with my love.
At 8:00 on Saturday night, we had tickets for a hearse ghost tour! There are several different ghost tours in Savannah to choose from, but as soon as I heard that we had the option to do one while riding in a real hearse, I knew that was the one for us.
When we boarded the hearse, our tour guide (Al aka Al Gory) informed us that the hearse had transported more corpses than tour attendees in its day - about 4,000 vs. 3,000, so spooky! He took us all around Savannah into places we wouldn't normally have visited, including several graveyards and historic houses. We even got to walk into the Lepageville Memorial Cemetery, which isn't usually permitted after dark. We learned SO many cool and spooky stories surrounding the history of Savannah, which we loved!
Al offered for us to stop and grab a cocktail downtown halfway through the tour, but the other people on the tour declined, lame! I would highly recommend stopping for a cocktail if you take the hearse ghost tour, because my understanding is that alcohol is not permitted on most of the other tours. Plus a ghost tour is always more fun with a drink in your hand!
When I was reading reviews about the hearse ghost tour, the few negative ones mentioned the tour being all comedy and not serious or informative. That was not my impression at all! Our guide was witty and always on his toes, but the tour was still extremely informative and an overall great time. I'd absolutely recommend it, and Id' do it again myself!
The only downside of the tour was that it was absolutely FREEZING! 😂 It was about 40 degrees, which feels MUCH colder when you're rolling in an open-air hearse. Kenny and I literally RAN back to the hotel when the tour was over to warm up for a little while before venturing out for dinner.
We went to Flock to the Wok for dinner because we had spotted it during the day and it looked like a place that we would love. It must be popular, because when we showed up around 9:30, it was packed. I think we got the only available table! The ambiance was fun with an open kitchen and most of the tables arranged within a giant gold birdcage (you can kind of see it in the photo of Kenny above).
We were starving by the time we got to dinner, so we ordered some veggie dumplings as an appetizer. We both got drunken noodles with tofu for our entrees, which was so good. I love any Asian rice noodle dish! I'd definitely recommend going there for dinner; the staff was great and we loved the food. The only thing that would've made it better was the crowd - we were seated next to the ABSOLUTE LOUDEST TABLE ON EARTH, like, seriously. They were SO obnoxious but we enjoyed our dinner in spite of their constant shrieking, ha.
Sunday
On Sunday morning, we hit the streets a little before 9:00 to get brunch at Collins Quarter. I heard that they usually have a pretty significant wait, and we had seen they were packed the previous morning when we walked by, so I wanted to make sure that we got there early. The wait was still about 20 minutes, but I got a coffee from their walk up window while we waited. Originally we had asked to sit inside, but it was a mild morning and they had heaters going around the outside tables, so we ended up deciding to sit outside. We actually never stepped foot inside, so I don't even know what it looked like!
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| Headband | Earrings | Similar sunglasses | Sweater | Similar coat |
When we first sat down, we were next to a local woman who was a total sweetheart. She told us that she comes to Collins Quarter every single day for chai tea, and often gets brunch on the weekends. The whole staff knew her, and you could tell they appreciated her loyalty. She was such an angel! She told us a little bit about the owner which was interesting. She said that everything on the menu is amazing, and I believe her. I had such a hard time choosing what to order, I wanted like four different things! Kenny and I both ended up going with the avocado smash, which was great.
Unfortunately, I learned that restaurants don't serve alcohol until after 11:00 on Sunday mornings, so I couldn't order a cocktail! To put it the way man who sat next to us and was also surprised by the Sunday alcohol policy did, "I wanted a bloody Mary so bad I could taste it." 😂 BUT I had been wanting to go back to Soho South later to try their pickle bloody Mary, so it was all for the best.
After brunch, we had a little time to kill before we could go for cocktails, so we did some more exploring. I got to see the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low (founder of the Girl Scouts), which has always been a dream of mine! I texted this photo to one of my best friends who was in my Girl Scout troop, and her mom who was our leader.
We also saw Pounce Cat Cafe, which was such a delight even though we didn't end up going in. For a $15 fee, you can get a latte or a glass of wine and play with kitties who are up for adoption, which is basically my dream scenario. One of my friends got her cat there! I die over their Instagram - I want to adopt all of those babies!
Once the magic 11:00 hour struck, we headed for drinks at Soho South. I tried their "bit of a pickle" bloody Mary which was good, but not as good as I was hoping because they used sweet gherkin pickle juice in it - I would've preferred dill. They had SO many other good cocktails on their menu, I could've stayed there all day trying them all! Kenny got a sweet little mocktail that he enjoyed. I ended up ordering a spiked iced coffee that the bartender recommended to go, and it was really good.
After getting drinks it was still early, so we did some MORE walking around and shopping. I stopped by Capital Bee Company because it looked adorable, and ended up picking up some spicy honey and a super cute Savannah magnet. It's a good thing I was a little tipsy at that point because the honey was $18 and I had no idea until I checked my receipt later. 😂
We also stopped into Planet Fun which caught Kenny's eye, and it was cool! I don't know anything about comics or any of that nerdy (in a loving way) stuff, but it was really well organized in there and they had lots of customers.
We made sure to get to see the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, which is an iconic symbol of the Savannah skyline. It was so huge and beautiful! I love old churches.
Over the course of the weekend, we also got a chance to see many of the 22 squares sprinkled throughout downtown, which provide a ton of beautiful green space and a chance to learn about Savannah's history. They're all filled with beautiful plant life including live oaks, the iconic Savannah azaleas, and plenty of Spanish moss (my favorite!)
Chippewa Square is probably the most well known of the bunch, because that's where the bus stop scene from Forest Gump was filmed! We visited a handful of the squares during our ghost tour, and got to learn the spooky past surrounding some of them.
In hindsight, I wish I had kept track of all of the squares we saw, because we didn't seek out any of them, just happened upon them. I'm certain we saw more than half of them with all of the walking we did. There are plenty of resources online that can help you plan your route through all the squares if your goal is to visit them all in one day.
After walking around a while longer, we headed to Paris Market for a yet third time! I got a croissant, another vanilla macaron, and a glass of champagne. We really loved it there! We ended up hanging out there for a while before heading back out.
We moseyed back through city market and then back toward River Street. It was getting later in the afternoon and we were getting a little worn out from all the walking, so we stopped at Wet Willie's for a snack. We got curly fries which were delish (I mean, I'll never say no to fries), and I got the "Bob Marley" drink which our waitress recommended: a combination of the mango, green apple, and call-a-cab flavors. It was delish, and came out looking like a fancy latte!
After exploring River Street a bit more and scoping out the place we were going for dinner, we headed back to the hotel to rest for a little while before our dinner reservation at 8:30. I ended up taking a little nap which I never do! I wasn't feeling well that evening, so I needed it.
Around 8:00, we changed clothes and headed around the corner to the Olde Pink House for dinner. I saved this dinner for our last night because I knew it would be a highlight of the trip! Making a reservation ahead of time is a must; I booked ours a few weeks out and they were already fully booked between 5:30 and 8:30.
We got seated upstairs in the "office" room which was my ideal dining experience: dark, intimate, and upscale. I think there were only six tables in the room, so it offered a cozy, personal feel.
The dinner started off with a bread basket with a rosemary and sea salt roll, some biscuits, and corn muffins.
There were so many good appetizers to choose from, but Kenny and I decided to split a house salad before dinner and save room for some extra sides with our entrees instead. We both loved the red wine vinaigrette it was served with!
For our entrees, Kenny and I both ordered the caramelized onion and sweet potato ravioli. It was the only vegetarian entree option, but I knew we'd both enjoy it! We also ordered a side of mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese to share, both of which were wonderful. Our waiter told us that the mac and cheese recipe is the chef's grandmother's recipe. I feel like restaurant mac and cheese can be hit or miss (usually a miss for me), but it was SUPER cheesy and delicious.
The dinner was slow-paced and the staff was wonderful. It was such a relaxing evening and the best way to spend our last night.
After dinner, our waiter told us that we were welcome to explore the rest of the house at our leisure, and he didn't have to tell us twice! He told us that they had 11 dining rooms and a downstairs bar and lounge, so we immediately set out to see everything. I was so glad that we got to look around because we would've had NO IDEA how large and beautiful the house was had we not gotten to look around!
You can see some good photos of some of the rooms here. I wish there were more, but you can see the office room that we dined in on the sixth slide. Out of all of the rooms, the one we ate in was one of my favorites. Kenny was able to snap the GORGEOUS photo above of the wine cellar "vault" room in the basement of the house (with his phone, if you can believe it!) It featured one single table, and I would have LOVED to have been seated there for dinner. If we ever go back, I'll definitely request it!
In the basement lounge, they had live music which added to the swanky Rat Pack atmosphere. I wish we had stayed there longer! We were able to eavesdrop a little on a couple who was receiving a private tour from one of the servers, which was awesome. Among everything else we did, getting to explore the Olde Pink House might've been the highlight of the weekend for me.
We got finished traipsing around the house around 11:00 and headed back to the River Street Inn for our last night before traveling home the next day.
Monday
On Monday morning, we got all of our things packed up and ready to go, and then ventured out for breakfast at Fox & Fig Cafe. The cafe is 100% plant-based, so the world was our oyster as vegetarians. We love trying vegan restaurants, I wish there were more of them around!
There were so many things I wanted to try; I ordered an oat milk flat white and the eggless quiche, and Kenny got the "sandwich pt. III." The quiche was good but the salad it came with was what really surprised me! I wish I had the recipe for the dressing it was served with. Kennt said that his sandwich might've been his favorite thing he ate all weekend.
After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and the hit the road north from Savannah back to Virginia. I was sad to leave but felt so fulfilled after having the best trip! I'm so glad Kenny booked it for us, and we're already envisioning our next trip.
xoxx, Laura
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