Heading south along the coast of , the genteel southern town of Savannah rests atop the Savannah River. When we stopped in recently, we pleased to find a blend of both old and new in this quaint and beautiful coastal town.
One of my favorite activities while visiting this laidback antebellum city was touring the downtown section, where efforts have been underway for quite some time to renovate and revive the numerous buildings filling some 2 ½ square miles. At the present time, about 1,000 of the buildings have been restored. A large portion of them are either open for business or simply open to tours from the public.
If you like historic sites and quaint, interesting shops, this is definitely a place you shouldn’t miss. There are quite a few walking tours and other tours available in the city. Although we did not take the Midnight in Garden of Good and Evil book tour, I did hear that it was quite good from several people I met while in town. Due to the heat, I preferred a narrated bus tour over a walking tour. Had the weather been cooler, I probably would have opted for the walking tour; however. The Grayline Tour uses open air trolleys that still give you the ability to enjoy the sites without the humid heat. The tour lasted 90 minutes and cost $19. We could have paid a couple of bucks more and had the option of getting off and on all day, but as it was hot; we decided to just stick with the hour and a half tour. I believe several other options are offered also; however. For a few dollars more, you can combine the narrated tour with a riverboat cruise.
All in all the tour includes 14 stops around the historic district. Our driver was particularly funny and we had a great time the entire tour and picked up lots of little tidbits and gossip about the city.
After the bus tour, we headed over to the City Market and had a blast wandering through the shops and art galleries there. When we were tired, we stopped at the benches and gazebos to watch all the other people wandering through the market and just enjoyed ourselves. Lunch was at a sidewalk café, followed up by dessert in the local candy store. That afternoon, we enjoyed music from a band playing in the courtyard; which I understand is a fairly common occurrence. We finished off our day in the historic district with a carriage ride. If you plan to do that, I would recommend that you get there early and find a place to hang out, because you may have to wait for the carriage tour.
