Savannah in September-best tour?
 

My husband and I are going to Savannah on Sept.. 14, 2003. We are booked into the Hampton Inn at $144 per night for a king bed room. So far, our itinerary looks like this:

Arrive Sunday, Sept. 14, between 3-4 p.m. We'll want to take a tour to get our bearings and would like suggestions for the best -- carriage or trolley?

Sights:
Stop at the visitors center
Bonaventure Cemetery
Owens-Thomas House
Telfair Mansion and Art Museum
Fort Pulaski / Tybee Island
Savannah History Museum

This is our 25th wedding anniversary and we'd like to eat at some nice places. We're considering:

17 Hundred 90
Elizabeth's
Olde Pinke House

Does this sound doable for 3 days? We leave on the 17th of Sept. for 3 days in Charleston. So far, we have nothing in place for Charleston.

Barb

Eat at Lady and Son in Savannah. Save your fine dining for Charleston. Savannah's is overpriced and not terribly good.

We were planning to eat at Lady and Son for either breakfast or lunch. Don't you like any of the other restaurants?

Barb

Barb, both Pink House and Elizabeth's are excellent and both very romantic restaurants. Elizabeth has won James Beard awards. It is good...but it is expensive. Still, that would be my choice. You'll need to get a cab there if you don't have a car.

You should easily be able to see your sights in 3 days, very doable. The trolley tours cover more ground than the carriage but the carriage of course is the more romantic. Do the trolley first, and if you still have time, you might enjoy an evening carriage ride as well. Make sure you have a good map for getting to Bonnaventure--we lived there yet I still had to refer to a map getting visitors out to the cemetery!

Thanks OliveOyle. We're willing to pay for Elizabeth's. We're celebrating not only our 25th anniversary, but our birthdays also. My husband just said he doesn't want to do the cemetery. We'll have a car, so perhaps we should include a plantation.

I'm just starting to read the posts for Charleston and thinking of Elliott House, the French Quarter Inn, or Planters Inn.

Barb

Barb,

Happy Birthday and anniversary! Charleston does have the widest selection of good dining, but with all this celebrating, you need one outstanding selection from each city.

There really aren't any plantations near Savannah...a small something a bit south of the city, but not anything you think of when you think "plantation"! Sherman burned his way to the coast, remember, sparing the city to present to Lincoln as a Christmas present! I wouldn't skip the cemetery...the old section is unbelievably beautiful, with gorgeous old headstones/monuments, huge live oaks overhung with Spanish moss. It's prettiest in the spring when the azaleas and dogwood are blooming, but eerily beautiful anytime of year. It's not that difficult to find, but you do need directions and a map would be helpful. That was one of the places we always brought our house guests and everyone enjoyed it.

Have you read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil? You've got the time between now and departure and it will make the city more interesting, and will give you things to look forward to prior to the trip (including Bonaventure :)).

I'm not too familiar with places to stay in Charleston. We generally just went up for the day, but did stay once at Charleston Place, and another time shared a house with my brother and his family...though I don't recall the name of it now.

You'll have a very very romantic anniversary between the two cities!

Okay, OliveOyl, I'll try and talk my husband into not skipping Bonaventure Cemetery.

I have read the book but am not sure if my DH did. we both saw the movie, but movies are NEVER as good as the book and many times they don't even resemble each other.

I forgot to mention we have a THIRD thing to celebrate--a promotion for me. So, you see, we really feel we're entitled to splurge this time--something we usually don't do.

Barb

We just came back from Savannah a couple months ago. We were there on our Honeymoon. We LOVED IT!!!
We were so glad we chose to go there.
If you take the Midnight in the Garden of good and Evil tour they will take you to Boneventure cemetary so that you don't have to drive. They let you off and you go on a tour through the cemetary.You really don't want to miss it. I'm so glad we got to go there. Also glad we did the tour or we would never have heard the interesting stories,nor found anything in there. Such history and so beautiful.

We enjoyed Tybee Island but went on a Dolphin tour that was a waste of time.
Went to the Crab Shack that we thought was terrible... but others have had better luck than we did.
We went through some cute shops there and enjoyed talking to a couple locals.
We really enjoyed the lighthouse and the museum. I hear great things about
Fort Pulaski but we didn't go there.

Lady and Sons was fantastic!!!!
We got the cookbook and love making the recipes now that we are home.
Mrs. Wilkes was good and a fun experience but not as good as Lady and sons.
We went into a few pubs that were in a few movies that I had seen and that was also fun.( also good food)

We stayed at the Ballastone Inn. I can't say enough great things about this Inn!!!!
it's going to be on the Today show on August 14th (I think is the date).

Also... Go to www.savannahnow.com
I still go to the message boards there and have recieved great info from locals. There is also lots of other good info on that site about restaurants etc.

We were in Savannah at the end of June and did several of the things you mention in your post. Please do a search and read my trip report...it's entitled TRIP REPORT: Savannah and Tybee Island