My wife and I are planning a vacation to Savannah in October. Some of the hotels we are considering are outside the historic district. How difficult is it to get a parking spot during the week and week-end? Is it possible to get a spot on the street? What is the going rate for parking?

Parking spaces on the street are difficult to find. And they ticket aggressively, as our college-student son has discovered.

Some of the areas outside Historic District are very unattractive, and some actually dangerous. Others are just boring and mundane. Depending on where you are staying, there is a public bus system that is not too difficult to figure out.

We just paid the extra price to stay in town and never needed our car the entire weekend. We took the tours or walked where ever we went. The Ghost Tour was fun.

There are several trolley companies, usually based at the visitors center, that have on-and-off privalges. We took one of these and it was great. Saved our feet from a lot of walking, had a marvelous narrated tour, and were able to get on and off where we thought would be fun.

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If you are really out to save money,there are some chain budget hotels several miles from Historic District on Abercorn near Abercorn Mall. (This area of Savannah has a name that I forget.) These are in the Days Inn, Comfort Inn category and can be as much as a third of what Historic District hotels cost. We sometimes use these when we just need a place for a night when dropping our son off at college.

However, I would seriously consider staying in Historic District if you can afford it. The money you save would, in my opinion, not be worth the aggravation, cost and time of parking. We really like Hampton Inn and they have a great buffet breakfast included.

If you stay outside of the the historic district, you can drive to the Trolley company and park there for free all day. But ours stopped operating at 4:30.

We drove down to the riverfront for dinner (and got ticketed!) We parked under a sign that read "No Parking--Loading area 12 - 4 pm weekdays" It was after 4 pm on a weekday, so where we come from, that meant we could park there. If they didn't want us to park there at all, just say so!

Parking is difficult and meters must be fed constantly unless you are lucky enough to get one of the spaces in a city garage and those fill up quickly as downtown employees must also find parking. Meter maids are vigilant...if your meter expires you will be ticketed. Like blood, they can smell an expired meter from great distances! LOL Generally all other downtown parking is parallel parking along city streets and around the squares.

I would most definitely try to find a hotel within the historic district...not just for the parking privileges that come with the hotel, but to be in the midst of that beautiful area. When you leave the historic district you enter a charmless area of Anywhereville, USA, strip mall heaven...not the experience most are looking for when they think of visiting Savannah. Have you looked into the Historic District Hampton Inn or Days Inn? If you have the option for either of those, Hampton Inn is head and shoulders over Days Inn!

I agree that Hampton Inn was conveniently located and had a good, complimentary breakfast. When comparing the price of hotels I figure that if we stay at a cheap hotel we will end up spending about $7 per person (including tip) for breakfast. This usually justifies getting the more expensive hotel, such as Hampton Inn.

Second Hampton Inn. Very convenient to town and River Street. If you like to walk (for exercise or rambling), head out the hotel and into town and come to a lovely city park. Restaurants within walking distance in every direction.

A third vote for the Hampton Inn in the Historic District. Convenient, reasonable rates, pleasant staff.

Ditto Hampton Inn Historic District. Their free breakfast usually includes a hot item and hard boiled eggs and yogurt - which I need. I can't handle carb only breakfast buffets.

Another vote for the Hampton Inn. We stayed there in June - great location, amenities, and staff.