Southern Charm
 

Hi everyone,
I'm going on vactation with my boyfriend and we both wanted to visit some different places in the South. We want to go to some towns/cities will real Southern Charm and I was hoping to get some advice. We are taking a two-week long vacation and were looking to find places in GA, AL, SC, FL, MS, TN and LA. If anyone knows of any cute places to stay at please let me know. thanks.

I'd highly recommend New Orleans, LA and Memphis, TN. You'll find great food and music in both cities, plus lots of interesting sites. Atlanta is also a great place to visit with various activities.

Savannah & Hilton Head Island are two very lovely locations.

Charleston would be really nice--lots going on for all ages with lots of charm. With all due respect Hilton Head is just not the nicest beach in the SC lowcountry--just an over developed beach area.

I've neverpersonally done this, but I always thought a trip down the Mississippi would be neat. I should say, traveling along w/ the river, although on it would be neat too. It seems to me that you would see both cities and rural areas this way, plus from what I understand, there are some really nice plantations along the river (Natches. Also, a lot of these plantations have become B& B's. I know that I've seen some websites when I was tossing around the idea for vacation one day.

Hilton Head is not indicitive of the South because it is such a melting pot is displaced wealthy people.

For southern charm try Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans.

I agree with GoTravel on this and would also exclude Atlanta as it mainly reflects any large city in the USA.

Thanks a lot for all of the great suggestions. I think we are going to stay away from Hilton Head because it seems so touristy but Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans all sound like great places. I also like the suggestion of taking a trip down the Mississippi. What about Biloxi MS, or Mobile AL? Are they really touristy and not a good example of the South?

http://www.byways.org/travel/designated_byways.html

Try this site! Great info on scenic drives in the US. The Natchez Trace Parkway and Great River Road look really neat! Also try going to Google and typing in Mississippi River plantations, all kinds of info on plantations (mostly in Louisiana). Sounds like a fun trip!

I live in Mississippi. Biloxi has a flavor all it's own....a combination of casinos, coast town, Soutern charm, with a splash of Cajun thrown in. Not really your typical small Southern town.....how about Natchez, MS....the idea about the Natchez Trace is pretty good. Oxford, MS, in N. Miss. is a pretty little Southern college town with Ole Miss in it. Mobile, Alabama, is kind of "big city"; but pretty Southern and Coastal. I think you would find the Coast interesting on the way to New Orleans. The area around Baton Rouge and LaFayette, La., is interesting also and the deep Southern part of La.

The only area in Tennessee that interests me is Nashville area and East....foothills to the Smokies, etc.

We just came back from Savannah, GA. There are numerous bed and breakfast/or inns that are great. One of the most popular is called the Ballastone (iI think that's the proper spelling. There is a great book called "Romantic Days and Nights in Savannah" that has a lot of good ideas. In fact, there is a series of those books printed for different cities. New Orleans is great. Do at least part of the River Road. We stayed at Nottaway Plantation several years ago. It was the most romantic time we've ever spent. The house is open for tours during the day, but at night, it is closed, and only the people staying there can go in. We were in this beautiful mansion, looking out over the Mississippi River, and we were all alone. It was fabulous. If you like architecture, try Natchez, MS. There is a huge collection of antebellum homes that you can tour, and stay in. We stayed in Monmouth, in the main house and the carriage house.

Thanks for all the great suggestions everyone! I'll keep everyone posted on how the trip shapes up. Thanks again.

I live in Charleston and think it's definitely a must for your list. Numerous threads already on this site for accommodations/attractions, so I won't rehash here. If you travel from Charleston to Savannah (or vice-versa, approx. 110 miles apart) be sure to take a detour to visit Beaufort. It's a smaller town that's just far enough off the beaten path to keep it from being too touristy. They have a lovely waterfront with lots of antebellum homes, some of which you can tour, and lots of cute shops and art galleries downtown. They also have carriage tours. You may recoginize some of the town as it's used as a film location in a lot of movies- the marsh areas are where most of the Vietnam scenes in Forrest Gump were filmed, and the downtown area was also used in Forrest Gump as well as The Big Chill. There's one huge old plantation house that was used in The Big Chill, The Great Santini, and Prince of Tides. It's a cute little town to spend a few hours.

In Georgia don't overlook Jeckyll Island and St. Simon's Island, off the coast near Brunswick, about 2-1/2 hrs. south of Savannah. Jeckyll is touristy but the architecture is very old-money Victorian. St. Simons is more laid back and residential feeling, you get the sense that it hasn't changed a lot over the last 100 years, other than the addition of a couple hotels. The big thing on St. Simons are the faces carved in the trees- as you drive around you will see them in various places- I think you can pick up a guide map in the village showing the locations of the carvings. Also in this area is Sea Island, which is VERY expensive with a huge resort on it. President Bush recently selected it as the location of some upcoming summit. Worth a drive to gawk at the mansions, if you have the time & inclination.

Hope you have a great trip! Let us know what you end up doing.

I just returned from my first trip to Savannah and enjoyed it. We stayed in Savannah at the Savannah bed and breakfast inn, which I would highly recommend. We visited Tybee Island which is worth a half day and then spend 1.5 days in Savannah and felt like we'd seen everything there was to see. My best characterization of Savannah would be it's New Orleans "lite". No French Quarter, no craziness but similar architecture. It was worth a long weekend excursion. We went on to Atlanta from there and could personnally do without ever going to Atlanta again. For a big city it has no character with the exception of a few civil war sites.

The Ballastone Inn was great we also stayed there.
Also... fun because you can drink on the streets as long as it is in a plastic cup.
River street was also fun and we enjoyed walking though the squares... going into shops etc.
We stayed there 5 days. We would have loved to have been there longer.