🏙️ Destination Guide · Savannah, GA
Savannah, GA Travel Guide
Welcome to NME’s Savannah travel guide. Everything for a Savannah trip, split into three real guides instead of one giant scroll: where to stay, what to do, and where to eat — covering the Historic District, Riverfront, Airport/Pooler, and Tybee Island.
📍 Historic District to Tybee Island
✅ Verified, Not Guessed
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📍 Riverfront
📍 Airport & Pooler
📍 Tybee Island
Savannah is anchored by its historic downtown — General Oglethorpe’s 1733 grid of oak-shaded squares, dense with boutique hotels, house museums, and the ghost-tour operators the city is famous for — but the full trip stretches beyond it: River Street’s harbor-view hotels and seafood houses, the chain-hotel corridor near the airport in Pooler, and Tybee Island, Savannah’s own beach town about 20 minutes east. This guide is built by area, not just by name, so you can match the right hotel, activity, and restaurant to where you’re actually staying.
🏙️ Where to Stay
77 verified properties — boutique hotels and historic inns downtown, harbor-view hotels on the riverfront, chain hotels near the airport, and beach motels and rental companies on Tybee Island — no prices, just the facts.
🏅 Things to Do
52 attractions across 9 categories — historic house museums, Savannah’s famous ghost tours, riverboat cruises, Civil War forts, and the Tybee Island Lighthouse — sorted by what you actually want to do.
🍽️ Where to Eat
42 restaurants — James Beard-recognized fine dining, the century-old Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room, River Street seafood houses, and praline shops — plus Tybee Island’s beach-town favorites.
Know the Area Before You Book
- Historic District: The downtown grid of squares — the biggest concentration of boutique hotels, house museums, ghost tours, and restaurants, all walkable.
- Riverfront: River Street and Bay Street, a smaller cluster of larger hotels and the classic seafood-house tourist strip, one block from the squares.
- Airport & Pooler: About 15-20 minutes from downtown — the area’s densest concentration of familiar chain hotels, at generally lower rates.
- Tybee Island: Savannah’s beach town, about 20 minutes east — independently run beach motels, vacation rentals, a climbable lighthouse, and its own seafood-shack dining scene.
📅 2026 Theme Weeks
Savannah’s calendar is built around a handful of huge downtown weekends — St. Patrick’s Day and the SCAD Film Festival draw the biggest crowds and highest hotel rates — so book early for those, or aim for a quieter week if you’d rather have the squares to yourself.
❄️ Winter Focus Weeks (January – February)
- Savannah Book Festival (Feb 5–8, 2026): A free, city-wide literary festival with author talks and panels across downtown Savannah venues, capped by a full day of free programming on Telfair Square.
- Savannah Black Heritage Festival (February 2026): A month-long celebration of African American history, arts, and culture with events held across the city, now in its 37th year.
🌸 Spring Theme Weeks (March – May)
- Savannah St. Patrick’s Day Parade (March 17, 2026): One of the largest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the U.S., with a parade through the historic district and the city’s fountains dyed green.
- Savannah Music Festival (March 25–April 5, 2026): A 12-day multi-genre music festival spanning jazz, classical, roots, and world music at venues throughout downtown Savannah.
☀️ Summer Peak Weeks (June – August)
- Savannah’s Waterfront Independence Day Celebration (July 4, 2026): Free Fourth of July fireworks over the Savannah River, launched from a barge and viewable from River Street.
🍁 Fall Focus Weeks (September – October)
- Savannah Jazz Festival (September 18–20, 2026): A free jazz festival with concerts in Forsyth Park, one of the longest-running jazz festivals in the Southeast.
- SCAD Savannah Film Festival (October 24–31, 2026): An eight-day film festival hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design that draws major actors, directors, and premieres to downtown theaters.
🎄 Holiday Theme Weeks (November – December)
- December Nights & Holiday Lights (Nov 27–Dec 24, 2026): A holiday lights display at the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens.
- Lighted Christmas Street Parade (December 12, 2026): The 34th annual nighttime holiday parade along River Street and through downtown Savannah.
Should I stay downtown or on Tybee Island?
Downtown puts you within walking distance of the historic squares, house museums, and restaurants. Tybee Island puts you on the beach, about a 20-minute drive from downtown. See our hotels guide for both.
What is Savannah known for?
A historic downtown of 22 live-oak-shaded squares, one of the most active ghost-tour scenes of any U.S. city, a nationally recognized dining scene anchored by The Grey and Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room, and Tybee Island’s beach and lighthouse just outside the city. See our things to do guide for the full list.
How far is Tybee Island from downtown Savannah?
About 20 minutes by car via US-80. The Airport/Pooler hotel corridor is about 15-20 minutes from downtown in the opposite direction.
How does NME build its destination guides?
We verify hotels, restaurants, and attractions directly against their own official sites and current status rather than relying on a single aggregator list, and we flag anything we couldn’t independently confirm. Read more on our methodology page.
Know Something We Should Add?
If there’s a hotel, attraction, or restaurant across the Savannah area we’re missing anywhere in this guide, email us and we’ll take a look.
Ready to plan the trip?
Start with where you’ll stay, then work outward to what to do and where to eat.
