In preparation for our visit to the Historic District of Savannah, Ernie went on line and booked the two day on/off tour with one of the tour companies. This is not necessary, we did not use the second day and only did the complete circuit once without getting off and on the first day. The Historic District is only about 1 mile x 1 mile square with Forsyth Park extending out from the southern end of the district. We recommend doing an overview tour to hear some of the history of locations they pass, then walking around to see what might be of interest to you. There is a free DOT bus that you can use to get to a different starting point for walking around, but we found it was usually faster to walk.

We visited Forsyth Park and several of the squares (small parks). An interesting fact is that the statues honoring those who served in the military during war time have the statue facing in the directions of where the enemy would have been. For example the statue honoring those who served in the Confederate military during the Civil War faces north and the statue honoring those who served during the Spanish-American War faces south. Forsyth Fountain in Forsyth Park is very impressive. The Confederate Memorial and the Spanish-American War statue are in Forsyth Park. Each of the squares we visited had statues and plaques commemorating some historically significant person or event. (Pictures)

The first building we visited was the Ships of the Sea Museum. This was a very interesting museum at which we spent more than two hours viewing the many ship models & equipment that would have been used on the ships and reading the many plaques describing the ships and telling of the history of the ships and historically significant people. (Pictures)

We visited the Andrew Low House and the Isaiah Davenport House Museum. They are both very good examples of rich powerful peoples' homes. Though we were surprised that they are not extremely large like the plantation homes we visited on other trips. There are plenty of rooms in each house, but the rooms are not extravagantly large. We were allowed to take pictures in the Andrew Low House but not the Isaiah Davenport House Museum. (Pictures)

We visited the Cathedral of St. John The Baptist. This is a beautiful building. Since it was getting close to Christmas they had a manger scene setup, but it was much more than you might expect. They had the whole town and the hill where the shepherds had been tending their flocks as well as a manger scene. There was a huge red Christmas tree in the cathedral. The tree was made of pointsettas. As it turned out we attended a mass there. Though it was a weekday there was a mass, as it is customary that Roman Catholic churches have mass every day. We were going to tour the cathedral, but it was almost noon when we arrived at it. The weekday mass starts at noon and tours are not allowed during the mass. After the mass we enjoyed the beauty of the cathedral. (Pictures)

One night we went to "A Christmas Tradition", a show at "The Historic Savannah Theatre". "A Christmas Tradition" is a very entertaining show. We were told that the theatre is the longest continuously operated theatre in the country. It is a small theatre that somewhat reminds us of an old movie theatre without the big screen.

Our last afternoon in Savannah, we took the free ferry to the island on which the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center is located. We were not interested in the trade center, but next to the trade center is a Westin Hotel. The hotel was hosting a gingerbread house display. It was a large display with some interesting gingerbread buildings. (Pictures)

The first night in Savannah we ate at Corleone's, an Italian restaurant. The prices were outrageous, the service less than adequate, and the food was barely passable. The strange thing is we brought leftovers back to the hotel and warmed them up one afternoon, it was better than when we ate it fresh in the restaurant.
One afternoon we had lunch at "the Lady & Sons", Paulla Dean's restaurant. The food was great, the prices reasonable, and the service great southern hospitality. Dale gave them her greatest compliment, "The fried okra was the best I have ever had." (Pictures)

Last updated:   may 16 2017