Savannah Travel Guide

Sure, you can walk the riverfront, cocktail in hand (yes, you can carry it as you tour), and call it a day—or you can really commit to this eccentric yet charming Southern hub. Rest assured, you’ll find all of the same trellised, candy-colored manses and a similarly robust, unapologetically Southern food scene as its siblings, New Orleans and Charleston—but you’ll also catch miles more quirk. The many independent bookstores (this is, after all, the birthplace of American literary legend Flannery O’Connor); its treasure-riddled antique shops; and, of course, its abundance of spooky locales, with an embarrassment of tours to accompany them. The city also remains steadfastly devoted to understanding its past—numerous landmarks and museums offer solemn reminders of the city’s relationship with slavery—even as it steps confidently into the future, with institutions like the Moshe Safdie-designed, contemporary art-focused Jepson Center. (Not to mention, the city is home to the Savannah College of Art and Design, ground zero for the country’s next great generation of artists and designers.) But perhaps best of all is the city’s reluctance to take itself too seriously. Because after all: can you name a place more purely and unironically beloved for its haunted cemetery tours?