SAVANNAH · GEORGIA
Spanish moss, oak-shaded squares, and the slow way through the South.
Twenty-two historic squares, riverboats on the Savannah, candlelit ghost walks, Bonaventure under live oaks, and the beach at Tybee Island. The deepest catalogue of Savannah day tours, ranked by traveller popularity.
Only in Savannah
Three things you can’t do anywhere else.
Walking tours, riverboat cruises and ghost stories exist in every Southern city. These three are particular to this stretch of the Georgia coast. The squares, the cemetery on the bluff, the haunted reputation Savannah earned the hard way. Plan the rest of the trip around them.
On the squares
Walk Oglethorpe’s 22 Squares
Savannah was laid out in 1733 around twenty-four public squares, twenty-two of which still survive. No other American city was planned this way. The squares sit two blocks apart, each one a self-contained park with live oaks, a fountain or monument at the centre, and historic homes facing in from all four sides. Walking them in sequence is the closest thing the United States has to a planned eighteenth-century European city, and you do it on foot in an afternoon.
- 1 Savannah History and Haunts Candlelit Ghost Walking Tour
- 2 Historic Savannah Guided Walking Tour
- 3 Southern Flavors Food, Pub Crawl, and History Walking Tour
Under the moss
Bonaventure at Sundown
Bonaventure occupies a forested bluff above the Wilmington River, where Spanish moss drapes off live oaks over Victorian tombs, broken angels and a Confederate section. It’s the most photographed cemetery in America, the resting place of Johnny Mercer and Conrad Aiken, and the setting for the Bird Girl statue from Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil. Late afternoon is when the light cuts sideways through the moss.
- 1 Bonaventure Cemetery Walking Tour with Transportation
- 2 1-Hour Bonaventure Cemetery Golf Cart Guided Tour in Savannah
- 3 2-Hour Bonaventure Cemetery Walking Tour
After dark
America’s Most Haunted City
Savannah holds the title officially: yellow fever epidemics buried thousands under what are now city streets, civil war hospitals operated out of the historic homes, pirate cellars and tunnels run beneath River Street. Candlelit walking tours, pub crawls between haunted taverns, hearse rides past the most active addresses. No other US city has a ghost-tour scene this deep.
- 1 Savannah Ghosts & Gravestones Trolley Tour
- 2 Savannah’s Ghost City “Dead of Night” Walking Night Tour
- 3 Genteel and Bard’s Savannah Dark History and Ghost Encounter Walking Tour
The first day
Start where Savannah starts.
The Hop-On loop drops you within a block of every square, riverboat dock and ghost-tour starting point. The half-day primer to the rest of this site.
The classics
Savannah’s Most Popular Tours
Trolley loops, riverboat cruises, candlelit ghost walks, Bonaventure at dusk. The tours Savannah is built around.
On screen
Filmed in Savannah.
Forrest Gump on Chippewa Square. The Bird Girl statue in Bonaventure. The 54th Massachusetts marching out of Fort Pulaski. Three productions that put Savannah on screen — and the tours that walk you where the cameras were.
The "life is like a box of chocolates" bench scenes were shot on the north end of Chippewa Square. The bench is gone (the original is in the Savannah History Museum) but the square is still there.
Walk Chippewa Square →Eastwood’s adaptation of John Berendt’s book turned Bonaventure Cemetery, Mercer-Williams House and a handful of squares into Savannah’s most-visited locations. The Bird Girl statue on the book cover now lives at the Telfair Academy.
Tour Bonaventure →The Civil War 54th Massachusetts story was filmed across Savannah’s historic district, with Fort Pulaski standing in for several siege scenes. Civil-war and historical walking tours retrace many of the locations.
See the History Tours →By the day
Pick a day in Savannah.
The squares for live oaks and benches. River Street for cobblestones and riverboats. Bonaventure for Spanish moss and Bird Girl. Tybee for the beach and dolphins. After dark for the ghost stories.
By tour type
Or pick how you want to see it.
Ghost tours after dark. Walking tours by day. Riverboats on the Savannah. Trolleys when your feet are tired. Pub crawls when you’re done with churches and squares. Bikes through the Historic District.
On the Savannah
If you came for the riverboat.
The paddlewheelers leaving from River Street cover sightseeing, sunset, dinner-and-jazz and even a Sunday brunch sail. If we had to pick three boats, these are the ones we’d book.
An open-container city
The Savannah crawl.
Savannah’s open-container law means a to-go cup from one bar walks right into the next. Haunted taverns, oyster bars on River Street, and the underground crawls beneath the historic district. Our three favourites for after the sun drops.
When your feet need a break
The trolley days.
The narrated loops are how most first-time visitors get the lay of the squares before walking them properly. Three trolley routes we’d put on any first-time itinerary.
When you need to leave the squares
Beyond the city limits.
Tybee Island for sand and the 1736 lighthouse, dolphin pods running with the boats up the back channel. Three half-days we’d send our friends to when they’ve had their fill of the historic district.
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