SAVANNAH · GEORGIA
Oak shade, river water, and ghosts.
Twenty-two squares under the Spanish moss, paddlewheelers out on the river, and the most haunted nights in the South. Walk the historic district, ride the trolley, or follow a lantern to Bonaventure.
Only in Savannah
Three things you only really get here.
Plenty of old cities have ghost walks and graveyards and a pretty park. A city built on its own burial grounds, the cemetery that wrote a bestseller, and a grid of garden squares this intact, those belong to Savannah.
America’s most haunted
The City That Earned the Name
Savannah was built straight over its own dead, square after square laid on old burial grounds, and the city has never quite shaken them off. It turns up on every list of the most haunted places in America. After dark a guide hands you a lantern and walks you past the houses where the stories actually happened.
- 1 Savannah History and Haunts Candlelit Ghost Walking Tour
- 2 Savannah Ghosts & Gravestones Trolley Tour
- 3 Savannah’s Ghost City “Dead of Night” Walking Night Tour
Moss and marble
Bonaventure Cemetery
On a bluff above the Wilmington River, Bonaventure is less a graveyard than a sculpture garden under the live oaks, marble angels and family plots trailing Spanish moss. It is the cemetery that gave Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil its cover, and walking it with someone who knows the names is half the point.
- 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
Twenty-two squares
The Squares Under the Oaks
Oglethorpe laid Savannah out in 1733 as a grid of garden squares, and twenty-two of them survive, shaded by live oaks and ringed with antebellum mansions. It is the largest historic landmark district in the country, and the only real way to take it in is on foot, one square opening onto the next.
- 1 Savannah History and Haunts Candlelit Ghost Walking Tour
- 2 Historic Savannah Guided Walking Tour
- 3 Narrated Historic Savannah Sightseeing Trolley Tour
Start here
If you only book one thing in Savannah.
More visitors choose this than anything else in the city. A safe first move when you are still finding your feet between the squares.
The classics
Savannah's Most Popular Tours
Ghost walks, historic-district strolls, riverboat cruises and the run out to Bonaventure. The ones most visitors book first.
Where to begin
The tours a Savannah trip is built around.
Ghost walks, the historic squares, Bonaventure, the riverboats, the pub crawls and the food. The handful of categories most visits are planned around, and the best of each.
The big question
How to see the historic district.
It is a walkable city, but the heat, the distances and the after-dark stories all pull different ways. Here is how most visitors take it on, and who each way suits.
Down on the river
River Street and the paddlewheelers.
The reason the city is here at all is the water. Below the bluff, River Street runs along old cotton warehouses turned bars and candy shops, the cobbles laid from ballast stones. Out on the Savannah River the paddlewheelers still turn, from a midday sightseeing run to a sunset cruise with dinner and a band as the lights come up over the water.
See the riverboat cruises →At the table
Shrimp, grits and pralines.
Savannah eats well and slowly. A food walk threads the old town between low-country shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, fresh pralines pulled in the candy-shop windows on River Street, and the long communal tables where strangers pass the biscuits. Come hungry, and pace yourself between the squares.
See the food tours →The Forest City
A whole city laid out as a garden.
Twenty-two squares survive from Oglethorpe’s 1733 plan, each its own pocket park shaded by live oaks and trailing Spanish moss, ringed by churches and antebellum homes. It is the largest historic landmark district in the country, and you cross half of it without ever leaving the shade.
Walk the historic district →Midnight in the Garden
An afternoon at Bonaventure.
Four miles east of downtown, Bonaventure sits on a bluff above the river, its lanes of marble angels and family plots vanishing under the live oaks and Spanish moss. The Bird Girl statue on the cover of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil stood here, and a guide who knows the stories turns a quiet graveyard into the most memorable hour of the trip.
- 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
Savannah after dark
The city with a to-go cup.
In the historic district you can carry a drink straight out the door, one of the few places in the country where that is legal, and the night moves with you. A guided crawl works the bars tucked off the squares and around City Market, from old taverns to rooftop views, with the stories and the safe walk home built in.
See all 20 pub crawls →Around the city
Pick a corner of Savannah.
The historic district for the squares and mansions. River Street for the water and the cobbles. Bonaventure for the moss and the angels. Tybee for the beach, City Market for the night, and the lantern tours once it gets dark.
By the kind of tour
Or pick how you want to see it.
A ghost walk if you want the chills. A trolley if you want the whole loop. A riverboat if you want the water. Plus history walks, food tours, pub crawls and the darker voodoo side.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Savannah? A long weekend that moves from the squares to the river to the moss-hung cemeteries and the dark after it.
Just added