Life sure is funny. Not Ha Ha funny, but peculiar funny…The first time I found myself in Savannah Georgia was wayyyy back in June of 2011. It was the same year that I was diagnosed with colon cancer. I had planned a memory making trip down to Hilton Head, South Carolina with my niece Keedah and all four of my sister Dana’s grandchildren: Rashidah (9), Ahmad (8), Kenyon (7) and Rasoul (5). The goal was to give my oldest sister Dana a well deserved and much needed break. I rented a 4 bedroom condominium from this couple in Cheshire, CT (this is before Air BnB was invented), a Dodge mini-van with extra car insurance and brought movie videos, board games and lots of snacks. As you might guess, I was receiving a ton of negative feedback on taking a long road trip after being diagnosed with colon cancer so before I was to go I consulted with my Colorectal Surgeon and I’ll never forget what he told me. He said, Go, but when you return, we head straight to surgery’ Lucky 7.
I knew then that life was truly for living (smile).
All that to say, we spent 1 day out of our 10 day vacation in Savannah, Georgia – just an hour’s drive away from Hilton Head, South Carolina. That 1 day was so memorable that I promised myself that I would go back, but this time I would stay in Savannah.
This is that time (smile). 14 years later. Life sure is funny…
Fast track to now. It’s June of 2025 and the world has gone batshit crazy. Fast paced and full of not so good surprises. The goal this time was for me and my man to get the heck out of Dodge (Connecticut) to truly relax and unwind from everything. I remembered the quaint city of Savannah with the cobblestoned streets that I had visited over a decade ago so that’s where we headed. My weather app showed sunny days with plenty of sunshine for the entire week. I was super psyched! The reality was that when we arrived on Sunday June 8th the rain was coming down in buckets playing match games with thunder and the sky, dark and foreboding. This scene played itself out so many times throughout the week that we decided to just rough it and try to enjoy ourselves. Oops, I lied. There was one day of the week (Wednesday, June 11th) where the weather played nice and actually remained sunny and dry the entire day but the remainder of the weekdays and nights were unpredictable.
We stayed in the historic district of Downtown Savannah at a cute-as-a-button boutique hotel named The DeSoto Savannah. I chose this hotel because it was convenient to everything – retail, restaurants, parks, and sightseeing. The DeSoto had an outdoor pool on the second floor, as well as a small gym and a day spa. We never did make it to the hotel restaurant, 1540, because we were too busy exploring other parts of the City but from what I heard the breakfasts and dinners were delish.
In my opinion, the best and easiest way to explore Savannah is to do what we did on our first day out. Buy tickets to a Hop on Hop off trolley tour. By the way, we purposely did not rent a car at the airport because The DeSoto only offers valet parking due to the congested parking situation and the historic downtown district, where we stayed, is walkable.
We chose Old Town Trolley Tours because they were highly visible and very convenient. No matter what neighborhood you were in, an Old Town Trolley arrives every 20 minutes. The cost was $45 per person and that got you unlimited trolley rides between 9am and 5pm to 15 different Savannah destinations. If you rode the trolley from the 1st stop to the 15th stop without getting off, it would take you an hour and a half but if you, like us, hopped on and off to the neighborhoods where you wanted to take a deeper dive, then you might not get to all of them in the 8 hour time frame. It’s worth it though because each trolley ride comes with a narrated tour so you are being educated about Savannah and her dark past.
Our very first trolley stop was to The Savannah Visitors Center and History Museum where we totally enjoyed visiting the SCAD (Savannah College of Art) Museum – a place where all the artwork is created by faculty, students and alumni!
One of our most memorable hop offs was to City Market which is chock full of Artists, local merchants, candy shops, coffee shops and restaurants with bars. We liked this neighborhood because it felt lively and energetic. The cobblestone streets, the horse and buggys rides, all felt very authentic.
After our time in City Market, we caught a new trolley and headed for The Lucas Theater neighborhood. Here we enjoyed a sushi lunch at Sushi Hana, an ice cream from the famous Leopold’s Ice Cream Shop and an almost dinner at The Olde Pink House…it was a Monday so The Olde Pink House, which was highly recommended by my girlfriend Kristie, is closed on Mondays…
Our last trolley ride was to Forsyth Park which is Savannah’s largest and beautiful green park and it covers many City blocks. At the park we discovered the Forsyth Fountain which I realized made for a perfect photo op (smile).
The next day (Tuesday June 10th) we decided to spend on River Street since that was the very street that lured me back to Savannah. When I was in Savannah back in the day with my two nieces (my other niece Dimitrica had driven up from North Carolina to stay with us at the condominium for a few days) and 3 great nephews and 1 great niece, we landed on River Street and I fell in love. Back in the day there was a free riverboat ferry ride to the 4 squares of the City of Savannah, This free riverboat ferry would drop you off in a neighborhood (square) where you would spend a certain amount of time before getting back on the ferry to be transported to the next square – we had a blast on all 4 squares. Incidentally that riverboat ferry no longer exists, I suppose it was replaced by the Hop On Hop Off paid Trolley rides because there are no longer just 4 squares to visit, now there are 22!
River Street today is a whole vibe. From the JW Marriott Art Gallery which features breathtakingly beautiful artwork, to the slow leisurely walks by the river, to the restaurants – from fast food to casual food to fancy food, the gourmet chocolate and candy shops with free samples and many different types of popcorn, gourmet coffee shops, colorful bars, boutiques, and tour trolleys careening up and down the cobblestone street, River Street still has my heart (thump, thump).
Uber Day was Wednesday as we had plans to visit a real soul food restaurant called Geneva’s located about 20 miles east of downtown Savannah. We lucked out because it was sunny, hot and dry all day. When we asked the locals which restaurants they recommended for soul food, Genevas Famous Chicken and Cornbread Company kept coming up. And it was worth the Uber ride – yum!
After our meal at Geneva’s we called a new Uber and were headed back to our hotel when our driver convinced us to take a detour and go to Tybee Island. My niece Mona, who lives in Nashville, Tennessee and visited Savannah with her son Harlem, highly recommended that we visit this island. Mona was not wrong (smile). And spontaneity ruled the day because here we were, our belliesfull from lunch, headed to the beach with no gear (smile). I’m so glad we made the trip – it was a fun time – my kind of island – beach vibes and all!
On Wednesday evening, still in the spirit of spontaneity, we bought tickets to an Old Town Trolley Ghosts and Gravestones tour. Ghost tours seem to be all the rage so I read up on why Savannah is considered one of America’s most haunted cities. It comes down to these 5 reasons: 1) Bloody Battles; 2) Deadly Diseases; 3) Fearsome Fires; 4) Mysterious Murders and 5) Savage Slavery. I won’t go into it in this blog post but it’s an interesting read.
I preferred this 2 hour nighttime tour because we actually visited 2 different mansions (The Andrew Low House and Perkins and Sons Ship Chandlery) where the ghosts allegedly still reside (unlike some of the other tours where you visit the actual graveyards which is little too creepy for my tastes). The Ghost tour and trolley price was $55 for Adults (children under 13 were not allowed).
The very next day Thursday June 12th we headed to Franklin Square to visit Broughton Street and eat and shop. We had some time to kill before our next tour: Savannah is for Morons so this close-by-us neighborhood was perfect for killing time.
After eating we arrived to an air conditioned trolley tour called Savannah is for Morons. It was 2 hours of non-stop craziness and laughter. These 2 zany female comedians, both named Dani, took us on a wild hilarious ride throughout the City of Savannah and gave us a drunkard’s view of its history. We even (in the middle of the tour) stopped at an irish bar called McDonough’s for drinks which was ironic because on this very day I was quietly celebrating my 5th year anniversary of being sober (smile). Consequently I ordered a cranberry juice with lime (double smile).
On Friday we had a plane to catch at 4 in the afternoon (by the way, Delta Airlines is by far one of the best airlines I have ever flown on – from beginning to end, it seems like they truly take pride in customer service. I’m so glad my girlfriend Jeani has built her career there). End of commercial (smile).
We walked back to the City Market neighborhood for more shopping (I found a fab boutique called Whispers that I didn’t want to part with) and we lunched at the Cafe at City Market. We also spent a ton of time in a small art gallery which featured various artisans and their wares. I met this dynamic artist by the name of Jery Taylor – her work spoke for itself – simply beautiful!
So that’s my Savannah story. Fun Fact – Forrest Gump’s iconic bus bench scenes were filmed in Savannah, Georgia. I’m sure you can imagine why the actual bus bench has long since been moved to a Georgia museum for safekeeping (smile).
Sincerely,
TVFL