I’ve been wondering lately what the proper length of a stay is when visiting a new city, because it never feels long enough. We only stayed in Savannah for two nights and it was most definitely not long enough. Granted, we visited right before (two days before) we moved back up north from South Carolina, but somehow the charm lay as thick as the heat and made me completely forget about our upcoming move.

Before even heading down south when Dan got his first travel nursing contract in Myrtle Beach, I knew my favourite part about living in that part of the country would be the trees. Savannah proved this truer than even I expected. Thinking about the canopy of graceful, centuries old oak trees makes the nostalgia creep back for the south and Savannah in particular. One of the particularly, beautifully painful parts of travel nursing is the chance it gives to visit so many neighbouring (or not so neighbouring) places to wherever you’re stationed. You never get long enough to feel satisfied, but just enough to know that you need to go back. That’s how I feel about Savannah, and honestly everyplace that we visited while living in Myrtle Beach.

We went to Savannah right at the end of this past July, and it was HOT. I love the heat and rarely felt too hot in Myrtle Beach (we were there April-July) despite the humidity making the heat stick to you the moment you stepped outside. I realized I actually like the humidity most of the time, turns out your hair really does adjust after a few weeks of frizzy overload. Our days in Savannah were hitting the limit for me though, probably due also to the fact that we spent hours upon hours outside walking around. It felt worth it the entire time though, and we were not tempted at all to opt for driving because wherever we walked was too beautiful to drive by.

We stayed on East Henry Street just a short walk to Forsyth Park, and though the Airbnb wasn’t anything too special, we’d stay again for the location. It was a little bit of a walk to the river from there, but it was a walk I wouldn’t mind making daily. The history of the city is on full display making that walk with parks, monuments, and churches telling the stories of the city of the last nearly 300 years. We spent much of our time on River Street as well, enjoying the restaurants and local shops and galleries. One of our favourite things to do in a new city is stop by a local artist gallery or two and dream of what pieces we would choose for our future house.

Our main pastimes in Savannah were walking and eating, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. We did also schedule a riverboat cruise, which was fun but not a must do I would say. We learned about the prominence of their port historically and currently as the fourth largest port in the country, and enjoyed the views of the river. It was also fun trying to estimate how much weight is actually on those massive container ships, so we spent a little bit attempting to calculate that. I think the number we came to was around 400 million pounds. (Fact checking this now shows that to actually be somewhat accurate, they can actually weigh even more!) If you do decide to do the cruise, skip the buffet option! There is MUCH better food available right there on River Street that will cost just about the same.

One restaurant close by that I still dream about is Huey’s. Their beignets (and everything else we got – the gumbo and red beans & rice) were incredible. A notable downside is that they share bathrooms with some other businesses and I’ll just say you do not want to brave that so plan accordingly. Also not far down River Street is Rocks on the River, another favourite spot we would most definitely go back to. We waited a bit for the perfect table to open up, but ended up catching the sunset on this gorgeous rooftop bar, cocktails in hand, with a view of the river and the sun setting behind the bridge.

If you plan to visit Savannah, I would say give yourself a week to immerse yourself in it’s southern charm or better yet plan for a bit more time and split your trip between Savannah and Charleston. They’re only two hours apart!