Savannah, Georgia

We visited the historic city of Savannah in mid-December 2025 while staying at the Thousand Trails Oaks at Point South RV Park in Yemassee, South Carolina just under an hour away

We decided to book a day pass on Old Town Trolley Tours to tour around the city. We parked at the visitor center in downtown Savannah which had a very reasonable hourly rate and boarded the shuttle at the nearby stop. The hop-on-hop-off trolley tour has 16-stops throughout the old town area. During our visit we rode on several different trolleys as we “hopped on and off” to walk around various areas of the city. The drivers of the trolleys all provided informative commentary about the history of the city, its buildings, and people as we travelled around.

Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, Savannah is the oldest city in Georgia, and was the capital of the colonial Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Savannah’s downtown area includes the Savannah Historic District, its 22 parklike squares which are laden with monuments, live oaks for that iconic Southern-Gothic feel, and the Savannah Victorian Historic District. It is one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the U.S., designated by the federal government in 1966, and largely retains the founder James Oglethorpe’s original town plan, a design known as the Oglethorpe Plan.

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) with an enrollment of 18,000 students now plays a large roll in restoring and supporting the city. SCAD’s efforts to work with the city of Savannah to preserve its architectural heritage include restoring buildings for use as college facilities, for which it has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Historic Savannah Foundation and the Victorian Society of America. The college campus includes 67 buildings throughout downtown Savannah, many of which are on the 22 squares of the old town.

We enjoyed walking around various areas of the city in between our rides on the Trolley. We stopped for lunch at the 30-acre Forsyth Park that was established in 1841 and is the oldest public park in the city.  We strolled around the park with its lush lawns and tree-lined promenades with a large memorial and some statues in the center. We bought sandwiches at a store that bordered the park and enjoyed a nice picnic lunch at one of the park benches.

We can recommend the Trolley tour as a great way to see and learn about the city. We particularly enjoyed the architecture and the many historic squares throughout the city with their iconic canopy of live oaks decorated with Spanish moss.

Pictures from our visit are provided below. Click on the thumbnails for the full size images.