Savannah is a city that seems to have a small park at the center of each block. The climate, plants and trees are similar to Charleston, but it feels bigger, more of a metropolis. Several years ago, before Sebastian and I made our first trip down to Charleston, we were trying to decide whether to visit Charleston or Savannah for a weekend trip. After doing some research online and not coming to any conclusion, I just googled, “Which is better Charleston or Savannah”. The consensus was pretty unanimous: Charleston.
So we went to Charleston, which we loved, but I had always wanted to go back and see Savanah. Last summer, when we drove down to Hilton Head with a stop in Charleston, we also took a day trip with our two kids to Savannah. It was only a 45min drive.
We struggled with this trip. It was a very hot day, about 100 degrees. I also didn’t do any research in advance. The plan was just to walk around the city center, eat lunch, find a park and let the kids play. However, we had trouble finding the city center, perhaps because that’s just not how the city is laid out. When we drove into the city we didn’t really know where to go or park.
We ended up spending almost all of our time in the Historic District North, wandering the streets a bit. It was nice to see the little parks and green space at the center of many of the city blocks. We sat for a while on a bench outside of the City Market (where there is a bathroom if you ask for the key) and ducked into Byrd’s Famous Cookies. It was a fun little stop: a shop where they had dozens of mini crunchy cookies of all different flavors. Everyone there was super friendly. You could choose a jar or box and fill it up with as many different cookies as you’d like, which we did with the kids. I liked the lemon and lime ones.
Shortly after we went to Maple Street Biscuit Company to pick up something for lunch. The biscuits and food were quite good but they happened to be doing construction on the road when we were there. They shut down the water to the whole block, meaning the restrooms weren’t available (not the best when you are 5 months pregnant).
We ate our biscuit sandwiches back at the bench near City Market and then went on a walk to find Leopold’s Ice Cream. Likely because the day was so hot, there was a line out the door and around the block. We weren’t prepared for how popular it was. There was no way we were going to make it on that line with two very little kids in 100-degree heat. So we veered off and went to Ben and Jerry’s.
We just never hit our stride in Savannah. We ran into a few roadblocks along the way and didn’t stumble across any spaces where the boys could really wander a bit and play (or maybe we didn't have the patience or energy in the heat). Though, we made the most of it for the short time that we were there. I’m sure if I had done more research and been a bit more prepared, we would have seen a few more spots, or found a playground, or decided on an itinerary for the day. I can imagine, also, that if you visit without kids that your options open up even more and you’ll have a little more capacity to really get into the city and explore.
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