Girl’s Weekend Getaway to Savannah

Do you ever go on a girl’s weekend? My cousins ( we’re close like sisters) and I had planned this girl’s weekend in Savannah since last fall. We are all 60ish and thought Savannah was a perfect destination city to travel to from Atlanta. My cousins flew in from the west coast, Sydney is from Portland and Shirlee is from San Francisco. None of us have ever been to Savannah and I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful this city was to visit on the weekend!

We drove 4 hours to Savannah from Atlanta on Saturday morning, ( morning of the royal wedding) which is why we wore hats on Saturday morning. I suggested we wear skirts and dresses ( boho-chic style) for the 2 days because of the southern heat. The hats were mine, so my cousins are not wearing their preferred style of hats.

We weren’t the only ones wearing hats on Saturday. We saw many women wearing hats and fascinators on Saturday in Savannah.

First stop was to drop off my car at the Forsyth Park Inn and stroll around Savannah.

One of the reasons we wanted to see Savannah was because of 2 of our favorite movies were filmed there, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil based on a true story by John Berendt and Forrest Gump. (I will show you famous places from both movies.)

The city is broken up into 2 historical districts; the Colonial and the Victorian and includes 22 parklike squares.

The wonderful thing about Savannah is that it is walkable and so easy to get around on foot. Did you know the nickname for Savannah was the “Hostess City of the South?” Yes, she lives up to that name!

Forsyth Park Inn and Forsyth Park

Sydney was in charge of selecting the hotel and we stayed at this darling B&B located off Forsyth Park. The inn is located in the Victorian Historic District. I am going to shamelessly plug this adorable inn because I highly recommend you stay there when you visit Savannah. We met the most wonderful people who work there. Eric Schuermann was our concierge for this weekend and he did a fantastic job telling us what to do and spent time getting to know us as we learned more about him. As true Southerners and Midwesterners are known to do, we visited.

Live oaks dripping with Spanish moss ( it’s not really a moss, comes from the pineapple family) lined the park as well as these lamp posts.

Every day we sat on the veranda of the inn for our morning coffee and breakfast. We enjoyed watching all the people exercising around the park and some were playing catch with their dogs off leash. Inns are more intimate than staying at a hotel in Savannah, ( I’m sure the hotels are lovely) because of the close proximity of the sitting arrangements. You can spread out in a hotel, but not in an inn. Plus I love visiting with people and learning about why they came to Savannah.

French Toast Croissant- Delicious!

We always returned late afternoon after exploring Savannah’s historic district in time for a glass of wine and good conversation while rocking. We watched from the veranda weddings in the park, some guy dancing by himself, and 4 people acting out animal movements in front of us. It was like being a part of the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with our own cast of characters!

Weddings in the Park

We saw about 5 bridal parties in the park on Saturday afternoon. The park is the premier location for a wedding in Savannah because of the famous fountain in the center and all of the live oaks. Because of its popularity, people need to book it in advance and there are plenty of wedding planners in Savannah to help you.

Shopping in Savannah on Bull Street

I prefer to shop in places that are unique to a city and not a chain of stores when I purchase items on vacation. Below is an outfit I will share more with you tomorrow but I purchased the hat from Carol’s and the top and earrings from Folklorico. I highly recommend you visit them when you’re in Savannah!

SCAD

Imagine what college would look like if your favorite, most inspiring teacher from grade school started a university. That scenario describes, to a certain degree, how then 29-year-old Paula Wallace, an Atlanta, Georgia, schoolteacher, ended up founding the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 1978.

SCAD has restored many of the old buildings you see in Savannah today. The foundation on which Wallace created SCAD was historic preservation. Savannah’s beauty of today is all because of Wallace’s vision of preserving old dilapidated buildings and restoring their beauty.  Many of my interior design interns are from SCAD in Atlanta.

Where we dined:

We had breakfast every morning at the inn and ate the rest of our meals in the historic district. Yes, Paula Deen is very popular among the tourists who visit Savannah, but I was in charge of selecting the restaurants for dinner.  I used Open Table to make my reservations. Highly recommend making early reservations in a touristy city. I hate waiting for a table don’t you?

Six Pence Pub

Upon arrival into Savannah on Saturday morning, we were hungry and grabbed lunch at the British Six Pence Pub on Bull Street and everyone in the pub was glued to the news coverage of the wedding.

Belford’s in the  City Market

My cousin Shirlee had the shrimp and grits (grits were polenta cakes) and she enjoyed it very much.

My cousin and I split the award-winning crab cakes, the BLT stack (with fried green tomatoes), shrimp and watermelon gazpacho, and of course, I forgot to take photos.

A.Lure

This was another restaurant I selected from Open Table based on reviews. We enjoyed our experience here too.

I had the benne crusted grouper and the Caesar salad.

My cousins split the blueberry salad and the meatloaf. The meatloaf is made with foie gras and ground filet mignon!

Public House

This was the best peach sangria I have ever had! Okay, it was my first peach sangria, but it was delicious! We had wanted to eat at the Public House on Saturday, but there was a 30-minute wait and we ended up at Six Pence which was perfect because of the Royal wedding. We shared the grilled pimento cheese sandwich (fabulous) but we decided we need to acculturate ourselves to the Savannah ways which meant walking around with a cocktail.

We felt a kinship with all the people who travel to Savannah for St. Patrick’s Day celebration by walking with a cocktail. Did you know that Savannah has an open cup policy? So many people walk around Savannah with a cocktail in hand. Except on St.Patty’s Day, they will charge you a $10.00 fee for that privilege. Smart marketing! We definitely wanted to acculturate!

Chippewa Square and the Forrest Gump Connection

The Square is known for the famous park bench scenes from the critically acclaimed film Forrest Gump. In the opening shot of the film, a feather floats high above the trees, then sweeps down past the Independent Presbyterian Church and makes its way toward Chippewa Square, eventually landing at the base of a park bench. Tom Hanks, who plays the role of Forrest, sits on this park bench for about 80% of the film telling his life story to anyone who will listen. The bench that Hanks/Forrest sat on was actually a movie prop that has since been placed in the Savannah History Museum. Our tour guide told us that it was moved to the museum for preservation because people were cutting up the bench as a collector’s item. But the location of the bench for the movie in Chippewa Square is still a popular spot for photographs. This young man played most of the afternoon and many artists were sitting along the square painting.

Best way to see Savannah is on the Old Town Trolley!

We decided that to really enjoy Savannah is to see it on an on and off trolley. We cannot walk to all the places we wanted to see but we paid to hop on and off the trolleys that run tours through Savannah. I shall now say that not all trolley guides are equal. We had a fabulous trolley guide named Emily who was so detailed oriented and the men were the only so-so.

Below is the Telfair Museum where the statue of the Bird Girl (on the dust cover of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) is located. We went all the way to the Bonaventure Cemetery on our last day to find her. We should have done our homework first.

Did you know Savannah is America’s most haunted city? You can also take ghost tours if you like that kind of stuff. When we were walking home from dinner, the squares were full of people taking a ghost tour.

Bonaventure Cemetery 

This cemetery was used in the film and local native son and songwriter, Johnny Mercer is buried there.

It has many Confederate soldiers buried here and their burial site will have a Confederate marker just like the marker in the bottom left of this photo.

Johnny Mercer’s Burial site. You can see some of his songs etched into the marble bench.

I wore this top with a white denim skirt on the trip and it was perfect for the Savannah weather. White denim skirts are wonderful to pack because they hardly wrinkle and the peasant top has an easy-care fabric.

I loved spending time with my cousins in Savannah and enjoyed the places we saw and visited. I know I will return to this city once again with my husband.

But it will never be the same without them because in these rocking chairs we talked about our family, the loved ones who have passed, and the deepest stories of our lives that can only be shared with those who will never say a word or pass judgment on what you did because they love you unconditionally. This was a wonderful weekend in Savannah.

I hope you enjoyed this girl’s weekend in Savannah! Let me know if you’ve ever been to Savannah and what your favorite places are!

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