I’ve been wanting to visit Savannah for so long and finally got to go in October with some of my best girlfriends! Savannah is the perfect destination for a long weekend and we had so much fun exploring this adorable city. There is awesome shopping, food and drink, activities and it’s really fun to walk around the city. Scroll down to learn more about the perfect girls weekend in Savannah!
Where to Stay in Savannah, GA
I typically book with Airbnb or Booking.com for my travels but this trip I did things a bit differently.
Luxury on Lincoln Home Vacation Rental
I actually found this rental on Airbnb but the fees were quite steep (no issues paying them but these were way higher than usual) I dug a little deeper and found the company Southern Belle Vacation Rentals and booked directly with them and saved about $400 doing so! This rental was adorable and the perfect location for our stay. We loved that each room had it’s own bathroom in or next to it and there were plenty of areas to hang out when we weren’t out exploring Savannah.
The furthest we walked from this rental to any restaurant or bar we wanted to visit was 15 minutes but on average it was about 5 minutes. This rental also includes access to a rooftop pool on Tybee Island if you’re interested. I couldn’t recommend this rental more. Click the link to learn more and to book Luxury on Lincoln Vacation Rental. If Airbnb’s aren’t your thing I would recommend the new JW Marriott or the The Alida. We visited them both and they both were beautiful and have awesome locations.
JW Marriott Savannah Plant Riverside District
We spent some time here at one of their many bars and had a blast! Scroll down to the end of this blog to learn more about that experience.
This is what the Starbucks outside fo the JW Marriott looks like! Seriously every part of this hotel was a dream. Even if you don’t stay here you have to walk around and go inside to check it out!
The Alida Savannah
This hotel looked so fun so we stopped here one day and enjoyed the pool. We also loved their rooftop bar. I’ll chat more about the pool a bit later in this post.
I loved their bar, lobby and lounge area and would love to come back here someday and have a drink because it was so cute inside.
Where to Eat and Drink in Savannah, GA
I’m not going to give too much information here because I am writing separate blog posts about the great restaurants and bars in Savannah but for now I will give you a few of my favorite spots (scroll down a few paragraphs for a link to that post)! We absolutely loved B. Matthew’s eatery for brunch. The drinks were great (especially the bloody mary’s) and we all loved our brunch entrees! We heard this was also a great place for lunch and dinner so if you can’t make it for brunch I recommend one of those.
Don’t forget to grab a drink to go since you can have an open container in Savannah!
One place we didn’t make it to and really wish we did was Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room. Everyone says it’s the best Southern Cooking you can get in Savannah and the perfect place for lunch as it’s only open from 11am-2pm Monday-Friday. I can’t wait to go back next time I visit but for some weird reason southern food didn’t sound good to any of us when we were there.
I wasn’t expecting to eat Italian food in Savannah but wow am I so glad we did! Bella Napoli Bistro was absolutely incredible. It was some of the best Italian food I’ve had outside of Italy and as I type this right now I wish I could teleport there and have it again. Everything we ordered was delicious and I couldn’t recommend this adorable Italian bistro more!
Overall there are so many great restaurants to choose from. Click this link to read all about My Favorite Restaurants in Savannah.
Where to Explore in Savannah, GA
This might seem like a funny thing to say in a blog post but seriously just take and hour or two to simply walk around. Having a plan and an itinerary is awesome so you can see a lot in the short time you’re there, but it’s also amazing to just walk around and see where you end up! The trees, landscaping, river, shops and so much more are adorable and you just never know what you’ll come across.
I loved the historical buildings and the palm trees!
Walk around the River District
The River District was just a 5 minute walk from our rental so we decided to walk down there for our first morning in Savannah. There are so many cute shops to visit and the history of this area is so cool. I loved walking down the cobblestone road and visiting all the shops.
The stores range from hats and shoe shops to Christmas shops to designer stores to outdoors shops so there is literally something for everyone. This next picture is my favorite photo I took in Savannah! This guy looked so cool driving his old car through here.
And now for the best part, the river! We had such beautiful weather the weekend we were here and the views were gorgeous.
Another great part about the river district is that half of it is historical and half of it is brand new. JW Marriott and the city of Savannah did an awesome job developing and revitalizing this area. Walking down here is an absolute must when you visit!
Find a Pool or Rooftop to Relax and Have Some Cocktails!
We did this on day two of our long weekend and absolutely loved it! All pools are different in downtown Savannah, some you have to be a guest at to use their pool, others require a reservation but are open to the public and others accept walk-ins and are open to the public. We were going to use our access through our rental to visit a rooftop pool on Tybee Island but we chose to stay downtown instead so we could walk to everything and not have to take a cab.
The Alida
We chose to visit The Alida because the photos looked so cute and it was right down by the River District. The pool here was a little dirty but we were just there to lay out and drink cocktails so it was perfect for us. You can get drinks from their rooftop bar or lobby bar and bring them down to the pool.
Myrtle and Rose
If you don’t care about the pool and want to do a Rooftop Bar instead we absolutely loved Myrtle and Rose Rooftop Garden located at the top of the JW Marriott. The ambiance couldn’t have been better, we had awesome service, and great drinks. It was really hard to leave! They do have food here as well so you could do drinks and lunch here if you wanted to.
Here is a photo from the rooftop looking down. I love how many rooftop bars there are in Savannah! It makes the experience so much more fun and I love looking down and people watching hehe.
Check out the Shops Downtown
The shopping all around Savannah is pretty awesome but we found we like the shops downtown on Broughton street the most. There were so many great ones but our favorite was The Paris Market. There were so many great things to buy here! Mainly home decor but also so many great gift ideas.
There’s even a cute cafe in there if you want a coffee while you shop or if some of you don’t want to shop and just want to chill here while the others do!
We also loved Harper Boutique and Globe Shoe Company that were just a few blocks away. There are so many great shops to choose from you could definitely make this a shopping weekend and never run out of places to go!
Do or Don’t Do the Touristy Things in Savannah?
Rainbow Row
Well this one is a definite skip! Thankfully it was only two blocks out of the way for us, but I read about Rainbow Row in a few blogs and heard it was a must. We thought how cute it would be to see a neighborhood filled with these houses! Well. I kid you not it’s literally just these three and I really wish one of those blogs I read told me that! But now at least I can tell you. Yes, these three pastel houses are adorable but if it’s not on your way don’t make an extra trip. We had a good laugh and made our way to happy hour.
Pounce Cat Cafe and Wine Bar
We have a couple of cat lovers in our group so when we heard of Pounce Cat Cafe we knew it was a must visit! I just walked in to check out the place but didn’t pay to visit the sweet kitties. Two of the babes did though and this is what they had to say about it. They both said that it was fun but not really what they expected.
“When I thought of a cat cafe I thought of a cafe with cats wandering/laying around. This was a cafe/bar with a room of cats. It was clean, lots of toys & places for the cats to sleep, but the energy was weird. Awesome place to go if you’re looking to adopt because there are multiple cats of different ages, gender, personality that you can interact. But I wouldn’t go again unless I was looking to adopt. It just made me sad I couldn’t take them all home I also had very high expectations of what a cat cafe would be so that definitely alerted my opinion and experience.” “Well, it was cute and delightful and sweet but I honestly felt sad. I felt sad for all of the kitties because I heard they are medicated to be calm. But what was good about the place was it was not smelly and there were plenty of places for each cat to lay and sleep and play and frolic. I love that they took it seriously to schedule people and not overdo it with too many people at once.”
Overall, they were glad they tried it out! Just make sure you manage expectations before walking in. If you’re a cat lover this cafe is definitely something to consider on your trip to Savannah.
Haunted Ghost Tour
One thing I really wish we would have done was a haunted ghost tour! They just didn’t seem to line up with our schedule but I am hoping to go back and do one because I’ve heard a lot of great things about them. As for what company to go with? Oh my, if you’ve been to Savannah before I am sure you remember it seems like every business you go into also runs a ghost tour so you won’t have any issues finding one. Our rental did recommend this website though so you could check this link out, Savannah Ghost Tours.
Overall, we had a great weekend in Savannah and made so many memories we will never forget! Thanks so much for reading along! Have you been to Savannah? What is your favorite thing to do there? Check back soon for a few more blog posts dedicated to Savannah, but for now click the link to read more of my posts!
