Things to Do in Savannah - Top Attractions, Hidden Gems & Must-See Sights

Bonaventure Cemetery sits on a bluff above the Wilmington River, about 15 minutes southeast of downtown Savannah by car. It covers nearly 160 acres and became famous after John Berendt's 1994 book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil put it on the map. The Bird Girl statue from the book's cover was here until the crowds got too large; it's now at the Telfair Academy downtown. But even without that statue, Bonaventure is extraordinary. Massive live oaks draped in Spanish moss arch over paths lined with Victorian-era monuments, crumbling angels, and ornate family tombs. Unlike Colonial Park Cemetery in the Historic District, which feels like a city park with gravestones, Bonaventure is a world apart. It's quiet, sprawling, and genuinely moving. The graves along the river bluff are the most atmospheric, where the moss hangs so thick the light turns green. Notable burials include songwriter Johnny Mercer and poet Conrad Aiken. This is a must-see in Savannah for anyone who appreciates the Southern Gothic mood the city is known for. The cemetery is open daily from 8 AM to 5 PM. Admission is free. You'll want a car or rideshare to get here, as it's too far from the Historic District to walk comfortably.

Thirty acres of green space in the middle of Savannah's Historic District, and the place where locals actually spend their time. Forsyth Park runs from Gaston Street down to Park Avenue, shaded by live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. The famous fountain at the northern end, installed in 1858, is probably the most photographed thing in the city. On any given morning you'll see joggers, dog walkers, and people reading on benches. Weekends bring a farmers' market to the south end of the park. The park feels different depending on when you go. Early morning is quiet and slightly misty. By midday, SCAD students are everywhere, working on laptops or sketching. Late afternoon brings pick-up soccer games and frisbee on the south lawn. Unlike the crowded sidewalks along River Street, Forsyth always has room to spread out. There's a fragrant garden designed for visitors who are blind, a basketball court, and tennis courts on the south side. Walk the full loop, grab a coffee from the cafe near the fountain, and sit. The park is open 24 hours, free, and captures the slow pace that makes this city different from anywhere else in Georgia.

River Street runs 2 miles along the Savannah River, sitting about 40 feet below Bay Street on the bluff above. The buildings lining the south side are former cotton warehouses from the 1800s, converted into restaurants, bars, candy shops, and galleries. The cobblestones underfoot are original ballast stones from ships that once loaded cotton here. The half-mile pedestrian promenade, named the John P. Rousakis Riverfront Plaza after the city's longest-serving mayor (1970 to 1992), is the main gathering spot. This is a must-see in Savannah, though you should know what you're getting into. During the day, it's pleasant enough: you can watch container ships glide past, browse souvenir shops, and grab shrimp and grits at one of the waterfront restaurants. At night, especially on weekends, it gets loud and very tourist-heavy. If you're after the quieter Savannah, head to Forsyth Park or the squares along Bull Street instead. But for a first evening in the city, walking the riverfront with a drink in hand works. The steep stone staircases connecting River Street to Bay Street are worth knowing about. Factors Walk, the series of iron walkways built along the bluff, is where cotton brokers once negotiated prices. Today it's an interesting shortcut between levels, and most visitors miss it entirely.

Bull Street is the spine of Savannah's Historic District, running 3.4 miles from City Hall at Bay Street south to Derenne Avenue. It threads through five of the city's 22 squares: Johnson, Wright, Chippewa, Madison, and Monterey. Walking the full stretch from north to south is the single best way to understand how Savannah's grid works. Each square has its own character, monuments, and surrounding architecture, and the rhythm of walking a block and then opening into another square never gets old. The street is named for Colonel William Bull, who helped Oglethorpe lay out the original city plan in 1733. Along the way you'll pass the Mercer Williams House on Monterey Square, the Oglethorpe Monument on Chippewa Square, and dozens of antebellum townhouses with iron railings and window boxes. This is also where many of Savannah's best restaurants and independent shops line up, particularly between Wright and Madison squares. Every square invites you to sit. The street is free, open, and gives you the condensed version of everything the Historic District does well.

The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist sits near Lafayette Square at 222 East Harris Street, and it's the most impressive building interior in Savannah. This Roman Catholic cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Savannah, and walking through the front doors feels like stepping into a European cathedral that somehow ended up in coastal Georgia. The stained glass windows are extraordinary, imported from Austria and filling the nave with colored light on sunny mornings. The original cathedral was completed in 1876, but a fire in 1898 gutted the interior. It was rebuilt and reopened by 1900, keeping the twin spires that make it visible from blocks away. The building is a block east of the Mercer Williams House and a short walk from Chippewa Square, so it fits naturally into any stroll through the Historic District. Among places to visit in Savannah, this one consistently surprises people who weren't expecting to find this caliber of religious architecture in the Deep South. The cathedral is open daily from 9 AM to 4:30 PM and admission is free. It's an active parish, so check the schedule for Mass times if you want to visit outside of services.

Chippewa Square is where Forrest Gump sat on his bench and told strangers about life being like a box of chocolates. The 1994 film shot that scene on the north side of this square, though the bench was a fiberglass prop. You can see one of the original prop benches at the Savannah History Museum a few blocks west. The square itself, laid out in 1815, is centered around the James Oglethorpe Monument, sculpted by Daniel Chester French (who later created the Lincoln Memorial statue) and unveiled in 1910. Chippewa Square is one of 22 squares along Savannah's famous grid, and it sits right in the middle of Bull Street's run of five. Walking south from here takes you past Madison Square and down to Monterey Square, where the Mercer Williams House stands. The Savannah Theatre, at 222 Bull Street on the square's west side, dates to 1818, making it one of the oldest continuously operating theaters in the country. The Independent Presbyterian Church on the opposite side is another strong piece of architecture. Sit for a few minutes, look at the Oglethorpe statue facing south toward what was once Spanish Florida, and then keep walking the squares.

Colonial Park Cemetery was Savannah's main burial ground from 1750 to 1853, and it's the oldest intact cemetery in the city. Six acres bounded by Oglethorpe Avenue and Abercorn Street, right in the middle of the Historic District, just east of Chippewa Square. It became a public park in 1896, and today the gravestone-lined paths are as much a walking route as they are a historical site. Some of the headstones date back to the colonial era when Savannah was the capital of British Georgia. The cemetery has some genuinely interesting details if you slow down to read the markers. Victims of the 1820 yellow fever epidemic are buried here. During the Civil War, Union soldiers reportedly altered dates on some headstones as a prank, and you can still spot the obviously wrong years carved into the stone. Unlike Bonaventure Cemetery, which requires a drive, Colonial Park is walkable from anywhere in the Historic District, making it a natural stop between squares. Open daily from 8 AM to 5 PM, free admission. It's one of the more atmospheric places to visit in Savannah, especially in the late afternoon when the light filters through the oaks and the crowds thin out. The eastern wall along Habersham Street has the most weathered and oldest markers.

At 429 Bull Street on the southwestern corner of Monterey Square, the Mercer Williams House is probably the most talked-about private home in Savannah. Completed in 1868, the Italianate mansion was designed for Confederate General Hugh Mercer, Johnny Mercer's great-grandfather, though he never actually lived in it. The house became famous as the setting for the 1981 shooting of Danny Hansford by antiques dealer Jim Williams, a story told in John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and the Clint Eastwood film that followed. The museum tour costs $15 and only covers the ground floor and carriage house, which some visitors find disappointing for the price. You won't see the upstairs rooms where the shooting happened. But the tour does a good job explaining the Williams era, the antiques he collected, and the social world of 1980s Savannah. The carriage house contains the most interesting artifacts. As a place to visit in Savannah, it's essential if you've read the book. If you haven't, you can appreciate the exterior and Monterey Square without going inside. The house is open Monday through Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM, and Sunday from 11:30 AM. It sits at the bottom of Bull Street's string of squares, two blocks south of Chippewa Square.

While most visitors head to Bonaventure Cemetery for the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil connection, locals know that Laurel Grove is equally beautiful and far less crowded. Dedicated in 1852, the cemetery is split into two sections: Laurel Grove North, originally for white burials, and Laurel Grove South, reserved for enslaved people and free people of color. Both sections were added to the National Register of Historic Places (North in 1983, South in 1978), and both are worth walking. The southern section tells a story you won't hear on most Savannah tours. It holds the graves of enslaved people, Black Union soldiers, and community leaders from Reconstruction onward. The carved headstones and elaborate Victorian monuments rival anything at Père Lachaise in Paris or Green-Wood in Brooklyn. Laurel Grove North contains many Confederate veterans and prominent Savannah families. Together, the two sections capture the full complexity of the city's history in a way that few other sites manage. Laurel Grove is one of the real hidden gems in Savannah. It's free, open daily from 8 AM to 5 PM, and located in midtown, a short drive or long walk west of Forsyth Park. You'll likely have the paths to yourself.

The entrance to Wormsloe is the most photographed road in Georgia, and for good reason. A mile-and-a-half-long avenue lined with roughly 400 live oaks forms a canopy so dense it blocks out the sky. Spanish moss hangs from every branch, and the effect is pure Southern Gothic. The site is about 20 minutes south of downtown Savannah on the Isle of Hope, and it preserves the remains of the oldest standing structure in the state: tabby ruins from Noble Jones's 1740s colonial estate. Beyond the famous oak avenue, a nature trail winds through marshland and forest to the tabby ruins, where you can see the foundations Jones built from a mixture of oyster shells, sand, and water. The whole property covers 822 acres. A small museum near the entrance explains the colonial history of the site and Jones's role as one of Georgia's original colonists, arriving with Oglethorpe in 1733. This is one of the true hidden gems in Savannah, and most tourists who only stay in the Historic District miss it entirely. Wormsloe is open daily from 9 AM to 4:45 PM. Admission is free. You'll need a car or rideshare, as there's no practical public transit. Budget about 90 minutes for the oak avenue, trail, and museum.

The Savannah College of Art and Design turned a 19th-century railroad headquarters into a contemporary art museum, and the result is the most forward-looking cultural space in the city. The SCAD Museum of Art reopened after a major renovation in 2011 with new galleries, a 250-seat theater, and an 86-foot-tall steel and glass lantern tower that's visible from several blocks away. The permanent collection holds more than 4,500 pieces, including haute couture, photography, painting, and sculpture. This museum is a sharp contrast to the Telfair Academy's traditional galleries a couple of blocks east. Where the Telfair feels 19th century, the SCAD Museum feels right now. Rotating exhibitions change regularly and often feature emerging artists. The Walter O. Evans Center for African American Studies and the Andre Leon Talley Gallery (named for the late Vogue editor who sat on the SCAD board) add depth beyond the expected art school output. As one of the best museums in Savannah, it draws people who might not otherwise spend time in galleries. Admission is $15. Hours are 10 AM to 5 PM Monday and Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 5 PM Sunday, closed Tuesday. The museum cafe is a reasonable lunch spot if you're visiting City Market nearby.

Housed in a restored 1860s railroad shed near the visitors' center on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, the Savannah History Museum covers the city's story from its 1733 founding through the Civil War and beyond. The building itself sits on the site of the 1779 Siege of Savannah, one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution. The museum's most popular artifact is the actual bench used in the filming of Forrest Gump on Chippewa Square, two blocks east. The museum is small. You can see everything in about 45 minutes. Exhibits walk through Oglethorpe's colonial plan, the cotton trade, Savannah's role in the Civil War (Sherman ended his March to the Sea here in 1864), and the city's 20th-century preservation movement. A restored locomotive and cotton gin sit in the main hall. It's a decent introduction to the city's history, especially if you visit before walking the squares and cemeteries. Among the best museums in Savannah for understanding context, though not essential for repeat visitors. Admission is free. Open daily from 9 AM to 4 PM.

The Telfair Academy at 121 Barnard Street is the oldest public art museum in the American South. The building itself was designed by English architect William Jay and completed in 1818 as a family mansion for the Telfairs, one of Savannah's wealthiest families. Mary Telfair bequeathed it as an art museum upon her death, and it opened to the public in 1886, making it one of the first 10 art museums in the country. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976. The collection focuses on 19th and 20th-century American and European art. The period rooms on the ground floor, furnished to look as they did in the Telfair era, are as interesting as the paintings. The Octagon Room and Dining Room give you a feel for how Savannah's elite lived before the Civil War. If you're already planning to visit the SCAD Museum of Art a few blocks away, the Telfair is a good counterpoint: traditional collection in a historic house versus contemporary work in a converted railroad building. Tickets cost $20, and the museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 AM to 5 PM. It's one of the best museums in Savannah, though you can see everything in about an hour.

City Market has occupied this stretch between Ellis Square and Franklin Square since the 1730s, making it one of the longest-running market sites in the American South. The original wooden building burned in the Great Savannah Fire of 1820. The current structures, built in the 1870s in Romanesque style with arched doorways and circular windows, now hold restaurants, bars, art galleries, and shops. The old 33,000-square-foot interior has been carved up over the centuries, but the bones of the original market architecture are still visible. This is not a food market in the European sense. You won't find produce stalls or fishmongers. It's more of a dining and nightlife district with some artist studios and boutiques mixed in. For lunch, the restaurants around the market serve solid Lowcountry food: shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, she-crab soup. On weekend nights the area fills up with live music from the bars. If you're looking for where to eat in Savannah in a concentrated area, City Market is the easy choice, though locals tend to eat at specific restaurants here rather than coming for the market atmosphere itself. Open daily 10 AM to 10 PM. Free to walk through. It's two blocks west of Bull Street and a short walk south from River Street.

The white cast-iron fountain at the northern entrance to Forsyth Park is the single most recognizable landmark in Savannah. Installed in 1858, its design was inspired by fountains in Paris's Place de la Concorde and Cusco's Plaza de Armas. The two-tiered structure sprays water in wide arcs, surrounded by a low stone basin where children cool off in summer. It was restored in 1988 and again in the 2000s, and on St. Patrick's Day the water is dyed green. For best views in Savannah, walk to the fountain from the Gaston Street entrance. The approach through the oak-lined path, with the fountain slowly revealing itself through the moss and branches, is the classic Savannah postcard shot. Morning light (before 9 AM) gives the sharpest contrast, and you'll avoid the tour groups that cluster around midday. The benches circling the fountain are popular with everyone from joggers taking a break to couples reading together. The cafe attached to the nearby park building sells decent coffee and sandwiches. The fountain area is part of Forsyth Park, so it's free and open daily. The whole park is open 24 hours, but the fountain itself is lit in the evening and worth seeing after dark as well. It sits about a 15-minute walk south from Chippewa Square along Bull Street.