Savannah, Georgia - May 9th to 12th, 2023
Savannah is a large city, but its wonderful squares filled with trees in its historic district gives the city more of a small town and welcoming feel. Just outside the city is Skidaway Island State Park, which helps make Savannah a nice destination, with a nice balance of wildlife and old southern charm.
Tuesday was a travel day, from Anastasia State Park in Florida to Skidaway Island State Park in Georgia. We ignored Google Maps for a while and took the historic A1A highway up the coast. In Jacksonville, we stopped at the Oceanfront Park in Jacksonville for a picnic lunch. Then we decided to take US 90 over to the interstate to make some better time. We considered continuing up the A1A past the ferry at Mayport, but we weren’t sure how long that would take. The ferry runs every half hour during their open hours during the day. For vehicles over 20 feet, the cost is $14 on weekends and $12.50 on weekdays (https://ferry.jtafla.com/). It probably would have been an interesting stretch of road, as it goes through several state parks and preserves in that area.
Skidaway Island State Park is only about a 30 minute drive outside of Savannah, Georgia. The camp sites are nicely spaced and shaded among the trees covered in Spanish moss. However, some sites are more level than others. We struggled a little bit getting Red Tail somewhat level on our site. As we looked through the information we were given during check in, we noticed that the park visitor center sold Trolly Tour tickets and had free shuttles from the park to the trolly. However, when Ann scurried back up to the center before they closed, she found out that neither service is offered any more, the ticket sales nor the shuttle. The shuttle stopped running at the start of COVID and they’ve decided to not start it back up. However, they did give us a discount coupon for the Trolly Tour.
Savannah is a little too far from the state park to ride our bikes. Google Maps says it would take about an hour and a half to reach the historic district. Plus, the roads are not bike friendly. The road leading out to the state park has no shoulder and there are a couple of narrow bridges that we wouldn’t even feel comfortable walking across with the heavy traffic, let alone take a bike across.
We’re a little concerned about where to park Red Tail in Savannah. It looks like there are a limited number of RV parking spots at the Savannah Visitors Center that cost $20 for the day. If those spaces are full when we get there, we don’t have a back up plan. Perhaps we’ll drive the 30 minutes back to the campground and order an Uber or Lyft. Not ideal.
The Wormsloe State Historic Site is close enough to ride a bike to from the campground, but, again, the narrow roads make it impractical. It is frustrating when the infrastructure prevents using alternative modes of transportation, especially in an area where you would like to help out the local environment along with reducing road congestion.
It was hot, in the 90’s, when we arrived at the campground in the late afternoon. We plugged in and ran the air conditioner until we went to bed, about seven hours. The temps had cooled down by then, and we sleep better when the noisy air conditioner is not on. It wasn’t until the next morning that we noticed the breaker on the electrical pedestal was off. We must have forgotten to flip it back on after plugging in. That meant the air conditioner was running off our batteries for seven hours! They still had about 38% charge left in the morning. It’s a good thing we turned the air off during the night or we would have totally drained our batteries. However, it is good to know we can run the air conditioner a few hours without being plugged in. That may come in handy later in the season.
Wednesday we drove into Savannah. We had no problem getting one of the 14 RV parking spots at the Savannah Visitors Center. The RV spots cost $20 per day while the regular parking spots cost $11 per day. The lot closes at 8 pm and no overnight parking is allowed. If you have a regular sized vehicle and are planning on taking one of the trolly tours, you may be able to get one of their free parking spots at their limited lots, which are nearby.
There are two tours that leave from the Savannah Visitors Center. The Old Town Trolly Tours and the Old Savannah Tours. We’ve taken the Old Town Trolly Tour in other towns, such as Key West (Key West, Florida - April 22nd to 25th, 2023) and St. Augustine (St. Augustine, Florida - May 5th to 8th, 2023). This time we decided to try something different and took the Old Savannah Tours. In addition to the hop-on and hop-off tour, they also offered the option of just riding the complete route without getting off. This option was a little cheaper and was what we were planning to do anyway, so we were able to save a little money.
The two different tour companies are very similar. The Old Savannah Tours tries to differentiate themselves a little bit. At a few of the stops, there is someone who comes on board that is dressed up as one of the historical characters and gives a little speech about their history. It was a nice touch. Even though they are a little pricey, we’ve come to enjoy the city trolly tours. They save us time from researching a city and its history, giving us our bearings on what to see in the historical areas of the town.
After the tour, we walked over to the River Street to find a place for lunch. We were hungry and stopped at one of the first places we saw, District Smokehouse. Ann kept it southern, by having the pulled pork platter with smoked collards and Savannah slaw. Keith tried the BBQ grilled cheese with his collards. It was a grilled cheese sandwich with pulled pork. Very tasty.
After lunch, we just strolled the city. First we went up and down the riverfront. First we were right next to the river, watching the cargo ships coming into the third largest port in the country. Then we came back high up on the bank, to check out the bumpy road ramps paved with ballast stone and the historic Cotton Exchange, a beautiful building. Also in the area is the City Hall with its gold-plated dome.
Now it was time for ice cream, so we headed over to the City Market. The homemade ice cream at Savannah’s Candy Kitchen fit the bill. Keith opted for a chocolate shake since their vanilla shakes were made with soft serve instead of the hand dipped ice cream. They also have a few flavors of gelato, but we are mostly ice cream people. The ice cream was very rich and smooth. We probably don’t want to know how much fat content is in their ice cream, as we’re sure it’s pretty high. But that’s what makes it taste so good.
We continued strolling from one town square to another. The peaceful, shaded squares are what Savannah is known for. The 22 squares are laid out in a grid pattern. We headed east from City Market, taking in the first row of six squares. Then we went south to pick up the next row of squares as we headed back west. Along the way, we admired the wonderful architecture of the historical buildings and homes.
We managed to work in a couple more squares before heading back towards the river to find a place for dinner. The restaurant named Treylor Park on Bay St. caught our eye. Being RV’ers, how could we not stop at a place like that? The menu was rather unusual, putting together some unique combinations. Ann took the safe route and ordered the veggie tacos, with grilled chicken. Keith was slightly more daring and got the southern sloppy Joe with banana peppers and cheese. Then we called it a day. We decided we would come back the next day to finish our walking tour of Savannah.
Thursday we packed up and drove into Savannah again. Although we were staying four nights, we had to switch sites. Originally, we had four nights booked for the same site, but we cancelled the second two nights because our plans changed due to an unexpected event. But then that event was changed and our plans changed yet again. Fortunately, we were able to reserve another two nights in the campground, but not in the same site. The office let us check in to our new site in the morning on our way out for the day.
Again, we parked in an RV parking spot at the Savannah Visitors Center. We probably could have found parking along a residential street somewhere, but we weren’t sure what the local ordinances were and didn’t want to risk getting towed. Paying the $20 to park at the visitors center gave us peace of mind.
We continued our stroll through the squares of Savannah, picking up where we left off the day before. This time we visited the cemetery and the Cathedral of St. John. For lunch, we did the touristy thing and ate at Pirate’s House. We’re tourists, right? The food was pretty good. Keith had the blackened snapper in a crab cream sauce with grits while Ann had the soup, sandwich and salad. It included a cup of okra gumbo, chicken salad on a croissant, and a small house salad. Since we were in Georgia, we had to try their peach cobbler. They make it from scratch, so it took a little bit for them to prepare it, but it was worth the wait.
We continued winding through all the squares and down to Forsyth Park. The park is very lovely, with a combination of shaded walkways and wide open fields. The highlight of the park is its iconic fountain. We grabbed a couple of iced teas from Collins Quarter at Forsyth and sat down on a shady bench near the fountain. It was very relaxing to sit there, sipping our refreshments, and watch the people go by. There was a constant stream of tourists stopping to take their picture in front of the fountain.
After visiting the last few remaining squares, we headed back to Red Tail. We were back at the campground in time to make dinner. Eating out is fun, but cooking our own meals is easier on our wallets and our waistlines.
As we were relaxing outside after dinner, the people in the site next to us came over to check out our rig. Kandy and Gary, from Louisiana, were followers of our YouTube channel. That’s the first time we’ve met one of our followers. How exciting! They travel in a large class A motorhome and were interested in downsizing, perhaps to an EKKO. They had never seen one in person so we were more than happy to give them a tour of ours.
Friday we spent the whole day at Skidaway Island State Park. After a relaxing morning, we went for a hike in the afternoon. We combined the Sandpiper, Avian, and Big Ferry Trails to make a five mile loop. In total, we went 5.3 miles with an elevation gain of 59 feet in two hours and 20 minutes. About ten feet or so of the elevation gain was the observation tower along the Big Ferry Trail. We counted the hike as number 17 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2023.
In addition to the small observation tower, other highlights of the hike included fiddler crabs, marsh periwinkle snails, earthworks from the civil war, and an old liquor still. The earthworks were built for defense. The liquor still has ax marks in it from police raids. Illegal liquor occurred on Skidaway Island into the 1960’s, until the first bridge to the island was built.
We ended our hike at the park store, where we treated ourselves with some ice cream. When we checked in, Keith noticed they had some ice cream novelties. When we checked out their freezer case, we discovered they had half pints of Hershey’s peanut butter cup ice cream. That was Ann’s favorite ice cream when we lived in upstate New York. Score!
After relaxing for a while after filling our bellies with ice cream, we decided it was time to clean Red Tail. Ann cleaned the bathroom and the floor while Keith lubricated all the gaskets, hinges, and locks of all the doors, compartment doors, and windows. It’s not our favorite thing to do, but these things need to be done every now and then.
Normally we’ve had our fill of a city after strolling an old town for a day, but we spent two days strolling the squares of Savannah and probably could have spent more. There are other attractions in the area that we didn’t make it to, such as the Wormsloe Historic Site and Old Fort Jackson. We’ll be back.
Check out our related video: Savannah, Georgia
(Ann)