Charleston and Savannah

We're planning to visit Charleston and Savannah next April. Any ideas on must
sees? Good places to stay?

Al wrote:
We're planning to visit Charleston and Savannah next April. Any ideas on must
sees? Good places to stay?

Depends on your budget. We stayed in SAvannah recently at the Eliza Thompson
house, a fairly expensive B&B in the historic district. It was wonderful,
but expensive at $200 a night. (we only stayed one night, so it was our
splurge.)

If you like them, the mansion tours are worthwhile. I happen to love them.
We had a great ghost tour; don't miss that, it is fun. The CAT Shuttle through
the historic district is great, if a little lax on following their schedule.

If you have any ties to the Girl Scouts, the Juliette Low house is great.
YOu get a historic tour and a portrait of the extraordinary woman who was
central to the founding of Girl Guides in Britain and the Girl Scouts here
in America.

We also liked the Owens Thomas House, and the Telfair museum has a great, great
exhibition of African American ARt.

The visitor's center has a walking tour that is great.

For restaurants, if you want to go to the Lady and Sons make reservations in
advance (DAYS in advance) We missed it because of that, but we also enjoyed
the Pink House for dinner one night. We breakfasted at Clary's Cafe,
famous from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and it was very good.

between SAvannah and Charleston (we did not go to Charleston) is Beaufort,
which is a great place to go if you are into history and old houses. It has
some unique history, a good town museum, a great house (the John Verdier House)
to tour, some Movie history (the Big Chill, Forrest Gump) and really fun
carriage tours.

Have a great time.

Julie


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Julie
**********
Check out my Travel Pages (non-commercial) at
http://www.dragonsholm.org/travel.htm

Al wrote:
We're planning to visit Charleston and Savannah next April. Any ideas on must
sees? Good places to stay?


We visited Savannah & Charleston last May.

Savannah's River Street area is interesting with a lot of restaurants and
specialty shops we enjoyed, especially candy stores where you can watch them
make the candy. The shops are along one side of the street and a small park &
the river are along the other side, so there are very nice views and benches to
sit and rest while you watch the river traffic. There was a one man band
playing while we were there that was fun to watch.

For restaurants I wouldn't miss Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House. They only serve
lunch and don't take reservations, but it was definitely worth the wait.
Roadfood.com has a review of it at
http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writ...=195&RefID=195
The boarding house has (or at least had last year) it's own web page, but I
didn't find it doing a quick search.

We went on a ghost tour that was a lot of fun, and walked to most of the squares
to see the statues and other memorials. I had heard that the boat tours in the
harbor are really good, but we didn't go on one.

If you like art you'll want to check and see if SCAD (Savannah College of Art
and Design) is putting on any displays or programs. The kids going to school
there do amazing work.

If you're interested in history, Fort Pulaski National Monument & Tybee
Lighthouse is a short drive from Savannah on Tybee Island. There's a nice beach
on Tybee Island also, but it might be too cold yet in April. It was almost 90
degrees in mid May last year, but I think that was unusually warm.

Fort McAllister, an unusual earthen fort that is now a state park, is a short
drive south of Savannah.

We only stopped in Charleston for a few hours, long enough to look around a
little & to eat at the Mellow Mushroom pizza place (Savannah might have one
too). My college aged daughter loved Mellow Mushroom, but I wasn't that
thrilled with it - nothing wrong with it, but nothing special IMHO. She loved
the way the place was decorated/painted and the more "whole earth" type of pizza
crust & toppings (she's more 'artsy/hippie' than I am). It might be worth
checking out, depending on your tastes.

All of the restored historical buildings downtown were interesting to see, and
Fort Sumter is there also. There is supposed to be a really interesting
plantation near Charleston, but we never found it.

I hope you enjoy your trip.

Lisa

(Al) wrote in message ...
We're planning to visit Charleston and Savannah next April. Any ideas on must
sees? Good places to stay?

If you want to stay near the beach, there are several hotels on the
Isle of Palms that front the ocean with beautiful sunrise views. This
is about 20 minutes drive from the Charleston historic district. The
Holiday Inn is about $125/night. The public areas of the hotel aren't
the fanciest, but the rooms have awesome views with balconies
overlooking the ocean. You can listen to the waves all night! It's
great for the soul.

In Charleston, visit the city market and buy sweetgrass baskets from
the Gullah ladies. Check out Broad Street, Meeting Street, King
Street, and the Battery. Home tours are available. Fort Moultrie on
IOP is interesting. The place is just dripping with history. For food,
the best is she-crab soup at Hyman's. The Boathouse also is great.

In Savannah, the squares are great to walk around amongst the live
oaks and the old mansions. The riverwalk area is kind of touristy.
Since Savannah is inland about 20 miles, you'd have to stay on Tybee
Island if you want ocean views while in the area. I stayed on the
ocean in both cities, making day trips to the historic districts. If
you go to Tybee, stay at the 17th Street Inn. It's a great small inn
with individual entrances for privacy and small kitchenettes. It's a
two-minute walk to the beach and the innkeeper has a great cat (Mr.
Wilson) who visits the rooms. We kept slipping him tuna and he slept
with us one night.

I loved the Lowcountry and would go back any time. Good luck and have
a great trip!