1 Day in the Garden of Good and Evil

One of the best parts about graduating? Not having to drive alllll the way back to Texas at the end of the year and then alllll the way back to New York. I know it seems crazy, but I couldn’t have survived living on Long Island without a car for 3 years. 

BUT now that I have graduated, me and my little car are home for good. For our last road trip back down south, my mom and I decided to finally make time for a full pit-stop to break up the 2-day drive. She picked our spot, so after graduation we hit the road for Savannah, Georgia.

Savannah has been on my list of places to visit for a while, and my mom has been raving about it ever since she visited a few years ago. It was also halfway between New York and Texas without going too far out of our way. 

Savannah has all the things I love- a rich history, fantastic food, and beautiful architecture that made me stop every ten feet to take a picture. We visited the day before Christmas Eve so the city was all decked out for the season. 

This cozy little room was in a bookstore around the corner from our hotel. If I lived in Savannah I would come here every day and snuggle up with a book and cup of coffee. 

Wanting to see as much of the city as possible, we hopped on one of the city’s trolley tours. You can hop on and hop off as you go, but our first tour guide was so awesome that we stayed on for the whole tour!

We used Old Town trolley tours, which I recommend, but it looked like all the tour companies hit roughly the same spots, and you really can’t go wrong with any of them! 

Can I move in?

This building (and many, many others in Savannah) was featured in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. References to the movie and book are found all over the city, and I’ve been meaning to get my hands on it and read about all the places we saw! 

The fountain in Forsythe Park was modeled after one in Paris and actually came from a catalogue. 

The Confederate memorial in Forsythe Park. Most people know of Savannah because of it’s history during the Civil War. On his march to the sea, after burning Atlanta, Union General Sherman gave President Lincoln the city as a Christmas present. The city was spared, and Sherman used it as his headquarters (much to our dismay, the house where he stayed was closed for the holidays. That’s our excuse to return!). 

The Mercer House, as seen in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. 

A lot of the houses have beautiful iron work- iron was incredibly expensive and having it on your house showed your wealth. If your door was painted red, it also meant that your mortgage was paid off. 

For lunch, we visited one of Savannah’s most popular restaurants, the Pink House. 

OMG y’all. This place was delicious. It’s inside an old mansion, and you sit in any one of the house’s beautiful rooms, each decorated in a different way. The food is incredible. I recommend the shrimp angel hair pasta, the gumbo (ohhh the gumbo) and the Pink Lady if you need a drink after a long day of sight-seeing. 

The room pictured above took up almost half the top level. It was set up to hold quite a few people, and I couldn’t help but think that it would be a perfect place for a wedding reception. 

A little piece of London in Savannah. 

Florence Martus, the “waving girl.” Her lover went to sea, and she stood on the shore waiting for him for years. You can find her likeness in every single souvenir shop in Savannah. 

Worn out from a loooong day, we hit the hay early so that we could make the last leg back to Dallas the next day.

But first, we had to see one more site: Bonaventure Cemetery. Of course, first we had to stop for breakfast. My mom found Henry’s online and IT WAS AWESOME. Just a little hole-in-the-wall cafe full of locals, but with the BEST grits and eggs and coffee that you could ask for. Definitely a hidden gem in Savannah.

The cemetery used to be part of the old Tattnall plantation, Bonaventure. Part of the cemetery was used as a family plot, and has been used since 1803. It changed hands several times, and has been owned by the city of Savannah as Bonaventure Cemetery since 1907. 

It may seem a little weird for a cemetery to be a tourist destination, but because the cemetery has such a decorative, Southern Gothic feel, complete with the huge Spanish moss trees that made Savannah so iconic, it attracts people every year. 

Johnny Mercer (who wrote almost every famous movie song, including ‘Moon River’ from Breakfast at Tiffany’s) and his family members have a plot in Bonaventure.

I knew I would love Savannah. But as soon as we pulled in I instantly fell deeply in love with it. I’m already trying to plan a trip back! Since I have done so much international traveling, I am trying to make a point to also see more of the US. Obviously I still love going ’round the world, but I think it is just as important to see more of your home country!

What are some of your favorite spots to visit where you live?