As of last week, I’ve lived in Savannah, Georgia for four years, which, quite frankly, has gone by in a flash. I love our adopted home city – though I definitely love flying back across the pond, and miss prawn cocktail crisps, Percy Pig sweets and at this time of year, mince pies – and wanted to share with you some of my favourite places to visit, things to do and delicious treats to eat in honour of our milestone! (All with a history theme, of course!)

Tour Davenport House Museum

I am exceptionally biased as I am a docent at the Davenport House, but it is a fascinating property. Completed in 1820, it was constructed by master builder Isaiah Davenport as the best advertisement he could possibly give for his own building business.

In the past couple of weeks, a new exhibit has opened in the basement: the museum has spent years restoring the basement, a key area where the enslaved workers would have lived and worked, and tell their stories.

Not only this, but when the house was bought by Historic Savannah Foundation in 1955, it kickstarted a citywide preservation movement that helped preserve what is now the National Landmark Historic District in the city. Read more here.

Eat dinner in a restored Greyhound Bus Station

On Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, you will find The Grey, a fine dining restaurant located in the old, formerly segregated, 1938 Art Deco Greyhound Bus Station.

A partnership between chef Mashama Bailey and Johno Morisano has created a unique space where you can eat beautiful Southern food in a unique setting. Bailey has her own fascinating episode on Netflix’s Chef’s Table, which I recommend watching, and the two owners have penned a book called The Black, White and the Grey, which explores their friendship and the process of building a business between a Black chef and white entrepreneur in a place formerly of exclusion.

The food and drinks are delicious, and the art on the walls – particularly by Savannah-based artist Marcus Kenney – is brilliant.

Tour the Green-Meldrim House

When General Sherman occupied Savannah in Christmas 1864, he stationed his headquarters here. On January 12th 1865, he and Edwin Stanton held a meeting with twenty Black leaders, in which they discussed land and assistance for freed enslaved people, resulting in the issuance of Field Order No. 15.

Not only this, but the house was later the childhood home of Sophie Meldrim, whose fashion company, Chez Ninon, made the iconic pink suit Jackie Kennedy wore the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

This house has an incredible set of stories and characters, and I recommend a tour!

Walk all twenty-two historic squares

When James Oglethorpe founded Savannah in 1733, he decided the city should be constructed around a system of squares, which you can read more about here. Though he only oversaw the first six, the city grew to twenty-four squares.

You can now wander the twenty-two that remain, which all have their own names, monuments and plantings to make them unique. Excitingly, as of this year, we have our first square named for a woman: Taylor Square, originally built in 1851, has been renamed in honour of Susie King Taylor, a Black nurse, author and educator.

My favourite squares are Columbia, Lafayette, Troup, Pulaski and Chatham. I am very, very biased on Columbia Square… it’s where I got married.

Browse art galleries and antique shops

Savannah is an incredibly artistic place: it is home to Savannah College of Art and Design, of course. There are so many art galleries across the city, that if you enjoy art, make sure to stop in a few. I really like Laney Contemporary, and then downtown, Signature Gallery of Savannah.

Alongside this, do NOT miss the antique shops, which are great for browsing. Jere’s Antiques is phenomenal – they have whole hotel bars in there – and the more kitschy Wright Square Vintage and Retro Mall is a real favourite – particularly for records and prints!

Grab a coffee at Mirabelle

I love a coffee shop, and Mirabelle is my absolute favourite.

It is located across the road from St John the Baptist Cathedral, with pavement tables, so there is a beautiful view, plus their waffles and chai lattes are excellent. I fell in love with it when I first visited, and I finished my PhD thesis there, as well as multiple writing projects sat outside. All my family and friends are brought here when they visit!

Visit the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters

The Owens-Thomas House is a Regency home designed by English architect William Jay, and is where the Marquis de Lafayette stayed in 1825 when he visited Savannah.

It is also where you can visit some of the most well-interpreted enslaved living quarters in the city, with a tour framed around the intersection between the lives of those enslaved here and their enslavers.

Wander around the SCAD Museum of Art

The museum of the Savannah College of Art and Design is always a fun one to visit as they have such vibrant and diverse exhibitions from a variety of contemporary artists (one of my good friends installs them, and I love hearing about every piece of art they put in!). To go alongside this, there are some really interesting events and talks that go on here, which are always worth checking out here.

Drive out to Tybee Island

Our beach! Tybee Island is rustic and characterful, and I particularly love the North Beach. Grab a hot dog and a coupe of champagne (yes, a great combination!) at Sea Wolf, one of my favourite places to eat in all of Savannah, before taking a stroll along the beach to watch a sunset.

It’s a great place to spot dolphins: one year we took a picnic out to the beach for my birthday, and we had it to ourselves (in August!) and saw about forty dolphins swimming past – I kid you not. It was absolutely wonderful and one of my best memories of living here.

Eat brunch at Collins Quarter

Collins Quarter has two locations: downtown and in Forsyth Park. My favourite location is the park, as you can have a wander past the iconic Forsyth fountain, which dates to 1858. You can then sit under the trees (if it isn’t raining, or too hot!) and Spanish moss and have coffee and breakfast.

It’s a lovely relaxing way to enjoy the park, which was designed to follow the parks of European cities that encouraged leisure for nineteenth century Savannahians: it was created in 1851 by William B. Hodgson literally for “the pleasure of the public”. If it truly is a beautiful day, grab a bite and drink to go from CQ Forsyth and have a picnic.

Enjoy the view at Peregrin Rooftop Bar

If you enjoy rooftop bars, you are truly spoilt for choice in Savannah. River Street is lined with them, with many hotels on the waterfront boasting wonderful views and capitalising on it.

However, my favourite rooftop in the city is a little more inland. You can find Peregrin at the top of the Perry Lane Hotel, which can be found between Oglethorpe Avenue and Liberty Street. Not only is it a beautiful space with great food and drinks, but I think it has the best view.

Why? Because you are in the centre of the city, you can look across church spires, squares and out towards the Talmadge Bridge, which crosses the Savannah River, joining the state of Georgia with South Carolina. The bars on the river are fun for spotting boats (seriously, the port of Savannah is incredibly busy, so you’ll see a lot of container ships sailing by!) and looking across to Hutchinson Island, but I think Peregrin has a much better view to the heart of the Historic District of downtown.

Pet the cats and browse the books at E Shaver Booksellers

If independent bookshops are your thing, you will love E Shaver. They recently opened a second location in Starland, which boasts a cafe inside, but if you visit their original location just off Madison Square, you can not only spend a long time getting lost in all of the great books and spaces (it is like a lovely little maze in there, with lots of different rooms housing countless subjects and genres), but pet the beautiful cats who call the shop their home. Sometimes when you wander past they are sunning themselves in the windows, and it is an added bonus of supporting a local bookshop!

Take a ghost tour

Savannah is renowned for being haunted, and there are plenty of ghost tours making the rounds every evening, from trolley tours, tours in hearses (I kid you not) and walking tours. I have a favourite ghost tour, which is run by the lovely Enocha Edenfield. Enocha has done incredible research into the background of common Savannah ghost stories, so her tour is grounded in brilliant historical detail, besides including spinechilling details about the city that really can’t be explained. She is a great storyteller and also really fun to follow on social media.

End the day with a glass of wine

Savannah has some really cool places to grab a glass of wine – my favourite drink besides tea! – and I have a recommendation for each of the three downtown districts.

In the Historic District, try a glass at 208 Wine Bar on Factors Walk, which is in an old warehouse overlooking the river with wonderful furniture made from reclaimed wood. In the Victorian District, head to Le Chai at the south end of Forsyth Park: a wine shop with a bar that you can taste by the glass. And in Starland, try Late Air; it feels like you could step back outside the door and find yourself in a European city, which is really cool. And, the food is to die for!

Hopefully this has whetted your appetite for all the things you can do in Savannah – and I feel like I have just scratched the surface. It may not be the largest city, but there is so much going on, and I hope you get to enjoy it one day if you haven’t already!