Savannah is one of my favorite American cities, just off the Georgia coast and near the South Carolina border, with incredible 1700s era architecture, great southern food and 22 leafy squares that are just made for walking.
Since the name of the show is Photowalks, it made perfect sense to grab my iPhones and selfie sticks and return (4th visit) to film a new episode earlier this year, which is available for your viewing pleasure now. As I’ve learned over the years, there’s always more to see—you can never hit everything on short helicopter visits.
In January I met up with Supriya Christopher, who leads Savannah’s tourism public relations at a New York travel show, and we talked about a return, which happened fast, the following month, as part of the the Atlanta to Charleston to Savannah and St. Augustine tour. She helped set me up with some really interesting local folks to meet with, plus, I got to also visit with my friend Howard Paul, the great jazz guitarist who lives in Savannah and runs the boutique jazz guitar company Benedetto Guitars. So lots to see and do, and most importantly, get great photos!
The last time I was there I shot on the then new iPhone 13, and the difference between what I could do then and now is stark. If you haven’t upgraded in a while, I highly recommend it. Higher resolution, sharper images, better in low light, way better looking video and the wider selfie camera that I love on the 17 Pro are just some of the selling points for me. (Take a look at the episode and let me know what you think!)
What follows is an easy 2‑day itinerary for anyone considering visiting, following the route from the Photowalks Savannah episode: walking Bull Street from City Hall to Forsyth Park, dipping into Revolutionary and civil‑rights history, sampling Savannah’s food scene and visiting a world‑famous gothic cemetery, and as always, in the episode, I wrap up with phone‑friendly photo tips.
Day 1: Bull Street Walk, Squares and Southern Classics
The city’s signature is its plan: short blocks and a repeating pattern of squares that make the historic core one of the most walkable places in the country. Except for the cemetery visit (more on that in a minute) once you’re here, you don’t need a car—Savannah is built to be explored on foot.
Start at City Hall near the river, then find Bull Street and start walking. This will take you to Johnson Square, the oldest and first of Savannah’s historic squares, laid out around 1733. This is also a key stop if you’re thinking ahead to America’s 250th anniversary: Johnson Square is where residents gathered to hear the Declaration of Independence read aloud locally for the first time.
Georgia’s three signers had already put their names on the document in Philadelphia, and streets in Savannah still bear their names. After the reading, locals staged a symbolic “funeral” for the monarchy, parading and “burying” an effigy of King George III in the square to mark the end of royal rule in the colony.
From here, your main move is simple and satisfying: just walk straight for about a mile to Forsyth Park, home of the historic fountain that you see in the thumbnail image above. From here, you will cross square after square along the way. The blocks are short, and you’ll reach the park faster than you expect.
Midday: Chippewa Square, Clary’s, and Mercer‑Williams
Chippewa Square is famous as the setting for many of the bench scenes in “Forrest Gump,” though the actual bench now lives in a local museum, not the square itself. Surrounding streets include theaters, galleries and restaurants, making this one of the more cinematic corners of the historic district.
Savannah also leans heavily into its “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” fame, based on the popular 30-year-old book and 1990s era movie. The Mercer‑Williams House, a 19th‑century mansion facing Monterey Square, played a key role in the book and film and offers interior tours that showcase period furnishings and its architectural details. Even if you only see Mercer‑Williams from the outside, it anchors one of the prettiest squares in town.
Clary’s Café, a classic neighborhood diner featured in the “Midnight” book and movie, is just 0.2 miles off Monterey Square and is a must stop. It still serves generous Southern breakfasts and sandwiches, and even sports a stained‑glass portrait of the Bird Girl inside.
That “Bird Girl” statue that once stood in Bonaventure Cemetery gained worldwide attention from the book cover and film poster; it now resides at the Telfair Museums, which are on Telfair Square. ($30 to enter, but you get to visit three different museums, which also includes the Owens-Thomas House, which dates to 1819 and is a standout example of English Regency architecture in the U.S. The museum shows both sides of the story—it also has some of the best-preserved urban slave quarters in the country, located behind the main house.
Afternoon: More Squares
As you continue toward Forsyth, pay attention to what’s surrounding each square. Architectural historians like to say that Savannah’s real masterpiece is not any single building but the street plan itself—and then every style in American and European architectural history shows up around those green spaces.
On just a few blocks you can see:
Early Georgian‑style homes from the mid‑1700s.
Federal and Greek Revival townhouses with fanlights, columns and symmetrical façades.
Elaborate Victorian homes from the city’s 19th‑century boom years, with ornate trim and wraparound porches.
20th‑century buildings filling in the gaps, often in dialogue with the older fabric.
It’s not unusual, as we did in the episode, to be able to stand on one corner and pick out structures from the 1760s, 1860s and 1960s all at once.
First African Baptist Church
Along your loop, make time for First African Baptist Church, widely considered the oldest Black congregation in North America, on Franklin Square. The congregation traces its origins to 1773, when George Liele, then enslaved, began preaching along the Savannah River; he was ordained in 1775, obtained his freedom in 1777, and organized the church that same year.
The current building on Franklin Square was completed in 1859 and dedicated in 1861, constructed largely by congregants who were still enslaved. They made and carried Savannah gray brick from the river and worked by firelight at night, since daylight hours were controlled by enslavers. Money that could have gone toward personal emancipation, as we learn in the video from long-time pastor Thurmond Tillman, instead went into building a sanctuary; within two years, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
The church later served as a key site on the Underground Railroad and remains an active congregation today.
Final Square Stop: Forsyth Park
End your Bull Street walk at Forsyth Park and its fountain.
Forsyth covers about 30 acres at the south end of the historic grid and functions as Savannah’s central green, with lawns, paths, playgrounds and a weekly farmers’ market. The fountain, installed in 1858 and modeled loosely on fountains in Paris’s Place de la Concorde, is the city’s most photographed single sight and appears in nearly every tourism brochure and post.
Dinner: The Olde Pink House
For a classic night out, reserve a table at The Olde Pink House, an 18th‑century mansion just off Reynolds Square that now houses one of the city’s best‑known Southern restaurants.
The original structure dates back to the 1700s and is often described as the first mansion built in Georgia. Over the centuries it has served as a private residence, law office, bookstore, library, and tea room before being restored and reopened as a restaurant in the 1990s. The menu leans classic Southern: shrimp and grits, crab cakes, she‑crab soup—and two dishes in particular:
A crispy scored flounder, served whole (minus the head), diamond‑scored, lightly floured and flash‑fried, then finished with an apricot‑shallot glaze—a kind of Southern take on sweet‑and‑sour.
Fried chicken that many diners consider among the city’s best; Savannah has a deep bench of fried‑chicken institutions, but the Pink House version is often mentioned in the same breath as the city’s most famous plates. (Our waiter told us the fried chicken there was simply the best, and I’m not about to argue!)
Day 2: Riverfront and Bonaventure Cemetery
Begin your second day on the Savannah Riverfront, centered on cobblestoned River Street. Once the commercial heart of the city, this stretch of warehouses, sheds and wharves handled bales of cotton and other goods moving between ship and shore when Savannah was one of the world’s busiest cotton ports.
Today, those 19th‑century brick warehouses house hotels, restaurants, galleries and shops, but the industrial bones are still visible in the iron catwalks and cobblestone ramps.
We stayed at the River Street Inn, sleeping in one of those old cotton warehouses—a roughly 200‑year‑old building converted into a boutique hotel overlooking the river and its parade of ships. The location puts you steps from the waterfront promenade and an easy walk up into the historic district.
Afternoon: Bonaventure Cemetery
No Savannah trip is complete without a visit to Bonaventure Cemetery, a few miles east of the historic district on a bluff above the Wilmington River.
Bonaventure became globally famous after serving as inspiration and backdrop for “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” but it has been a local place of memory since the 19th century. The cemetery is known for:
A canopy of live oaks draped in Spanish moss, creating a gothic, tunnel‑like atmosphere along many paths.
Winding lanes and family plots filled with ornate marble monuments and angel statues.
The graves of notable Savannahians, including songwriter Johnny Mercer and Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Conrad Aiken.
Much‑photographed memorials such as the statue of young Gracie Watson and large angels like the monument to Beulah Bliss.
The “Bird Girl” statue that once stood here is no longer on site; as mentioned earlier, it was moved to the Telfair Museums after the book and movie turned it into an icon.
One practical detail: the cemetery gates close at 5 p.m. daily, so plan to arrive by mid‑afternoon to give yourself time to wander. If you don’t have a car, take a cab. Trust me, it’s worth it.
Benedetto Guitars – Jazz Mastery
A short drive from downtown, you’ll find one of Savannah’s most surprising workshops: Benedetto Guitars, a small facility dedicated to building high‑end jazz archtops by hand.
Benedetto is not open to the public, but if you’re in the market for one of the best made jazz guitars in the world, give them a call—I’m sure Howard and co. would be happy to host you.
ICYMI: I’m a Benedetto owner, and posted an un-boxing video a few years when my beloved instrument arrived!
From the episode:
The company produces between about 80 and 120 guitars a year, many as bespoke orders for professional players.
Prices start in the mid‑thousands for their professional series and can climb into the tens of thousands of dollars for fully carved archtops.
Every instrument is built using “violin woods”: spruce tops and maple backs and sides sourced from Europe or the Pacific Northwest, seasoned for years in a warm, low‑humidity room before they’re carved.
It’s a striking contrast to mass‑produced guitars that go from green wood to finished instrument in a short cycle. Here, some sets of wood have been aging since the late 1980s or early 1990s before ever touching a chisel.
Savannah isn’t the first place most people think of as a “guitar capital,” but for jazz players who prize these instruments, it’s a kind of pilgrimage point—and a reminder that American music is being crafted in all sorts of corners of the country.
Taken together, two days in Savannah give you Revolutionary history, Black church heritage, Southern cooking, artisan guitars, and one of the world’s great atmospheric cemeteries—all in a city designed to be walked and photographed. (But do try to stay longer—there’s always much more to see!)
P.S. Want to hear a nice little jam with myself and Howard? It’s in the episode, check it out!
Magnificent presentation, scenery, history, AND music.