Sitting back and enjoying the open-air trolley tour in Savannah, I felt like I was on one of the old-fogey Disney World rides that I love and the kids hate. We passed neighborhood after neighborhood filled with heritage trees, period architecture, town squares and friendly people.

I admit, even though I had heard so many good things about Savannah, I still arrived with a little cautious skepticism. But we fell in love the minute we got here.

Savannah actually reminded me a lot of my hometown of Beaver, just on a much larger and grander scale. Like my town, Savannah has been named a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation because of the hundreds of large, shady trees, most of which are those iconic, Spanish-moss-covered live oaks you probably know from the 75+ movies that have been filmed here. This stop on our Epic Road Trip of the Great American Southeast definitely lived up to all the hype—and then some!

The Good Stuff

Hop On/Off City Tour

After checking in at the retro-cool Thunderbird Inn motel, we purchased on-and-off trolley tickets with Old Savannah Tours.

Offered on a charming, open-air trolley, this approximately 90-minute tour takes you throughout the city and offers a ton of historic and architectural information as provided by their very knowledgeable and entertaining drivers. Trolleys come to the various stops every 10 minutes, allowing you to jump on and off as you please. So that’s how we spent the day, jumping on and off the trolley and seeing the sights like the stunning Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Colonial Park Cemetery, and the Owens Thomas House (where the Marquis de Lafayette spoke in 1825) to name but a few.

Park Break

Of course, we only made it about five minutes into the tour before our kids wanted to jump off to explore a huge playground in Forsyth Park, the largest of the town’s 24 parks and squares for which Savannah is famous.

Cooling Off

During the crazy heat of the day, we let the kids cool off in the dancing fountains of Ellis Square. I chose to beat the heat with an aptly named “Call A Cab” frozen daiquiri from Wet Willie’s along Savannah’s vibrant City Market. (Savannah is one of only a handful of cities in the U.S. where it’s legal to walk around with an alcoholic drink so I had to give it a try.)

Good Eats

For lunch we grabbed a bite along historic River Street at the Cotton Exchange Tavern. Our dinner stop was at Vinnie Van GoGo’s for some monster slices of their famous, Neapolitan-style pizza.

Friendlier for Families

Both Charleston and Savannah feature rich history and stunning architecture. Savannah is definitely more family-friendly, however. I wished we had stayed longer. Visit savannah.com for more family tips (like ice cream at Leopold’s!)

Read more tales from our 2016 Epic Road Trip of the Great American Southeast:

• Crashing In a Bluegrass Bus: Tales from the road in Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia
• Pirates & Princesses Hit the Gulf Coast: Family fun near Pensacola
• Unwinding on Amelia Island: R&R on a lesser-known Florida beach
• Oh, Savannah! The trees! The parks! The frozen daiquiris!
• Beating the Charleston Heat: Taking it slow and easy in the Palmetto City

by Valentine J. Brkich, July 2016

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Keywords: family vacation, family travel, travel with kids, family road trip, road trip with kids, savannah family vacation, georgia family vacation, savannah with kids