Savannah Travel Guide

The Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum in downtown Savannah is Georgia's only museum devoted to the civil rights movement, honoring local leader Dr. Gilbert, born in 1919. Film, photos and oral histories cover Savannah's 1950s–70s struggle, including sit-ins and voting rights; the museum also serves as a community education hub.

The Owens-Thomas House is one of Savannah's finest Regency-era mansions, built in 1819 by English architect William Jay. Its interiors keep Victorian furniture and decorative arts, and the rear yard preserves one of the few surviving urban slave quarters in North America — a dual window onto 19th-century Savannah high society and the history of slavery.

The Telfair Academy of Arts & Sciences, Savannah's oldest public art museum, occupies the 1819 Telfair Mansion and opened as a museum in 1886 — among the first public museums in the South. It holds 19th-century American painting, silver and sculpture; the Roman-style courtyard and domed rotunda feel classically grand, and it anchors the Telfair Museums group.

The SCAD Museum of Art is the contemporary art museum of the Savannah College of Art and Design, housed in a renovated 19th-century railway depot and opened in 2011. It shows international contemporary art and design with rotating major exhibitions across painting, installation, fashion and architecture; the glass-and-brick adaptive reuse is itself a draw, embodying Savannah's creative energy.

The Mercer-Williams House, located on Monterey Square in Savannah's historic district, is one of the most legendary residences in this charming Southern city. Originally built in the 1860s, the house was meticulously restored in 1976 by Jim Williams, a renowned antiques dealer and architectural preservationist who transformed the dilapidated property into one of Savannah's finest private homes. The house gained widespread fame through John Berendt's bestselling novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which chronicles Williams' complex relationship with his assistant Danny Hansford and the shocking shooting that captivated the entire city. Visitors strolling beneath the live oaks of Monterey Square can admire the elegant Greek Revival facade, ornate cast-iron balcony, and beautifully restored interior spaces. Though still privately owned, the house and surrounding square have become Savannah's most popular literary pilgrimage landmark, attracting book lovers and film enthusiasts from around the world.

Wormsloe Plantation Historic Site, located near Savannah, Georgia, is one of the state's most famous historic plantation ruins, established in the 1730s by British colonist Noble Jones. The most impressive feature is the entrance avenue of live oaks stretching over 1.6 kilometers, with massive branches forming a natural green tunnel, sunlight filtering through leaves to create dappled shadows, considered one of the most romantic landscapes in the American South. The site preserves 18th-century plantation tabby ruins and original architectural structures, demonstrating colonial construction techniques and plantation life. The visitor center museum details the complex history from colonial times through the Civil War, including the realities of slavery and the Southern plantation economy.