Day Trip from St. Augustine: Savannah
The sister city road trip. About 2.5 hours, historic squares, live oaks, and a city that earns its reputation.
Savannah feels like St. Augustine’s older, taller cousin who went away to finishing school and came back with better drapes. For visitors based in St. Augustine, it is one of the most natural road trips in the region – old coastal streets, live oaks, brick, moss, ghost tours, historic houses, and a downtown that rewards slow walking.
The Drive from St. Augustine to Savannah
From St. Augustine, Savannah is roughly 155 miles north – about two and a half hours without traffic. The route is straightforward: I-95 North through Jacksonville, past the airport corridor, over the Florida-Georgia line, through the Brunswick area, and then toward Savannah.
Jacksonville can be the only real headache early in the trip. Depending on time of day, traffic around the city can slow things down. After that, the drive gets easier. Brunswick is the most obvious place to stop if you need fuel, food, or a short break. It is also the gateway area for the Golden Isles, so if you wanted to turn this into a longer coastal Georgia trip, that is where the temptation starts.
Savannah’s Historic District: Squares and Streets
Savannah’s Historic District is the main reason to go. The city is famous for its 22 historic squares, and they are not just a postcard detail – they are the organizing principle of the old city. Founded in 1733 on James Oglethorpe’s ward system, the result is one of the most walkable and visually satisfying historic districts in the country.
The squares matter because they slow you down. In St. Augustine, walking often means following old streets, alleys, bayfront paths, and historic lanes. In Savannah, walking becomes more rhythmic – you move from square to square, block to block, shade to shade. It gives the city a formal grace that St. Augustine does not quite have.
Chippewa Square
One of the easiest entry points for first-timers – central, pretty, and a good place to start your square-to-square walk. Famous partly for its Forrest Gump connection, though the bench is not sitting there waiting for you. The square itself is worth seeing beyond that.
Monterey Square
One of the most photographed squares, especially because it sits near the Mercer-Williams House. It has that classic Savannah composition: trees, historic homes, ironwork, brick sidewalks, and enough beauty to make you slow down without needing a sign telling you to.
Forsyth Park
The bigger centerpiece. If the squares are Savannah’s punctuation marks, Forsyth is the grand paragraph. The fountain is the image everyone knows, and yes, it is worth seeing. Go early if you want it quieter. Go later if you want people-watching, musicians, dogs, students, and that Savannah park life.
Essential Stops
The Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist
Even if you are not a church person, go look. It is grand, beautiful, and gives Savannah a vertical, sacred centerpiece in the historic district. St. Augustine has the Cathedral Basilica on the Plaza, but Savannah’s cathedral has a different scale and interior drama.
The Mercer-Williams House
Essential if you have any connection to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The house sits on Monterey Square and is one of Savannah’s most famous historic homes. The book and movie turned it into a major piece of the city’s modern mythology, but even without that connection, the setting is worth seeing. It is one of those places where Savannah’s beauty and darkness seem to stand very close together.
River Street
Essential for a first visit, but with a small warning. Walk the old riverfront, look at the cobblestones, watch the ships, and understand how the Savannah River shaped the city. It is atmospheric and historic. But River Street is also one of the most tourist-facing parts of Savannah – shops, bars, sweets, crowds. Treat it like St. George Street: important, lively, and not the whole story.
Bonaventure Cemetery
Worth the drive from downtown. Put it high on the list, especially for St. Augustine visitors who enjoy old cemeteries, live oaks, sculpture, and the atmospheric side of history. It takes a little effort to get there. Make the effort. Bonaventure gives you Savannah at its most haunting and poetic.
Book Tours & Experiences in Savannah
Top-rated experiences in Savannah, bookable with free cancellation.
Experiences provided by Viator. Prices shown in USD and subject to change. Affiliate disclosure.
Where to Eat in Savannah
The Olde Pink House
The obvious iconic choice. It is touristy, yes. It is also in an 18th-century mansion at 23 Abercorn Street and serves classic Southern cuisine in one of the most recognizable dining rooms in the historic district. Worth doing once, especially if you want the full Savannah dinner experience.
Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room
The classic Southern lunch experience. A line forms at 107 West Jones Street, the doors open at 11, and guests sit at shared tables with platters of fried chicken, cornbread dressing, sweet potato soufflé, biscuits, and other changing dishes. This is not a quiet, private lunch. It is a communal meal, and that is the point. Go hungry.
Husk Savannah
The more modern Southern recommendation. It is in the Landmark Historic District and focuses on coastal Georgia ingredients, local farmers, and Lowcountry traditions through a more contemporary kitchen lens. If the Olde Pink House is the classic mansion dinner and Mrs. Wilkes is the boarding-house table, Husk is the modern Southern dining answer.
The Tybee Island Add-On
Tybee Island is about 20 to 30 minutes east of Savannah. It is the beach add-on, and it changes the trip. Tybee has a casual, slightly weathered Lowcountry beach-town feel. The Tybee Island Light Station is one of the signature stops, with admission that includes the lighthouse and museum.
We would add Tybee if you are overnighting or have already seen Savannah before. For a first-time day trip from St. Augustine, squeezing in the historic district and Tybee can make the day feel rushed. For a two-day trip, it works beautifully: Savannah one day, Tybee the next morning, then home.
Day Trip vs. Overnight
Can you do Savannah as a day trip from St. Augustine? Yes. Should you? Only if you are disciplined. At roughly two and a half hours each way, Savannah is within reach. Leave early, focus on the historic district, walk the squares, see Forsyth Park, eat one good meal, maybe do River Street, and head home. That is a full day, but it is doable.
The problem is that Savannah gets better at night. The gas lamps, the ghost tours, the dinner scene, the quieter squares, the old buildings after dark – that is part of the charm. If you leave before evening, you miss a lot of the mood.
An overnight makes much more sense. One night lets you arrive without panic, walk properly, have dinner, enjoy the evening, sleep downtown, and visit Bonaventure or Tybee before driving back. Two nights is even better, but one night is enough to make the trip feel like a trip instead of a stunt.
Where to Stay if You Overnight
Stay in or near the Historic District if you can. Savannah’s signature lodging experience is the historic inn: old buildings, courtyards, porches, staircases, and rooms that feel connected to the city. The key is walkability. If you stay too far outside downtown, you lose some of the magic. Savannah is best when you can park the car and walk square to square, dinner to dessert, ghost tour to hotel.
More to Explore from St. Augustine
The Guide’s Take
Savannah is one of the easiest recommendations we make from St. Augustine. The two cities are kin. Both are old Southern coastal cities built on history, beauty, tourism, ghosts, gardens, and complicated pasts. Both reward walking. Both look best when the light gets low and the moss starts doing what moss does.
But they give you different flavors. St. Augustine has the Spanish fort, the bayfront, the Bridge of Lions, coquina, Minorcan food, and that salty old Florida weirdness we love. Savannah has the squares, Forsyth Park, grander homes, Lowcountry food, SCAD energy, and a more polished Southern historic district.
If you love St. Augustine, you should probably see Savannah. Go for one night if you can. Walk slowly. Eat well. Do not just do River Street and leave. Sit in the squares. Drive out to Bonaventure. Add Tybee if you have time. Let Savannah be Savannah, not a replacement for St. Augustine.