Savannah and Hilton Head Island - May 2025

What better way to spend a long weekend than split between a beautiful historic city and gorgeous sandy beaches. This vacation included Whitney, Whitney's friend Sophia, Matthew and me.

Day 1: River Street

We flew into Savannah early on a Wednesday and landed just after 2pm. Our hotel check-in was 3pm, so the timing was perfect after grabbing our rental car.

We stayed at the River Street Inn, right on River Street. Whitney and I visited Savannah in 2022, and we loved this hotel so much, I booked it again. The location is perfect with easy access to River Street and Bay Street, and the hotel itself is really cute with nice rooms and views of the river.

I did not over plan this trip, which is very unlike me. We checked into the hotel, dropped our bags, and then went to explore River Street.

We did a little shopping, had an early dinner, enjoyed some ice cream and sat by the river people watching and checking out the different monuments and sculptures along the walkway. We stayed to watch the sunset over the bridge.

Day 2: Savannah

When we woke up Thursday morning our first mission was to find coffee. Matthew and I went out to a cafe right next to our hotel, but they weren't open. We are early risers, so it was disappointing, but we did see the City Hall lit up and the alley ways under the street hit different in the dark.

Once the girls were up and ready, we bought a Hop on Hop off trolley pass. This is a perfect way to hear the history of the city and easily get around to areas you want to explore. The trolley stop was just a few blocks up from our hotel entrance on River Street, stop #11 of 15. We rode for a few stops hearing about the history of the cotton warehouses converted to hotels and restaurants on River Street, the story of the Waving Girl Statue, the historical family homes in the historic district, and hopped off at Colonial Park Cemetery.

We decided to find breakfast before actually walking through the cemetery. We walked just a couple blocks to The Collins Quarter. The food here was good, and the service was wonderful.

It was a warm day, and even though it was early, it was already over 90 degrees. We decided to wait for the trolley that was right on the corner of the restaurant, and to get off later in the tour to see the cemetery, rather than walking back. The trolley stop is right outside of the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace Museum. We didn't go in, but we snapped a few pictures from outside.

We rode the trolley for a few more stops until we had to get off at stop #1 The Savannah Visitor Center. We grabbed a couple of waters and checked out the visitors center, then decided to walk to stop #8 Old Town Trolley Barn, because the wait to get on a trolley was incredibly long at the visitor's center.

We only rode the trolley one stop to City Market. We spent about an hour or so at City Market, shopping for souvenirs and enjoying the different shops.

Next, we walked to stop #3 so we could get back to the cemetery by getting off again at stop #7 Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. When we got off, there was a service in session at the cathedral, so we walked over to the cemetery first. This cemetery is very old, with many gravestones hard to read. It is beautiful with live oak trees draped with Spanish moss.

After the cemetery we went into the Cathedral. This Cathedral is gorgeous. There was a tour group there so we listened in for a minute, took a few pictures and then went back out to catch the next trolley.

We rode the trolley for the rest of the tour, taking in the beautiful buildings and listening to the retelling of Savannah's history and the people that helped build it.

Once our tour was over, we went back to our hotel to rest and cool off for a while before dinner. Whitney snuck in a nap, while Matthew, Sophia and I went to Wet Willie's, the restaurant attached to our hotel. We sat outside overlooking the river and the food and service were good.

After our bellies were full, we went to wake Whitney up, then walked to Clary's Cafe to meet our group for our Sixth Sense Ghost Tour.

Our tour guide was very odd...and our tour was extra cheesy. The stories were really interesting, and we did see several different allegedly haunted sites, but I do wish they would have done a better job of making it creepy vs cheesy.

After the tour ended, we walked back to the hotel, with a quick stop at a gas station for some drinks.

Day 3: Hilton Head Island

We woke around 8:00am, and packed our things then checked out of The River Street Inn and said our goodbyes to Savannah. Hilton Head Island is only about an hour from Savannah, so we didn't have a long drive. We couldn't check into our VRBO until 4pm, so we planned to go straight to the beach.

Coligny Beach is a huge beach with nice restrooms and a ton of shops and restaurants within walking distance. There is a free public parking lot right across the street. When we arrived, I was starving so the girls went to the beach while Matthew and I went to find breakfast. We walked along peaking into shops and found Skillets Cafe and Grill. We enjoyed a decent breakfast and then joined the girls at the beach.

The waves here were very mild. I love bouncing in the waves in the ocean, but they really weren't even big enough to bounce in. Matthew looked it up and apparently it is very shallow for several miles out from shore, averaging around 10 feet deep, which keeps the waves small.

We still enjoyed laying on the beach, reading, and cooling off in the Atlantic. The weather was perfect, and the sun felt amazing.

We went to our VRBO just after 4pm. I typed in the address, and it was just up the road from Coligny Beach. We stopped our van, grabbed our bags and walked up the stairs and tried the code on the lock. And it didn't work. So I called the host and as we were standing there trying to figure out what the issue was, saw a bunch of bags through the window. That is when we realized we were at the wrong house! Luckily no one witnessed our embarrassment, and we hopped back in the car and drove the complete opposite way of the beach and eventually found our rental.

We stayed in a VRBO in an community called Seascape Villas. Our rental had a kitchen, living area, dining area and a walk out to a deck on the first level. The deck overlooked a little pond area. We were all the way at the end, so right next to a bridge that crossed the pond. Upstairs there were two nice sized bedrooms and two bathrooms. It was perfect for our group. The property also has two pools, but we never made our way to check them out. You also have access to private beach access, but it is across the street and through another resort, and it looked like a really long walk. So, we didn't take advantage of it.

We were all a little sunburned and tired from our day at the beach, so we relaxed for a bit. Whitney and Sophia spent the next few hours getting ready for dinner. They were excited to take photos on the beach so they went all out. Matthew and I watch some TV and sat on the deck looking at turtles and trying to spot alligators.

We had dinner at One Hot Mama's BBQ. The food was pretty good. I think this might be a chain restaurant because we did see several while looking for restaurants, but it was new to us.

After dinner we went back to Coligny Beach to watch the sunset. We walked along the water, took so many photos and enjoyed a beautiful evening.

Day 4: Hilton Head Island

We started our day by driving to The Sea Pines Forest Preserve. You have to pay to enter this area, which is expected, but we didn't realize we had to pay to go to the towns on this part of the island, not just the preserve area. We only got a one day pass and should've opted for 2 days to save a few bucks.

There wasn't a ton we wanted to see in the preserve, we were really just looking for alligators. Sophia had never seen one and it was nice to see some nature on our trip. We drove into the preserve area and parked and walked along Lake Joe for a short while. We did see an alligator pretty quickly out in the lake, but it was out quite a bit so we didn't have the best view of it. It was still fun to see it swimming across the lake.

After a short walk along the lake, we drove the van to the end of Lake Joe and took a short trail to Shell Ring. There were a ton of leaves on the ground completely covering the shells, so it was pretty underwhelming, but we read the signs and learned the history and importance of the site.

When we walked back to the parking area we walked on the docks and across the bridge and scoped out the water looking for signs of more alligators. Sophia spotted on in a shallow area just on our side of the bridge. It was close and we had plenty of time to watch it swim.

I wanted to check out South Beach after the preserve, so we followed GPS to where South Beach should be and saw a bunch of houses and resorts and a sign that said no public access. We drove around, attempting to find parking, and eventually got frustrated and drove to Coligny Beach. I'm sure there is a way to check out South Beach, but a beach is a beach and Coligny was fine.

We dropped the girls at the beach while Matthew and I want to have lunch. We went to the restaurant right next to the beach access at Flatbread Grill and Bar. The kitchen didn't open until 11:30, so we sat at the bar and had some fruity iced drinks while we waited. The service here is not great, but the bar tender was friendly. Our drinks were good and went down easy, so I ended up having a second before our meal ended.

After lunch we made our way to the beach, and I was a little tipsy. We laid out our chairs and lathered up with sunscreen and just lounged for a bit. The beach was absolutely packed. I tried to read but I got a headache pretty quickly and ended up falling a sleep. I alternated the afternoon between sleeping and dipping in the ocean to cool off.

By the time we left we were all fried. You could clearly see the strips of skin that sunscreen was missed. We went back to our townhome pretty early and took naps and showered.

We ate dinner at Stellini Italian Restaurant. The food was great here and the restaurant was quaint. We sat by windows where we saw racoons and deer, which they feed.

Day 5: Harbour Town

This was our final day. We were flying home on a later flight, so we didn't have to leave the island until 3pm. Checkout was 10am, so we got ready and packed everything up. We all decided we'd had enough sun for the week, so we went into Harbour Town to explore.

We had to pay the entrance fee again and then made our way to find breakfast. This area is so cute. Everyone is out walking and riding bikes, there are golf courses, beach homes, resorts and little shops all along the drive.

We found a parking lot right across from Harbour Town Bakery & Cafe which is where we ended up eating. This restaurant was PACKED. There was a line out the door all the way to the sidewalk. You order inside and then they bring you your food to your table, which are all set up outside. The girls went and snagged us a place to sit while Matthew and I ordered food and coffee for everyone. The food was ok, and the coffee was pretty good.

After breakfast we strolled along checking out the shops, bought a few souvenirs and checked out the lighthouse. Sophia and Whitney decided to go up into the lighthouse, and Matthew and I found ice cream.

We walked along the beach looking for shark's teeth and cool shells, Whitney and Sophia found a crab they were fascinated by, and we watched storm clouds rolling in across the water.

We left just as it started to rain. We tried to find other areas we could check out before leaving the island, and did stop at another park, but it was raining enough that we didn't stop long.

As we made our way off the island back toward Savannah, the sky opened up and dumped a steady stream of rain on us. It was difficult to see and there was so much water on the road so quickly it was a little scary driving back.

We still had plenty of time before we had to be to the airport, even with the slow drive, so we googled a plantation that was only around 15 minutes further. When we got there, the gates were closed, and we couldn't even see anything from the road.

We arrived at the airport, as the rain got heavy again, and flash flood warning sounded on our phones, so we weren't too disappointed that we were earlier than originally planned.

This was a fun vacation. It was the perfect long weekend with a mix of history and relaxation.