Savannah Vacation News

Have a Jolly Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year

As the staff here at Savannah Getaways remains busy this weekend taking the last of the late breaking Christmas/New Years Reservations, we wish each of our guests over the years the very Best Holiday Greetings for the Christmas Season and the coming New Year.  As so many of our returning friends (some of which we had the good fortune to meet close to nine years ago now) come to Savannah’s Historic District once again to partake of your annual Christmas Vacation Holiday Season Getaway, we thank each of you for your ongoing patronage this holiday season as well as seasons past.   

The fact that Savannah’s Historic District is usually a great place to take a stroll is always a given in one of America's favorite walkable downtown historic district's.  But as so many of our returnees already know, starting up around Thanksgiving and rolling right on through Christmas time, our low country coastal destination outdoes other coastal vacation getaway selections with a smorgasbord of delectable vacation package treats.  As the end of the year sprint to New Year’s Day gets underway in mid November, Georgia’s First City provides picture perfect holiday weekend getaway package opportunities with more bed and breakfast accommodations, upscale historic inn lodging, and historic district hotel rooms combined with a mind numbing selection of more tours than weekend travelers could ever hope to find elsewhere.  Destination Savannah is your target vacation mission for holiday family fun, family reunions, or romantic interludes for you and your special someone.  So Enjoy the winter holiday season and know that we will be right here to handle all of your travel needs when the spring high season arrives as well. 

Savannah Getaways launches Savannah Stage Playbill for Guests

Savannah Getaways is pleased to announce the launch of our phase two Savannah Stage Playbill to augment our Savannah Theatre District Guide. The content laden pages of our Savannah Stage Playbill will assist our many Savannah bound guests in making the right choices while firming up travel plans to our coastal Georgia downtown destination.   If you are coming to Savannah, it would be a crying shame to be on a week long vacation or a long weekend getaway and not plan on cutting out some time on your holiday in one of America’s most beloved historic district’s and take in a show or two. Whatever else you may do in Georgia’s Historic First City, Savannah, make it a point to do like the locals do - catch a play, a dance performance, live concert music, a musical, or an occasional independent film at any one of our many treasures within the historic district, a thoroughly renovated theatre from yesteryear.

The ticket prices for the variety of shows are suitable to most every budget, taste, and age group. So check out the performance at just the right venue to go along with your travel dates and arrive in Savannah with your theatre tickets in hand by clicking on the links below. And after the play, check out some of our many after hours attractions on our Visitor’s Guide to Savannah and the Lowcountry or other points of interest on our oversized Savannah Historic District Map. Find a place to eat or sit down and enjoy an after hours cocktail in Savannah’s Theatre District. So enjoy yourselves while “cutting the fool” as we good ole local performing boys and girls from coastal Georgia do while taking in a theatre performance in Savannah’s Theatre District.

Tying the Allman Brothers Band to their Macon Whipping Post

If Macon Georgia is forever linked with the Allman Brothers Band (and it is), it stands to reason this mythic “southern rock band" is not only a classic boomer era band favorite but the recent move to create an Allman Museum in Macon by a newly formed foundation may be an idea who’s time has come.   Check out the excerpted blog below or read the article on Macon.com in it’s entirety to learn the whole story.

For 14 years, thousands of people from all over the world found their way to Kirk and Kirsten West's front door on Vineville Avenue in Macon. They came to see one of the finest collections of The Allman Brothers Band memorabilia in existence. They didn't need an appointment. They just climbed the front steps and knocked on the Wests' front door. But not any more. Kirk, a longtime Allman Brothers manager with titles ranging from "tour mystic" to "professional observationist," and Kirsten have moved to the Shirley Hills neighborhood. This fall, they sold the famous "Big House" where bandmates lived and wrote some of their best-known songs, deeding it to a foundation that plans to turn the home into a full-fledged museum.

Today, on the front steps that Kirk West figures 25,000 "pilgrims" have climbed, the Big House Foundation plans to unveil more detailed plans for the museum and announce a new fundraiser.The group has raised about $1.75 million since it formed in 2004, foundation president Bob Johnson said. An undisclosed portion of that went to the Wests, who not only owned the century-old home but also amassed the collection of roughly 200,000 pieces of memorabilia.

Too young to know who the Allman Brothers Band was and the impact their music had on the 1970’s?  Play the sixty second Frank Zappa "Tied to the Whipping Post" rendition at the beginning of this blog of just one of the Allman Brother's many classics from the 70’s.  If this doesn’t pique your interest to make the pilgrimage to Macon, about a 90 minute drive out of Savannah, on completion of their museum, nothing will.

Living for Tybee Time with low out of season vacation rental rates

As we roll into the holidays, it may be time to check out some value added out of season beach cottage vacation rental rates. Our friends out on Tybee Island at Tybee Vacation Rentals can track down a two night minimum weekend reservation, unheard of during the high season or maybe you want to consider a month long snowbird getaway if you have the time to spend here in the sunny southland even in the winter months.    Many of the Savannah Beach homes and ocean view condos offer partial week stays and low monthly rental rates during this off season period of time between now and mid February. 

So invest a little time and shop the rates and accommodation options with the various beach vacation management companies and Vacation Rentals by local Owner to find your best possible deal.  For those of you that may still be undecided as to why you would even consider staying on Tybee Island, well it stands to reason you have never been here before as we wouldn’t need to try to sell you on this eco-tourism wonderland. To the uninitiated Tybee Island offers some of the most un-crowded beaches you are likely to find in the southeastern United States. And on the back side of the island as you head back to Savannah’s Historic District just 20 minutes away, you will cross all manner of waterways and rivers including the ICW giving easy access to backwater lagoons and saltwater marshes to tickle the explorer gene in even the most latent Robinson Cr usoe like beachcomber. Come on out to Tybee, the rates don’t get any better than this.

Corleone’s Restaurant offers up affordable fare you can’t refuse

My friend Russ Moore, owner of Coastal Scooters, first introduced me to a wonderful Mediterranean style Restaurant just a few doors down and around the corner on MLK Blvd. now known as Corleone’s Trattoria, the former Cosentino’s Restaurant under the same ownership a few years back.  It quickly became one of Savannah Getaways recommended lunch or supper choices to our guests to the district. Savannah City Directory’s Jane Martin wrote an article on this medium priced restaurant which nails the historic district ambiance in her excerpted review below.

Inside Corleone’s, the atmosphere is anything but touristy. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the mafia motif ends at the door. Fresh flowers on the tables, ceiling fans, and natural light streaming from large windows conjure a friendly, relaxed environment. There is also a full bar and smaller dining area available. Café tables are located outside if you wish to dine al fresco. The lunch menu offers a solid selection of sandwiches, pastas, casseroles, burgers, soups, salads, gyros, and desserts. A signature Corleone’s pizza would be a nice addition to their traditional menu. Our table of three ordered a gyro sandwich, a grilled salmon sandwich, and a “big fat Greek burger.” The gyro sandwich was the table favorite. All the sandwiches come with fries or fresh salads. We did not have room to try the homemade Tiramisu. Corleone’s Trattoria easily fulfilled its promise. Costing just under ten dollars per person, the expense is reasonable for dining in the historic district.

While visiting the City Market area, just walk a few blocks further to MLK Blvd. southwest of Franklin Square to sample the cuisine at Corleone’s Trattoria.  Save some room for your favorite chocolate treat at Lulu’s Chocolate Bar right next door. Then again that’s a sweeter story for another day.

Rocking the “Chas Bar” in the Holy City at Christmas

If you want to immerse yourself in Christmas cheer for your lowcountry Christmas party, then either Charleston or Savannah is definitely the vacation destination for finding your celebratory venue. Whether seeking a romantic holiday seasonal getaway weekend or a memorable party in either the Hostess City or the Holy City, these southeastern coastal historic cities have the prerequisite flavor and ambiance required for this years’ company Christmas party.  While Savannah’s Southern Lights Holiday Celebration delivers crowd pleasing attractions every winter holiday season, Charleston even boasts her own Charleston Bar website featuring all the night life locations to party hearty at throughout the greater Charleston area.

The holiday season in Charleston and Savannah is always a uniquely special time of year for low country residents, returning prodigal sons and daughters, as well as Destination Christmas visitors alike. You'll be invigorated by the sound of horse hooves and jingle bells echoing off cobblestone streets from a passing horse drawn carriage. Coastal Georgia and South Carolina will delight you with their mild winter temperatures, exciting holiday getaway packages and authentic southern cuisine. So make your holiday plans while there is still plenty of availability left for your holiday vacation package.

From George Washington to Eli Whitney’s first cotton gin, Savannah’s Mulberry Grove

It is doubtful that a greater diversity of historic events and famous people could be found on a trifling 2100+ acre plantation than Savannah’s Colonial era Plantation, Mulberry Grove hosted during a few hundred year timeline through Civil War era 1864. Overlooking the Savannah River upriver from Savannah’s River Street, the early years of this plantation saw the unsuccessful attempt of the English settler owners to grow the mulberry tree in hopes of establishing a silk growing economy in this early Georgia colony.  Eventually rice and cotton among other crops were grown continuously on the plantation up until the time of the Civil War.

The state of Georgia seized Mulberry Grove as a loyalist property during the War for Independence and after the war awarded it to one of their favorite generals, Major General Nathanial Greene of the Continental Army as a reward for his service to his country.  Gen. Greene’s ownership was short lived as he died of heat stroke a few years after moving in and is buried on Johnson Square in the Landmark Historic District.  It was not too many years after his death that George Washington paid his respects to the General’s widow, on his 1791 southern tour on two separate occasions.  Shortly thereafter, Caty Greene hired an English Tutor to teach her children who coincidentally created a mechanical device to separate cotton seeds from the fluffy fiber in his spare time.  This device changed the harvesting of this money crop in the south for all time, making Eli Whitney’s cotton gin a household name 200+ years later in addition to linking Georgia's First City with his cotton gin.  Unfortunately this string of historic events grew to an end in the latter years of the Civil War when Union General Sherman’s troops burned the historic Plantation House to the ground.