Plan a Perfect Trip in 5 Easy Steps
Travis and I are heading to Savannah, GA next week. I am so excited to get out of Goshen, as the last official trip I have been on was our annual snowmobile trip with friends to Northern Michigan last January. For a person that lives to travel and see the world, that is an eternity! As I plan my trip to Savannah, I will share with you my steps to plan a perfect trip!
Step 1: Brainstorm Destinations and do some preliminary research
Step one when you begin to plan your perfect trip is to think about where you might like to go. Then begin learning about that destination to see if it is somewhere that intrigues you.
When I first started thinking about where I wanted to go for a long weekend in November, I remembered an article on a travel blog that I follow about the Kentucky Bourbon trail. It was optimal because it was within driving distance from Goshen, and fall seemed like a nice time to visit Kentucky. However, once I started mapping out the Bourbon distilleries that we wanted to visit, many of them were still closed to the public (due to Covid-19). Also, there was a cocktail class that was on my must do list that was booked already, so I needed to have started my planning a lot sooner. So, I had to put this trip off for another time.
My husband suggested Austin, TX. Austin is a place that has been on our radar for a while. It has a lot of qualities that we enjoy in a location- delicious food, great music, good weather. However, in our minds- the thing that drew us most to Austin was listening to live music in the bars. We just felt like we wouldn’t get the full Austin experience that we wanted to have with all the restrictions.
Finally, we settled on Savannah, Georgia. Savannah has everything we are looking for in the first trip we have taken in a long time! It seems to be a romantic destination, with the sultry southern heat and the mysterious hanging moss. It has history, which is a love of mine. The weather is warm, so a lot of our activities will be outside, which will be safer during these trying times. Finally, it seems that the restrictions on restaurants and bars are less in the deep south so hopefully we will be able to eat and drink where we want!
Step 2: Find Lodging and transportation
Savannah has many beautiful, historic hotels. How do you narrow it down to one when you want to plan a perfect trip? We started by deciding to choose a Marriott, as my husband travels for work and is a rewards member. They have a great rewards program, Marriott Bonvoy, which helps enable us to go to on some great trips! The other great thing about Marriott, is they have so many different brands so there is a great variety in hotels and resorts to choose from. We narrowed it down to 3 choices:
The Bohemian is located along the riverfront in Savannah. It is an Autograph collection hotel. I have loved other Autograph hotels we have stayed at- they are always unique! This hotel boasts a pretty cool looking restaurant, and a roof top bar.
The JW Mariott Plant Riverside District is also located on the riverfront. It is the sight of the city’s original freight port and historic power plant. The rooms looked gorgeous. The JW Marriott has several different restaurants on site and two roof top bars. Travis heard from a co-worker that you have to visit the lobby here, even if you aren’t staying at the hotel. So we will definitely be sure to check that out.
The Perry Lane hotel is a luxury collection hotel. It is in the heart of the historic district. It looks like it has a contemporary feel to it. The rooftop is what was alluring to me- there is a roof top pool, bar, and lawn where you can play lawn games.
We decided to go with the Bohemian. All of the hotels we looked at were within walking distance of sights we wanted to see, so we decided to stay on the riverfront.
Step 3. Research what you want to see, do, and eat!
This is the step that takes the longest, and is probably the most important step when planning the perfect trip. But, it is the most fun! Start by searching your destination on Pinterest, and usually a whole bunch of different blog posts from travel bloggers comes up. Read through some of them, and pick different ideas from each depending on what sounds fun to you. Take note if more than one blogger recommends the same restaurant or activity, it is something that is probably popular. Ask family and friends who have visited Savannah what they recommend. My mom suggested a walking tour, and Travis’ coworker recommended a whole bunch of cool bars and restaurants to check out. As you find activities and restaurants that intrigue you, use trip advisor to see how they rank and read some reviews.
So, while trying to plan my perfect trip to Savannah- I just started writing every thing that sounded fun to me on a notebook paper as I was doing my preliminary research. Here is the list I came up with!
Sights
- Forsyth Park
- Mercer House
- Jones Street (most beautiful street in America)
- Chippewa square (Forest Gump filmed here)
- Owen’s Thomas House ($20 tour)
- Broughton Street (Premier shopping street)
- First African Baptist Church (not open for tours- darn covid)
- Ghost tour pub crawl
- Bonaventure Cemetary
- Wormsloe Historic Site
- Kayak Skidaway Narrows (3 hrs, $65)
- McQueen’s Island Trail
- The Club at Savannah Harbour (golf)
- Tybee Island
- Underground Tours Savannah
- Trolley Tour
Restaurants
- Collins Quarter (brunch)
- B. Matthews (lunch or brunch)
- Vic’s on the River
- Moon River Brewing Company (haunted)
- Alligator Soul
- Jazz’d Tapas Bar (live music)
- The Grey
- 1790 Restaurant (haunted)
- Chive Sea Bar and Lounge
- District Smokehouse
Drinks
- Alley Cat Lounge
- Savoy Society
- The Pirate’s House
- The Old Pink House
- Repeal 33
- Electric Moon
- Artillery
Step 4: Create Itinerary
The final step when you plan the perfect trip is creating an itinerary. An itinerary is so important to planning a perfect trip because if you have a good idea of what you want to see and do ahead of time, then you don’t waste valuable trip time figuring out what you are going to do. Plus, you can make reservations ahead of time so that you don’t miss out on activities you wanted to do because they are full! I am not married to my itinerary, however! Usually I leave some space if something takes longer than I think it will, or I want to do something I come across once I get to my destination. Using my brainstorm list above, I narrowed it down to the activities that were must do for me. Here is the itinerary I came up with for my perfect trip to Savannah.
Friday
Arrive at the Savannah airport at 9:05 am. Head to the Bohemian Hotel. Have lunch at Rocks on the River at the Bohemian. Explore Savannah on foot, perhaps shop on Broughton street or explore Jones St- supposedly one of the most beautiful streets in America. Check out Alley Cat Lounge, Savoy Society, or Repeal 33 for drinks. Dinner at Jazz’d Tapas Bar and enjoy some live music.
Saturday
Have Brunch at The Collins Quarter. From what I read, I must try the spiced Lavender Mocha. I will keep you posted on that. Tour Savannah on an Old Savannah Trolley Tour. We chose the hop on/hop off trolley tour. There are 16 stops on the tour, and you can hop off at each stop if you want to, then catch the next trolley that comes by (every 15-20 min) and hop back on. This way, we can hear some of the history of Savannah from our trolley guide, and hopefully cover a lot of ground and see a lot of Savannah in one day! The trolleys run from 9am to 5pm, and a ticket is $35.
Have dinner at the Chive Sea Bar and Lounge. This is the number one restaurant in Savannah on trip advisor, so I’m curious to see if it lives up to the hype. I checked out the website and it looks like a pretty cool place.
At 8:30 pm, take the Creepy Crawl Pub Tour. I don’t know why I’m obsessed with ghost stories. I think there is something so fun about hearing a really spooky story, and getting creeped out! Maybe I’m hoping to see a ghost one of these times. So visiting haunted places is a weird obsession of mine- oh well! I’m really looking forward to this tour! We are going to visit 4 local pubs on this tour, as well as many other haunted sites in Savannah. In Savannah, you can take your drinks to go, so we can have a cocktail while we get scared out of our wits!
Sunday
Sunday is still kind of up in the air at this point. I think I will have sight seen enough Friday and Saturday, so an outdoorsy activity sounds fun to me. I’m thinking golfing at the Club at Savannah Harbor Golf Course, or maybe checking out Tybee Island. Or- maybe something else will strike our fancy once we start exploring Savannah!
Step 5: Go and Enjoy your Trip!
Stay tuned to hear about how well we stuck to our itinerary when we get back! I will be sure to fill you in on what we loved and what we would have done differently!
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Jess
I'm a pharmacist who has a passion for traveling. I enjoy reading, cooking, sports, learning new things, and history. I love traveling with my husband, Travis, and 3 sons: Austin, Drew, and Spencer.
