Recorded in the beautiful home office of Chateau’ Relaxo.
The intro to this episode was to have been recorded in the Hampton Inn & Suites Lake Park, Ga. However, try as I might without a legitimate microphone there was no way with my limited editing skillset to get 3 minutes of decent-sounding audio.
Over the past 7 days, I’ve been traveling, and that travel included stops at four different hotels along the way. It’s always a treat to unpack and then repack every few days.
The past week's travel was a mix of business and leisure, so look for an episode in the coming weeks with the CEO of Chateau’ Relaxo that covers the 2022 Spring Break World Domination Tour as well as a look back on the past two years and how here travel has been affected.
Since the episode drops on the next to the last day of the month it makes it a bit tough to completely appreciate the March crazy travel roundup so we’ll push that episode back a week, and since summer travel is fast approaching we decided to repost a 2018 episode, Savannah in the summer to get the summer travel mood set.
This episode originally dropped in June of 2018 and since then I’ve made at least 10 more trips there with probably an even split between business and leisure. For us, Savannah is an easy trip, less than 4 ½ hours away including a stop at one of the two Buc-ees: Homealong the way.
You can easily dedicate each trip to a single theme, and often we have done just that. There’s the historical theme, the ghost tour theme, the food tour theme, the antique store theme, and on and on and on.
Savannah is also a great base camp as it’s 2 hours from Charleston, SC and if you’re a golfer Hilton Head, SC is less than an hour away and Tybee Island is 30 minutes away.
Call it what you want, summer travel, summer vacation or your summer road trip is just two months away so begin making your plans now, and if you’re in the southeast consider visiting Savannah, GA.
Without any more delay, it’s episode 8 of Savannah in the summer, I hope you enjoy it.
This episode was recorded before I used Google Docs for show notes. I used Otter to translate the MP3 of the episode.
Welcome to the eighth episode of the back again and gone podcast being recorded in the beautiful hot and muggy. Doubletree Dallas, Texas. In today's show, there's only one subject Savannah in the summertime.
Now summer vacation is fast approaching and Savannah is that perfect destination, but be prepared, it's going to be hot, it's in the southeast and it's going to be muggy. So stay hydrated.
Now for me, I love Savannah, I end up there several times each year on business. And every 18 months or so the family and I go there for a vacation of some sort.
Now if you've never been to Savannah, it's a great family vacation. Just don't set the expectations on there being a ton of amusement parks with rides. It's just that's not what that town is built on. From Orlando, it's an easy four to five-hour drive from Atlanta, it's about the same. If you're flying into Savannah, that's another story I plan on making a connection to somewhere along the way.
Now for business travel, I have a couple of go-to hotels. First, there's a Savannah Marriott Riverfront, and then another Doubletree in the Savannah Historic District. Both of these hotels are on opposite ends of Bay Street.
Now if you've never been to Savannah, there are three main drags through the town. There's River Street, Bay Street, and Brian Street. And between those street three streets, most of your touristy eat, drink, buy stuff needs are going to be off of one of those three streets.
Now for leisure vacation, there's only one stop for me, and that's the Mansion on Forsyth Park. This is a Marriott property and part of their Kestler collection easily classified as a boutique hotel, yet it offers a lot more. I was married there in their marble garden. and the reception was held in the attached 700 Dragon Club, which hands-down served the best Chilean sea bass I've ever tasted. If you got small kids, this may not be the place, there's a lack of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
There's just not a lot of stuff for the kids to do at the Mansion, but for the adults, they've got a great cooking class. The mansion is located right across the street from Forsyth Park, which is where all the fountains are and where a lot of the St. Patrick's Day festivities take place.
Once you're settled into your hotel, it's time to decide what to do right. One of the go-to things especially your first time there is to consider taking the old town trolley. These are the wooden, green, and orange painted trolleys that you see in most of the larger cities. I think the tour is 30 bucks, for all day. They offer a two-day ticket as well. You can jump on and off the trolley throughout the day or the two days, whatever you decide. We've taken this tour several times over the years, and it's interesting because each driver has their own perspective of the city. Which means you're always learning something new. Of course, Savannah is a great Ghost Tour town, and there's no shortage of those. Make sure you take one at night, but they've got tours that walk through the graveyards. They've got tours in the back of cut-up hearses. They've got ghost tours in triple-decker buses. There is no shortage of vehicles to get you around the city at nighttime.
The Massie Heritage Center is kind of neat. They actually have a 3-d rendering of all the squares. So you can understand the scale and proportion of what Savannah is built on.
And one of my favorites is the Telfair Museum. I think again, it's like 20 bucks to get in there. But you get a good history of the city and especially the part that Telfair’s have played in the development of Savannah.
Now if you spend any time following the blog or listening to any of my podcasts, you know that I'm a foodie, and Savannah is a town to be reckoned with when it comes to food.
One of my favorite places to go and I always find time to get there is the Moon River Brewing Company, it's a local brewery, and they've got a beer garden outside. But there is something about walking into that air-conditioned building after going down through the city in having a cold Home Brewed IPA. And the food's actually not bad either. So it's not just drinking the stuff, but it's a good place to kind of fill your belly as you go.
My other stop even if we're doing takeout, is Vinny Van GoGo’s pizza. Be prepared to wait as there is limited seating, there's always a line and they are cash only. Now they do offer an ATM in the back of the restaurant but it is strictly a cash business. So for those of you like me that pack nothing but plastic. Make sure you got an extra 20 or 30 bucks shoved in your pocket.
Another one of my favorite places for dinner is the Crystal Beer Parlor it's a little walk off the main drags of Savannah but this is a throwback bar to the days of yesteryear. They've got a list of beers your father drank the Slitz, Old Style, and of course, Mickey's malt liquor. Growing up my dad would open up an Old Style and cut the grass in his khakis and white t-shirt and it really just flooded the memory banks. They've got great food there everything from their meatloaf sandwiches to their burgers in even some of their choice cuts of meat.
This past summer. One of the things that my wife and I did when we visited Savannah was we took a photo tour. Here's a tip, make sure you have a tripod, a lesson that we learned about four to five hours into our adventure and overnighted, one from Amazon Prime to the hotel. There's no shortage of places to take pictures. Like I mentioned earlier Forsyth square has all the statues and all the fountains that you see and all the magazines. Bonaventure cemetery is just packed full of lots of cool vegetation and these aging, kind of dilapidated tombstones as well as the cobblestone bricks that surround the cemetery. those all make great shots.
There are 22 squares in Savannah and each square has a fountain or a statue of some sort in it. If you've ever heard of the term, don't let the bedbugs bite. Apparently, during the Civil War, the soldiers took the Spanish moss out of the trees and stuff their pillowcases with it trying to make some sort of comfort. And apparently, the bedbugs were inside that moss. And that's where that term supposedly came from.
And there's what's really interesting is that every one of the squares has a legend attached to it. Jackson Square contains no Spanish moss whatsoever. Again, I didn't spend a lot of time looking up at the trees at Jackson Square.
But we've heard that on numerous occasions in our travels in visits throughout the city.
Now one of the things I said was we took a photo tour and we actually spent some time one evening with a company called capturing Savannah. And we spent the evening with Pablo met him in one of the squares, and really took us on a great nighttime photo tour and taught us a lot. I mean, we've always used our DSLR camera on auto, which I think most everybody does, but actually spent time with us and showed us how to take some of these long exposure shots. It just so happens that down the street from where we were there was a fire truck emergency or fire trucks running down the street and we all go hustling behind the fire trucks and set up our tripods and just caught some fascinating shots of the red hazard lights from the fire trucks bouncing off the sides of the building. And so I'll actually put a link to Pablo and Brett's company that was great. I mean we left with literature, as well as about four or five hours' worth of photographs.
Now when it comes to shopping Savannah has no shortage of local artisans and craftsmen and stuff that you find in the Oriental Trading Company being sold. But we love visiting the River Street marketplace, there are probably 40 or 50 different booths along the river of just all kinds of neat and interesting. You know, some of them are local crafts and some of them we have seen other places like Charleston and Hilton Head and destinations like that. There's a great place down off of I think it's Bay Street break Bay Street or Ryan Street, Bryan Street, where the horses for the carriage rides kind of station themselves. But that's where the Sydney market is. And again, Vinnie Van Gogh goes over there, but there are lots of interesting boutique-type stores along there. But my favorite this last trip was the Han art gallery. Again, local artisans displayed their works and I think we left with a couple of stained glass and copper pieces. As well as t a custom pin. And some just really interesting, very small four by eight original oil paintings that are hanging in the house. So again, no shortage of shopping if you plan to hang out or spend any time in Savannah. Now before we wrap up just a few more interesting Savannah facts and I'll put a few more of these down in the show notes as well but Savannah actually has one of the only McDonald's with a walk-up window, not a drive-thru but a walk-up window on the side street. They also have no open container laws, which can make for some great day drinking but just remember at some point, you're gonna have to walk back to your hotel that also hosted the sailing competition during the 1996 Summer Olympics. There are a couple of statues throughout the city that proudly proclaims that and of course, if you didn't know parts of Forrest Gump were filmed there.,
There you have it. Savannah in the summertime is a great place to spend the week or even the weekend. Thanks for listening and safe travels.
