When planning a trip to Savannah, Georgia, get ready to immerse yourself in rich historic history and some local haunts.  Well, Aly and I definitely knew this was going to be one of the many travels we took on a budget, but we really didn’t know anything about the area other then a few things we read about in the “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and saw on the Travel Channel.  We now know that we want to take the coveted ghost tour, customary trolley tour, and visit the cemetery featured in the ”Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”  Other than the small list we compiled, we did not know much about the area, but realized that this was similar to how others may plan their getaways based upon tidbits and snipettes of information heard in passing that makes them want to visit and explore a particular area.  Therefore, we want to share our thinking process of how we planned this trip.

The first tip, which we cannot emphasize enough, is that especially when taking a trip where the time is limited and you want to experience as much as you can, make sure your Traveling Pea is someone who has the same desires and expectations for your trip.  Now that we have agreed on the nature of scope of our Savannah getaway, it’s off to start the planning.

We encountered two main situations: the first was how to get there on a budget and the second was finding a place to crash in the heart of the historic district.

Let’s talk transportation first.  When I began researching flights, I soon discovered there were not any real flights that flew directly into the Savannah airport.  You will soon learn I hate layaways and attempt to avoid them at all costs.

You see, I adore my Pea, and my Pea adores me, but that does not mean we want to spend 8 hours in a car with one another, which just happens to be the amount of time it would take to drive from Sunny Orlando, Florida to Savannah, Georgia. Since Savannah has a small airport, I did not find any one-way flights flying directly from Orlando into Savannah.  Let me rephrase that, there is no airline that flies directly into Savannah that is decently priced.  As I recall, Delta wanted something outrageous like $500 roundtrip per person.  Aly uncovered that Amtrak goes from Winter Park, Florida to Savannah, Georgia.  So, with a little more research I was able to find out that you can take the train roundtrip for $86 per person and for only five hours and forty minutes.  Just imagine, the Peas blogging away, munching on snacks, sipping on wine, enjoying the countryside and engaging in fun conversations and activities without having to concentrate on the road or avoiding road rage.  We couldn’t imagine a better way to travel.  Okay, we admit that a plane ride would get us there quicker, but with limited resources and a less likely chance of lost luggage and popped ears taking the train seems to be sure bet.  Did I mention the five hours of wine sipping?

In addition, if coming from Orlando, be sure to get your free Orlando Magicard (see http://www.orlandoinfo.com/magicard/).   We saved an additional 10% on our Amtrack tickets for this trip!  There are some really sweet deals for those who use this card in Orlando.

Here are a few tips you should consider when taking the train that I thought of last minute … so, consider this me saving you the time I couldn’t save for myself:

1. Make sure you check train times FIRST… some are at crazy times, and the last thing you want is to get into a town you are unfamiliar with at 1:30 a.m.  Our train departs Savannah to return to Winter Park at 6 a.m. … that’ss right people, I said 6, friggin’, a.m.!

2. Call the hotel and ask how far is it from the train station.  I am not planning on trekking my happy little self self and my luggage (even though Aly asked how far the walk is) down some cobblestone street because someone said it was only five minutes down the road.  This is why the location of the train depot in relation to the hotel and final destination should be another deciding factor of where you stay.

3. If you are not staying at a bed and breakfast, but rather at a hotel with a name like Sheraton, Marriott, Comfort Suites, etc., contact that hotel and ask if they have a shuttle service.  Nothing is worse than spending the money on a taxi only to watch your hotel’s FREE shuttle zoom past you.

Now, the second situation entailed finding a place to sleep located directly in the Historic District.  Considering that we are not taking our vehicle, we needed to be in the central location of what we wanted to do.  Not having our car will not stymie our exploration plans!

I called the Tourist Center first and asked what was considered walking distance to the Historic District, what streets were considered the Historic District, and how far is too far to walk.  I also learned the hard way that the starting in the middle of May begins Savannah’s peak season, making accommodations more expensive.  This would explain why I had such difficulty finding anything decent for less than $200 a night. With this in mind I knew that I would just be putting a little more into my search than normally necessary.

The best idea was to look for any hotel, inn, and bed and breakfast with the phrase “Historic District” in it, and then review the mileage.  You can find this information on websites including but not limited to http://www.hotels.com. After three days of hard searching, I found a great deal on http://travelzoo.com (I highly recommend this site, I think its greatly under utilized).  For the Sheraton (see http://www.starwoodhotels.com/fourpoints/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1758 (the hotel’s website)) they were offering a special for $99 per night.  This is a terrific price, considering everything I was looking at was $150 and up.  When making plans to discover an unexplored destination, contact the local Tourist Center and inquire whether there is anything special going on during that time.  Even though many people love the surprise of uncovering that there is a Jazz Festival the weekend of their planned getaway, not everyone wants to be caught having to share their vacation with the 3,000 people that are involved in the Underwater Basket Weaving Conference if they can avoid it.  For example, Aly took a cruise last year with another friend on a boat recommended by her boss.  She didn’t understand why the rate was so low until one day into the cruise when she discovered that 80% of the boat was filled with high school students participating in a singing competition on a school trip.  A little research and inquiry would have gone a long, long way to making that cruise more enjoyable.

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