Savannah, Georgia

Snow was still piling up in the Inland Northwest in early March. But spring had already sprung in Savannah, where the air was gently scented with Georgia pine, wisteria and jasmine.

Section:Gallery

Fri., April 5, 2019

Mansions and other historic homes line Savannah’s Forsyth Park, a popular spot for picnicking, relaxing, playing ball and going for a run.

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Grapefruit and other citrus can be found at the Forsyth Farmers’ Market, which runs Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the south end of Savannah’s Forsyth Park.

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The Forsyth Farmers’ Market runs Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the south end of Forsyth Park. The bustling market offers a variety of fresh produce (such as spring onions, seen here) and regional specialties — from shrimp to artisan cheese and Georgia pecans.

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“Bird Girl,” made famous in the book and movie version of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” is located on the top of the stairs at Telfair Academy in Savannah’s Historic District. Admission is $20 for an adult, and that fee gets you into three museums: Telfair Academy, the Jepson Center and the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters. Even with a ticket, tours of the house fill up fast; it’s recommended to get your ticket early in the day.

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The Rotunda Gallery at Telfair Academy in Savannah reflects the grandeur of a 19th-century salon. It’s part of a renovation that took place from 1883 to 1886 to transform the mansion into an art museum.

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Telfair Academy is located in a 200-year-old mansion in Savannah’s Historic District. Construction took place from 1818 to 1819. It opened to the public in 1886 as the first public art museum in the South.

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The Avocado Smash at The Collins Quarter in Savannah’s Historic District features smashed avocado, heirloom tomatoes, radish, feta, beet hummus, a poached egg and chili oil on three-seeded bread for $10.

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The Collins Quarter is one of Savannah’s most popular brunch spots. Reservations are recommended. Pictured here are the CQ Biscuits with apple-raisin-chicken sausage, poached eggs, bacon gravy, and shaved fennel-and-apply slaw.

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The fountain on the north end of Forsyth Park is one of the city’s most photographed landmarks. By day, the main pathway through the park bustles with tourists, vendors and Savannahites alike. At night, it’s the perfect spot for a romantic stroll.

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Springtime is Savannah is full of colorful azalea blooms, like these photographed in early March at Bonaventure Cemetery.

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The pathways in Savannah’s Forsyth Park are lined with majestic, Spanish-covered oak trees.

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Bonaventure Cemetery is a short ride — not quite 4 miles and about $8 via Lyft — from the heart of Savanah’s Historic District. It’s worth the trip to see ornate gravesites, such as this one.

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Ringed by a hedge of azalea bushes inside a wrought-iron fence at E-98, the life-like statue at the gravesite of Little Gracie Watson is one of Bonaventure Cemetery’s most visited plots. She died of pneumonia about two and a half months before her sixth birthday and is believed to be one of Savannah’s most haunting spirits. Guests often leave gifts — coins, shells, barettes — at her gravesite.

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The “Bird Girl” statue, made famous by both the book and movie versions of “Midnight in the Garden of Good in Evil,” is no longer located at Bonaventure Cemetery. But the picturesque grounds are still definitely worth a visit — especially in spring when the azaleas and camellias are in full bloom.

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Bonaventure Cemetery sits on the site of an old plantation on the bluff overlooking the Wilmington River and offers 160 acres of camellias, azaleas, oak trees dripping with Spanish moss and ornate gravesites.

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Admission to Savannah’s famous Bonaventure Cemetery is free — although guided tours are available for a fee. Give yourself plenty of time to wander through the eerily romantic grounds, dotted with elaborate gravesites, such as this one.

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Casa Amapola Victorian Condo on Forsyth Park occupies the first floor of the coral-colored home on the right. It’s located within a couple blocks of a wine-tasting room, health-food store, coffee shop, rooftop bar, fine-dining restaurant, neighborhood pub and American Legion Post 135, where the bar is open to the public and popular with locals for its casual atmosphere and cheap drinks.

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The fountain on the north end of Forsyth Park is a popular Savannah landmark.

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The William Jasper statue stands in the center of Madison Square in Savannah’s Historic District. The square was laid out in 1837 and named for James Madison, America’s fourth president. The statue was added in 1888 to memorialize Jasper, a sergeant who managed to recover his company’s banner in the Siege of Savannah during the Revolutionary War — despite being mortally wounded.

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Savannah’s Ghost Coast Distillery offers free tours as well as a diverse line-up of signature spirits. Samplers as well as craft cocktails are available in the tasting room.

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The refreshing Smoked Ginger Mint Fizz at Ghost Coast Distillery features the establishment’s own ginger whiskey as well as barrel-smoked maple syrup, lime juice and mint sprigs.

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Night is the best time to take a ghost tour in Savannah’s Historic District, which celebrates the stories of its most popular haunts with myriad options. Here, a group taking a recent 90-minute Savannah Ghosts and Folklore Tour by Cobblestone Tours stops at a bar for participants to make a pit stop (read: take advantage of the city’s open-container law which permit people to carry open alcoholic beverages in plastic, 16-ounce cups throughout the Historic District).

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The Mercer-Williams House on Monterey Square was completed in 1868. It was the site of the 1981 murder of Danny Lewis Hansford and figured prominently into the 1994 non-fiction book about the event, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” by John Berendt, as well as the 1997 movie by the same name. Homeowner and noted antiques dealer James Arthur “Jim” Williams was tried four times in connection with the crime. He was found not guilty at the final trial and unexpectedly died at home six months later in early 1990. Today, his sister, Dorothy Kingery, lives in the home and opens the first floor as a museum. The carriage house is home to a gift shop.

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