When's the best time to visit Savannah in 2026?

March and April are when Savannah delivers. The live oaks along Bull Street trail Spanish moss so thick it filters sunlight into green shadow, and azaleas bloom across most of the 22 squares between Bay Street and Gaston Street. Morning temperatures sit around 15°C, climbing to 24°C by early afternoon, comfortable enough to walk the 2.5-mile stretch from City Market south to Forsyth Park without soaking through your shirt. The air picks up the scent of Confederate jasmine by mid-April, sweet and heavy in the squares closest to the river. That said, mid-March brings Savannah's St. Patrick's Day celebration, the second-largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the United States after New York. The city dyes the park's fountain green, River Street fills with roughly 400,000 visitors over the long weekend, and hotel rates on Bay Street can triple. If crowds bother you, aim for the last week of March or the first two weeks of April.

October and November are the second sweet spot. The summer humidity finally breaks around mid-October, dropping from the 85-90% range to the low 60s. Highs settle near 22-25°C, and the moss-draped oaks along Victory Drive take on a golden cast in late-afternoon light. The Savannah Film Festival fills SCAD venues across the city in late October, including the SCAD Museum of Art that opened in 2002, and livens up the restaurant scene without the spring crush. Bonaventure Cemetery, founded in 1846, is best visited on a November morning when mist sits low over the Wilmington River at the cemetery's eastern edge. The sound of nothing but mockingbirds and your own footsteps on the sandy paths. Hotel rates in fall run 20-40% below the March and April peak, and you can eat outside on Congress Street without sweating through dinner.

June through September is when Savannah tests your tolerance. Today's conditions tell the story. At 8:30 PM on September 9, the thermometer reads 26.2°C but feels like 31.5°C with 90% humidity. Midday in July and August regularly hits 34-36°C, with heat indices above 40°C. Afternoon thunderstorms roll in between 3 and 5 PM almost daily, brief but hard enough to flood the lower squares near the river for 20-30 minutes. The cobblestones on River Street get slick and steaming. Mind you, summer does have one advantage. Tourist crowds thin out, and you might score a same-day table at The Grey on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, a restaurant that in March requires booking 3-4 weeks out. If you visit in summer, plan outdoor time before 10 AM and after 6 PM, and carry a packable rain jacket.

Winter stays mild by eastern U.S. standards. December and January bring highs of 14-17°C with overnight lows of 4-6°C, rarely dropping to freezing. The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, founded in 1873, holds candlelight services in December that fill the nave with the smell of frankincense and warm beeswax. Congregation Mickve Israel, founded in 1733 as the third-oldest Jewish congregation in the country, runs programming through the winter worth attending. February tends to be the wettest winter month at roughly 90mm of rain, and the stripped live oaks give the squares a stark, photogenic quality you will not get in any other season. Savannah scores 8.2 out of 10 for family friendliness (see the TTDI Family-Friendliness Index), and the cooler winter months let kids run the squares and climb on the Casimir Pulaski Monument in Monterey Square without the heat becoming a problem.