Is Savannah good for solo travelers?

The Historic District runs about 1.5 miles from River Street south to Forsyth Park, its 22 squares breaking that walk into blocks of roughly five minutes each, shaded by live oaks and the hanging Spanish moss that feels like damp wool when it brushes your shoulder. Chatham Area Transit runs the free DOT shuttle around the grid, and the free Savannah Belles Ferry crosses to Hutchinson Island, so you can go car-free if you sleep downtown. Safety after dark changes from block to block. Broughton Street, Jones Street and the squares around Chippewa and Madison stay lit and full of people until about 10pm, but we would not walk alone west of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, or south of Park Avenue below Forsyth Park, after 11pm. A rideshare for those 15 blocks likely costs $8 to $12 and settles the question. Car break-ins in the lots near City Market are the complaint locals mention most often.

The real problem for a solo traveller in Savannah is dinner, not danger. Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room on West Jones Street seats strangers together at shared tables of about ten, weekdays from 11am to 2pm, and the line on the brick sidewalk forms around 10:30. Once someone passes you the fried chicken and the sweet-potato soufflé, you are in a conversation. For dinner, The Grey occupies the 1938 Greyhound terminal on MLK Boulevard, and a bar stool there is far easier to get than a two-top since the bartenders serve the full menu. The Saturday Forsyth Farmers Market at the south end of the park smells of boiled peanuts and fresh coffee, and the vendors talk. On weeknights, Starland Yard on Bull Street near 41st has food trucks, picnic tables and an easy crowd. This week the Savannah Ghost Pirates play at Enmarket Arena on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 October, and a hockey crowd is a low-stakes place to sit alone with a beer.

Single supplements work against you here. Historic District hotels price by the room, and weekend rates often run above $250 for one person or two. Sunday-to-Thursday stays can cost a third less, so if your dates are flexible, that gap is worth closing. Savannah has almost no hostel scene, which leaves the hosted inns on Jones Street or around Lafayette Square as the best solo-friendly option: breakfast at shared tables and a real chance of meeting other travellers. We rate those inns above the riverfront chains for meeting people. Rooms at the Thompson Savannah on Eastern Wharf are quieter than River Street, though the stretch from there to downtown is a 15-minute walk along a dim road at night. Walking tours, including the ghost tours that leave from Reynolds and Chippewa squares, charge per person with no supplement, making them the cheapest way to fill an evening with company. Fort Pulaski National Monument is 17 miles east on US-80 and needs a car or a small-group tour. On Monday 19 October it was 17.8°C and clear, good weather for the walk out to the brick fort on Cockspur Island.