What's a good 3-day itinerary for Savannah?

Savannah's Historic District is a grid of oak-shaded squares, 22 of them still intact. Start at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist on Lafayette Square by 8:30 AM, before the tour groups arrive. The twin spires date to 1873, and the stained glass inside is worth 20 minutes. From there, walk to Monterey Square for Mercer House, the 1868 mansion from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The tour runs about 35 minutes. Lunch at Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room on Jones Street means lining up by 10:45 for the 11 AM seating. Family-style Southern food at communal tables, about $25 per person. The biscuits smell like your grandmother's kitchen, if your grandmother cooked with serious lard. After lunch, walk south to Forsyth Park, laid out in 1840. The fountain at the north end is the photo everyone takes. Leopold's Ice Cream on Broughton Street by 4 PM, about $5 for a double scoop. They have been scooping since 1919. Dinner at The Olde Pink House on Reynolds Square, where the she-crab soup runs $14 and the pink plaster walls date to 1771.

Day 2 moves north. River Street runs along the Savannah River at the bottom of a steep cobblestone ramp. The uneven ballast stones can turn an ankle, but the river views at 9 AM are worth the careful footing. The air smells like salt water and pralines. City Market sits two blocks south. The galleries outpace the souvenir shops. Head to the Telfair Academy by 11. It opened in 1886 in a Regency-style mansion on Barnard Street and remains the South's oldest public art museum. The SCAD Museum of Art on Turner Boulevard dates to 2002 and tends toward more experimental exhibitions. Admission is $10. Lunch at Zunzi's on Drayton Street costs about $14 for the Conquistador sandwich, a South African-influenced pile of chicken, lettuce, and house sauce on a hoagie roll. The afternoon heat pushes everyone indoors by 3. Back in the Day Bakery in the Starland District does a good $4 iced coffee. Dinner at Crystal Beer Parlor on West Jones Street. It has been pouring since 1933. The crab stew is thick, peppery, and $12 a bowl.

Day 3 requires a car or rideshare. Bonaventure Cemetery was established in 1846 and opens at 8 AM. It sits about 5 kilometres east of the Historic District on the Wilmington River. Spanish moss hangs low enough to brush your shoulders on the narrower paths. The morning light through the oaks in September still carries thick humidity, around 90% at dawn. The Corinne Lawton plot and the Bird Girl statue's original pedestal are the two stops everyone photographs. Budget 90 minutes. Drive 25 minutes east to Fort Pulaski National Monument on Cockspur Island, a brick fortification from 1829 that took 18 years to build and fell in 30 hours during the Civil War. Entry is $15 per person. The cannon damage on the southeast wall is still visible. Stop at The Crab Shack on Chimney Creek Road on the drive to Tybee. The low-country boil runs about $28, and you eat on picnic tables over the creek. Afternoon at Tybee Island, 10 minutes further. You'll likely be sunburned and salt-crusted by 5 PM. Dinner back in Savannah at The Grey on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, a converted 1938 Greyhound station where entrees run about $45.

September in Savannah means heat. Temperatures sit around 26°C but the humidity pushes the feels-like temperature to 31°C or higher, and the air barely moves under the live oaks. Carry water. Wear shoes that can handle uneven brick sidewalks and the stone ramps down to the river. The Historic District is small, about 2.5 square kilometres, so most of Day 1 and Day 2 is walking. Day 3's eastward circuit covers about 60 kilometres by car. Congregation Mickve Israel on Monterey Square, founded in 1733, is worth a stop if you have a free 30 minutes on Day 1 or 2. It is the third-oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. Worth noting, Savannah allows open containers on the street within the Historic District. Your post-dinner bourbon can walk with you. Three days covers the full square grid, both museums, Bonaventure, and the Tybee shore. That is enough for a first visit.