What should I avoid in Savannah?

River Street looks inviting from the bluff above. Down at sidewalk level, it's T-shirt shops and restaurants charging $28 for microwaved shrimp and grits. The cobblestones are ship-ballast stones from the 1800s, uneven and slick after rain, and you'll twist an ankle in anything but flat shoes. For better food at lower prices, head south of Bay Street. Crystal Beer Parlor on West Jones Street (open since 1933) serves crab stew and fried shrimp in a dining room that still smells like old wood booths, for roughly half what you'd pay on River Street. Leopold's Ice Cream on East Broughton Street (open since 1919) does butter pecan for $5.50. The Olde Pink House on Reynolds Square serves she-crab soup in a 1771 Georgian mansion with candlelit rooms that creak underfoot. For coffee, The Collins Quarter on Bull Street has strong flat whites and a courtyard that stays quiet even on weekends.

Savannah runs roughly 40 ghost tour companies. Mind you, most loop through Reynolds Square and Colonial Park Cemetery with the same 1820 yellow fever stories. The $25 walking tours work fine if you pick one that stays in the squares after 9pm, when Spanish moss catches the lamplight and the air smells like jasmine and warm brick. Skip the $65 premium versions that add a hearse ride for the same script. A better evening is the 45-minute self-guided walk from Chippewa Square south to Forsyth Park's 1858 fountain, roughly 1.2 miles through a dozen squares. For daytime culture, the SCAD Museum of Art on Turner Boulevard (opened 2002) rotates exhibitions worth an hour. Telfair Museums on Barnard Street (founded 1886) is Georgia's oldest public art museum and rarely draws a crowd on weekday mornings.

Do not drive in the Historic District. The 22 squares function as traffic circles, one-way streets change direction without warning, and parking enforcement runs 7 days a week. Meters cost $2 per hour with a 2-hour maximum, and the parking authority writes tickets within minutes of expiration. Park at your hotel lot ($20-30 per night) and walk. That said, the district covers roughly 1 mile by 1 mile, so walking handles most of it. Uber and Lyft rides inside the district run $6-8. The free DOT shuttle loops through the district, though service thins after early evening. Fort Pulaski (founded 1829) is a 20-minute drive east on US-80 and worth the trip for its Civil War-era brick casements. Wormsloe Historic Site on Skidaway Road has a 1.5-mile live oak avenue that photographs better in morning light.

Savannah in summer will slow you down. From June through August, temperatures sit above 33°C (92°F) and humidity hovers near 90%. At midday, even a shaded square like Monterey feels like warm soup. Afternoon thunderstorms roll in around 3pm most summer days and clear within 30-45 minutes. Pack a light rain jacket and duck into the Mercer Williams House Museum on Monterey Square when the sky darkens. Hurricane season spans June 1 through November 30, with September and October carrying the highest risk for coastal Georgia. Mosquitoes swarm near the Savannah River and around Bonaventure Cemetery (founded 1846) after 5pm from April through October, and DEET-based repellent is the only reliable countermeasure. Savannah scores 6.2/10 for solo travelers (see the TTDI Solo-Safety Index). North of Gaston Street the Historic District is walkable at night, but the area south of Victory Drive and west of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard tends to feel less safe after dark.