Gracious Savannah on par with any European destination for sightseeing

Savannah is a fraternity party with great architecture.

As the oldest city in Georgia (est. 1733), world famous for its historic squares and gracious hospitality, I expected plenty of culture during the weekend road trip from our base on Amelia Island.  The party took me by surprise.

The historic district has no open container law.  Simply stated:  in most of the United States, it's illegal to walk around public spaces while drinking alcohol.  In Savannah, it's positively encouraged.  Bars and restaurants have take-away windows selling cocktails to go.  Restaurants offer you "go cups" to take leftover wine with you.  One bar, called Wet Willies, has made its reputation on this loophole, serving up frozen daiquiris, coladas, margaritas, mudslides and the like from a long bank of colourful, spinning "icee" machines.

With most of the tourists in town wandering about with plastic cups of alcohol in hand, you'd expect things to get out of control.  In fact, I found it surprisingly restrained.  Sure, there were the obvious bachelor and bachelorette parties (aka hen and stag dos), but the girls were often dressed to the nines and I didn't see anyone get make-a-fool-of-yourself drunk.  It also seems to be the destination wedding capital of the South; we saw at least eight ceremonies taking place in those picture-perfect squares, all devolving to receptions elsewhere in town.  I saw no misbehaviour.  In fact, there was far less unruly public drunkenness than you'd see in any English town centre on a Saturday night.  Maybe it's the sophisticated history of the place that keeps people in check.

Because Savannah is, without doubt, one of the most staggeringly beautiful towns in America.  The whole historic district feels more like a stage set than real life.  Every angle begs you to take a photo.  Every house facade is an architectural gem.  Every garden looks like a Chelsea Flower Show exhibit. Peek in the windows, and every interior looks like it belongs in a design magazine.  Do they vet these people before they're allowed to move in?  It's all too perfect.

It's the squares and the trees that make the place completely unique in my experience.  Georgia founder James Oglethorpe is said to have had the urban design in mind before he ever set food on American soil.  Inspired partly by the squares of London, and partly by military practicality (the squares could quickly be converted to a network of defensible forts in the early days), they now provide a network of green space throughout the town.  Unlike London, all the squares are public and are mostly surrounded by their original buildings.  The latter is due to a massive preservation effort chronicled (along with a sensational murder case) in the bestselling Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil; a must-read if you're visiting.  It's no surprise to learn that most directors setting films in 18th- or 19th-century America come here.

The live oaks draped with Spanish moss add to the atmosphere.  Their ancient, spreading arms make green tunnels out of the roads.  The moss gives a ghostly, elegiac feel to the whole place.  If you walked through a door and came face-to-face with Oglethorpe himself, or with General Sherman ... who was said to be so taken with the beauty of the place he refused to burn it as he had Atlanta ... you wouldn't be surprised.  This is a place where both ghosts and time travel seem possible.

Which may be why ghost tours are one of the top recommendations for any visitor.  There are a variety from the kitschy hard drinking cruises in a converted, open-top hearse to the serious walks with earnest historians.  We opted for the latter, with the highly-rated Blue Orb Tours.  We saw no ghostly orbs, either live or in our photographs, but we learned a lot more about the town's history while being richly entertained.  You'll see, or hear about, vile rooms and tunnels where slaves were once penned; a square where no Spanish moss grows because of the displeasure of the man buried in the middle; the angst of an ignored Indian chief, a shell-shocked WWI soldier, a plague hospital nurse; victims of prohibition-era shootings looking for retribution and plenty of spirits still fighting out the issues of the Civil War.

In daylight hours, a handful of trolley companies offer less spectral tours.  With so much history, I'd recommend this as an essential introduction.  On our hotel's recommendation we did the hop-on-hop-off with Old Savannah Tours.  As with so many of these tours, of course, it comes down to the quality of the guide.  Our first was an army veteran who'd written books on Savannah and was both highly informing and entertaining.  The second appeared to have memorised a script and had an irritating style of repeating every key point in the sing-song most appropriate for 5-year-olds and stubborn spaniels.  I was also irritated that you couldn't hop on and buy a ticket, but had to take one bus to their main depot and, once on the trolley, be taken to another lot to buy tickets, eating up a good half hour.  If we'd had more time, I suspect we'd have gotten more out of it had we hopped off in more places and experienced more guides.  Despite my lukewarm impression, it added to our understanding of the place and I think it's a necessary introduction to fully appreciate the city.

With just two days in town, we only had time to tour one of the grand houses.  We opted for Mercer House which, architecturally, is a poor choice.  In a town that holds some of the country's finest, most elegant Federal-style interiors, Mercer House is a heavy, graceless Victorian property with a pleasant but average collection of art and furniture.  It is, however, one of the few houses open on a Sunday.  On this one day, Savannah turns its Bible Belt face to tourists, banning all alcohol until 1pm (so much for our bloody Mary-filled brunch ideas) and only allowing libations with food for the rest of the day. A high proportion of shops and attractions are also shuttered.  More significantly for most tourists, however, Mercer House was the setting for the murder at the centre of Midnight, and was used as the set in Clint Eastwood's film of the book.  Thus, the tours that run every 20 minutes are constantly booked and the house is one of the most visited in town; much to the irritation of the more historically, architecturally and artistically significant competitors.

Still, if you've read the book, you really need to see the house.  Although don't expect any insight into, or gossip about, the crime.  The family still owns the house, so there's not a single mention of the murder or the series of four trials that finally resulted in acquittal of antique dealer Jim Williams.  The tour is instead a respectful and adulatory exploration of Williams' contributions to historic Savannah's restoration in general, and this house in particular.  Of course, they clearly operate on the assumption that most people on the tour have read the book, and they do drop some interesting titbits from the film production.

As with any great tourist destination, Savannah's beauty and history is augmented by some great food and drink, served in memorable places.  That's my next entry.