Things to Do in Georgetown

The Savannah Walks leads newcomers and locals alike through the shadowy, moss-laden squares of Savannah’s historic colonial district during informative guided tours. Each outing provides a unique twist on the city and its unmistakable charm, covering topics such as Savannah during the Civil War, historic fine homes, majestic gates and gardens, and local pubs. Tour guides all boast scholastic bona fides, including among them three published authors and three college professors. The Savannah Walks easily accommodates school groups, civic organizations, corporations, celebrities, and animals standing on each other's shoulders under an overcoat.

In 1820, an upwardly mobile carpenter named Isaiah Davenport designed a 6,800-square-foot Federal-style home to live in with his wife, children, and slaves. After his death, Davenport’s wife turned the stately brick house into a boarding house, though it later devolved into a run-down tenement—until the Historic Savannah Foundation saved the landmark when it was threatened with demolition in 1955. The organization’s award-winning preservation, their very first effort, jumpstarted an organized preservation movement that spread across the entire port city.

Today, the Davenport House Museum’s rooms are filled with antique furniture from the 1820s, acquired after careful research relying on estate inventories and detailed artist renderings of long-ago games of musical chairs. These period-accurate tables and chairs join ceramics, textiles, and books to form the museum’s collection of about 500 historical items. Behind the home, where a carriage house, garden, and privy once stood, a garden designed by renowned landscape artist Penelope Hobhouse flourishes. After walking among its flowers, visitors can drop by the museum shop to pick up jams and jellies, books about Savannah, and reproductions of early 19th-century items.

The opening scene of Forrest Gump follows a feather as it floats above Savannah's rooftops, a view seen from the Sorrel-Weed House, where the scene was filmed. Completed between 1839 and 1840, the now-iconic building was distinguished as a state landmark in 1954—only the second house in Georgia to receive that honor. Today, during historic tours, guests patter down the same corridors where onetime houseguest General Robert E. Lee once practiced hacky sack, or track spirits during ghostly explorations of the home's creepy quarters. Southern history pervades each visit as guests catch glimpses of the house’s antique decor and Greek revival architecture.

Daufuskie Discoveries creates opportunities to explore Daufuskie Island's lush, historic habitat with customized guided or private outings. An enclosed or open-air water taxi quickly shuttles small groups from Hilton Head or Savannah to the island's three-mile stretch of sandy beach in 30 minutes, with captains tossing out facts about Calibogue Sound and Cooper River. Customers disembark and board their conveyance of choice—golf cart, boat, or shoes—before bursting through the tree line into specific isle regions, such as Bloody Point, which houses the Bloody Point Cemetery and Bloody Point Lighthouse & Silver Dew Winery. Three-hour private cruises skirt the coastline as a guide artfully describes the sun dipping beneath marshes as a hot air balloon deflated by a stampeding herd of storks.

The turrets of Star Castle climb high above Mall Boulevard, its drawbridge lowered to lead visitors into to a grand hall filled with treasure and adventure. Inside the 28,000-square-foot entertainment stronghold, children glide across a solid-wood skating surface, rolling around to top-40 hits and classic tunes spun by a resident DJ. Coats of arms and archways surround the rink and lead to other fun-filled chambers, including a video arcade where guests can test their skills on games both nostalgic and new and redeem tickets for prizes or sew them into giant ticket sweaters. As if that wasn't enough, the castle also contains a 4,000-square-foot laser-tag arena, where future knights engage in simulated battles beset by black lights and fog, all under the supervision of an arena attendant and any friends or family members who wish to watch from the spectator room.