Top places to stay in Savannah, Georgia.
Savannah owes its convivial hospitality tradition to the maritime prosperity of Georgia's Atlantic coast, the architectural vision of its colonial town plan, and the enduring cultural influence of the Lowcountry, where oak-shaded squares, historic mansions, and Southern culinary heritage create an atmosphere of exceptional elegance. James Oglethorpe established Savannah in 1733 on a bluff above the Savannah River, creating the first settlement of the Georgia colony. His town plan organized development around public squares, residential lots, and civic spaces, establishing a physical structure that accommodated successive generations of merchants and travelers. The port expanded through Atlantic commerce, with rice and indigo plantations contributing to an economy dependent upon enslaved African labor. Taverns and boardinghouses served ship captains, traders, and visitors conducting business along the waterfront. Following the American Revolution, cotton became central to Savannah's prosperity, drawing merchants and shipping interests into an increasingly important export center. The opening of the City Hotel in 1821 introduced a substantial establishment suited to the commercial ambitions of the growing city. Rail connections strengthened Savannah's position during the nineteenth century, bringing additional travelers into its hotels and commercial districts. The Civil War disrupted trade, although the city escaped the extensive destruction experienced elsewhere during the conflict. Savannah's economy recovered through cotton exports, manufacturing, and expanding transportation networks. The opening of the original De Soto Hotel in 1890 introduced an ambitious luxury property associated with the city's late Victorian prosperity. Its elaborate public spaces attracted affluent winter visitors who traveled south for the region's comparatively mild climate. The development of automobile tourism during the twentieth century brought new travelers to coastal Georgia, encouraging motor courts and modern accommodation beyond the historic commercial center. Preservation became increasingly important after the founding of the Historic Savannah Foundation in 1955, when local advocates began protecting endangered buildings and restoring the city's architectural inheritance. The publication of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in 1994 introduced Savannah's distinctive social world and historic settings to an enormous international readership. Its subsequent film adaptation further strengthened the city's appeal as a cultural destination. The opening of the Mansion on Forsyth Park in 2005 reflected growing demand for luxury accommodation within restored historic surroundings. More recent development has introduced sophisticated boutique hotels, contemporary riverfront properties, and carefully adapted commercial buildings. Savannah's hospitality industry now draws upon a rare combination of port history, architectural preservation, Southern social traditions, and a remarkable urban landscape whose intimate scale remains central to the visitor experience.
Savannah's most compelling accommodation occupies a remarkably coherent historic landscape organized around shaded public squares, elegant residential streets, and the elevated waterfront overlooking the Savannah River. The Historic District forms the principal concentration of boutique hotels and traditional inns, with restored townhouses, substantial nineteenth-century mansions, and former commercial buildings providing intimate settings throughout the original street grid. Bull Street creates an important north, south axis through the district, connecting landscaped squares and prominent civic landmarks beneath mature live oaks draped with Spanish moss. Properties surrounding Chippewa Square and Madison Square occupy especially desirable positions near historic churches, museums, and established restaurants. Their architecture incorporates brick façades, ornamental ironwork, tall windows, and carefully preserved interior courtyards. Eastward, the streets surrounding Columbia Square and Greene Square retain a quieter residential character through historic houses and smaller lodging properties. The district's narrow lanes and garden walls contribute to an unusually intimate pedestrian environment. Northward, the riverfront introduces a contrasting architectural landscape through substantial former cotton warehouses, cobbled ramps, and historic commercial buildings arranged along River Street. Hotels occupy prominent positions above the waterfront, overlooking passing cargo ships and the broad tidal channel. The steep connections between Bay Street and the river reveal Savannah's distinctive topography, with stone retaining walls and historic stairways separating the commercial waterfront from the elevated city. Westward, the Plant Riverside District occupies a redeveloped industrial site centered on the former riverside power plant, whose substantial brick architecture now anchors a contemporary hospitality and entertainment complex. Its waterfront promenades and large-scale public spaces introduce a more expansive resort atmosphere to the historic port. South of the principal commercial streets, the neighborhoods surrounding Forsyth Park offer a greener residential setting through substantial Victorian houses, broad sidewalks, and landscaped gardens. Boutique inns occupy restored mansions overlooking the park or tucked into adjoining streets, providing a quieter atmosphere within walking distance of the central squares. The Victorian District extends farther south through blocks of late nineteenth-century residences, decorative porches, and established neighborhood businesses. Its architectural variety creates opportunities for intimate guesthouses and residential-style accommodation. East of downtown, the Thomas Square Streetcar District contains historic storefronts, former industrial buildings, and residential streets associated with Savannah's later urban expansion. Small lodging properties and vacation residences provide access to neighborhood cafés and independent businesses. Beyond the central city, the Wilmington River and surrounding marshlands introduce a contrasting coastal landscape of tidal creeks, maritime forests, and waterfront residences. Accommodation in these settings emphasizes seclusion and access to boating and coastal recreation. Farther east, Tybee Island presents a relaxed barrier-island environment through beach cottages, modest hotels, and vacation properties near the Atlantic shoreline. Its broad beaches, dunes, and historic lighthouse create a distinctive coastal extension of a Savannah visit. Together, these settings offer experiences ranging from refined historic inns and contemporary waterfront hotels to secluded marshland retreats and informal Atlantic beach accommodation. Foresyte may earn a commission when you book.
Foresyte Travel's top five choices.
5. JW Marriott Savannah Plant Riverside District
JW Marriott Savannah Plant Riverside District occupies the former Riverside Station, an expansive generating plant built along the Savannah River in 1912 to supply electricity to the growing city. Architect Hyman Wallace Witcover, also responsible for Savannah City Hall, designed the original power station, whose twin smokestacks became enduring features of the western riverfront. The plant ceased generating electricity in 2005, and developer Richard Kessler subsequently transformed the industrial complex into the centerpiece of the Plant Riverside District. The 2020 redevelopment preserved major elements of the generating station while introducing new buildings, public spaces, hospitality, and cultural installations across the riverfront site. JW Marriott gives one of Savannah's largest surviving industrial structures a central role in the twenty-first-century redevelopment of the city's western waterfront.
4. The Gastonian
The Gastonian occupies two adjoining Regency Italianate mansions on Gaston Street within Savannah's National Historic Landmark District. Architect John Scudder constructed the houses in 1868 for prosperous Savannah residents R.H. Footman and Aaron Champion as the city recovered from the Civil War and residential development continued around its southern squares. Their masonry facades, ironwork, tall windows, interior plasterwork, and adjoining gardens preserve the architectural style of Savannah's postbellum elite residences. The conversion joined the neighboring houses into a single hotel while retaining the domestic scale that distinguishes them from the city's purpose-built hospitality properties. The Gastonian places Savannah's nineteenth-century residential architecture at the center of its character, preserving two substantial houses from a pivotal period in the city's urban expansion.
3. Hamilton-Turner Inn
Hamilton-Turner Inn occupies an elaborate mansion overlooking Lafayette Square, built in 1873 for businessman Samuel Pugh Hamilton and his family. Architect J.D. Hall designed the residence with a prominent mansard roof, ornate ironwork, tall windows, and richly detailed interiors that reflected the prosperity of Savannah's late nineteenth-century merchant class. The house later belonged to Dr. Francis Turner, whose family name joined Hamilton's in the property's enduring designation. Its position opposite the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist places the mansion within one of Savannah's most architecturally concentrated historic settings. Hamilton-Turner Inn preserves the scale and decorative ambition of a private Gilded Age residence within the square-based urban plan that defines Central Savannah.
2. The Alida, Savannah, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel
The Alida occupies Savannah's western riverfront beside the restored warehouses and commercial buildings of the Historic District, an area transformed through major redevelopment during the early twenty-first century. The hotel takes its name from Alida Harper Fowlkes, the Savannah preservationist and antiques dealer whose work helped protect historic buildings and interiors across the city during the twentieth century. North Point Hospitality developed the property, which opened in 2018 as part of Marriott's Tribute Portfolio. Sottile & Sottile designed the building with brick, large industrial windows, and a massing informed by the warehouses that historically defined the riverfront. The Alida links contemporary hotel development with the preservation movement that protected much of the architectural fabric underlying Savannah's modern cultural economy.
1. Perry Lane Hotel, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Savannah
Perry Lane Hotel occupies a pair of buildings in Savannah's Historic District near Chippewa Square, integrating a contemporary luxury property into the city's tightly controlled architectural environment. Flank developed the hotel with Hansen Architects, using masonry facades, iron balconies, courtyards, and restrained building heights to establish continuity with the surrounding nineteenth-century streetscape. AvroKO shaped the interiors around an extensive collection of artwork, books, objects, and custom furnishings conceived to give the property the character of an established Savannah residence. Perry Lane opened in 2018 as part of Marriott's Luxury Collection during a period of substantial new investment in the Historic District's hospitality sector. Its development demonstrates how large-scale contemporary hospitality has been inserted into Savannah's protected urban fabric through architecture governed by the proportions and materials of the surrounding city.
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