The Savannah Walking Tour & Guidebook

This book is exactly what it claims to be: a walking tour and guidebook for the city of Savannah. I am a travel writer and I bought the book to help me in identifying and getting a brief history about some of the historic streets, buildings and parks around Savannah and it's been extremely useful. The text, while relatively short, is well written, to the point and offers a great historical perspective. The walks themselves are divided by neighborhood and area and they are extremely well organized and well chosen. Also, there are beautiful close-up maps throughout and an overall map at the back of the book. The book is full of illustrations (at least a half dozen on almost every page) and combines both historic and modern photographs--and the reproduction is superb for such an inexpensive book. The great thing about having a book so nicely illustrated is that if you toss this book into a backpack while you're in the city, you'll be able to identify a lot of things on sight--and that's a huge advantage. If you are heading to Savannah, particularly for the first time, drop a few bucks (probably less than the cost of an expensive cup of coffee) and buy this book. You will never regret it.

I just returned from a 5-day trip to Savannah and am so glad I brought this book with me! The walking tours were well laid out, and even though we skipped around a bit it was very easy to get back on track. The pictures and descriptions were great and made traversing Historic Savannah a breeze. Of note, as we were walking around near the River District a gentleman approached us to say it was nice to see us using his book as reference - yep, he was the author! He very kindly spent a few minutes chatting with us, and even helped us with directions. I highly recommend this book to any and all looking for an easy to follow guide this lovely city.

My husband and I utilized this guide over two days during our first trip to Savannah and thoroughly enjoyed it. Following the maps were almost like a treasure hunt - and Savannah has many treasures! The maps are split into 4 walking tours. Each tour includes total distance and approximate time to complete the tour. The time to complete each tour would be accurate if you were on a mission to just walk the routes - approximately 3-1/2 hours total for all 4 tours - but we did it at a much more leisurely pace to take time for admiring the magnificent architecture, enjoying the peaceful parks, reading the historical markers, stopping for lunches, drinks and shopping along the route and making our own discoveries along the way. We ended up spending 12 hours over two days entirely following the routes in this guide. Do not be discouraged from purchasing this because of the 1- or 2-Star reviews that feel this is not comprehensive enough. It is, afterall, a walking tour guide, and I for one would not want to lug around an encyclopedia all day! It is thin and lightweight with easy to follow maps and a bit of information about each stop and offers much more than the “pamphlet” some have suggested. Historical markers along the way provide you with more detail.

I used to live in Savannah, but it was many years ago and I couldn't remember exactly where everything was. I bought this to take with us (I wanted to show my husband around, who has never been there). I am a native Georgian and even have ancestors from Savannah. In fact, one of my great grandfathers was named as a traitor to the crown in one of the town squares, so as you can see, I had to have the right book and this one did turn out to be very helpful. It begins with a brief history of Savannah and the settlement. It even shows a map from 1734. It then moves into the tours. There are 4 tours to select and just as many have mentioned, you can skip around if you wish. Each tour has its own map with numbers corresponding to landmarks. All maps are very clear and precise. There are a lot of numbered photographs (corresponding to the numbers on the maps) and I believe every landmark has a photo which is helpful, when you're not sure which landmark is what. There are also historical drawings/photographs of the landmark locations. It is an interesting comparison with then and now. At the end of the book is a collection of old photos entitled "Savannah Memories". This is a self-published book as well. You'll not find this in book stores. The only drawback is the tiny size of most of the photos. Can you see it? Yes. Can you see it well? No. In fact, there were many details that looked like only a dot with the naked eye, but was actually an interesting something or other that we could see with a magnifying glass. Now in the author's defense, I can only assume that the tiny photos are a cost issue, since he self-published this book. Photos cost much more than text. All in all, it's a great book and very helpful. It's easy to follow and shares a lot of interesting facts. I highly recommend it, but for those wearing bifocals, take a magnifying glass with you.

This tour book of Savannah is a must-have if you are planning to do a self-guided walking tour. Wow! We took 4 of the 5 tours and although it was considerable walking, the book tells you how far it is and how long it will take and you can plan accordingly. It has pictures as well as descriptions so you are able to find the places better. It explains the squares and makes everything real and interesting. It was great to move at our own leisure and learn along the way. We had taken the trolley tour first, and still found this informative and fun. This is the best walking tour book we have owned. And Amazon has it for $5.95! Very affordable. Highly recommended. I wish the author would write one for Charleston. The one we had from there was not as easy to understand and had no pictures of buildings nor gave us any idea whatsoever how far it was or how long each tour would take.