A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN NATURE NEAR SAVANNAH

Skidaway Island State Park
20 minutes from Savannah
Start your day by visiting Skidaway Island State Park. This park has my favorite type of trail – flat and easy with scenic views and wildlife. There are a couple shorter trails, or you can combine them all into one longer trail, which is what we did. Skidaway Island State Park is considered a maritime forest so you’ll see Saw Palmetto (yes, like the supplement!) and Pine Trees and walk on some slightly sandy trails (not beach sandy where your calves are burning, just a slight dusting on top of dirt). Spanish Moss dripping off the trees gives everything a beautiful ethereal quality. There’s plenty of birds like Great Blue Herons and Great White Egrets. There’s a look out on the Big Ferry portion of the trail. A couple was nice enough to let us borrow their binoculars, and when we looked through, we saw dolphins!

The trails here are great for hiking and trail running. We visited on a Saturday in late February and the park was busy, but there were stretches of time where we had the trail to ourselves. Pick up a map from the entrance station and you can see how easily all of the trails connect.

There’s a little free library where I dropped off some recently finished books and picked a new one up in exchange! I love when you can find a good book in a little free library. You can find this one in the parking lot in front of the Visitor Center.

The restrooms are nice and clean here and there are a few water refill stations in the parking lots. The Visitor’s Center has a little gift shop and some snacks.

It’s $5 per car to enter.

There’s a Publix close by if you want to pick up a Pub Sub for a quick lunch.

Sandpiper Trail
Distance: 1 mile

Difficulty: Easy

Minimal Elevation Changes

Time: 20 minutes

This one mile loop trail takes you across a wooden bridge and into the pines and palmettos. If you want to add just a little more mileage, you can walk the Avian Trail.

Avian Trail

Distance: 1 mile

Difficulty: Easy

Minimal Elevation Changes

Time: 20 minutes

If you continue onto the Avian Trail, you’ll start to get glimpses of the Intercoastal Waterway. Be on the lookout for dolphins and osprey. You can combine the Avian Trail with the Big Ferry Trail to extend your loop hike. To get to the Avian Trail, you will need to hike in from the Sandpiper Trail or take a connector trail from the Big Ferry Trail.

Big Ferry Trail

Distance: 3.5 miles

Difficulty: Easy

Minimal Elevation Changes

Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

There are two different ways to hike the Big Ferry Trail – either from the parking lot, or via the Connector Trail from the Avian Trail. All of the trails are visibly labeled, making it very easy to navigate between trails. The best part of this trail is the lookout tower. Here’s where you’ll be able to spot various birds and potentially dolphins. We also saw some crabs and snails near the lookout.

Loop of All Three

Distance: 4 miles

Difficulty: Easy

Minimal Elevation Changes

Time: 2 hours
If you have the time, the best way to experience this park is by combining all of the trails into one longer loop. You’ll get a full view of the park and enjoy a nice leisurely stroll.

Wormsloe Historic Preserve

Distance from Savannah: 15 minutes

Wormsloe Historic Preserve has a couple cool activities: a short hike, a beautiful tree tunnel, a small museum, and historic ruins. If you want to explore it all, I’d plan to spend around 2 hours here. Entrance is $11 per person, but you can look at the tree tunnel for free.

Oak Alley
Wormsloe is famous for its Oak Alley – a 1.5 mile drive down a dirt road lined with 400 oak trees. Driving under the oak trees is truly majestic. While you can’t stop on the road, you can park at the beginning or end of the road to take some pictures. You’ll probably also see some couples taking engagement photos in the beautiful tree tunnel.

Wormsloe Historic Site Trail or Wormsloe Battery Trail (Orange)

Distance: 3 miles

Difficulty: Easy

Minimal Elevation Changes

Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

This trail is excellent. It has a similar feel to the Skidaway Island trails, but there are also historic ruins. You’ll see the same flora, fauna and wildlife here, but with a new addition – an armadillo! This was my first time seeing an armadillo, so I was very excited.

Wormsloe Visitor Center Museum

Stop by the visitor center to learn about the early days of Georgia and its founder James Oglethorpe. They used to play a short, educational video, but they no longer show it.

Wormsloe Ruins and Colonial Life

A short walk from the Visitor Center, you’ll find tabby ruins of an old house and fortification. Tabby is a mixture of sand, oyster shells, water and limestone, which were used to build and reinforce the house. The historic site also occasionally offers events and programs showing what colonial life was like.

Bonaventure Cemetery

Distance from Savannah: 10 minutes

Savannah is known for its spooky history and part of that is its above-ground cemeteries. Made famous by the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Bonaventure is one of the most beautiful resting places. The tree-lined roadways are draped in Spanish Moss and the marble sculptures are definitely something to admire. It’s a very peaceful place.

Grab a map from the front office to help you make your way through the cemetery. The map has all of the different rows listed, but not specific grave sites. Google Maps has some of the more “famous” graves listed, but you can join a tour to learn more about the lives of those buried in this cemetery. Some of those graves include: Little Gracie (daughter of prominent hotel owner) , Johnny Mercer (musician), Conrad Aiken (poet), Corinne Elliott Lawton, and Samuel B. Adams (Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia).

If you’re looking for the Bird Girl statue from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, you won’t find it here. It was relocated to the Telfair museum after the movie and book were released.

Oatland Wildlife Preserve
Distance from Savannah: 15 minutes
Oatland Island Wildlife Center is a great place to walk around, take in the beauty of lowcountry and see some of its native animals. This 100-acre preserve showcases over 95 animals native to the region, from bobcats and alligators to river otters and bald eagles, all presented within natural habitat exhibits. It is $5 per person to enter and there is a 2 mile boardwalk trail that circles the park. It will take you about an hour or so to walk around the path.

Fort Pulaski

Distance from Savannah: 25 minutes

Standing guard between Savannah and Tybee Island, Fort Pulaski is a Civil War-era brick fortress. This national monument marks the pivotal siege where rifled cannons revolutionized warfare, rendering traditional fortifications obsolete. It’s $10 per person to enter, or you can use an America the Beautiful pass. If you’re debating between Fort Sumter and Fort Pulaski, Fort Sumter has a bit more history, but Fort Pulaski is easier to access (no ferry ride) and is more wallet-friendly.

Tybee Beach

Distance from Savannah: 25 minutes

Located just 25 minutes from the heart of Savannah, you’ll find this fun little beach town. Rent bikes to explore the area and make sure to stop and see the famous lighthouse. It’s a great beach to walk along the small dunes. If you visit during a warmer season, some of the beach entrances have boxes full of children’s beach toys. I thought this was a pretty cool feature. You can borrow a floatie or tools to build a sand castle, then return them to the box on your way out! 

If you’d like an affordable drink at a divey surfer bar, head over to Huc-A-Poos. This bar is a favorite among tourists and locals. They have indoor and outdoor seating – choose your own spot. They also have bar foods, like nachos and cheesy bread, as well as pizza.