Get your calendars ready because I have exciting information to share.
Imagine grabbing your book club friends or just your favorite people and heading to Savannah. In September, after the city’s cooled off from the hot summer. See the sites and spend all day Sunday talking books and reading with your favorite authors, bookish enthusiasts, and yours truly.
I’ve never been to Savannah and I can’t wait to head there this fall. (I’d love to hear your suggestions for your can’t-miss Savannah favorites in comments!)
I’m dreaming of taking a trolley tour, trying all the local specialties, strolling through the Savannah College of Art and Design campus, taking a ghost tour, and photographing the famous Forsyth fountain. I can’t wait to see its unique architecture and famous squares and all that Spanish moss for myself. And of course I’ll be visiting their local bookstore (and tea shop!) E. Shaver.
This is all happening the weekend of September 18. The main scheduled event will fill a Sunday afternoon. It kicks off with a “Moveable Feast”—a sit-down lunch where authors rotate through the room, coming to sit at your table and talk books with you while you eat. After lunch we’ll have sessions and panels, and I just can’t wait to tell you about the big-name featured speaker because I am beside myself with excitement.
The event will be held smack in the middle of the historic district at the Hilton Savannah DeSoto Hotel, which is within walking distance of many Savannah landmarks. According to Southern Living you won’t even need a car.
More details to follow, but I wanted to give you plenty of notice to plan that girls’ weekend or romantic getaway.
I can’t wait to see you in September!
Please tell me all your Savannah favorites in comments!
Creative Commons Forsyth Park Savannah Georgia by jstephenconn is licensed under CC BY 2.0 // cropped from original
36 comments
That very park in the picture is my favorite memory from Savannah! I think you will love it.
This is amazing! Savannah is my favorite place!
How exciting! I live in Savannah. The fountain in Forsyth Park is beautiful. A ‘scavenger hunt’ around the city is a wonderful way to get to know and see the city. Historic Savannah Carriage Tours is owned by some friends of ours and who are so wonderful with their horses. A carriage tour is a must-do to hear about our wonderful city. Green Truck Pub for burgers, Kayak Kafe on Broughton (good local grown food), Leopold’s Ice Cream is a must, Tequila Town for Mexican, Vinnie Van Go Go’s in the City Market for pizza (to die for) and enjoy the music at the other end of the market while you’re there. I’d take Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room over Paula Dean’s The Lady and Sons any day of the week and twice on Sunday. The Tea Room (at the bookstore) used to be it’s own place and they served amazing homemade soups and quiche lunches and cold and hot teas. Winter Solstice is my absolute favorite of their hot teas. Museums definitely! Especially the Juliet Gordon Low birthplace (founder of the Girl Scouts); always popular. Don’t forget Tybee Island beach just 30 minutes away and Fort Pulaski on the way to the beach. Historically, Savannah is very rich. All that wonderful news said, I’m not sure who told you we begin cooling off in September. Sadly, they were wrong. We are still, pardon my french, stinking hot in September.
Thanks for the recommendations! (My Savannah-living friend told me it’s SO much better in September than July. Maybe that’s just her trick of positive framing. 🙂 )
It’s better in September than July on average and in the nights, but September is still pretty warm and humid. Excited!
Savannah will still be hot in September!
We live just outside of Savannah and it is as wonderful as it is pictured to be. Great architecture, beautiful squares, loads of luscious food. Be aware that September is still quite warm in September and always humid.
For good food we love The Cotton Exchange, my husband says they make the best Low Country Boil he’s ever tasted, and I think their shrimp salad is heavenly. Also like Huey’s for brunch—great beignets– and Olympia has great Greek food and the very best calamari in the world.
Unfortunately we’ll miss the book fair this year, we’re off to visit our daughter in Japan.
Thanks for the recommendations (and have a wonderful time in Japan!)
Oh so fun! I have wanted to go to Savannah for AGES! We finally get to go in June! I am SO excited. It will be hot so we are going to Tybee and Jekyll Islands too! I will have to send you a few links after we’ve been!
XO – Alexandra
Simply Alexandra: My Favorite Things
Have a wonderful time and tell me everything!
Yippeeeeee!! I really want to go! I live just north of Atlanta, so it’s about a 4 hour drive. I’ve been dying to go to Savannah, and this is perfect. How long is the event? I’m wondering how long to book a hotel for.
The event is on Sunday (definitely noon-5, maybe in the morning as well), although we (that’s SheReads.org and me) want to do some kind of in-person “book club” on Saturday or Sunday.
This sounds so amazing. If you do something like this again I would love to see a Saturday event!
Colonial Park Cemetery will probably be on the ghost tour (never been on the formal tour) but you must walk around in there. Fascinating! And Leopold’s Ice Cream! Yummmm!!!
Thanks for the suggestions!
My very favorite place in Savannah is the Gryphon. They serve tea in a building that used to be a pharmacy and still has it’s original Tiffany glass.
That sounds fantastic!
I’m dying to know who the speaker is going to be…! This sounds wonderful!
You won’t be disappointed. 🙂
Oh wow!! This sounds so exciting! I’m going to start talking with friends today to see if can pull it off!
Sounds amazing!
I’m not in a financial place in my life where I am able to attend, but this sounds like so much fun! I cannot wait to hear all about it!
I live near Savannah, and I am SO down for this! My favorite spots include Alan Raskin Antiques (a three story mansion full of wall-to-wall antiques, some of which are from the 1700s and 1800s), Starland Cafe, Gryphon Tea Room (across the square from E.Shaver!), Back in the Day Bakery, and on Saturdays from 9am -1pm there’s a great farmer’s market in Forsyth Park. I also love E. Shaver, and I know you will too! A few other bookstores of note: The Book Lady and Ex Libris.
As of September, I’ll be well into teaching first semester, so this will be a refreshing and much needed time to fill my tank!
We honeymooned in Savannah and loved it all! I remember eating a fancy dinner at the Pink House, it was as wonderful as everything we’d heard. We stayed at a B&B, The Forsyth Park Inn. You’ll love the scenery of the city, so much Southern beauty to behold. We also enjoyed walking everywhere and didn’t have trouble at the end of December. We took a tour of an old African American church (I’m not correctly remembering the name I’m afraid, Baptist maybe?) where slaves on the Underground Railroad were hidden beneath the floor boards, wow!
There’s a cute, not expensive boutique called Red Clover that I make a point to visit in Savannah. They have a website if you want to see if it’s your sort of place before you go. 🙂
Lots of my favorites have been mentioned…Gryphon, the Pink House, bookstores, touring the squares…but we love having breakfast at Huey’s on the River (cafe au lait and beignets with praline sauce, please!) If we still lived in GA, I would be there for sure! Have fun!
One of my favorite cities, ever! I have been there a bunch! You HAVE to eat at the Pink House- SO delicious!! The Gryphon Tea Room is also really cool, and just plan to walk everywhere- the squares are beautiful! Oh and get pizza at Vinnie Van GoGo’s!!
I’m so going to try to make this happen! I’ve always wanted to go to Savannah, I would love to meet you, and I’m part of the most amazing book club! I hope some of us can make it happen!
Savannah is a wonderful city with so many amazing things to do. One of my favorite places is the Historic Savannah Theatre. I have been to three of their shows and they are excellent!
So excited for this and hope to be able to join you!! I live in Beaufort SC which is about an hour north of Savannah on the coast. Our area is beautiful but like several others have said, it will still be hot and humid in September…all the more reason to be inside discussing books:) Walking along the riverfront and in Forsyth Park are my favorites and there is just something magical about our part of the country.
Your podcast is one of my very favorites and I have read several books recommended there so will do my best to make this event. Such fun for us book freaks!!
And slightly unrelated but while I was visiting my sister in Nashville a couple of weeks ago, we were at dinner with a friend who works at Parnassus Books. She introduced us to someone whose name was familiar to me…turned out to be the author of No One Knows…which I first heard of on your podcast with the She Loves ladies!! Such a small world!!
This sounds like so much fun Anne! I immediately emailed a friend, and she really wants to go! I know the particulars will be coming out later, but do you have a ballpark figure on the cost? Just me being a planner!
What is the name of this event?
I am so excited about this event. We are from the East Coast, my book friends and I are teachers and a librarian. We would love to join the fun, and was wondering what the pricing was for this event, as we will have to make scheduling arrangements etc.
Last year’s event was $99. This year’s pricing hasn’t been announced yet.
Sign.Me.Up. Can’t wait to hear more details! It sounds like the perfect weekend: books, tea, good food, and southern hospitality! I’m going to start recruiting some gal pals…