Savannah puts Atlantic beaches, riverside towns and Charleston’s historic centre within reach of a same-day drive. Choose Tybee Island for a beach-led outing, Bluffton for a compact town visit, or Charleston for a long city day. Hilton Head Island adds cycling and coastal nature, while Beaufort pairs a waterfront walk with literary and regional history.
Each trip below starts from Savannah Visitor Center and returns to Savannah the same day. Choose one destination rather than trying to combine them: the time you leave for a meal, the beach or a riverside pause matters as much as the outward drive.
Choose your day trip
| Criterion | Tybee Island | Bluffton | Hilton Head Island | Beaufort | Charleston |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outward drive | about 34 minutesBest | about 36 minutes | about an hour | about an hour | about 2 hours |
| Driving destination | North Beach | Old Town Bluffton | Coligny Beach | Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park | Waterfront Park |
| What to enjoy | Beach and lighthouse | Galleries and May River | Beach, cycling and nature | Waterfront, history and literature | Historic city streets and market |
| Time away, including return | Half-day beach; fuller island day | Half day | Full day; beach-only half day | Full day; shorter centre visit | Long full day |
| Featured attraction admission | Light Station: $14 adult | — | Coastal Discovery Museum: free general admission | — | — |
Bluffton and Beaufort are the riverside small-town choices. Bluffton suits browsing galleries and antiques beside the May River, while Beaufort offers a larger historic-centre outing with Bay Street and a literary stop. Choose between them according to how much of the day you want to spend away from Savannah.
Self-driving lets you stay for lunch, shorten a beach visit or linger along the waterfront without following a group’s schedule. If you have no car, an organised excursion can arrange transport, but its destination and included stops determine the day. These are separate outings, not a sequence to drive in one day.
Tybee Island
North Beach makes Tybee Island a straightforward choice when you want sand and sea rather than another town centre. Keep it to a beach half-day, or make a fuller island day by adding Tybee Island Light Station. Its lighthouse and keeper cottages give you something to explore alongside time on the shore.
Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0 · Edited
Drive out from Savannah via US-80. Beach-period traffic can slow the approach and the journey back, so leave room for the return rather than treating the outward drive as a fixed promise. At North Beach, parking costs $4 per hour and is enforced 8am–8pm year-round, including weekends and holidays.
Adult Light Station admission is $14, covering the complete station and the Tybee Museum in Battery Garland. The cottages broaden the visit beyond the tower itself, while the museum gives you a separate stop to fit around beach time. Visitor entry begins at 9am on open days.
Bluffton
Old Town Bluffton is the compact town outing: galleries and antique shops give you reasons to browse, while the May River keeps the visit connected to the waterfront. Choose Bluffton for a half-day with time for a meal, rather than a beach day. You can spend the visit on foot once you have arrived, moving between shops and riverside places instead of driving between island attractions.
The Church of the Cross is a distinctive stop at the riverside end of Old Town. Its timber Gothic Revival building and May River setting make it worth seeing even if you keep your visit to the exterior. Pair it with gallery browsing rather than making the church the sole reason for the journey.
Fritzmann2002 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Edited
For a driving arrival by the river, use the public visitor car park at Oyster Factory Park, 63 Wharf Street. The park brings you to another part of the May River waterfront. Leave the car there while you explore Old Town rather than looking for a space at every stop.
Allow a meal to be part of the outing, with time afterwards to return to the river. Keep Bluffton as its own trip instead of adding Hilton Head. Combining them turns a compact town visit into a day of moving between destinations, leaving less time for the galleries and antiques that distinguish Bluffton.
Hilton Head Island
Coligny Beach is the natural starting point for a beach-led visit to Hilton Head Island. Spend time on the Atlantic shore, then decide whether you want another activity or simply a meal before returning to Savannah. A beach-only visit can be a half-day, but give the spread-out island a full day if you add cycling or the Coastal Discovery Museum.
Scott Platt · Pexels License · Edited
Visitor parking is free in the public lot behind Coligny Beach Park, with no permit needed. Arrive early on summer weekends and holidays, when the lot can fill by midmorning and finding a space becomes difficult. An early arrival also lets you settle into the beach visit before considering a second stop.
Cycling offers an active alternative to spending the whole visit on the sand. The island’s network of shared-use paths lets you explore away from the beach, but choose a ride that leaves you time to enjoy the shore as well. Treat cycling as one of the day’s main activities, not an extra to squeeze between several driving stops.
Coastal Discovery Museum, at Honey Horn, adds a different view of the island through coastal ecology and Lowcountry history. Its grounds, general exhibits and museum admission are free, but donations are appreciated. The grounds make it a useful cultural and nature-focused complement to Coligny, especially if you want more than a beach visit.
For the fuller day, pick the beach plus either cycling or the museum, with a meal between activities. Leave space for the return to Savannah rather than trying to cover every corner of the island.
Beaufort
Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park gives Beaufort’s historic centre a generous riverside stopping place. Walk beside the water, then turn towards Bay Street for shops and the town’s historic streets. Beaufort suits a full day with a meal and unhurried exploration, or a half-day focused on the waterfront and centre. It is a town day rather than an island beach outing.
Farrargirl · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Edited
Bay Street keeps you close to the waterfront while you browse, so the park and town need not feel like separate visits. Beyond the commercial street, the historic houses help explain Beaufort’s architectural appeal. Leave time to look at the buildings from the public streets instead of making every stop an interior visit.
The Pat Conroy Literary Center adds a specific literary interest: Conroy’s life and writing are closely connected with Beaufort and the surrounding Lowcountry. Choose it if that connection interests you, rather than adding an indoor attraction just to lengthen the day. You can also enjoy Beaufort through its streets and waterfront alone.
The town’s wider history includes Gullah Geechee communities, descendants of enslaved Africans whose distinctive culture developed along the south-eastern coast. Reconstruction, the period following the American Civil War, is another important part of Beaufort’s story, tied to emancipation, education and citizenship. These histories give context to the town beyond its handsome houses, but they need not become a detour to another island on this trip.
Arrive from Savannah with the waterfront as your first focus, then decide how much time you want for the streets and a literary stop. A meal makes the fuller day more enjoyable without adding another destination. Keep the return drive in mind before extending the afternoon.
Charleston
Charleston is the historic-city choice about 2 hours from Savannah, and it calls for a long full day rather than a casual half-day outing. Keep the visit within the historic centre, where Rainbow Row, Waterfront Park and City Market offer a focused mix of architecture, riverside space and browsing. The longer outward journey leaves less time for adding distant attractions.
Rainbow Row’s pastel-coloured historic houses line East Bay Street. Enjoy them as a streetside architectural stop, looking at the sequence of façades rather than planning an interior visit. They fit naturally with time along the nearby waterfront and give the city day a distinctive starting point.
w_lemay · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Edited
Waterfront Park gives you a place to pause beside Charleston Harbour, with the Pineapple Fountain as a recognisable landmark. Make room here for a break between the streets and market rather than treating the park only as a photo stop. For a public driving arrival near the park, use Concord/Cumberland Garage at 1 Cumberland Street. The park is a short walk away.
City Market brings a different activity to the visit: browsing stalls and crafts within the historic centre. Sweetgrass basketry is one of its distinctive traditions, associated with Gullah Geechee artisans. Take time to look at the work rather than treating the market as another landmark to pass on the way elsewhere.
Build the day around these central stops and a proper meal. You can see the houses, spend time by the harbour and browse the market without moving the car between distant attractions. If you want to add an interior attraction, let it replace part of that plan rather than extending an already long day.
Leave plantations and outlying beaches for a separate stay. An early departure from Savannah gives you more room to enjoy Charleston, but the return still belongs in the day’s plans. Finish sightseeing while you have the energy for the drive back, rather than making the last stop the start of a rushed journey home.
Sources & fact-checking
Checks against the sources below cover: fares and charges and opening hours.
