5 Things to Do in Savannah with Kids, Chosen by Age

Savannah gives children room to play as well as things to look at. At Savannah Children’s Museum, a maze and sensory garden suit children who like to explore, while the Jepson Center offers indoor, interactive art. Forsyth Park adds playground time without an admission charge. Choose by your child’s interests and attention span, whether that means historic trains or a brief look at traffic on the Savannah River.

Choose between play, trains, art and the riverfront

Criterion	Savannah Children’s Museum	Forsyth Park	Georgia State Railroad Museum	Jepson Center	Riverfront
Suggested age fit	Preschool and primary	All ages	Train enthusiasts	Creative, curious children	Older ship enthusiasts
Adult admission	$16	FreeBest	$20	$30	FreeBest
Child admission	$16, 18 months upwards	FreeBest	$14, ages 3–12	Free, 17 and underBest	FreeBest
Suggested visit	1½–2 hours	Flexible	1½–2 hours	—	Brief, flexible
Walk from Johnson Square	about 0.9 miles	about 0.9 miles	about 0.9 miles	about 0.4 miles	about 0.2 milesBest

Yes, Savannah is worth visiting with kids, especially if you mix hands-on activities with free outdoor breaks. These independent choices rank play and broad family appeal first, not walking order. Age advice reflects interests, not ticket bands. Forsyth’s distance ends at the fountain, and the riverfront’s at Rousakis Riverfront Plaza.

Savannah Children’s Museum and Georgia State Railroad Museum share Tricentennial Park. For rain or peak heat, choose the Children’s Museum’s indoor STEAM Center (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) or the Jepson Center’s interactive art on its opening days, rather than the largely outdoor rail yard.

Savannah Children’s Museum

Savannah Children’s Museum, in Tricentennial Park, is the strongest choice for preschool and primary-school children who prefer doing to looking. The outdoor Exploration Station’s maze, sensory garden and hands-on play give them different ways to explore, rather than asking them to follow an adult-led museum visit.

The indoor STEAM Center adds hands-on learning activities. It is open to ordinary family visitors and included with standard admission, so you can head indoors when rain or peak heat makes outdoor play less appealing. For the Exploration Station, favour a cooler morning.

The Exploration Station opens Wednesday–Monday, 9am–2pm, while the STEAM Center opens daily, 9am–3pm. Ordinary family visits need no advance reservation. You can buy tickets at the gift shop on arrival or online, leaving you free to decide whether the children are in the mood for this kind of play.

The neighbouring Georgia State Railroad Museum makes an optional pairing for a child who is also keen on trains. The Children’s Museum ticket excludes the railroad museum and train rides, so treat those as a separate choice rather than an automatic extension of your visit.

Forsyth Park

Forsyth Park gives children free playground time as well as a fountain to look at. The ornate, tiered fountain is worth a brief stop, but the playgrounds and lawns make the park useful when children need a break from galleries or historic exhibits.

Younger children have slides, climbers and swings in their play area. The older children’s area offers a climbing wall, slides and swings. Let their interest set the length: a fountain look can be short, while a child absorbed in climbing may want a longer playground break. A cooler morning is a good time for play, and carrying water and sun protection makes it easier to linger.

Paved paths provide step-free access to the playgrounds, but surfaces differ within them. Smooth rubber flooring and ramp-side sections are easier to traverse, while mulched areas can be harder with a wheelchair or pushchair. Choose the section that works for your child’s mobility rather than assuming the whole play area feels the same.

For more outdoor breaks without museum tickets, the wider selection of free things to do in Savannah gives you alternatives beyond this park and the riverfront.

Georgia State Railroad Museum

Georgia State Railroad Museum suits children who are interested in trains, whatever their age. Historic locomotives, railway equipment and the roundhouse give them substantial things to examine. Choose it for that interest, rather than expecting every child to enjoy a railway collection or treating a ride as the whole attraction.

Much of the visit takes place outdoors in the historic rail yard, so a cooler morning makes exploring the grounds more comfortable. Indoor exhibits and some restored railway cars provide sheltered portions, but this is not an entirely indoor alternative for a wet day.

A quicker self-guided look can take around 45–60 minutes. Allow closer to 2–3 hours if your family joins guided activities, watches the video or lingers over the equipment. Let enthusiasm decide how much to explore, and leave time for a child to study a favourite locomotive rather than hurrying through everything.

The museum opens daily, and ordinary visits need no advance reservation. You can buy tickets at the museum on arrival. Admission includes the indoor STEAM Center, but excludes the Children’s Museum’s outdoor Exploration Station. Sharing Tricentennial Park makes the Children’s Museum a convenient optional pairing, although a family absorbed in the trains may prefer to stay with one museum.

Jepson Center

The Jepson Center’s Telfair Children’s Art Museum is an indoor choice for children who enjoy experimenting with art. The Children’s Art Museum invites interaction rather than simply following an adult gallery tour, making it useful when a child wants something to do with what they see.

Touch- or movement-responsive displays and hands-on art activities, such as Impressionist-themed exploration, are examples of the experiences you may encounter. Activities vary with the exhibitions. Let children choose which displays to explore: younger children may gravitate towards immediate responses, while older children may spend longer trying out an idea. It is interactive art, not a conventional playground.

Standard admission includes the Children’s Art Museum. The ticket also allows unlimited visits over seven days to the three Telfair sites: the Jepson Center, Telfair Academy and Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters. That gives adults scope to return to other collections rather than stretching one children’s visit into a long gallery session.

Ordinary family access needs no advance reservation, and pushchairs are welcome in all Jepson Center galleries, including the children’s space. Choose this indoor option for rain or peak heat on its opening days.

River Street and the riverfront

River Street and Rousakis Riverfront Plaza offer a free, short daytime look at the Savannah River. Older children interested in working ships may want to linger over river traffic, while younger children may prefer a brief pause. A ship passing is a possibility, not a guaranteed part of the visit.

Let what is happening on the water set the length, and favour daylight and a cooler part of the day. Candy-shop browsing can add an optional stop without making a purchase the point of the outing.

Use the public lift on the Drayton Street side for a step-free approach from the upper Historic District to River Street near the plaza. River Street’s cobbles can make a pushchair ride bumpy. The plaza has brick sections as well as smoother concrete paths, so favour those smoother stretches when comfort matters.

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: fares and charges and services.

• Telfair Museums — fares and charges
• Telfair Museums Updates Children’s Art Museum with New Exhibition: The World of William O. Golding
• Telfair Children’s Art Museum
• Accessibility & Policies
• FAQ – CHS
• Coastal Heritage Society — fares and charges
• STEAM Center: Numbers in Nature – CHS