Need suggestions for Savannah GA and Tampa FL

[John Earley]

I'll be going to Savannah and Tampa and returning thru Savannah. Any suggestions for photo opportunities while at these locations? I'll have my 8x10 with B&W film as well as my digital camera. Accompanying me will be my ever patient wife. This will be my first photo outing for a while so I'm really stoked.

[gregmo]

Forsyth Park in Savanah.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forsyth_Park

On the way to Tampa, the coquina rocks in the Marineland area just south of St. Augustine.
https://www.floridastateparks.org/learn/geology-coquina-rocks

[John Brady]

I would check out:

Little Talbot State Park Boneyard Beach
https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/little-talbot-island-state-park

The Beach at Washington Oaks
http://www.washingtonoaks.org

And then rent a canoe and take the 7 mile spring run down the Weeki Wachee
https://weekiwachee.com

That should keep you busy for a while and your wife will enjoy it too.

www.timeandlight.com

[j.e.simmons]

The beach at Washington Oaks is frequently closed. Check before going. It’s also many miles from both Savannah and Tampa.
For Savannah, if old urbanscapes are to your liking, all of downtown is fascinating. Be careful parking - they love to write tickets. If marshes are what you want, there are lots of areas east of town towards the beach and in the more rural counties to the south. There’s also Ft. Pulaski.

[John Earley]

The beach at Washington Oaks is frequently closed. Check before going. It’s also many miles from both Savannah and Tampa.
For Savannah, if old urbanscapes are to your liking, all of downtown is fascinating. Be careful parking - they love to write tickets. If marshes are what you want, there are lots of areas east of town towards the beach and in the more rural counties to the south. There’s also Ft. Pulaski.

Great suggestion.

[Gary Beasley]

As well as Pulaski theres Fort Jackson which is even older than Pulaski dating back to Revolutionary War times.
Your wife may enjoy the many galleries in Savannah as well, one we stopped at long ago had some splendid platinum prints for sale. The stores and restaurants on the riverfront are really good, the candy store one of my favorite places there. Try to find a place to get a low country boil for dinner one night.

[Doug Howk]

Fernandina with nearby Bosque Cemetery and Ft Clinch . From there, a short drive to Big Talbot Isl; but its a bit of a walk to the beach.

[John Earley]

As well as Pulaski theres Fort Jackson which is even older than Pulaski dating back to Revolutionary War times.
Your wife may enjoy the many galleries in Savannah as well, one we stopped at long ago had some splendid platinum prints for sale. The stores and restaurants on the riverfront are really good, the candy store one of my favorite places there. Try to find a place to get a low country boil for dinner one night.

My wife is an artist so we are looking forward to visiting some galleries. We are staying within walking distance of the river.

[Scott Davis]

In the Tampa area, Ybor City is a neighborhood that has undergone restoration back to the turn of the 20th century look and feel when it was home to dozens of cigar factories and a hangout for Cuban revolutionaries. There's a lot of dive bars, and some interesting urban decay on the fringes if that's your thing. There's also an actual street car that runs through Ybor City and takes you down to downtown Tampa (and by streetcar I mean one that runs on rails and has power from overhead cables, not just a bus tarted up to look like a streetcar). A reasonably short drive away is downtown St. Petersburg, which has an art festival many weekend, and lots of good restaurants along the waterfront. Maybe 20-30 minutes from downtown St. Pete is Fort Desoto State Park, which has artillery batteries built to protect Tampa Bay from a perceived Spanish threat during the Spanish-American war. Also a great spot if you're using some tiny format or digital format cameras for wildlife - there are TONS of birds from pelicans to ospreys to egrets and other wading birds. On your way to or from the Tampa area from Savannah, depending on what route you take, on the eastern side of Florida there's a couple bodies of water - Blue Cypress Lake and the Stick Marsh - which are also terrific for bird watching. Blue Cypress has hundreds of nesting pairs of ospreys. There are spoonbills in the Stick Marsh, as well as ospreys and other water birds, and of course gators are everywhere. It's also a good spot to go bass fishing if that's up your alley. My folks live in Vero Beach, so I've explored the area a bit when I've visited them.

[Gary Beasley]

If you’re following the coast south from Savannah check out the driftwood beach at Jekyll Island. Good restaurants there as well.

[JWebb]

Agree with Gary, If your route is taking you south down I-95 plan a stop around Brunswick. From Brunswick easy hop over to St Simons Island for Fredrica Christchurch or just south on Jekyl Island is Driftwoof Beach and some of the old restored winter homes built by Rockefeller's, Morgan, Vanderbilt and Pulitzer within the Jekyl Island Club Historic District. Further south near St Mary's and the Florida border is the Swanee entrance to the Okefenokee swamp. There is a nature drive and then a boardwalk that extends out into the swamp with a observation tower overlooking a gator hole. Usually see quite a few gators lounging on thhe banks just below the boardwalk. About 20 miles north of Brunswick is Darien. Usually shrimp boats tied up along the warf and several vanatge points looking down from the bridge or from the warf itself.

Have a great trip

[r.e.]

The being the travel sub-forum, I would like to think that it's OK to note what's going on in Florida and Georgia right now on the pandemic. Georgia has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, and Florida is barely at the national average, which isn't saying much. The two states have some of the highest new case, hospitalization and death rates in the country. That's in the context of U.S. average numbers already being way behind Canada and the major European countries. Don't sound like fun places to visit at the moment.

[Gary Beasley]

Theres a place near Hardeeville NC just north of Savannah called Savannah National Wildlife Refuge that was an old rice plantation. Great place for seeing migratory birds and alligators. I got a few very nice shots with my 4x5 quite a few years ago.
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/savannah/

[John Earley]

Don't sound like fun places to visit at the moment.

We have been having a great time in both Georgia and Florida. We had Covid last year and are not worried about any variant. We also decided that we would quit living in fear and get on with life.

[John Earley]

Agree with Gary, If your route is taking you south down I-95 plan a stop around Brunswick. From Brunswick easy hop over to St Simons Island for Fredrica Christchurch or just south on Jekyl Island

We may head to Jekyll Island on the way home, time permitting.

Reservation made to Jekyll Island it is.

[Corran]

There are several excellent cemeteries in Savannah, including the famous Colonial Park right in the historic district. Next to it is the wonderful St. John Cathedral. Both are a must-visit.

I think one of the best parts of Savannah is the squares. There are squares 3-4 city blocks east, west, and north from the church. Take a look at the map. You could spend an entire day visiting each square - they are unique and have different statues, gardens, and feels. And then Forsyth Park of course to top it off.

Tybee Island and Fort Pulaski is just to the east, as mentioned by others. I will suggest that if you are coming in from Florida, hit Big Talbot island EARLY in the morning (before sunrise) and spend the morning there, then go to Savannah for the rest of the day. Lot of great suggestions above but you can't do all that in a day or even a week. Focus will make your time more enjoyable rather than spending a good amount of time in the car trying to get somewhere else.

Speaking of "getting there," there is a FREE bus service in Savannah started a couple years ago. I assume it hasn't changed. You can get anywhere you want on a hop-on, hop-off kind of system. It's pretty nice. Parking - used to be, you could buy a weekend parking pass for cheap at the Visitor's Center, but I think they stopped doing that. Find one of the city parking places and put in, and then just stay there. It's hard to drive around Savannah, especially nearer the river.

All the ritzy galleries and shops are on Broughton St., by the way.

About Big Talbot: the parking area for the Boneyard Beach is inaccessible early in the morning, but outside the gate you can park. Park, walk around the gate and get one of the parking passes, and then pay / put it in your car, so you don't get a ticket. Folks will come early but I've never seen the small sand lot in front of the gate full, so you should be fine. The gates open an hour or two after sunrise, and you don't want to miss that. If you can't get there for sunrise, another option is the next morning go north to Jekyll Island. It's accessible at all hours but the parking fee is $8 via a computerized system.

What day(s) will you be there? It just so happens my wife and I just booked next weekend in Savannah for a short family get together + one extra day for us to spend in Savannah. Haven't decided what I'm bringing...

[j.e.simmons]

Just be careful outside Big Talbot and don’t leave valuables in view. I’ve known people who’ve had their cars broken into. You’re also many miles from any Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office headquarters, so it takes the police a long, long time to arrive.

[John Earley]

What day(s) will you be there? It just so happens my wife and I just booked next weekend in Savannah for a short family get together + one extra day for us to spend in Savannah. Haven't decided what I'm bringing...

We are heading back from Tampa tomorrow and will stay at Jekyll Island for a day or two. Then back to Savannah. Wish our schedules allowed a meet-up.

Tampa has been mostly family business so I've only had a bit less time than I had hoped for photography. We are staying at the Sheraton River Walk so I did get a few digital and LF photos done.

[Joshua Dunn]

If you are interested in cemeteries with old tress check out Bonaventure Cemetery https://www.bonaventurehistorical.org/ Likewise there are many beautiful old buildings in downtown Savannah as it was not burned during the civil war. Check out the area around River Street and Factors Walk. There are really interesting stone ramps and alleys that are really cool at night. The area around Jones Street have really great street views with the old trees hanging over them. Spend a lot of time just walking around downtown.

Eat at Mrs. Wilkes http://mrswilkes.com/ for lunch and Olympia Cafe or the Old Pink House for Dinner. I hope you are there for more than one night as there are a lot of really great restaurants in Savannah. If you enjoy a good cocktail or two Savannah does have open container laws, meaning (North of Jones Street) you can walk around with a drink as long as it is a plastic cup. Given the number of bars and restaurants in Savannah a great way to explore is get a drink "to go" and walk around, when it's empty find another bar or restaurant and get another drink to go.

-Joshua

[John Earley]

If you are interested in cemeteries with old tress check out Bonaventure Cemetery https://www.bonaventurehistorical.org/ Likewise there are many beautiful old buildings in downtown Savannah as it was not burned during the civil war. Check out the area around River Street and Factors Walk. There are really interesting stone ramps and alleys that are really cool at night. The area around Jones Street have really great street views with the old trees hanging over them. Spend a lot of time just walking around downtown.

Eat at Mrs. Wilkes http://mrswilkes.com/ for lunch and Olympia Cafe or the Old Pink House for Dinner. I hope you are there for more than one night as there are a lot of really great restaurants in Savannah. If you enjoy a good cocktail or two Savannah does have open container laws, meaning (North of Jones Street) you can walk around with a drink as long as it is a plastic cup. Given the number of bars and restaurants in Savannah a great way to explore is get a drink "to go" and walk around, when it's empty find another bar or restaurant and get another drink to go.

-Joshua

We did spend a good bit of time walkling around Savannah. Our hotel was on Bay Street so we walked along the river and went around the city for a good while. We didn't eat at the Old Pink House but did eat at Garibaldi Restaurant. I would've liked to have spent more time there but our schedule didn't permit it. I'm certain we will be going back.