Charleston and Savannah: the Lowcountry and Jekyll Island

Arrive in Charleston

Charleston International Airport to your hotel in the historic district

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Charleston
• Environ 30 min de route

Soir

The walk ends at the welcome dinner, a sit-down Lowcountry meal of the kind you will eat all week: shrimp and grits, she-crab soup and rice dishes that go back to the Gullah Geechee cooks of the Sea Islands.

Compris

• Pick-up at Charleston International Airport (CHS)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Evening walk: Waterfront Park, Rainbow Row and the Battery
• Welcome dinner

The people who built Charleston

A day on foot in Charleston's historic district

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Charleston

Matin

This morning is about the people who built Charleston. We start at 9 am, before the heat, with a local guide who specialises in the city's Black history, walking from the Four Corners of Law past St Michael's Church and the iron gates, brick walls and walled gardens of the old houses, much of it the work of enslaved and free Black blacksmiths, carpenters and bricklayers. On Chalmers Street we visit the Old Slave Mart Museum, in a building where people were auctioned in the years before the Civil War.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal nearby. In the afternoon we walk to the International African American Museum, opened in 2023 on the site of Gadsden's Wharf, where many thousands of captive Africans were landed; take your time with the galleries and the memorial garden by the water.

Soir

The late afternoon and evening are yours: the sweetgrass basket makers at the City Market, the shops of King Street, or a rooftop bar at sunset.

Compris

• Charleston Black history walk with a local guide
• Old Slave Mart Museum
• Sit-down lunch in the historic district
• International African American Museum

McLeod Plantation and Fort Sumter

Charleston to McLeod Plantation on James Island, then the boat to Fort Sumter

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Charleston
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

Back downtown, lunch is at a sit-down restaurant near the harbour. In the afternoon we take the boat from Liberty Square to Fort Sumter, about half an hour each way across the harbour, often with dolphins alongside. The first shots of the Civil War were fired here in April 1861; rangers are on the fort to answer questions.

Soir

The evening is free.

Compris

• McLeod Plantation Historic Site with the site's interpreters
• Sit-down lunch near the harbour
• Boat from Liberty Square to Fort Sumter and back, with time on the fort

Angel Oak, Beaufort and the Penn Center

Charleston to the Angel Oak, Beaufort and St Helena Island, then Savannah

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Savannah
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal on Bay Street, then a walk past the house of Robert Smalls, who was born enslaved in Beaufort, steered a Confederate steamer out of Charleston harbour to the Union fleet in 1862 with his family aboard, and later served in Congress; the house is private, so we see it from the street. Across the bridge on St Helena Island we reach the Penn Center by about 2 pm, well before its museum closes at 4. It grew from one of the first schools for freed people, opened in 1862, and tells the Gullah Geechee story of the Sea Islands.

Soir

Savannah is about an hour and a quarter on, and the evening is free.

Compris

• The Angel Oak on Johns Island
• Sit-down lunch on Bay Street in Beaufort
• Walk through Beaufort's historic district, past the Robert Smalls house
• The Penn Center and its museum on St Helena Island

Savannah's squares and Bonaventure

A morning on foot in Savannah, then Bonaventure Cemetery

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Savannah
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

We walk them in the cool of the morning with your guide: Johnson and Wright squares, Chippewa Square, Madison and Monterey squares, down to the white fountain in Forsyth Park. On Oglethorpe Square we visit the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters, a Regency house of 1819 whose carriage house still holds the rooms where the enslaved household lived, with traces of their blue-painted ceiling.

Après-midi

Lunch is sit-down in the historic district. After a rest through the heat of the day we drive fifteen minutes east to Bonaventure Cemetery, laid out on an old plantation above the Wilmington River, where moss hangs from avenues of oaks over Victorian monuments; it closes at 5 pm, so we go mid-afternoon.

Soir

In the evening, walk down the old cotton warehouse ramps to River Street and watch the ships pass.

Compris

• Walk through Savannah's squares to Forsyth Park with your guide
• Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters
• Sit-down lunch in the historic district
• Bonaventure Cemetery with your guide

A day on Jekyll Island

Savannah to Jekyll Island and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Savannah
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal on the island. Then we follow the Wanderer Memory Trail, which tells the story of the Wanderer, a ship that illegally landed more than 400 captive Africans on Jekyll in 1858, fifty years after the import of slaves was banned.

Soir

We end at Driftwood Beach, where bleached oaks and pines lie on the sand, then drive back to Savannah for the farewell dinner.

Compris

• Walk through the Jekyll Island Club historic district with your guide
• Georgia Sea Turtle Center
• Sit-down lunch on Jekyll Island
• Wanderer Memory Trail
• Driftwood Beach
• Farewell dinner in Savannah

Tybee Island and home

Savannah to Tybee Island, then Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

A last morning on the coast. Tybee Island is about half an hour east of Savannah at the end of the marsh road, past Fort Pulaski. We are at the Tybee Island Light Station when it opens at 9 am. A light has stood on this point since 1736, the station calls itself Georgia's oldest and tallest, and anyone who wants to can climb the tower for the view over the mouth of the Savannah River, the beach and the Atlantic, while others walk down to the sand or sit in the keepers' garden. We leave at about 11:30 and drive about 45 minutes to Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (SAV), arriving at about 12:30 pm, and your guide checks your flight before saying goodbye. Book a flight leaving after about 3 pm. If your flight is earlier, we take you straight from the hotel to the airport, about 25 minutes.

Soir

If you would like to stay on in Savannah, tell us when you book and we can add a night at the group hotel.

Compris

• Tybee Island Light Station and museum
• Drop-off at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (SAV)