VW Vortex - Volkswagen Forum banner

European Experience -Savannah GA

55K views 91 replies 29 participants last post by  reissue 
#1 ·
The new SoWo.

[video]https://www.facebook.com/southern.worthersee/videos/10154312166877316/[/video]
 
#15 ·
Ah, c'mon


Its going to be...interesting.

First of all, cool city thats never hosted a car event more than 750 cars (PCA took over Forsyth park in '11, NOPI just recently had an event but I didnt care to go so I can't comment on how it went(who goes to that anymore?))

There has to be a push for the use of the water ferry and foot traffic over driving everywhere. Downtown is congested on the weekend by locals and tourists already, so adding XXXX cars to the area is going to shut it down. Add a few broken oil pans to the mix and :eek::eek: Being able to keep cars over on the island while say everyone takes the ferry back and walks to their hotels in the downtown area would dramatically increase the flow of traffic. With that being said, bring your bicycle very friendly biking city, especially at night. What better way to see the cool buildings filled with ghosts

The venue area (originally a purpose built indy lights race track, disapproved by the downtown homeowners after the first race and then abandoned)



HSR Historics Race. I rode in the PTG e36 with Brian Redman 3 years ago, you can ride along with a vast array of cars, highly recommend coming to this event at the end of October.


Last word of advice, Zunzis take out
 
#16 · (Edited)
Savannah can be a rough place. It's not a FEMA disaster area like New Orleans, but it's not Helen GA either. It's a sea port town more like New York or Boston. The suburban hipsters and small town kids need to keep their wits about them and use a little common sense.

Stay away from the west end of Bay St. There is a very large public housing development across Montgomery St, called Yamacraw. When I lived in Savannah (early 80's) locals called it Little Vietnam, or just Nam. You could hear gunplay from the place at night. Pizza delivery and taxis wouldn't go in there. Local media acts like the place is cleaned up now but I wouldn't trust it.
 
#23 ·
Shouldn't have any problems there. Staying at one of the bed and breakfasts? That's a high student traffic area during school time. Check out the Foxy Loxy cafe, cool little place to grab breakfast and you're barely a block from it. I lived 4 streets up and 2 over for a year and that was not a good area. Savannah doesn't have very strict zoning laws so one block can be nicely remodeled early 1900's carriage homes and the next can be falling apart/borderline section 8 style. It blows my mind some times.
 
#28 · (Edited)
So, Got a little visuals to help out.


So, red circles are no go areas due to lets say the "type of residents" in the area, the red square is the greater downtown area which is about 2.5 square miles (all very walkable) I can't count how many times I walked from Congress street to the top of Forsyth Park drunk as a skunk, especially if you walk up bull street and through the park. The park does close at 11 so I tend not to enter there on foot after then. You can bike that distance in 5 minutes, especially at night. Oglethorpe Ave takes you to the bridge and ultimately to the show grounds.

Obviously the green circles are all good to go, parkside houses quite a bit of SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) upperclassmen and the Historic District is where the old style Victorian Homes are usually owned by the wealthier class of Savannah. As far as quality of roads go, try to avoid most of the squares as a majority of those are original cobblestone roads from the first time the roads were paved(early 1900's for most of them). Drayton Street/Whitaker street are pretty safe, all though the road has quite the crest in the middle so if you're in one lane, stick to it because if you cross over, you will "ski" (if you're more than 3" lowered) as I've learned to call it and your wheels will almost come off the ground on both sides. Had this happened in my beetle one time and I had a hell of a time getting it un-stuck. Abercorn street all the way down isn't too bad. I believe those have been paved over and there arent cobble stones around those squares. Abercorn is the main passage to the newer side of town (southside Savannah) where there's many more hotels, malls, businesses and normal living houses with some acreage.

Oh yeah, you can drink on the streets if its in a clear plastic cup. To-go beers are a thing and its amazing.

Edit: sorry guys the very bottom left smaller circle should be red, definitely red...
 
#30 ·
So, Got a little visuals to help out.


So, red circles are no go areas due to lets say the "type of residents" in the area, the red square is the greater downtown area which is about 2.5 square miles (all very walkable) I can't count how many times I walked from Congress street to the top of Forsyth Park drunk as a skunk, especially if you walk up bull street and through the park. The park does close at 11 so I tend not to enter there on foot after then. You can bike that distance in 5 minutes, especially at night. Oglethorpe Ave takes you to the bridge and ultimately to the show grounds.

Obviously the green circles are all good to go, parkside houses quite a bit of SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) upperclassmen and the Historic District is where the old style Victorian Homes are usually owned by the wealthier class of Savannah. As far as quality of roads go, try to avoid most of the squares as a majority of those are original cobblestone roads from the first time the roads were paved(early 1900's for most of them). Drayton Street/Whitaker street are pretty safe, all though the road has quite the crest in the middle so if you're in one lane, stick to it because if you cross over, you will "ski" (if you're more than 3" lowered) as I've learned to call it and your wheels will almost come off the ground on both sides. Had this happened in my beetle one time and I had a hell of a time getting it un-stuck. Abercorn street all the way down isn't too bad. I believe those have been paved over and there arent cobble stones around those squares. Abercorn is the main passage to the newer side of town (southside Savannah) where there's many more hotels, malls, businesses and normal living houses with some acreage.

Oh yeah, you can drink on the streets if its in a clear plastic cup. To-go beers are a thing and its amazing.

Edit: sorry guys the very bottom left smaller circle should be red, definitely red...

Awesome, this is what I needed to see..
 
#29 ·
Savannah isn't Helen. Let's start there. Everything is not as close as it was in Helen. There will be more driving involved. There are lots of places to stay, eat, drink, shop, etc.

I have been several times during this planning process. Have not once felt unsafe or had issues driving my static lowered Mk6 Jetta through any of the streets. Yes cobblestone is a tough drive. It is not for everyone. It does make for an awesome set of pictures. Worried about cobblestone.....don't ever go to the UK. LOL!

As always we work very hard to put on all of our events. I simply ask that you give the event a chance before you begin to bash it. Ok so you lived there years ago, you went to school at SCAD, or don't foresee a large event of this size working. That's fine. But please don't continue to discourage others from attending.

As a matter of fact come out for yourself before you begin to write your review.

See you all in May!
 
#32 ·
As always we work very hard to put on all of our events. I simply ask that you give the event a chance before you begin to bash it. Ok so you lived there years ago, you went to school at SCAD, or don't foresee a large event of this size working. That's fine. But please don't continue to discourage others from attending.
Since I'm the only one in here that went to scad, that's obviously directed at me, and I thought I should explain that I wasn't discouraging people at all. If you look back at my posts you'll see that I was telling people that I do think savannah can handle this show and do a good job of it.

But you're right, savannah isn't like Helen, and part of that is that there are parts of savannah you do not want to be in. Overall it's a really safe city and you shouldn't be uncomfortable walking around even at night, but there's some streets that are really dangerous and people should be warned and know to avoid them.

I want people to have a good time at sowo next year. I love savannah and I think it's a great place for the show, but I don't want someone to get hurt because they didn't know what parts of town to avoid.
 
#35 · (Edited)
And yes I agree Savannah's roads are terrible in many areas. Much like all of New Orleans! My daily is still recovering from NOLA. I also concur - Savannah is NOT the place to drive - It took me forever to park AND it ended up being 3 stories below ground.

Then I go to a highly rated steak place on the river and Savannah has this automatic 18% gratuity -

Auto gratuity pisses me off bc even if the meal sucks you gotta pay that level of tip - no matter how good or bad your server is. BUT it is good in one regard as it does save you 2-7% if you're like me who tips 20-25% for excellent service.


Just another heads up for you foodies :)
 
#36 ·
On the topic of food: anything on river street is really expensive. Some good less expensive things are Molly mcphersons, which is a Scottish pub and has really great food for pretty cheap; zunzis, which has a good variety but is pretty cramped inside when it's crowded, Spudnik, which is all baked potatoes with tons of stuff in them and is really good; and then b and d burgers, which is a really good burger place. All of those are right in downtown so you won't have to drive anywhere if you're staying downtown
 
#37 ·
b and d's is the jam. Serves late on the weekends, cheap, a lot of space, good beer selection. Green Truck though if you're a "gotta be different" person (which most VW people try and be...) down just shy of midtown is great as well. Very small restaurant, usually local's only who go but well worth the wait. Being in the tourism industry, there's not many places I haven't ate at downtown. Except paula deen's and ruth chris...eff those.
 
#43 ·
I've never been to a sowo so this will be a first for me I think. From hearing about savannah in a all around perspective I don't know if it's gonna be worth it to go for a few days. I'm not gonna be part of the walking around drunk crowd. I want to be able to eat a few nice places, enjoy the town, and not destroy my car
 
#48 ·
I live in Savannah and park my car over night in even some of the sketchy parts of town and haven't had a problem. I don't drive an expensive car, but no doubt it stands out. Obviously I can't promise that nothing will happen to your car, but I wouldn't worry much about it. It's not any less safe than parking at any other city. Just like any other city, make sure you don't have anything expensive sitting out in the open in your car that someone could see if they were passing by.

There's also a couple parking decks and some hotels right in downtown either have a parking deck or underground parking.

As for staying a little way out and driving in for the show: you could stay somewhere in South Carolina so that you don't have to drive through Savannah if you don't want, and you can take a ferry from Hutchinson Island, where the show is, into town so you don't have to deal with the traffic in Savannah. I believe Hardeesville is the closest town. It's like 5 miles away, and then Bluffton is 15 miles or so away. The roads from Savannah to South Carolina are absolute **** though, so if you drive a lowered car, be prepared.

A lot of the charm of Savannah is from being there at night though. If you get the chance to stay in town within walking distance of Broughton and River Street, I would recommend that, because you can walk out to the bars and not have to worry about having a driver and what not.

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned is that they sweep different streets every night. Every street has a sign on it with a time and day that the street will be cleaned and you can't park on that street during those hours. If you're parked there during those hours, you will get a ticket. Also be observant any street that have a time limit even if it's free street parking. They aren't kidding about those times. Eveeryone I know that's gotten a ticket in one of those spots has been there less than 10 minutes over time.
 
#51 ·
I live in Richmond Hill...it's about a 20 minute drive to Hutchinson Island.

RH is a quiet sleepy town, built by Henry Ford. A few other historical places there like Sherman's March to the Sea ended at Fort Mcallister in RH. If you are a Civil War/War of Northern Aggression history buff you will appreciate it. The place is not much to look at unless you know what you are looking at. It's not pretty like Savannah.

Hilton Head is nice, but tough to get to Savannah from there, even though it looks close. If SC is where you want to stay, then Bluffton is a good option. The best skatepark in the area is in Bluffton too.

Anyway, I spend most of time in Savannah and agree with much of what Tyranosaurus said.

You won't be disappointed with this town! I drive my Beetle everywhere. It's only lowered 2" but I can go down River Street easily, but there is really no reason to do that. There is a TON of parking on Hutchinson and free ferry over to River Street. You can walk to everything from there. There are only a few other cobblestone streets, and honestly, I"m struggling to remember where they are or if they even bothered me at all.

Comparison to NYC and Boston is unfair. It's not that crowded and evenings on the weekends you can drive up and down Bay, Jones, Broughton, and Ogelthorpe all night and probably catch only a few lights. I see a better comparison to the be Beaterville Show in Louisville, KY.

Like any city, use some common sense. Savannah is safe, unless you are an idiot or a trouble maker. People here are more friendly than anywhere I have ever been in the states.

Don't forget about:
Angels BBQ (on man vs food)
Paula Deen resteraunt
All the haunted places
Pirate House (the real one from Treasure Island)
Pinkies :)
Multiple German restraunts

This event is going to be awesome on Savannah, the beaches, the history, the food, the people. If I want to see a fake German tourist trap building like Helen, GA...I'll go to Busch Gardens, thank you.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top