Haven’t made plans for the 4th of July yet? Think about a trip to Tybee Island for the annual Fireworks on the Beach spectacular this July 3rd.

The show begins around 9:15 on the Tybee Pier and can be easily seen from any of Tybee’s eastern beaches.

Plan to come early and get the perfect spot on the beach so that you can stay and enjoy a great fireworks show.

Savannah Getaways is pleased to announce a visionary touring option for connected travelers coming to Savannah for the first time – iTour Savannah! This self-directed audio tour guide should appeal to discerning travelers that prefer the route less traveled in undertaking their leisurely stroll through the historic district. Phil Sellers, owner and founder of iTour Savannah is the first in the southeastern United States to offer this touring option in a disc jockey grade voice, no less!

Welcome to iTour Savannah. We have combined the best city tours possible with the newest technologies in portable media to create a memorable tour experience. And we’ve done it in one of America’s most beautiful cities: Savannah, Georgia. My name is Phillip Carlisle Sellers and I am a professional tour guide.

When I became a licensed tour guide in Savannah’s Historic District several years ago, the choices for touring were limited to the routine trolley tours and a few old-hat walking tours. Then I began to notice a new type of visitor coming to the city. I called them the “savvy travelers”. Savvy travelers are unencumbered by guide books and unimpressed with crowded vehicles. They are inclined to explore but they also prefer to pause, sip a cup of coffee, and become part of the scene. When they are ready, they like to head out at their own pace. They favor the joy of discovery over taking the well-trodden path.

According to a recent analysis by the National Association of Home Builders report, condominiums represent a whopping 50% of all new construction of multi family housing built within the past year and is likely to remain a major factor within the greater Savannah/Hilton Head real estate market in coming years as baby boomers continue to flock to these new housing options as retirement age approaches.

With well known prestigious Savannah real estate professionals such as Mopper-Stapen Realtors and Cora Bett Thomas Realty leading the way with their Drayton Towers and Herty Lofts conversions respectively, many urban loft space seeking purchasers are leaving the suburbs and returning to a more stylishly manageable lifestyle choice in these downsized spaces. Many homebuilders are purchasing old townhouses and brick lined retail store fronts within the historic district to keep the condominium lifestyle choices coming for their customer base, those baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964. This trend is not just a regional phenomena taking place in the lowcountry real estate markets in Savannah, Bluffton, and Hilton Head but a country wide pattern which has been picking up momentum over the past decade or so.

This February Savannah will get a taste of Scotland when The Caledonian, a neighborhood Scottish Pub, opens its doors. The 3700-square-foot pub is located at E. 42nd Street and Abercorn Street, near Ardsley Park.

Stuart Robertson, the owner, hails from a small town in Scotland and has lived in Savannah for about five years.

The hope for The Caledonian is that it becomes a focal point for the community, a place to meet and socialize with neighbors.

The only City Hall in the state of Georgia with a gold dome, our historic district landmark city hall presents a striking architectural wonder fronting Bay Street squarely faces south down Bull Street in the direction of Forsyth Park. Originally constructed with a copper dome rather than gold, an anonymous donor provided $200,000 to have our city hall dome gilded in gold in 1986. The “anonymous donor” later proved to be affiliated with The Ships of The Sea Museum Trust located on Martin Luther King Blvd. just a few blocks away. Repair plans call for three areas or renovation according to the official City of Savannah web site. 

Savannah City Hall Centennial, 1906 - 2006 The City of Savannah has occupied four seats of municipal government since its incorporation in December 1789. The first, from 1790 through 1812, was the abandoned filature on Reynolds Square, on the northeast corner of Abercorn and E. St. Julian Streets. The filature was a factory where silkworm cocoons were stored and reeled into silk. It burned down in the fire of 1839. The second, from 1812 through 1904, was the City Exchange, which stood on the same site as the present City Hall, centered on the north side of Bay Street at the foot of Bull Street. The City Exchange was constructed in 1799 by a stock company and was initially occupied by commercial tenants.

The City initially held 25 of the 200 shares and gradually purchased all shares for complete ownership of the building in 1812, at which time City offices were moved into it.

Each spring the Savannah College of Art and Design hosts the Sidewalk Arts Festival.

This popular event features a chalk drawing competition on the sidewalks of Savannah's centerpiece, beautiful Forsyth Park. Drawing competition entries will be judged and awarded prizes. The event also includes a student and faculty art exhibition, a SCAD student organization fair, food, and children's and youth areas for young artists as well as live music throughout the day.

On April 29th join SCAD students and faculty in this fun filled day celebrating arts of every kind.

Talk about eating until you drop! The dead of winter is upon us and oyster roasting season is in full swing. Oyster roasts are traditional gatherings where friends and neighbors arm themselves with blunt-nosed knives and gather around tables prying open roasted bivalves and devouring the contents. A no-fuss low country coastal feast which celebrates laughter, good friends well met, and a tradition that goes back to the origial coastal Georgia Native American inhabitants who's ancestors were purportedly the first anecdotal party hearty oyster roasters alluded to in this Focus on the Coast article.

Celebrated author and food writer Pat Conroy once wrote, “Your one job is to eat as many oysters as you can while they are still steaming off the fire. A lukewarm oyster is a disappointment to the spirit.“ For hundreds of years, people have enjoyed eating oysters together at oyster roasts - whether it's in the backyard with a bushel cooked on the grill or at a community feast held wherever oysters can be found.

While annual oyster roasts remain important to coastal Georgia’s lowcounrty history and culture, and are still every popular in the fall and winter months of the year, the lack of replenishment of the oyster beds on harvesting live oysters from their tidal river bank beds with newly seeded juvenile oysters remain a concern for future generation’s of oyster roast connosieurs. An ounce of planning to carry through on oyster bed replenishment plans in coastal water ways could go a long way on guaranteeing this annual winter time ritual banquet al fresco for future generations of oyster roast aficionados While  understand the concerns of global warming, the burning question this oyster shucker of many years duration wants to know is the status of next season's annual oyster roast.

Bonventure Cemetery is one of Savannah’s most visited tourist attractions. The cemetery was founded on the grounds of an 18th century plantation in 1846 and called Evergreen Cemetery. It changed to Bonaventure Cemetery in 1907.

The cemetery became a popular tourist destination following the success of John Berendt’s book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The Bird Girl statue, featured on the cover of the book, was moved to the Telfair Museum due to the amount of traffic at the gravesite.

Bonaventure Cemetery is also the final resting place of well-known poet Conrad Aiken and Johnny Mercer.

With names like the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, the Enmark Savannah River Bridge Run, and Memorial Health Hockey Classic, major sporting events on a weekend and weeklong basis held in Savannah last year attracted close to 60,000 attendees that spent  approximately $50 per person on average for a whopping $3 million. And of course these revenues were injected into the local economy according to the Savannah Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. The CVB puts the sporting events it hosts into two categories: major events and minor events.

The major events include the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf; Memorial Health Hockey Classic; the ENMARK Savannah Bridge Run; Savannah Morning News All-Star Basketball Classic; and the Savannah Saltwater Shootout. The minor events include the Georgia Cup, Holiday Classic; Georgia Fast-pitch; Amateur Athletic Union Youth Baseball; and American Junior Golf Association golf.

The Chairman of the Greater Savannah Sports Council, Mike Viers, understands that sporting events such as the Savannah River Bridge Run translates into significant tourism dollars for not only River Street boutique shops, but historic district hotels, bed and breakfast accommodations, restaurants, and City Market art galleries as well to name some of the more readily identified businesses. Viers went on to say that this coming years Savannah Bridge Run event will give Savannah an opportunity at hosting one of the “best bridge runs in the country”.

With a recently noted Martin Luther King Birthday in the rear view mirror and the month of February, the traditional start of Black History Month, upon us next Tuesday, Savannah has much to offer black history lovers in the way of little known historic cultural tidbits and fascinating factoids documenting Colonial era life in Savannah in particular and coastal Georgia proper. From the only recorded purchase of the still active Second African Baptist Church on Greene Square by a black, Reverend Bryan to The Ralph Gilbert Memorial Museum located on Martin Luther King Boulevard, Savannah’s African Americans have made significant contributions to her storied past.

In its heyday, Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., then West Broad Street, was seen as the center of Savannah's African American community. It contained banks, stores, restaurants, and night clubs. This street along with its many facets is recreated on the second floor in a pictorial exhibit. It was important that the museum would tell the story of the black struggle in Savannah, but also that the museum would show how important it is in a democratic society for everyone--women, Jews, blacks, and other minorities--to be treated equally. This is truly what the civil rights movement is about. The museum also wanted to be sure to educate people, young and old, about their past and hopefully give them some kind of idea of how to approach the future. 

Savannah’s Lucas Theatre and Memorial Health welcome Teatro Lirico D’Europa for a performance of La Boheme on February 11, 2006. The European opera touring company will perform with a symphonic orchestra, large chorus and professional dancers.

Giacomo Puccini’s tender yet tragic drama is appealing to a wide range of music lovers for its timeless story: young people struggling to follow their dreams, to become artists, and to fall in love, set against the background of turn-of-the-century Paris. "La Boheme" is a new, traditional-style production by Teatro Lirico D’Europa, under the artistic direction of company founder Giorgio Lalov. The opera will be sung in Italian with English supertitles, and features such well-known arias as Rudolfo’s “Chegelida manina," Mimi’s “Si, mi chiamano Mimi" and “Musetta’s Waltz.”

Tickets are $50, $47 and $37. A limited number of $10 tickets are available for educators and students with school ID. The Lucas Theatre is located at 32 Abercorn Street. Call (912) 525-5050 for more details and ticket information.

February 16th, 17th and 18th the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center will be the site of the 2006 Southern Home Show.

The show, presented by the Home Builders Association of Greater Savannah, will offer advice and assistance in building a new home or just making some renovations to your existing home. There will be many professionals available to answer questions and offer tips on such topics as flooring, decks, appliances, cabinets, windows, gardening, landscaping, etc. Some exhibitors will be giving away prizes.

The Home Builders Association of Greater Savannah, founded in 1955, is a non-profit trade association that promotes home ownership and represents the concerns of the building industry in Chatham, Bryan and Effingham Counties.

The Association is dedicated to promoting responsible growth in the building industry through professionalism, community involvement, governmental affairs, and member education.

Parking is $3.00, admission is $7.00. Children 12 & under are admitted free. The show will run from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, February 16th, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, February 17th and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, February 18th.

The Savannah Music Festival, which will mark its 17th year this spring, has joined some elite company in a poll of the nation’s favorite music festivals. According to industry trade publication Pollstar, Savannah’s March 18-April 2 festival was named among the best fests, along with SXSW in Austin, Texas, March 10-19; New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, April 28-May 7; Atlanta Jazz Festival, May 18-25; and Spoleto, Charleston, May 27-June 2. Perhaps because of the weather, the stronger festivals appear to be in the Southeast and on the West Coast, according to Danette A. Wills, public relations manager for the Savannah Music Festival.

As word circulates online as a result of the Business Report & Journal article and others familiar with this popular event, this developing story has all translated into increased advanced ticket sales over previous years by a factor of ten as per an exceprt from the Creative Coast report below:

The Savannah Music Festival (SMF) is pleased to announce that advance ticket sales for the 2006 Festival (March 17 – April 2) are more than ten times what they were this time last year. There is also a record number of new Festival Friends (annual donors who give at least $1,500 per couple or $1,000 per single), as well as strong interest in Series and Weekend Passes, which come with a fifteen percent (15%) discount with purchase by November 15 and ten percent (10%) by January 15. Approximately thirty-three percent (33%) of those sales have come through Savannah Music Festival’s website, compared with twenty-five (25%) last year.

While touring the heritage corridor along highway 17 between modern day St. Augustine, Florida and Georgetown, South Carolina, it is easy to imagine yourself back in the day when Native American cultures clashed with Colonial powers, England, France, and Spain in their colonization of the new world as touched on in this Sherpa Guides piece.

Darien is positioned on a bluff overlooking the northern channel of the Altamaha River. South of Darien is the wide river delta with its many channels, coastal marsh, and cypress swamps. East of Darien are salt marshes and Sapelo Island, a barrier island that protects the mainland from the fury of the Atlantic. The high bluff, a Pleistocene sand ridge and former barrier island of the Princess Anne chain, has been popular for settlements going back thousands of years.

From the 1560s to 1680s, Darien and the Georgia coast experienced Spanish expansion activities, led by Franciscan missionaries. They recorded finding Guale Indian settlements named Asao and Talaje near current-day Darien, and between 1595–1661, the Spanish supported a mission called Santo Domingo de Asao/Talaje. In the 1680s, the missionaries withdrew from the Georgia coast to focus their efforts on Florida, but into the 1700s, Georgia continued to be "the debatable land." England established Fort King George in 1721, with the military goal of defending the southern flank of the English colony against French expansion into the Altamaha region and Spanish conquest from Florida. While the fort was abandoned in 1727, England still had designs on Georgia, and Oglethorpe settled Savannah in 1733.

The Heritage Corridor along coastal South Carolina, Georgia, and northern Florida retells this important pre-American history in a themed story line amidst a well preserved ecological barrier island environment. Take a History themed Vacation along the road less traveled.