Savannah’s Squares, Charleston’s Streets – The Ultimate Southern Weekend Itinerary Under $500

The scenery is not the first thing you notice when you drive south from Charleston. It’s the quiet in between towns. After Walterboro, the radio becomes intermittent, the interstate gets thinner, and the marsh opens up on both sides as if the land forgot to finish itself. After a few hours behind the wheel, you begin to understand why people talk about the Lowcountry as if it were a mood. The geography itself has a slowness to it.

On paper, spending $500 on a weekend in Charleston and Savannah seems excessive. If you’re willing to skip a few things that most guidebooks say you can’t, it really isn’t. The Dewberry rooftop, the carriage tours that cost more than dinner, the boutique hotels with names that read like perfume brands. The cities open up in a different way when those are removed. less expensive. quieter. Better, perhaps.

On a Friday afternoon, Charleston still seems to be living in the nineteenth century. Along Rainbow Row, pastel rowhouses lean into one another. By four o’clock, the light strikes the brickwork at a low angle, softening the entire peninsula. The majority of those who choose to stay downtown pay more than $300 per night. However, you can find a clean room for less than $90 if you cross the Ravenel Bridge into Mount Pleasant. There are plenty of buses that return to town. You become less close. You receive a budget with some leeway.

It’s not necessary to eat dinner at one of the James Beard contenders that everyone mentions on the first night. Twenty dollars goes a long way if you know where to put it, whether it’s at Lewis Barbecue, Rodney Scott’s, or a takeout box from Martha Lou’s iconic locations. Afterward, it costs nothing to stroll through the French Quarter while holding a cold cup. Ducking into the Dock Street Theatre’s open courtyard, where the doors are typically propped open and no one really cares, doesn’t either.

Although it’s only a two-hour drive to Savannah, stopping in Beaufort makes the trip seem completely different. A stroll along the Beaufort waterfront, a pulled pork sandwich at a roadside restaurant, or perhaps a tour of the homes where scenes from The Big Chill were shot. You can complete this entire middle leg for less than thirty dollars, and when you get to Savannah, you’ll feel as though you’ve already taken a quick vacation before the main one begins.

Savannah strikes in a unique way. Savannah is shaggier, more eerie, and more likely to display its strangeness than Charleston. The layout of the grid along Bull Street makes orientation simple, and visitors are free to explore the 22 historic squares. Madison Square, Johnson Square, and Chippewa Square (the one with the Forrest Gump bench) are all easily accessible by foot. The interior of the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist is, to be honest, worth a longer pause than most people give it, and admission is free.

Savannah’s dining contradictions are where a tight budget is truly rewarded. A Southern buffet is served at the Pirate House, which has real pirate ties. Goose Feathers offers breakfast for less than fifteen dollars. Open since 1919, Leopold’s Ice Cream is still under five. If you’re not specifically saving for The Grey, skip it. The hours that are truly unforgettable take place somewhere else.

Situated a few miles east of downtown, Bonaventure Cemetery is free to walk and is definitely worth seeing. There’s an emotion there that’s difficult to describe, halfway between thankfulness and melancholy. If you bring a sandwich, Tybee Island, a twenty-minute drive away, is a cheap way to end the weekend.

Carefully calculated total damage: about $470. The math is correct. You’re surprised at how little it feels like compromise.