Trolley Rides & A Georgia Queen
On one of my days in Savannah, I took my younger sister who is a student at SCAD on a Trolley and Steamboat tour. The company was The Gray Line and they were the best guide around town. We were able to see all the beauty and history Savannah has to offer from the comfort of a trolley ride. It helped as it was in the 80s when I went and I was not going to walk all around town in that heat, especially coming from low 40-degree weather, I was not prepped.
As I mentioned, the trolley was amazing. Our tour guide happened to be originally from upstate New York so she had just the right amount of sass and directed our attention perfectly. On our 90-minute trolley ride, we saw sites such as the oldest theater, Forsyth Park, River Street, The Olde Pink House, and the all-acclaimed Chippewa Square, where Forrest Gump filmed that iconic line, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.” I was so shocked to find out that the famous bench was no longer there. Ultimately I found out, it was a movie prop, and never truly existed.
After sightseeing all over Savannah, our tour guide dropped us off by River Street, where we had to check in for our ride on The Georgia Queen. It was built in 1995 originally as a luxury floating casino. The riverboat spent several years traveling the Mississippi River and when gambling legislations changed, allowing land-based casinos to open, the riverboat underwent a four million dollar makeover and now acts as a tour/dining experience ship with the capacity to hold 1,000 passengers including a 200-member crew.
It is the best way to learn about some history of the Savannah River and an experience that you don’t want to miss. If you book the 1:30 pm departure, you end up reaching Old Fort Jackson at just the right time, as they perform a display canon firing. Don’t worry, it’s only gunpowder, no actual canon is being shot toward the boat. Although if you don’t believe the tour guide on the boat, you are in for a surprise when that canon goes off, it’s very loud. They have food and drink services on the boat and if you opted for the dining experience, their dining room hall is beautifully extravagant. I had to of course try their Strawberry Margarita and ended up taking the purple cup it came in back home to add to my bar cart. It was overall an amazing experience, and I would highly recommend it. Stay tuned for more travel stories and food adventures :)
