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South Carolina/Georgia

The Best of Charleston and Savannah: A Tale of Two Cities

Program No. 21715RJ
Discover the charms of Charleston and Savannah with plenty of time on your own, and learn about basket weaving, explore plantations, visit Civil War forts and enjoy local cuisine.

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Select your type of room
Price will update based on selection
Prices displayed below are based on per person,doubleoccupancy.
DATES & starting prices
PRICES
Feb 18 - Feb 25, 2024
Starting at
3,399
Filling Fast!
Mar 3 - Mar 10, 2024
Starting at
3,399
Filling Fast!
Mar 17 - Mar 24, 2024
Starting at
3,249
Apr 14 - Apr 21, 2024
Starting at
3,649
Apr 21 - Apr 28, 2024
Starting at
3,549
Apr 28 - May 5, 2024
Starting at
3,549
May 12 - May 19, 2024
Starting at
3,099
May 19 - May 26, 2024
Starting at
3,099
Sep 22 - Sep 29, 2024
Starting at
3,099
Oct 6 - Oct 13, 2024
Starting at
3,549
Oct 13 - Oct 20, 2024
Starting at
3,549
Oct 20 - Oct 27, 2024
Starting at
3,199
Itinerary Note

GROUP - Al Kaly Shriners

Feb 23 - Mar 2, 2025
Starting at
3,699
Mar 2 - Mar 9, 2025
Starting at
3,699
Mar 16 - Mar 23, 2025
Starting at
3,399
Mar 23 - Mar 30, 2025
Starting at
3,749
Apr 13 - Apr 20, 2025
Starting at
3,749
Apr 20 - Apr 27, 2025
Starting at
3,749
Apr 27 - May 4, 2025
Starting at
3,399
May 4 - May 11, 2025
Starting at
3,349
May 11 - May 18, 2025
Starting at
3,699
May 18 - May 25, 2025
Starting at
3,349
Sep 28 - Oct 5, 2025
Starting at
3,699
Oct 12 - Oct 19, 2025
Starting at
3,699
Oct 19 - Oct 26, 2025
Starting at
3,699
Oct 26 - Nov 2, 2025
Starting at
3,349
DATES & starting prices
PRICES
Feb 18 - Feb 25, 2024
Starting at
4,379
Filling Fast!
Mar 3 - Mar 10, 2024
Starting at
4,379
Filling Fast!
Mar 17 - Mar 24, 2024
Starting at
4,339
Apr 14 - Apr 21, 2024
Starting at
4,839
Apr 21 - Apr 28, 2024
Starting at
4,639
Apr 28 - May 5, 2024
Starting at
4,639
May 12 - May 19, 2024
Starting at
4,089
May 19 - May 26, 2024
Starting at
4,089
Sep 22 - Sep 29, 2024
Starting at
4,089
Oct 6 - Oct 13, 2024
Starting at
4,639
Oct 13 - Oct 20, 2024
Starting at
4,639
Oct 20 - Oct 27, 2024
Starting at
4,189
Itinerary Note

GROUP - Al Kaly Shriners

Feb 23 - Mar 2, 2025
Starting at
4,799
Mar 2 - Mar 9, 2025
Starting at
4,799
Mar 16 - Mar 23, 2025
Starting at
4,539
Mar 23 - Mar 30, 2025
Starting at
4,889
Apr 13 - Apr 20, 2025
Starting at
4,889
Apr 20 - Apr 27, 2025
Starting at
4,889
Apr 27 - May 4, 2025
Starting at
4,539
May 4 - May 11, 2025
Starting at
4,449
May 11 - May 18, 2025
Starting at
4,799
May 18 - May 25, 2025
Starting at
4,449
Sep 28 - Oct 5, 2025
Starting at
4,799
Oct 12 - Oct 19, 2025
Starting at
4,799
Oct 19 - Oct 26, 2025
Starting at
4,799
Oct 26 - Nov 2, 2025
Starting at
4,449

At a Glance

Charleston and Savannah — the grand dames of the antebellum South. Journey from one to the other as you learn about Southern culture at plantations, Civil War forts, Lowcountry landmarks and landscaped gardens. Hear tales of centuries past and experience elegant architecture and culinary delights in these waterfront cities where cobblestone streets and historic homes spill over with history and charm.
Activity Level
On Your Feet
Walking up to three miles daily on a mix of concrete paths and uneven terrain; stairs at museums, historic houses, restaurants; getting on/off buses and trolley.

Best of all, you’ll…

  • Walk the grounds of an 18th-century Charleston plantation that has survived revolution and civil war, and hear the cannons firing at Savannah’s Old Fort Jackson.
  • Savor the diverse Lowcountry flavors of both cities.
  • Witness the art and learn the history of sweetgrass basket weaving as demonstrated by a local Charlestonian, and learn about the Gullah culture through music.

General Notes

Select dates are designated for small groups and are limited to 24 participants or less. Program includes independent time to explore the city and several meals on your own. Group Leaders will provide directions for self-directed excursions. Suggestions for free-time activities provided in preparatory materials.
Featured Expert
All Experts
Profile Image
Ruth Miller
Ruth Miller, a graduate of Duke University, has lived all over America and journeyed throughout the world. As a Charleston historian and excursion leader, she enjoys tying local history into the American story and worldwide events. Ruth is the author and co-author of numerous books, including “Charleston Charlie — A Family Activity Book for Kids of All Ages,” “Touring the Tombstones,” and “The Angel Oak Story.” She is a member of the South Carolina Historical Society and the National Trust.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Profile Image of Ruth Miller
Ruth Miller View biography
Ruth Miller, a graduate of Duke University, has lived all over America and journeyed throughout the world. As a Charleston historian and excursion leader, she enjoys tying local history into the American story and worldwide events. Ruth is the author and co-author of numerous books, including “Charleston Charlie — A Family Activity Book for Kids of All Ages,” “Touring the Tombstones,” and “The Angel Oak Story.” She is a member of the South Carolina Historical Society and the National Trust.
Profile Image of Al Miller
Al Miller received a bachelor’s degree in English, speech and drama from Baptist College — now Charleston Southern University. He is a recognized historian specializing in local, black history with emphasis on the Gullah-Geechee culture. He brings his musical talent to his lectures for a unique perspective. Al enjoys leading educational excursions, is a licensed real estate agent, as well as a historian and lecturer on black history. He is also a member of numerous organizations, including the Choraliers Music Club of Charleston, Alpha Phi Fraternity and St. James A.M.E. Church.
Profile Image of Darryl Stoneworth
Darryl Stoneworth View biography
Darryl Stoneworth, along with wife Angela, has been selling home-crafted sweetgrass baskets in the Charleston City Market since May 2009. If you happen by his stand, you'll know Darryl by his omnipresent smile. The couple is also constructing their first roadside basket stand along Highway 17N in Mount Pleasant, N.C. The town has renamed and dedicated this stretch of the highway in tribute to the hamlet's sweetgrass basket makers.
Profile Image of Jamie Keena, Period Music
Jamie Keena, Period Music View biography
Jamie Keena loves to sing old songs, including folk songs of America and the British Isles, patriotic airs, and “songs written to order” by Tin Pan Alley composers. With a bachelor’s in music from the College of William and Mary, Jamie accompanies his singing with guitar, banjo and ukulele, and also plays the fife, hammered dulcimer and concertina.
Profile Image of Butler Mappus
Butler Mappus View biography
Butler Mappus was born and raised in Georgetown, South Carolina, and has lived in the historic coastal region of South Carolina all of her life. She has lived in Charleston nearly 30 years and is a registered Charleston historian. Butler loves sharing her knowledge of this richly historic region, with an emphasis on the Colonial and Antebellum periods, cultural heritage and Charleston traditions.
Profile Image of Georgia Murphy
Georgia Murphy View biography
Georgia Murphy grew up in a small middle Georgia town, but has called Charleston home for the past 37 years. She has been a licensed excursion leader for the City of Charleston for 28 years, and considers sharing the beauty and history of Charleston and the Carolina Low Country as one of her greatest joys.
Profile Image of Becky Alexander
Becky Alexander View biography
Becky Alexander lives in Alabama and leads programs in the United States and Canada. She is also a multi-published magazine writer and book author. She has traveled extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Europe.
Profile Image of Joyce Harvison
Joyce E Harvison View biography
Joyce Harvison epitomizes Southern hospitality. A native of Savannah, she has worked for the last 30+ years in Savannah's Historic District, first as an insurance agent, and the last 16 years as a Director of Groups/Charters with a local trolley company showing off the city’s best sights to visitors from near and far. She revels in treating family, friends, and visitors to the best possible time, including hidden gems when they visit her home town. Joyce has two daughters and three grandchildren.
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
A Black Woman's Civil War Memories
by Susie King Taylor Weiner
Reissue of a 1902 book by a nurse/teacher/former slave-memoirs of a black woman around the time of the Civil War.
Civil War Savannah
by Derek Smith
Glimpse into the lives of the men and women who forever will be associated with Savannah through the wartime deeds.
A Short History of Charleston
by Robert N. Rosen
A concise small history of Charleston that is easy to read and enjoyable.
A Witness to History: Charleston's Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon
by Ruth Miller and Ann Taylor Andrus
The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the great buildings of Colonial America. Serving as city hall, customs house, post office and prison; as the British Headquarters during the occupation of Charles Towne and then host to a great ball honoring George Washington, the Exchange has been an eyewitness to America’s history. This stoic building-—designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975—-has been described as the best example of the dignity and ornament of the traditional English “exchange-town hall” design of the eighteenth century built in the United States. From within its Great Hall to deep below in the Provost Dungeon, the Exchange has played a vital role in American history. Andrus’ and Miller’s fast-paced and readable survey of the history and significance of the Old Exchange Building will appeal to visitor and serious historian alike.
Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War
by David Detzer
An original and deeply human portrait of soldiers and civilians caught in the vortex of war. So vividly does Allegiance re-create the events leading to the firing of the first shot of the Civil War on April 12, 1861, that we can feel the fabric of the Union tearing apart. It is a tense and surprising story, filled with indecisive bureaucrats, uninformed leaders, hotheaded politicians, and dedicated and honorable soldiers on both sides. The six-month-long agony that began with Lincoln's election in November sputtered from one crisis to the next until Lincoln's inauguration, and finally exploded as the soldiers at Sumter neared starvation. At the center of this dramatic narrative is the heroic figure of Major Robert Anderson, a soldier whose experience had taught him above all that war is the poorest form of policy. With little help from Washington, D.C., Anderson almost single-handedly forestalled the beginning of the war until he finally had no choice but to fight. David Detzer's decade-long research illuminates the passions that led to the fighting, the sober reflections of the man who restrained its outbreak, and individuals on both sides who changed American history. No other historian has given us a clearer or more intimate picture of the human drama of Fort Sumter.
Touring the Tombstones
by Ruth Miller
A series of guide books to Charleston's 18th century graveyards.
The Complete Stories: Flannery O'Conner
by Flannery O'Conner
Native Savannian who won the 1971 National Book Award for Fiction. Thirty-one tales depicting the humorous, of near tragic conditions of life in the Deep South during the fifties.
South of Broad
by Pat Conroy
Against the sumptuous backdrop of Charleston, South Carolina, South of Broad gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, our narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school principal and a well-known Joyce scholar. After Leo's older brother commits suicide at the age of thirteen, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death, and Leo, lonely and isolated, searches for something to sustain him. Eventually, he finds his answer when he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that includes friends Sheba and Trevor Poe, glamorous twins with an alcoholic mother and a prison-escapee father; hardscrabble mountain runaways Niles and Starla Whitehead; socialite Molly Huger and her boyfriend, Chadworth Rutledge X; and an ever-widening circle whose liaisons will ripple across two decades-from 1960s counterculture through the dawn of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. The ties among them endure for years, surviving marriages happy and troubled, unrequited loves and unspoken longings, hard-won successes and devastating breakdowns, and Charleston's dark legacy of racism and class divisions. But the final test of friendship that brings them to San Francisco is something no one is prepared for. South of Broad is Pat Conroy at his finest; a long-awaited work from a great American writer whose passion for life and language knows no bounds.
The Angel Oak Story
by Ruth Miller and Linda Lennon
The Angel Oak is a Southern live oak tree located in Angel Oak Park, in Charleston, South Carolina, on Johns Island, one of South Carolina's Sea Islands. It is estimated to be 300-400 years old, stands 65 ft (20 m) tall, measures 28 ft (8.5 m) in circumference, and shades with its crown an area of 17,000 square feet. This book goes in depth regarding the history of this mighty tree.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
by John Berendt
Referred to in Savannah as "The Book"-non-fiction, adult language-account of a local antique dealer, Jim Williams', four (!) trials for the same murder in the 1980's-also a Clint Eastwood movie released in 1997.





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