Ghosts and Gravestones Trolley Tour with Haunted House Entry Savannah

The Savannah Historic District and its squares by night

Founded in 1733, Savannah was laid out on a unique grid of wards, each built around a green public square, and most of those squares survive today under huge live oaks hung with Spanish moss. The city was spared from destruction during the Civil War, so its streets keep an exceptional collection of 18th- and 19th-century buildings, and the whole district is a National Historic Landmark.

At night, with gas lamps flickering and shadows moving under the trees, the squares take on a very different mood. Your trolley rolls slowly through Columbia Square, one of the oldest, and other squares framed by mansions and churches, while the guide tells of epidemics, fires and duels that left their mark. A Savannah ghost tour is one of the best things to do in Savannah at night, combining real history with local legends.

Colonial Park Cemetery

Colonial Park Cemetery opened around 1750 and was the city's main burial ground for more than a century, until it closed to new burials in 1853. Many victims of the yellow fever epidemic of 1820 rest here, along with soldiers and leading citizens of colonial Savannah. Its brick walls, leaning headstones and old oaks make it one of the most atmospheric places in the city.

Local stories say that soldiers camped here during the Civil War and playfully changed the dates on some gravestones, so a few seem to record impossible ages. Your guide shares these tales and others from outside the cemetery walls, as the gates close at dusk. Even in daylight, Colonial Park Cemetery is worth a visit, and if you want to return, it is a short walk from the historic squares.

Inside a haunted 1840s house museum

A highlight of the tour is entry inside a grand house museum built in the late 1840s for a wealthy cotton merchant, one of the finest examples of Savannah's elegant townhouses. With its iron balconies, high ceilings and period furniture, it shows how prosperous families lived when cotton made the port rich, and it has welcomed many distinguished guests over the years.

By night the rooms feel very different. Staff and visitors have reported footsteps, moving objects and the scent of tobacco in empty rooms, and your hosts share these personal experiences as you move from parlour to staircase. The visit lasts about 15 to 20 minutes and gives you a rare chance to see a historic Savannah interior after dark, a part of the evening many guests remember most.

River Street and the old ship chandlery

River Street runs along the Savannah River below the bluff, lined with old cotton warehouses built from brick and ballast stones carried in by sailing ships. In the 19th century, merchants called factors graded and sold cotton here, and the waterfront was busy with sailors, dockworkers and traders. Today the warehouses hold shops and restaurants, and the cobbled street is the city's liveliest promenade.

The tour ends with a visit inside a restored 19th-century ship chandlery, a store that once supplied rope, lanterns and provisions to ships. Here your guide tells the legends of the waterfront: sailors who vanished, storms and shadowy figures on the stairs. If you want to know how to get to River Street, it is a short walk down the steps from Bay Street, and the trolley starts and ends right on the waterfront.