Day Trips by Car from Savannah: 5 Drives Worth the Tank

Savannah is one of the most walkable cities in the South — plenty of visitors never touch a steering wheel between their hotel and the river. But the whole point of wheels here is what sits within two hours of the squares: a barrier island, two of the most photographed places in Georgia, a Carolina beach town, and one of America's great historic cities. If you're renting for even part of your trip, these are the five drives that earn their gas.

The Short Table

| Drive | Distance | Time | Best for | |---|---|---|---| | Tybee Island | ~18 miles | ~30 minutes | Beach day, dolphin tours | | Wormsloe + Bonaventure loop | short hop southeast | under 30 minutes | The photos you came for | | Hilton Head Island | ~31 miles | ~45 minutes | Biking, resorts, low-key beaches | | Beaufort, SC | ~45 miles | ~1 hour | Waterfront charm, antebellum district | | Charleston, SC | ~100 miles | ~2 hours | The big-league day trip |

1. Tybee Island: The Beach Run (30 Minutes)

The classic. Tybee is 18 miles from downtown Savannah out US-80, about a 30-minute drive when traffic behaves — and there is no practical transit alternative, which is exactly why a car earns its keep here. Our full Tybee day trip itinerary covers the island stop by stop: the lighthouse first, dolphin tours with Captain Derek's, shrimp right off the boats at Bubba Gumbo's on Lazaretto Creek, and the North Beach stretch by the Marine Science Center.

En route tip: Fort Pulaski National Monument sits just off the Tybee Road on Cockspur Island — the 19th-century masonry fort where rifled cannon fire first made brick fortifications obsolete. It's the single best add-on stop on any Savannah day drive.

2. The Photo Loop: Wormsloe and Bonaventure (Half a Day)

This one barely counts as a drive — which is the point. Wormsloe State Historic Site, 20 minutes southeast of downtown, is the oak avenue from every Savannah photo you've ever seen: a 1.5-mile entrance lined with more than 400 live oaks, $12 to enter. Pair it with Bonaventure Cemetery, 160 moss-draped Victorian acres along the Wilmington River that Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil made famous. The full rundown of both — plus everything else worth pulling over for — lives in our things to do guide.

3. Hilton Head Island: The Bike Island (45 Minutes)

About 31 miles and roughly 45 minutes from Savannah, Hilton Head is the low-effort answer to "what else is on the coast?" The island's signature move is its pathway network — more than 60 miles of paved bike trails connecting beaches, parks, and shaded neighborhoods — so many visitors park the car and spend the day on two wheels. Harbour Town, with its red-and-white striped lighthouse, is the postcard harbor at the south end. It's a resort island: beaches are the headline, and bike rentals are everywhere.

4. Beaufort, South Carolina: The Easy Coast Town (1 Hour)

Roughly 45 miles and about an hour up the coast, Beaufort is the day trip people underestimate. The historic district is handsomely antebellum — moss-draped oaks over 18th- and 19th-century homes — and the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park fronts the Beaufort River right downtown, with the marina, shops, and restaurants an easy walk from the parking.

If you want a beach instead, Hunting Island State Park is 20 minutes farther east: South Carolina's most-visited state park, 5,000 acres of undeveloped barrier island with a recently restored 1875 lighthouse as its landmark. The beaches there are the wild, driftwood kind — a completely different animal from Tybee.

5. Charleston: The Big Trip (2 Hours)

It's the longest drive on this list — about 100 miles, roughly two hours, most of it up US-17 — and the only one where you should genuinely ask whether it's a day trip or an overnight. Charleston's historic district is a peer of Savannah's: older, bigger, and busier, with the harbor, the houses of Rainbow Row, and a restaurant scene that rewards reservations made weeks ahead. As a hard day trip you'll spend four hours in the car for maybe six on the ground; savvy travelers either leave at 7 AM or fold it into the itinerary as the next stop on a coastal road trip.

Practical Notes for All Five

• US-80 to Tybee crawls on summer weekends. Go early; the road is two lanes most of the way.
• The hybrid trip is the smart play. Stay car-free downtown, then rent only for your day-trip days — the Historic District side is walkable, and the free Savannah Belles ferry (the river crossing to Hutchinson Island) plus the fare-free dot shuttles handle the rest; downtown garages beat street meters for the overnight rate.
• Check hours before you commit. Wormsloe, Fort Pulaski, and Hunting Island are all state or federal sites with seasonal schedules — confirm the day you go.
• Fill up before Hunting Island. The park is genuinely out there; the last stretch is causeway and maritime forest.
• If you'd rather not drive at all, the tours overview covers the guided options that leave the logistics to someone else — and every one of these drives still starts from downtown, so a River Street morning with time for a happy hour stop on the return is the day-tripper's reward.

Distances and drive times verified October 12, 2026 against current routing sources (Travelmath, Rome2Rio, Trippy); sites' hours and fees change seasonally — confirm before you drive. Everything else here is drawn from The Local Savannah's own published, source-verified guides.