Savannah

Spanish moss hangs so low in Savannah's squares that it brushes the tops of park benches, filtering the Georgia light into something softer and older than the city itself. Cobblestones radiate warmth long after sunset on River Street, and the clip of horse hooves arrives before the carriage does, echoing between cotton warehouses converted into restaurants. The whole city moves at a pace that suggests no one here has anywhere more important to be.

Savannah is built on a 1733 grid plan designed by General James Oglethorpe, and twenty-two of his original squares survive — each a self-contained park with its own monument, canopy, and character. The Historic District preserves over 1,100 antebellum structures, making it the largest intact collection of its kind in the United States. Forsyth Park's cast-iron fountain, installed in 1858 and modelled after fountains in Paris and Cusco, anchors the southern end of the district. The city's relationship with the dead runs through its architecture — Bonaventure Cemetery, overlooking the Wilmington River, has been drawing visitors since John Muir camped among its live oaks in 1867. Savannah is also the only city in Georgia where open containers are legal on the street, which gives its squares a café culture most American cities cannot replicate.