Chai Masalas: A Warm Christmas @ Charleston

Search for a warm place landed me in my next travel destination - Savannah, Georgia.
This time it was not just me . It was my whole family and friends.

Sounds perfect isn't it?

All of us friends - Shilpa, Venkadesh, Shwetha, Madhu and my husband Harsha joined together and came up with a travel plan.

Our plan as follows:

Day 1 : Drive -> Lunch -> Drive to Charleston -> Fort Moultrie-Arthur bridge - Festival of Lights
Day 2 : Magnolia Plantation-> Lunch-> Water front Park -> Drive to Savannah
Day 3 : Savannah Historic District, Cathedral Church -> Lunch -> City market and River street Savannah
Day 4 : Georgia rail road museum,worm sloe historic site and forsyth park and drive back

Once our plan was ready , we booked the hotels for the Stay.

next my Food plan : As i m strict vegetarian and try to avoid junk ;)

I carried the below Food Items:

Idli - 25, Chapati -25, Ready to Eat MTR ,Ready to eat upma, instant noodles , ready to eat dosa
frozen roti ,apple, organic fruit juice,chips,biscuits, Brown Bread

	Sat	Sun	Monday	Tuesday
9:00 AM	Breakfast at home	Continental Breakfast	Continental Breakfast	Continental Breakfast
1:00 PM	Vegetable Rice	chapati + Mint chutney	puliogare	Roti , Subji using MTR ready to eat
8:00 PM	idly + chutney	Frozen roti + Subji using MTR ready to eat	Rotis, Subji using MTR ready to eat	Lemon rice

As planned our journey began on Sat 24th 2016.

Day 1 went as planned.

We reached Charleston after a drive of about 6 hours with short breaks in between drives.
Towards late afternoon , explored fort Moultrie along side beach.
Enjoying the sunset , we bid bye to the Sun and let him travel to the other side of the world. Haha

My Shadow :)

Divine isnt it ?

Bye bye Sun

Sand Castle made by kids :)

We checked into hotel for a quick dinner. After dinner , we started towards the Festival of Lights.

Festival of Lights was breathtakingly beautiful with unique themes.
Christmas tress, Snow flakes, reindeer, hopping frogs , hopping bunnies, Arthur bridge were all created using lights.Visuals were really amazing and the ambience was very festive , All set for Christmas.

We winded up the day with a jolly train ride and headed back to the hotel.

Day 2:

Magnolia Plantation was very pleasant. It has a Petting zoo, Peacock Cafe, Conservatory and a gift shop. Our kids loved the zoo as here we could touch the animals, feed them and click selfies.
Walking along riverside , we experienced nature with full of flowers and greenery.
Also there are The Plantation House Tour, Nature train, Nature Boat, Swamp Garden.

We took the Nature train post lunch and toured the diverse landscapes, witnessed sun bath of turtles, Aligators, Live oak trees and beautiful greenish lakes.

Late Afternoon, we traveled towards water front park.

Water front Park is along side Cooper river and it is one of the best places to spend an evening. It has well designed fountains and seating with Large swings to bask in the sun.

We winded up the day with drive to Savannah.

Day 3:

A visit to Savannah Visitor center started the day followed by rail road museum.

Post lunch we visited Cathedral of St John's Church.

@Lafayette Square, Savannah

Cathedral Church

Early evening was a drive to Tybee island and this was a change in our plan.

But the weather was chilly and breezy. As the clouds loomed over the beach, we spent just about an hour at the beach followed by drive to the hotel.

Day 4:

One good info is Savannah has some free transportation options.
The DOT is a fare free service that includes shuttles serving 12 stops in the Historic District.
We roamed on the streets of City Market using DOT.