Walking All 22 Historic Squares & Brick-Paved Jones Street ('Prettiest Street in America')

Once you have walked the central five squares along Bull Street, the secret to experiencing Savannah like a local is turning east and west onto the quiet, gas-lamp-lit residential squares where tour buses are not allowed, and strolling the length of Jones Street.

1. Stroll Jones Street From West to East (Between Tattnall & Habersham Streets)

Running east to west just two blocks north of Forsyth Park, Jones Street was named by Southern Living and Condé Nast Traveler as one of the most beautiful residential streets in America. Here, the wide lane is still surfaced in original 19th-century red-and-purple 'Savannah Grey' handmade bricks fired along river plantation kilns in the 1800s, which naturally calm traffic beneath a cathedral arch of 200-year-old live oaks:

• What to Look For Along East & West Jones Street: admire the high curving wrought-iron double staircases, flickering copper gas carriage lamps, and walled courtyard gardens peeking through iron gates, and pause at 107 West Jones Street for lunch in the basement dining room of Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room.

2. The 6 Most Beautiful Side Squares East of Bull Street

The eastern half of the Historic District along Abercorn and Habersham Streets is leafier, more residential and far quieter than the western half. Do not miss these six squares:

1. Lafayette Square (1837, Abercorn St): features a mossy green iron fountain surrounded by the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, the 1848 Andrew Low House, and the Flannery O'Connor Childhood Home (207 E Charlton St).
2. Calhoun Square (1851, Abercorn St): boasts the thickest canopy of old-growth live oaks in the city and the 1856 Massie Heritage Center, Georgia's oldest continuously operating school building.
3. Troup Square (1851, Habersham St): look in the centre for the brass Armillary Sphere fountain supported by six metal tortoises, plus the cast-iron Dog Fountain drinking spout at the corner.
4. Whitefield Square (1851, Habersham St): centred on a romantic white Victorian wooden gazebo surrounded by pastel 1890s clapboard cottages.
5. Columbia Square (1799) & Oglethorpe Square (1742): flanking the 1819 Owens-Thomas House and 1820 Isaiah Davenport House.
6. Washington Square (1790) & Warren Square (1790): the oldest surviving block of 1790s wooden colonial houses in Georgia that escaped the Great Fires of 1796 and 1820.