Off Campus: A Savannah Guide for SCAD Families
Your kid goes to SCAD. Here’s how to make the trip your own.
Whether you’re here for a campus visit, a long parents’ weekend, or the kind of trip where your student has plans that don’t include you until dinner — Savannah has more than enough to keep you busy. The squares slow you down in a way that’s hard to resist. The live oaks close the canopy over the streets in a way that makes the city feel held. And after a few visits, Savannah has a way of becoming yours too.
What to See and Do
SCAD’s campus doesn’t consolidate neatly on a single quad. Buildings are distributed across Savannah’s Historic District, which means getting to know the school means getting to know the city — the grid, the passageway between the older residential streets and the creative quarter, the way Broughton Street functions as the commercial spine.
The SCAD Museum of Art is worth time on any trip — seven minutes from The Ann Savannah at 110 Ann Street, less than a quarter of a mile. The building itself deserves time independent of what’s inside: an 1853 former railway depot, a National Historic Landmark and the only surviving antebellum railroad complex in the country. The permanent collection runs from Romare Bearden and Carrie Mae Weems to Wangechi Mutu and Kehinde Wiley — and rotates often enough that your fourth visit looks different from your first.
Forsyth Park sits a mile south of The Ann, about 20 minutes on foot through residential blocks, and it draws SCAD students in numbers on weekday afternoons. If your student is busy and you have an afternoon free, the Saturday farmers’ market runs year-round at the south end of the park — local produce, bread, honey, and cheese from farms across the coastal region, open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. City Market and the squares to the east are worth the walk for the same reason — unhurried, and unlikely to feel like a tourist itinerary once you’ve done it once.
The ShopSCAD gallery on Bull Street is a quick detour. Prints, ceramics, jewelry, and textiles made by current SCAD students, sold directly, the kind of work that gives a real sense of what SCAD students are making: across disciplines, at every stage of the program.
Where to Stay
The Ann Savannah sits two blocks from SCAD’s main campus, with suites sized for families traveling together rather than coordinating across separate hotel rooms on different floors of different buildings.
Layouts range from one-bedroom suites to four-bedroom loft residences sleeping up to eight. The four-bedroom layouts feel more like a townhome than a hotel room, set over two floors, with a private exterior entrance and a full kitchen. For a graduation weekend with grandparents in tow, or a long parents’ weekend where the family makes the drive from out of state, it’s the kind of space that changes the feel of the trip, with fewer logistics meaning more quality time together.
Every suite has in-suite laundry, which turns out to be one of those things families mention unprompted — particularly for move-out week or a longer graduation stay. Complimentary bicycles are available through the front desk, a good way to move between SCAD’s buildings at your own pace.
The Ann operates as part of Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy, which means Marriott Bonvoy points apply to every stay — if you’re visiting every term, the points add up faster than you’d expect.
Where to Eat
Little James is on the ground floor of The Ann, open daily from 7 a.m. It’s a café by day and a cocktail bar by night — Mediterranean in sensibility, named for General James Oglethorpe, the city’s founder, whose name runs through Savannah’s streets and squares. Espresso and pastries in the morning set a useful pace before a day of walking the city. A shared-plates lunch in the afternoon is a good reason to stop mid-visit and take stock. Friday evenings bring live music on the patio — a low-key way to end a day that has probably covered a lot of ground, whether that’s campus buildings, apartment viewings, or just the squares.
For dinner, the neighborhood offers enough range for everyone. Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room on Jones Street is a Savannah institution — communal tables, Southern boarding-house cooking, portions that tend to bring a table together. Husk Savannah on Whitaker draws from the same regional tradition with a more refined lens. While Little James covers mornings well, The Collins Quarter on Bull Street handles brunch through afternoon to dinner without breaking stride.
Orientation, Parents' Weekend, and Graduation
The academic calendar shapes the character of each visit. Orientation week in late summer runs warm and busy — the city is full of families doing exactly what you’re doing, and the streets around Forsyth have an energy specific to that particular first week. Book early, choose a multi-bedroom suite if siblings are coming, and plan for longer dinners than you expect.
Parents’ Weekend in the fall tends to arrive quietly. The semester is underway, the student has found their routines, and the visit is less about logistics and more about seeing the city through their eyes. Forsyth in October, under changing light, with your SCAD student explaining what they’ve been working on, is a lovely way to spend the afternoon catching up.
Graduation weekend in May is always the busiest, and accommodation within walking distance of the ceremony venues goes quickly. The four-bedroom loft suites at The Ann work well, precisely because they keep the family together without requiring anyone to negotiate the city by car. Walk to the ceremony, walk back, use the kitchen for breakfast before it all begins.
A first visit is the beginning of a longer relationship with this city. Savannah tends to get under your skin — the squares, the light through the oaks, its walkable historic district and easy-going pace. By the third or fourth trip, you’ll have a favourite restaurant you go back to, a square you like to cut through out of habit, a suite at The Ann with a layout that feels like your home from home. The Bonvoy points are a bonus, too. We look forward to welcoming you next time you’re in town.