Three-bedroom houses in Savannah: how to pick

If you want three bedrooms in Savannah and you want to walk everywhere, start with five houses in our portfolio: Big Blue House - Near Forsyth Park - Lower and Big Blue House Upper, both a block from Forsyth Park and both sleeping eight; Starland Town House, Walk to the Park, which also sleeps eight; and two that sleep six, Liberty Street Redbrick Townhouse near Crawford Square and Eastern Wharf Luxury Townhome down by the River Walk.

That list already tells you the thing most roundups skip: three bedrooms in Savannah does not mean one fixed group size. Two of these put eight people under one roof. Two of them stop at six. If you're a family of five, every one works. If you're four adults and four kids, the choice narrows fast, and it narrows by neighborhood too.

The two halves of the Big Blue House

The Big Blue House sits a block off Forsyth, the long green rectangle that runs down the spine of the Historic District with its 1858 cast iron fountain at the north end. The building is a duplex, over a hundred years old, and we rent the floors separately. Both halves have three bedrooms and two bathrooms, both sleep eight, and both come with a BBQ area, air conditioning, Wi-Fi, a washer and dryer, and a TV.

The differences are the ones that decide a trip:

• Lower unit: everything on one level, no stairs inside the unit. It has a bathtub, which matters if you're travelling with small children. The kitchen table seats five or six, so a group of eight eating together at home will be improvising.
• Upper unit: the top two floors of the duplex, with the high ceilings the house is known for. More room to spread out, and stairs to get there.

Something to know before you book either: when both halves are let, you have neighbors through the floor. The house is a century old and sound carries. We say so on the listings, and we'd rather you hear it from us than discover it at eleven at night. For a family travelling with grandparents, a toddler, or anyone who doesn't want to haul a suitcase up two flights, the lower unit answers the question by itself.

And if your group grows between now and the trip, the whole Big Blue House goes as one booking: six bedrooms, four bathrooms, sleeping fourteen. Worth knowing early, because two families who start out planning separate rentals often end up wanting one address.

Where each of these puts you on foot

Savannah is a walking city laid out in squares, and the block you sleep on shapes the week more than the square footage does.

Forsyth Park. Both Big Blue House units are a block from it. You're at the south end of the Historic District, which means mornings in the park and a flat walk north into the grid. Uber is everywhere here for anything further out.

Starland. The Starland Town House is a traditional townhouse within walking distance of both Starland and Forsyth, set back far enough that the nights are quiet. It has two dedicated parking spaces behind the house, which in this city is close to a luxury: free street parking is time-limited, and the sweep zone signs are not decorative.

Crawford Square. The Liberty Street Redbrick Townhouse sits in a residential pocket where you'll be among locals as much as visitors, about half a mile from Broughton Street and its shops and restaurants. It has a private courtyard, a garage, and a fireplace, and it sleeps six rather than eight.

Eastern Wharf. The Eastern Wharf Luxury Townhome is new construction, three bedrooms and three and a half baths, steps from the River Walk with a private deck and a garage. River Street itself, the cobblestone stretch of old cotton warehouses now full of shops and pubs, is the walk from here. It sleeps six, and it's the one on this list that doesn't feel like an old house, which some guests want and some emphatically don't.

When three bedrooms isn't actually the number you need

Plenty of people search for three bedrooms because that's the shape of the family, then find the better fit has four. Worth a look before you commit.

Casa d'Arte on Habersham Street, just south of Whitefield Square, has four bedrooms and three bathrooms across about 1,900 square feet, sleeping eight, three blocks from Forsyth. The sitting room has a fireplace, tall windows and a chandelier; the dining room seats six. For eight people who intend to cook and eat together, that dining room settles an argument the Big Blue House lower unit can't.

Liberty Street Redbrick Town and Carriage House is the three-story townhome plus a separate one-bedroom carriage house across a private courtyard, four bedrooms and four bathrooms, sleeping eight. There's an elevator in the townhome, two private garage spaces, a gas firepit in the courtyard, and a wet bar with a wine fridge. Two couples travelling together, or a family who wants the in-laws across the courtyard rather than down the hall, will see the point immediately.

Kings Way Bungalow is the outlier: four bedrooms at the end of a cul-de-sac in a residential neighborhood, a short drive from downtown, under three miles from the Botanical Gardens, and about thirty-five minutes from the beach at Tybee Island. If you're renting a car anyway and want a driveway and a yard more than you want a front door on a square, this is the trade you're making.

What you'll eat, and what to book now

Two Savannah reservations need planning further ahead than your flights. The Grey, in the restored 1938 Greyhound terminal on Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, takes bookings two to three months out, and that is not an exaggeration. Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room on West Jones Street takes no reservations at all: doors open at eleven, you queue, you sit ten to a table, you eat family-style, and you pay cash.

Beyond those, the Olde Pink House does candlelit rooms in an 18th-century mansion with a piano going in the cellar tavern, and Husk on Oglethorpe Avenue cooks regional farm-to-table in a restored building. City Market, four renovated blocks of artist lofts, cafés and live music, is where most groups end up on a first night without planning to.

Out of town: Bonaventure Cemetery is about fifteen minutes east in Thunderbolt, open eight to five, and Wormsloe is nine or ten miles south, roughly a twenty-minute drive. Tybee Island is eighteen miles out on Highway 80, about half an hour in decent traffic and longer on a summer weekend evening.

Booking it

Every home here is a whole house or whole unit, furnished and ready, with keyless entry so there's no key handover to coordinate, Wi-Fi, laundry, towels and bathroom basics. We put out enough toilet paper and paper towels to start you off; if you're cooking all week, buy more. Parking at each home works differently (garage at Eastern Wharf and the Liberty Street homes, dedicated spaces behind Starland, street parking at the Big Blue House) so check your listing and read the sweep zone signs.

Book direct with Mint Julep rather than through a platform and you'll pay less, and you'll be talking to the people who manage the house. Questions before or during the stay get answered by message or phone, usually quickly. Tell us the dates and the ages of everyone coming and we'll tell you which of these three-bedroom houses is free and which one we'd actually put you in.