As the birthplace of the founder of the Girl Scouts, Savannah is a great place to take your troop for a trip. Here, your troop will learn about Juliette Gordon Low and her journey to discover the Girl Scouts as well as take in the beauty and the history of Savannah.
Savannah is the perfect place to bring your troops on an educational exploration. Savannah is rich in history and wildlife, offering several adventures that will make learning fun!
First stop: The Savannah Visitor Information Center and Savannah History Museum showcase the city’s history from its founding in 1733 to the present day. Inside, you can see exhibits about the Revolutionary War Battle of Savannah, rare dugout canoes from the 1800s and a changing exhibit of women’s fashions from the 19th and 20th centuries. The museum is also home to Forrest Gump’s bench, one of Johnny Mercer’s Oscar Awards and a carriage owned by the family of Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low. Other exhibits include weapons and military uniforms, as well as items from Savannah’s railway history. Visitors may also enjoy our plush theatre and film presentation, "Savannah the Survivor."
Visit the Birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low - Founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA: This is a Girl Scout national center and has something to offer everyone. It offers several programs and tours for its many troop visits throughout the year. Your troop will enjoy visiting the beautiful Victorian home of the founder of Girl Scouts while having fun participating in the hands-on activities provided by the Birthplace.
Lunch: The Savannah Riverboat’s Daisy Low Lunch is a fun and enlightening lunch cruise on the Savannah River for all ages! With a menu inspired from Daisy’s life and a pirate treasure hunt, your girls will be even more excited when they receive a River Street Riverboat Patch, and make SWAPs. It includes all of this and you’ll also sail on a narrated sightseeing cruise on the historic Savannah River! This cruise generally runs from 12 – 3 p.m. and is only set up for groups of 50 or more people on open dates. Smaller groups can join once the 50 person minimum is met. A Riverboat Patch and SWAP pin are included!
Explore Savannah: Want a great way to learn about Savannah while having fun and winning prizes? How about a Scavenger Hunt! Several companies offer your group a map and clues to find Savannah’s hidden treasures. This interactive learning will help your group better appreciate the history of Savannah.
Indulge in the Arts: Next, stop by the Telfair Museum of Art. Just for Girl Scouts, they offer a Women in Art Tour (Grades 3–12,) which provides Junior, Cadet and Senior Girl Scouts the opportunity to work toward their visual arts badge. Tours are available with and without hands-on studio activities.
Dinner: Your group covered a lot of ground on their first day and may want to have a casual bite to eat. Savannah’s historic River Street and City Market have all types of casual and upscale dining options. Seafood, steaks and light fare can all be found in the restored cotton warehouses that are home to some of Savannah’s favorite restaurants. We can also help you determine which restaurants are particularly group friendly!
An Evening with Ghosts: Discover why Savannah has repeatedly been named “America’s Most Haunted City!” There are numerous options to choose from, including walking tours, carriage tours and haunted trolley tours. This makes a great evening event for your group and will be entertaining, fun and informative, no matter the age.
Visit Savannah’s Beach: Just minutes from the Historic District lies Tybee Island, affectionately known as “Savannah’s Beach.” Several companies offer dolphin and nature tours. Explore the rivers, marshes and barrier islands aboard Coast Guard certified vessels. Watch dolphins at play and egrets catching fish. See what is under the water when we pull our crab traps. Learn about the marshland and the barrier island ecosystems by taking an educational walk on the beach.
Explore a Lighthouse: After your tour, stop by the Tybee Island Light Station. Ordered by General James Oglethorpe, Governor of the 13th colony, in 1732, the lighthouse has been guiding mariners to a safe entrance into the Savannah River for more than 270 years. The Tybee Island Light Station is one of America's most intact, having all of its historic support buildings on its five-acre site.
Lunch: After such an exciting morning, your students are sure to work up an appetite. Try Tybee’s local fare at several Girl Scout-friendly establishments, including one that has a live alligator moat!
Fun at a Fort: On the way back to Savannah, join Old Fort Jackson’s Girl Scout Militia. This program has been specially designed for the Girl Scouts. A drill sergeant will lead the girls through the basic maneuvers of the School of the Soldier, including marching and saluting. Afterward, the girls will enter an informal classroom setting for a hands-on lesson in the ways soldiers communicated at the fort. This session works in conjunction with the Girl Scout Manual of Signal Flags, also known as "Wig Wag." Following this session, the Girl Scouts will be quizzed by their drill sergeant in our "Girl Scouts Trivia Game." They’ll be asked questions about the Girl Scouts, as well as how Juliette Gordon Low's life was associated with the Civil War. The training is completed when the Girl Scouts get to witness an exciting cannon firing demonstration. After the smoke clears, the scouts can enjoy a 15 minute theater presentation providing a more detailed history of Fort Jackson in the Civil War, the War of 1812 and the American Revolution. They can also visit the wonderful museum shop and purchase the official Fort Jackson Patch, which is suitable for your vest.
Dinner: If your group enjoys dining with a bit of a twist, they will certainly look forward to tonight’s dinner. Among the choices are a “Mess and Muster” at local Fort Jackson, where they’ll enjoy a delicious meal along with friendly soldiers of long ago, complete with a cannon firing!
A High-Flying Museum: Plan to spend the morning at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, one of the most exciting museums in the southeast! With vintage aircraft, artifacts, photographs, the thrilling “Mission Experience” and personal stories—this Museum has it all! The Museum Tour and History Hunt, for Girls Scouts pursuing the Aerospace Badge, includes a guided tour of the Mighty Eighth’s exhibit galleries and a "scavenger hunt." (Duration: 2 hours) A Day in the Life of a Curator Tour program includes a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the Museum for Girl Scouts working toward an Interest Project Award. A museum tour is included with this program.
Lunch: Head back to town and take your students over to the Pirates’ House for a quick and easy lunch. Here the students will feel like real pirates with great seafood and a seafaring atmosphere.
Continue the Fun: After lunch at the Pirates’ House, your Girl Scouts will want to continue the maritime fun at the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum. Founded in 1966, exhibits ship models, paintings and maritime antiques, principally from the great era of Atlantic trade and travel between England and America during the 18th and 19th centuries. For students, the museum offers classes on the art of scrimshaw, sailor's valentines and painted merchant signs.
Dinner: Your troops have had a fun-filled three days in Savannah - let them choose where to eat dinner! There are plenty of options on both River Street and in City Market, as well as other delicious choices throughout the Historic District.
Angela Beasley’s Puppet People: Girl Scouts of all ages enjoy exercising their imaginations, sparked by the instructions and supplies at a Puppet People Hands-On Workshop! Troops from all over the country are catching the puppet-making fever with these two-and-a-half hour programs.
Something’s Cookin’: Group classes at Savannah Cooks! are an absolute must for any Girl Scout troop while staying in Savannah. Their workshops are designed to introduce Scouts to an array of world cultures and cuisines. Classes are hands-on, cooperative, and best of all, loads of fun. They also make planning your itinerary a snap, qualifying as both a meal and an activity. Each private lesson satisfies "skill building," "technology," and "career exploration" requirements for the "Let's Get Cooking" IP. And younger Scouts, like Brownies & Juniors, earn a badge that same day.
Oatland Island Education Center: Visit one of the premier environmental education centers in the Southeast. More than 40 programs are available to students ranging from an hour-long barn animal program for kindergarteners to programs where older students study endangered species, organism classification, participate in team building activities and camp overnight. More than 50 indigenous Georgia animals are used in educational programming, many of which are an endangered and/or threatened species. Most animals are located on a two-mile trail in large, natural enclosures. Animals living at Oatland include bison, Florida panthers, wolves, alligators, bear and diverse raptors.
Savannah Bee Company: Your girls will get to tour this local company’s manufacturing facility, see an educational video on bees and honey production, visit their “bee farm” where the honey is extracted and get a honey-tasting at the end. The tour and tasting are all free!
The Savannah Theatre: This downtown entertainment extravaganza brings you fantastic 2 hour Broadway-style productions. Dating back to 1818, the theater is a wonderfully exciting way to spend an evening, with a show that’s fun for all ages. Group rates are available for your troops.
Tasty Tours: Your girls have been seeing and possibly tasting our city’s wonderful sweet treats, but they actually have an opportunity to go behind the scenes. The Savannah Candy Kitchen offers tours of their factory, where you’ll be able to see the “masters at work” creating some of the most delicious candies in the South. Another great choice is a visit to the Byrd Cookie Company. A Savannah tradition for 84 years, your troop will be able to view the bakers at work and be treated to a sampling of their gourmet foods as well as fresh lemonade. Best of all, both tours are free!
Starcastle Family Entertainment Center: The fun center that has it all! It features go carts, putt-putt, arcade games, laser tag, batting cages and even roller skating, this is the perfect outing for your group.
Frames n’ Games: Savannah’s newest fun family entertainment center features 20 lanes of bowling, a 2-story laser tag arena, state-of-the-art arcade, a “Balladium” back-light arena and designated rooms for parties and groups.
Savannah Wildlife Refuge: Established in April 6, 1927, the refuge consists of more than 29,000 acres of freshwater marshes, tidal rivers and creeks and bottomland hardwoods. The refuge is located in the heart of the Lowcountry, a band of low land, bordered on the west by sand hill ridges and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. Known for its rich flora during the humid summer months, the region also supports a diverse wildlife population. The variety of birdlife within the Lowcountry is enhanced by its location on the Atlantic Flyway.
