Best hotels in Savannah | Visually Compare Top Stays Side-by-Side

An Overview of the Boutique & Luxury Hotel Landscape in Savannah

Savannah was laid out in 1733 according to James Oglethorpe's ward plan — a grid of squares, each anchored by a public green, that remains one of the most coherent pieces of urban design in North America. That structure is not incidental to the hotel experience here. It means that where you stay places you in a specific relationship to the city's street life, its live oaks and Spanish moss, its Federal and Italianate facades. The Historic District, which contains the bulk of those original squares, is where two of the three properties on this list have taken up residence, each making a different argument about what it means to occupy that inherited fabric. Perry Lane Hotel, a Luxury Collection property on Perry Lane, is the more architecturally assertive of the two. The project involved stitching together several historic structures with new construction, and the resulting interiors carry a confident creative energy — the kind of place that leans into contemporary art and a certain downtown social pulse without losing its footing in the neighborhood. The Drayton Hotel, part of Hilton's Curio Collection, takes a quieter position on Drayton Street, its restored bones carrying more of the Historic District's period character. Both sit within easy reach of Forsyth Park and the dense cluster of squares that make this stretch of Savannah so legible on foot. The difference between them is temperament as much as price — Perry Lane courts a traveler who wants design friction alongside the history; the Drayton offers something closer to elegant continuity with it. The third property stands apart geographically and in spirit. The Thompson Savannah sits at Eastern Wharf, a mixed-use development on the riverfront east of downtown, and it reads accordingly — a newer building with river views, a rooftop pool, and the clean-lined aesthetic that Thompson properties tend to favor across their portfolio. It appeals to a traveler who wants Savannah's atmosphere at a slight remove from its most touristed core, with the Savannah River as backdrop rather than cobblestone squares. The tradeoff is a shorter walk to the city's genuinely historic fabric, but for those who find the Historic District's preservation pressure slightly suffocating, the Thompson's position at Eastern Wharf offers a real alternative orientation to the city.