Vegans in Savannah

We spent some time in Savannah, GA this past March and we really loved it there! We of course brought all the dogs, and we also had my art display because we traveled there for Savannah’s first annual Vegfest as a vendor. I wanted to highlight some of our favorite things to do and vegan eats from our trip - and as always, all the deets about how we travel since I constantly have people ask me some form of the following question: How do you travel everywhere with 3 big dogs, in a prius, with so much stuff, and where do you stay and find vegan food along the way? If you’re curious to know any components of that question, read on to find out.

I’ve already blogged about our past road trips with the dogs to New Orleans, Asheville, Miami, Venice (FL), Pensacola, NOLA, Austin, Roswell, Tucson, San Diego ( + several more places we’ve traveled without them). Bringing them with us has pretty much become second nature, and it’s rare we ever do travel without them now - so when I have the opportunity to do an art show in another state, or we have a reason or desire to visit somewhere new, we automatically bring the whole crew with us when we go! This was actually our first time traveling for an art show AND bringing all the dogs with us - I planned it as a test to see if I can continue traveling farther and farther away with my art, and manage to make it work with the whole family in tow. This trip worked out so well that we decided to definitely do more of this in the future (and we already have — Miami, which I blogged about already, actually happened AFTER this trip (I am just bad at keeping up with blogging and keeping my posts in order 😜!)

Traveling with pets can often feel like a stressful time - there’s much more to consider when booking accommodations, activities, schedules and it can be overwhelming to travel on the go without much of a concrete plan if you have a dog or more in the car —- but it really doesn’t have to be that difficult. I hope this blog helps or inspires you to take that trip you’ve been wanting to take! For this blog.. we’re heading to Savannah… so here we go!

As always, we bring all three dog crates, their food, their “stuff” (bowls, kongs, treats, meds, leashes/harnesses, blankets, etc.) along with two duffel bags of our own filled with clothing and misc stuff, a bag of snacks/food (although we are big foodies and enjoy eating out a lot when we travel, we also pack food if needed, as vegans we are prepared to not always have access to convenience food if needed and we prefer something healthy!), and a bunch of my art stuff. I signed up for a Vegfest in Savannah solely because I’ve always wanted a reason to go spend some time in Savannah (we had only previously been as a quick lunch stop to meet a friend on another road trip traveling to NJ), and I wanted to test the waters of bringing my entire art display AND the dogs with us. I’m also a sucker for Vegfests in general - I’ve been trying to attend as many as I can when possible now. I wasn’t so sure it would work at first, but for this one I traveled a little lighter than usual - I just brought my smaller pop up tent (not my huge industrial one), 2 folding tables, 2 chairs, one tall card racks, a couple bins/tote bags filled with art, a print display rack, a sticker bin… but no large wall panels which we normally strap to the roof - I didn’t think we could use them with our roof cargo bin. We have a roof cargo bin (scored generously from our local Buy Nothing Group) that we use whenever we do more than a day trip or short getaway, so the dogs can comfortably have a lot of room to lay in the car (our normal style is to pack every square inch of the car and the dogs have limited space to move).

For this trip in particular, I had some heavy knowledge of vegan businesses in the area after volunteering to help reach out and connect with them to network/advertise for Vegfest. I did extensive research and made a full list of places that are vegan or vegan-friendly. I also added a few cool shops and places worth checking out. This list is in no particular order (although the fully vegan places are towards the top of the list). Most of these places didn’t work work with Vegfest in any way but a handful of them advertised for us and even were vendors at the event. Here’s the list I made:

Green Spork Market & Cafe 

Fox and Fg

Henny Penny

Foxy Loxy Cafe

The Haunt

Hungry Vegan

Kayak Kafe (multiple locations)

Glo’s Coffee (vegan food and treats)

Mellow Mushroom

Sentient Bean

Brighter Day Natural Foods

Leopold’s Ice Cream

Namaste Savannah

Green Truck Neighborhood Pub

Flying Monk Noodle Bar

Your Pie Pizza (downtown)

CO

Cosmic Corner (metaphysical shop)

Cornerstone Minerals and Natural History

The Vault Kitchen and Market (Asian and sushi)

Carlito’s (Mexican)

Boomy’s (bar)

BlendPressWellnessBar 

The Collin’s Quarter (2 locations)

NaaN on Broughton

Ben & Jerry’s

Humane Society of Savannah Thrift Shop

Fresh market

Whole Foods

Zunzi’s

OG Carribean

So - after the prep work of making a list, packing the car, having a general plan - off we went!

We left on a Friday. On our way to Savannah we stopped at our new FAVORITE cafe - The Green Spork. The owner Blake has been amazing as he generously donated a gift card to Vegfest and has been a huge supporter of the festival. I’ve been in touch with him a lot, and had an incentive to stop into the cafe to pick up the gift card he was donating - but naturally we also wanted to buy some lunch while there, and dude, I have ZERO regrets about it. To this day - several months later, I still think about The Green Spork and keep their menu on our fridge. So they are completely plant-based - they do sell local honey in their market, and use honey in some menu items but you can ask for anything without it to make it vegan. We indulged and got a lot of things to try for lunch - a beet smoothie, artichoke toast (which was so filling it essentially was an open faced sandwich on it’s own!) and a BLT. One of the best parts about their food is everything is gluten free, but their bread is genuinely just really GOOD. Like the good kind of bread you’d want to eat even as plain toast because it’s so delicious, more delicious than any gluten filled breads I’ve had. Their ingredients are locally grown and sourced and truly made with love - you can feel it and you can taste it in every bite. We also got a box of desserts because they had a special that was something like 6 desserts for just $15 (so why wouldn’t we get 6 desserts?!) All the desserts out-compete so many other desserts I’ve tried and they do so being 100% plant based and gluten free! Not too overly sweet they have just enough deliciousness but without being instantly followed by a sugar migraine (I avoid sugar because it makes me feel crappy, but had no issue with eating these). With an adorable little shop that’s also filled with local goods including locally grown produce, homemade salves, “no bitch spray”, and other natural products. Conveniently located right off 95 in Richmond Hills, GA this quaint market and adorable cafe -is the perfect place for a lunch stop along your travels up or down the interstate while driving through the south and it’s about 20 minutes outside of Savannah. If you’re nearby, you MUST GO HERE!

We arrived in Savannah after lunch and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the La Quinta because we didn’t want to spend over $100/night and needed something dog-friendly. The trade off was not getting to stay right in the heart of the downtown area but this ended up being zero issue for us as I mastered the art of finding easy, convenient free city parking during our entire stay (read more on this later).

The hotel ain’t fancy but it’s cheap and does the job. We never spend much time in the room anyway (but it’s cool, safe, and good enough for our pups!). We always get two beds so they can have their own!

We walked all 3 dogs and got them settled in the room (tip for dog-owners - La Quinta typically allows 2 pets PER PERSON and has no added pet fee - this makes the hotel an easy and affordable option for multi-pet families… BUT this may vary at other La Quinta locations - they all can have their own rules). We headed downtown and walked around, covering lots of ground popping into little shops and boutiques and cool stores around Broughton St. Our secret parking area is on East Hall street by the Barnard Arctitects as this street parking is safe, free, and very accessible and easy to most downtown locations (it’s right around the corner from the Haunt, and just a couple blocks from Forsyth Park). We are active so walking anywhere is not an issue for us. Most of the city charges for parking with the pay on your phone style kiosk thing and at $2 per hour I personally would rather not. (Other hints for parking - all street parking is free Mon-Sat after 8PM and all day on Sundays)

 Historic steps by River St.

We walked by the city market and there were art galleries, fun shops, a toy store, and more. We walked by the river district which is filled with bars, candy shops, hippie stores, gift shops - some places are open a little later than others but things seem to be open late. My favorite was 18Loves art - I had been following Amelia the artist for a while on Instagram before getting to meet her in person. Her little shop and happy art gallery is SO inspiring and is right along the water. 

  

Along the strip on Friday or Saturday night there is dancing, live performances, drunk people, and fun times. We walked along the water to some artisan markets, and explored the Marriot hotel in the Plant power building. I highly recommend going in here as it’s basically like a natural history museum in the main lobby! A huge golden dinosaur skeleton, tons of geodes, crystals, agate slices and so much more can be explored and admired. It reminded me so much of the natural history museum in DC with some added style and flair - like a gallery. A really fun stop with great photo ops! They also have some of the largest crystal specimens on display in the world.

We were hungry for dinner so we popped into the Flying Monk Noodle Bar. This restaurant has great food options for everyone. There are 2 “vegan” options listed (labeled as vegetarian, but we checked and they’re fully vegan) plus the drunken noodles which can be veganised if you ask. We got the modified drunken noodles with tofu and the Buddha noodles as they were listed, and OMG they were both amazing. Soo delicious we highly recommend! Just really good noodles and lots of flavor!

Saturday we woke up and headed to the local farmers market at Forsyth park! There are a lot of great vendors but we just grabbed a container of locally fresh grown microgreens as I enjoy eating them as a snack. We didn’t really need to stock up on produce while traveling but I just enjoy the vibe of farmers markets when we travel and always like to check them out. We met one of my best friends and college roommate Jenn (who lives right outside Savannah) at the Sentient Bean which is a vegetarian cafe with excellent brunch options, including 2 breakfast options for vegans. The place is so popular the line wrapped around the whole restaurant but they have plenty of seating in and outside, and extra on their back patio so finding seating on a busy Saturday morning wasn’t an issue as we had expected.

After catching up with Jenn, we headed off to continue our day and walked along Bull St. We popped into Henny Penny Cafe, a coffee shop and bakery with select vegan options where I snagged a blueberry lemon donut (delicious) and a curry sugar donut (very amazing). I love a unique donut so I couldn’t help getting a favorite staple and the curry one. I don’t indulge in sugary sweets often anymore but really have just been having fun and being in full “foodie” mode when I’m on vacation so I can try everything (even when that means getting a headache shortly after).

We walked to the starland district to wander, and went to an art market called Desoto Street Market. It’s right near the Starland Yard (filled with food trucks), a brewery, and Superbloom - which is an adorable cafe with merchandise from local artists, and a full menu of unique drinks such as coffees, kombuchas, and superfood lattes. I got a red bean latte and felt inspired by some of the others they had (like purple sweet potato and blue butterfly) that I’ve since started making my own at home! The flavors are seriously out of this world (the the lattes are cute!). 

 

After enjoying the market, we wandered off to Starland Strange (ice cream shop and vintage store) and Starlandia (an arts and crafts supply store with new and used supplies - I scored a tube of my favorite paint for $3 (normally close to $20).

 

We wandered more downtown and stopped into SCAD - the Savannah School of Art and Design to use their bathroom, and wandered around their gift shop and cool art exhibits they had open to the public. Fun!

Our friends Dehlia and Mark also were in Savannah for the weekend, so after stopping at the hotel to walk the dogs, we met up with them for dinner at The Haunt. We had been so excited to try this place, they feature locally sourced mushrooms in all of their dishes. We all got different things on the menu to try and share, and everything was AMAZING. The Haunt is a little pricey compared to other places, but the quality is well worth it. The cheesecake is also out of this world and has no processed sugars (they use dates and maple syrup) and this particular cheesecake inspired me to get back into making my own healthy desserts at home and I’m SOO glad I did because mine is now getting pretty close to the Haunt’s in richness and deliciousness. Oh, and did I mention the Haunt is all vegan? Ask them about their mushroom jerky - if they have any made, you won’t regret it. Best vegan jerky I’ve had in my life.. it’s super soft and tender (not too chewy) and is made from lion’s mane mushrooms!

    

Next, we went to a haunted interactive ghost story experience that Dehlia found online and got us tickets to.. it was pretty interesting but we all agreed it’s not something we would do again (not worth the price we paid) so I’m not going to recommend any more details about it here 😂 We drove around town a bit to see the night life, but I didn’t have the energy to do much since I knew we had to wake up early to prep for Vegfest the next day (Sunday). We headed back to the room to prep our stuff for Vegfest the next day and get a good night’s sleep.

On Sunday we got up early and headed over to Forsyth Park to set up our booth for Vegfest (people often don’t realize the time/energy that goes into prepping and setting up for events and art shows!). As mentioned earlier, this was a “test” trip so I brought a smaller set up and display with less merch and my older crappier tent because it was way easier to pack.

 

The event was amazing - pretty small, which was expected for a first year event but it was in the perfect spot at a busy park and I did much better in sales than expected - even with a limited and simplified set up! I was so grateful for such a wonderful day. We met so many cool new friends and people that lived in the area, I enjoyed talking to other vegans and vegan inspired people. I acquired new clients here that purchased commissions from me later on and just genuinely enjoyed the cool Savannah crowd. Really loved the fruit and veggie tattoos on the hands of one of my customers and had to snag a pic!

After Vegfest (it ended at 3 so we had some evening time) we went to a nearby botanical garden for some wandering and then back to the hotel where we took the dogs on a long walk since they have stuck been in the room most of the time. It’s been easier to leave them behind when we wander so we have more freedom in the city.. however we did see dogs everywhere downtown and it was super dog-friendly. After their walk we went out to Fox and Fig for dinner - we’ve been here once before when passing through Savannah and the food never disappoints. Their menu is fully vegan too.

We wandered the city more, just admiring downtown and walking down new streets and areas. Make sure when you’re downtown you visit the “squares” around Savannah - they’re cute historical parks within blocks of the downtown area. Chippewa Square is where the iconic bench scene in Forrest Gump was filmed. After a long night of walking and exploring some more we called it a night.

Before leaving the next day, we stopped at Bonaventure Cemetary. They offer tours and have a spooky gift shop, but we wandered around a bit on our own just to check it out. It’s just stunningly beautiful — if you like hanging out in cemeteries.

Then we parted ways with the beautiful city of Savannah and headed home. We felt like we explored it all and did just about everything we wanted to in a few days. Of course there was way more on that long list I made at the start of this post — but it’s impossible to do everything so there’s at least extra options for you to try and explore. I hope this blog helps you find affordable pet friendly lodging and helps you know where to park and wander freely around the town - with or without dogs. There is much to see and do and this way, you won’t miss a thing!