This article is the third part of:
Driving in the South Part 2: A Tour From Memphis to Vicksburg, New Orleans and Pensacola which can be found here.
From Pensacola to Jacksonville: North Florida – The Panhandle
The route from Pensacola to Jacksonville is described in this article.
Tallahassee to Charleston
The route from Tallahassee to Savannah is 491 km (I 20 and I 95). If you are interested in nature and protected areas, Okefenokee Swamp in worth a visit. (Information on Okefenokee Swamp here). If you take the route we took, you leave I-10 in Madison and drive along highway 84. This route is 60 km shorter, but takes 30 minutes longer. In this case, you avoid Jacksonville and cannot see anything of Florida’s largest city. Heading further to Georgia, you pass the Golden Isles of Georgia (more information can be found here) – Georgia’s islands. Every island requires a long detour. There is so much to be seen on this route, it’s not possible to see all of it without staying an additional night somewhere.
We wanted to visit the Okefenokee Swamp. The next time, I would go from Tallahassee to the Okefenokee Swamp (maybe via Fargo) and stay in Jacksonville for a night. Like this, I could spend the evening in Jacksonville and and focus the following days on the Georgia Isles. The route from Tallahassee to Savannah is easily doable in a day, but there is so much to see on the route.
From Savannah to Charleston, it’s only 175 km (2 hours). This part of the route gives you time to stop at all the islands (see Islands of South Carolina ###LINK###). A islands require again a long detour. We drove from Hilton Head to the little village Beaufort, a picturesque village than can be seen in Forrest Gump as Forrest’s fictional home Greenbow, Alabama.
It’s only 45 minutes from Hilton Head to Beaufort. From Beaufort you can driveto the ocean and reach the nature protected area Hunting Island. Like this, the route takes 1 ½ hours (90 km). From there, we drove directly to Charleston on highways 21 and 17. Instead of 1 ½ hours, you need 3 ½ hours to reach Savannah (270km). This shows, that driving to the islands takes time (in our case, an extra 100 km, 1 ½ hours). I think one island per day is enough; more is too much of a rush. Better head to Charleston on the afternoon.
Whatever island you want to visit on this route, plan a whole day to do so. You find more information about these islands in their own articles.
Charleston is super-interesting; it is also possible to go to Charleston directly to have more time there.
Parts 1 and 2 of this tour can be found here:
Driving in the South Part 1: A Tour From Atlanta to the Great Smoky Mountains, Nashville and Memphis
Driving in the South Part 2: A Tour From Memphis to Vicksburg, New Orleans and Pensacola
A tour in the Panhandle/Northern Florida can be found here.