Part 4 of The Complete Girl Scout Guide to Traveling to Savannah, Georgia
Click here for a list of events and activities available in Savannah for Girl Scouts, pricing and programming is subject to change. Please check their individual websites for most current information.
A few notes on making your schedule, we did a lot of research as leaders and as a troop. The girls were allowed to bring ideas to the troop as to what they wanted to do on the trip. I’m very active online and belong to several Girl Scout groups. The most helpful being the GS Traveling To Savannah Facebook group. This group has a wealth of knowledge and information and experiences worth reading. Take advantage of these groups to gather ideas to share with your troop but you know your girls best – think outside of the box when it comes to activities and scheduling. You do NOT want them to be over-scheduled and not enjoy the trip because they feel forced to be on-the-go 24 hours of the day.
To get the girls talking I made a list of all of the activities I could find in Savannah (linked above). During one of our planning meetings last year we sat down and looked at their websites, looked at YouTube videos, and talked about what the girls thought looked fun. After our meetings some of the girls continued their own research and added more ideas at the next meeting. Most of our meetings in 2021 (Jan-May) consisted of Savannah planning and thinking about alternatives if this trip wasn’t approved. The girls came up with some amazing ideas and found things that even I hadn’t considered. I did make sure I included MUST-SEE items on the list that I knew would make the trip memorable. The girls really weren’t excited about seeing an old fort – but I heard on several occasions from other troops that the Old Fort Jackson Girl Scout Militia Program was a MUST-SEE no matter what!!
From there we looked at our budget and started making hard choices! I came up with the schedule and put it in a spreadsheet so the girls could see where their time was being spent. They’d then have to choose between 2 activities and vote on which one they wanted to see. If they picked the event that cost more they may have to cut something else later in the week. It was a good experience for the girls to make these decisions and not feel like I was the one in control of the entire trip.
The one activity we didn’t know how it was going to work out was the Girl Scouts First Headquarter. When we planned our trip dates they hadn’t made an announcement about QuestFest yet – later we learned that it was going to be a virtual event that happened the weekend we were in town. Unfortunately we also learned that the Headquarters wasn’t going to be scheduling tours that weekend. After keeping in touch with the staff at the Headquarters over email we found out that they were going to be open for drop-in self-guided tours. We are so happy they decided to stay open because the girls enjoyed their time there looking at the memorabilia.
TIP: You can email the First Headquarters and the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace to be added to their alert mailing list to be notified when reservations open each month. The Birthplace sent us an email one week before reservations opened to the general public!! Girl Scouts First Headquarters kept in touch with us about visits. Use your resources!! Don’t be afraid to ask questions before you go!
Part 5: Getting There | Amtrak Train from Tampa to Savannah
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