DOWNTOWN SAVANNAH was designed for horse and carriage. It is already crowded enough on a regular day, considering tourist and local vehicle traffic, tourist trolleys, rideshare vehicles, and yes, horses and carriages.
St. Patrick’s Day is on a whole other level. We strongly recommend not taking your private vehicle into the festival area, on the parade day or the rest of the festival.
There’s also this thing called a DUI you really want to avoid.....
Here’s a roundup of helpful information:
Parade Shuttle
In partnership with City of Savannah and City of Port Wentworth officials, Chatham Area Transit (CAT) will operate several shuttles on March 16 to get people to downtown activities quickly and easily
The shuttles cost $5 roundtrip and wristbands may be purchased prior to boarding at these locations:
• Westside Shopping Center on Hwy 80 in Garden City,
• Eastside at the Island Towne Centre on Whitemarsh Island near Walmart on Hwy 80,
• Southside at the rear of Savannah Mall, at the old Virginia College building facing Shawnee Street and
• Port Wentworth at Rice Creek School, 100 Mulberry Avenue.
The shuttles begin operating at 7 a.m. and begin return trips from the downtown Savannah JMR Transit Center, at 610 W. Oglethorpe Ave. at noon.
The return shuttles will operate until 4 p.m. After this time, customers will need to ride other scheduled CAT buses, which will be free, back to their parked vehicles.
CAT’s fixed-route buses and paratransit services (for people with disabilities) will be fare-free on Friday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16. However, many buses will be operating on detours during the Saturday parade.
Other CAT Service
Chatham Area Transit will run their usual fixed route service each day FREE OF CHARGE on Friday March 15 and Saturday March 16.
This is another great way to get around town without bothering with finding a parking space or getting a DUI.
(To be clear: The special parade day shuttle mentioned above is $5 round trip. That is not a usual fixed route.)
Uber/Lyft/Rideshare
All the usual rideshare apps will be available throughout the festival (including surge rates when applicable of course).
Very Important: This year there will be a designated rideshare dropoff point downtown for the celebration, at the west end of the Historic District on Indian Street. No other through traffic will be allowed through there, it’s just for rideshare and motorcoaches.
We cannot speak for the individual drivers or companies but it would be best to limit your dropoff requests to that area if only to avoid any further congestion downtown.
From Pooler
There is a privately run round trip shuttle running between Pooler and downtown from Friday, March 15, 10:30 a.m.-midnight, through Saturday, March 16, 7 a.m.-midnight. They leave every half hour on the hour, with a pickup point at Molly McPherson’s in Pooler and dropoff at the official rideshare/motorcoach spot on Indian Street in downtown Savannah.
Cost is $20 per person 11 and older, $10 10 and under, $15 active duty military. A two-day VIP pass is $35/$15/$25. Pre-pay by calling 912/748-0110. To reserve bleacher seats for the parade, call Kelly Tours at 912/964-2010.
