We just came back from a trip to HH last week, and we spent a day in Savannah.
The drive is about an hour from the HH resort. There also is a cruise you can take from Harbourtown on HH that departs HH about 10 a.m. and leaves Savannah for the return about 2:45 p.m. We had planned to take that boat instead of driving, but we were not permitted into the Sea Pines area in which Harbourtown is located, because we were driving a small RV. If you decide to try to cruise, call ahead to make sure it's operating because this is off-season.
We drove from HH to the Savannah Visitor's Center and picked up the Old Town Trolley, which is a 90-minute trolley tour of the city, narrated by the driver, that lets you get on and off at any stop. A trolley runs about every 30 minutes. There's another trolley called Old Savannah (I think that was the name) that looked to us to do the same thing, but it seemed to run more frequently. Every time we were waiting for our trolley, we saw the other one go by, which really irked my DH! You can tell the difference between them by their color -- Old Town is orange and green, Old Savannah is white.
Our tour went by all the famous and historical houses and neighborhoods in Savannah, some of which you can go in and visit. We went into and took a tour of the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace house because I was a Girl Scout leader for many years and was interested in it. We also got off at the River Street stop and walked along the "boardwalk" on the Savannah River, where there are all sorts of shops and restaurants. We had a late lunch in a restaurant on River Street called The Boar's Head, and it was pretty good.
We are planning to visit Charleston on our next HH trip, since we didn't have enough time to go on this visit. We may stay a weekend night in The Charleston Place Hotel, which we have heard is in the heart of the historical district and very nice. You can use points to stay at that hotel, but we'd probably pay cash to save the points.
I brought home most of our tour and visitor brochures, so if you have any questions, just ask!
KMarie