Wondering what to expect for Halloween in Savannah? I’ll be perfectly honest with you — it’s cool, but it’s not nearly as spectacular as you’d expect from a city dubbed one of the “Most Haunted Cities in America.”

That’s just my opinion, though, so yours may differ. I’ve included my reasoning below. As always, I’ve also included plenty of my favorite Halloween photos from various areas around the city!

Note: This guide contains affiliate links to my trusted travel partners.

Halloween in Savannah

I’ll be brief and give you a quick rundown of the top pros and cons of Halloween in the city…

Pros: There are at least a couple dozen ghost tours in Savannah on any given night of the week, the bars in the city’s “entertainment zones” are fun places to show off wild and crazy costumes, Wag-O-Ween is a cute way to get into the spirit (while also raising funds for a good cause), and the team behind Graveface Museum consistently comes up with a plethora of events to ring in the spooky season.

Cons: The downtown area (lookin’ at you, Savannah Historic District) has become the land of absentee Airbnb hosts, which means homes that once went all out for Halloween no longer do so. Downtown has also lost much of its sense of community along with the departure of its full-time residents, so most locals head to neighborhoods further south for trick-or-treating. The ever-present Savannah safety factor and understaffed police department also makes it feel a bit iffy to be out roaming the streets downtown late at night, but it is where you’ll find the biggest party scene.

OK, let’s get to the main areas of Savannah where you can find Halloween decorations and activities!

Historic District

The Historic District is where most visitors tend to stay in Savannah. However, as mentioned above, the decorations in the area have gotten pretty slim in recent years.

Because of that, if you visit and stick to the Historic District, you’ll see some beautiful homes — but only a small handful will be decorated for Halloween. Some might stick a few pumpkins on the porch, but for all-out spooktacular decorations, I’d guess less than 25 homes in the entire district offer that.

You will, however, find a decent party scene in the “entertainment zones” within the Historic District. Those areas include City Market, River Street, and the Plant Riverside District.

Graveface Museum is located between River Street and Factors Walk, and it has a good Halloween vibe! It’s definitely the place to go if you’re a true crime fanatic.

Related Reading: Savannah Georgia in October: Events and Things To Do

Row homes decorated for Halloween in Savannah with giant spiderwebs and huge fuzzy spiders climbing across the brick facade, windows, and up the front stairs
Elegant row house decorated for Halloween in Savannah, GA, with spiderwebs covering the bricks and giant spiders climbing the stairs
A skeleton is caught trying to scale the wall of a stately brick home at the corner of Habersham and E Charlton in Savannah's Historic District
A stately brick home features a red front door and decorative outer doors made of wrought-iron sunflowers. The home is decorated for Halloween in Savannah with a skeleton peering out from behind the sunflowers as if to say, "set me free"
A skeleton peers out from behind a decorative door made of black wrought-iron sunflowers
The staircase to an elegant home on Jones Street in Savannah, Georgia, is decorated for Halloween with orange and red garlands, pumpkins, and a skeleton dressed in a Phantom of the Opera costume
A beautiful home in Savannah decorated for Halloween with wreaths on the front door and two windows, plus wooden candy corn stakes sticking out of the fall planters beneath the windows
Row homes decorated for Halloween in Savannah with fall wreaths on the windows colorful potted plants with fall accents in front of the doors

Ardsley Park Wins Halloween!

As far as I’m concerned, Ardsley Park wins Halloween in Savannah every year.

It’s a neighborhood located south of the Historic District, Victorian District, and Starland District. If you check out a map, the Ardsley Park area starts south of Victory Drive.

The homeowners come up with really creative decorations (like the spooky circus theme, pictured below) and hand out the good candy, and the area has more of a neighborhood feel to it than the downtown area, which — let’s be honest — is starting to feel overwhelmingly like Disneyland with all the haunted trolleys, ghosts tours, and hearses hauling tourists around.

Ardsley Park is the closest area to the Historic District where kids actually go from door-to-door trick or treating and families really get into the Halloween spirit!

A ringmaster holds his skeletal hand up as if commanding his creepy crew to scare the neighborhood children. A black cauldron with smoke from dry ice sits on a table in the foreground
Twinkle lights illuminate a spooky circus scene in the front yard of a home decorated for Halloween in Savannah
Roaches crawl across red and white striped popcorn containers atop a spidery tablecloth
A figure in baggy tan pants and a red plaid shirt rests on a stool with a wolf mask covering his face and tufts of fur peeking out from beneath his clothing. A nearby cardboard sign has the words "wolf boy" written in crude black lettering
The front yard of a home in Ardsley Park is decorated for Halloween with skeletons scaling a moss-covered wall, Chucky dolls in positioned in planters along the sidewalks, and zombies peeking out from headstones partially buried in the lawn
Purple lighting illuminates a creepy doll with red eyes and jagged teeth. The doll is holding a severed hand to its mouth, as if about to take a bite
A creepy head and torso with missing limbs hangs from a tree in Ardsley Park, illuminated by purple lighting
Spooky purple lights illuminate a doll surrounded by dead branches and Spanish moss
The front porch of a stately brick home is decorated for Halloween in Savannah with yellow mums, pumpkins, a scarecrow, giant spiders, and additional spooky creatures
A coven of witches dressed in white hold hands and form a partial circle around headstones in the front yard of a stately brick home in Ardsley Park, Savannah
A skeleton with a smiling pumpkin for a head head lounges in azalea bushes in front of a stately brick home in Savannah's Ardsley Park neighborhood
A giant skull with red eyes and smoke coming from the mouth sits on the porch of an Ardsley Park home
A graveyard of Halloween decorations for the Ben D'Cayen family sits in the yard of a home in Savannah's Ardsley Park neighborhood
Gravestones for Shirley and Ben D'Cayen decorate a home in the yard of an Ardsley Park home
A winged demon with glowing red eyes decorates the yard of a stately brick home in Ardsley Park for Halloween in Savannah
16 colorful pumpkins lit by twinkle lights on the stairs of a home in Ardsley Park with

I hope my little summary of Halloween in Savannah was helpful. I’ll add more photos next year!

Erin authored the Savannah First-Timer's Guide and loves helping first-time visitors plan their trips. She lives in the artsy Starland District and enjoys exploring Savannah's hidden gems, as well as the surrounding Lowcountry.