I'm not much for doing trip reports but I did want to send something out particularly for newbies who are thinking about going to one or both of these cities. We went with the idea of finding investment/retirement real estate (talk about SLOW travel so we tried to take our time in both places to truly "feel" the cities. (this was all preceded by intensive on-line searching and contact with local real estate agents).
Charleston and Savannah area quite similar in location, scenery, and history and Charleston had a more formal feel and was smaller in size. Savannah was more laid back and seemed to have more "strolling around" areas in the historic downtown area. Both had lovely historic areas, great restaurants, and pretty nearby beaches. Savannah had a greater choice of mid-week entertainment and we had no trouble finding Blues music in the middle of the week. Charleston had downtown parking for practically pennies (compared to Boston)which we didn't see in Savannah but then again we stayed in a B&B next to Forsyth Park so we didn't care.
Bottom line, we are buying a house in Savannah! Real estate prices were significantly lower than in Charleston which was very important to us. We will be about 7 miles from both the downtown and the open ocean on Tybee Island and look forward to moving down in 7-10 years.

Several people made suggestions last year when we started looking and asking questions here, especially Kaydee, and we thank you all. We did need the ocean and we did need city so both these cities were on our very short list and we're so happy with our decision. Now I can understand why there's a GTG in Savannah and hopefully we'll make one of these when our trips down to visit our new house coincide with the STT GTG!

Karrie, What wonderful news on your real estate purchase. I thought the comparisons between Savannah and Charleston were very interesting. I have never been to Charleston and wondered how it compared with Savannah (a city that I fell in love with at the GTG). Very interesting post. Thank you for your observations. Barb Cabot

You're welcome Barb! I wouldn't hesitate to go back to Charleston on vacation but am very, very happy with our decision. Now that we're talking to people by phone to arrange estimates on minor repairs to the new house, I'm stunned by how polite everyone is on the phone. I love the "M'am" way of addressing women which is weird coming from a die-hard feminist! The adults have built in an attitude of respect for other adults in their children which I wish we did more of up here in Boston.