Travel Guide · October 27, 2026
Savannah Airport to Downtown, Tybee, and Hilton Head: What Every Option Actually Costs
First, the Short Answer
You land at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport — SAV, if you are reading your boarding pass — and you need to get somewhere. Downtown, the beach, or an island in South Carolina. Every option will get you there. They just do not charge you the same way, and that difference is where the surprise lives. So here is the short version, from a guy who drives these roads every day. With Live Oak Airport Taxi, downtown Savannah is a $30 flat fare. Tybee Island is a $60 flat fare. Hilton Head Island starts at $85. The price you see is the price you pay — no meter running, no surge, no math at the curb. Now let us walk through every other way to make the trip, honestly, including the cheap one. Because sometimes the cheap one really is fine, and I would rather tell you the truth than a sales pitch.
Downtown Savannah: About 10 Miles, Five Different Prices
Downtown is the closest run — about 10 miles, usually 20 to 25 minutes. A meter cab will land around $28 before tip on a clean run, which sounds like a deal until traffic on I-16 stacks up and you watch the meter keep counting while you sit still. That is how a meter works: time and distance, both billing you. Rideshare apps quote roughly $26 to $35 into Savannah on a calm day, by their own published averages — and then a whole bank of flights lands at once, every passenger opens the same app, and the price jumps because that is how surge pricing works. The city bus is the true budget answer at $1.50, and I will give it its own section below. A rental car downtown only makes sense if you need wheels all weekend, because now you are paying the daily rate plus the hotel parking bill every night. Or you book the downtown run with Live Oak for $30 flat, know the number before you ever get on the plane, and get picked up by a driver who was already watching your flight. Four passengers max, in a standard passenger car — that is the whole fleet, and that is on purpose.
Tybee Island: The Beach Run
Tybee is about 25 miles east, 30 to 40 minutes on a good day, out US-80 past Fort Pulaski — and if you have read my other writing, you know I cannot drive past that fort without telling you what happened there in 1862. Forgive me in advance. On cost: a meter cab to Tybee runs around $53 before tip, again with the meter ticking through every slowdown on the island road, and there is exactly one road on and off that island. Rideshare prices to Tybee are not published on any steady chart, and on a sunny Saturday, when half of Savannah is headed to the same beach, you can guess which way the surge goes. There is no city bus to Tybee. None. And a rental means beach parking fees on top of everything else, hunting for a spot while your ice melts. Live Oak runs Savannah airport to Tybee Island for a $60 flat fare, door to door, whether you land at noon or your flight drags in late. Book the return when you book the arrival, and the beach day is handled both ways.
Hilton Head: The Long Run Across the Line
Hilton Head is the big one — about 45 miles, 45 to 60 minutes, across the South Carolina line. Meter cabs quote in the $80 to $85 range before tip. Rideshare can start lower, from around $65 when drivers are plentiful, but this is the run where a surge or a driver shortage hurts the most, because you are asking somebody to drive an hour each way — and drivers can see that trip length before they accept it. There is no bus option at all. Renting works if you plan to explore the island all week, and plenty of people should; just add up the daily rate, gas, and resort or hotel parking before you call it the cheap option. Live Oak runs Savannah airport to Hilton Head from $85, fixed when you book. Your exact fare shows before you pay, based on where on the island you are headed, and it does not change if your flight is delayed — I track the flight, so a late arrival moves my pickup, not your price.
The Bus: A Dollar Fifty, With Fine Print
Now the bus, because it deserves a fair hearing. Chatham Area Transit — CAT — charges $1.50 one way, and Route 3 does serve the airport area. But CAT itself says that route is regular fixed-route service, not a direct airport shuttle. The old 100X Airport Express that still shows up on old web pages no longer runs — do not plan around a timetable from 2017, no matter how official it looks in search results. The Route 3 stop is a short walk from the terminal, the schedule is built for workers more than for flight banks, and if you land midday or late at night, you may find a long wait or nothing coming. With one small bag, daylight, and time to spare, it is a dollar fifty well spent. With a family, luggage, a toddler, or a flight home at dawn, it stops being a plan and starts being a hope. And it will never take you to Tybee or Hilton Head. Questions like that are exactly why we keep a plain-English FAQ page — go read it before you fly.
Renting a Car: The Price Behind the Price
Rental cars are the option that looks simple at the counter and gets complicated on the receipt. The daily rate is only the first line. Then come taxes and airport fees, gas, parking downtown — where hotels charge by the night — parking at the beach, and, if you are flying out of SAV at the end, you still had to get the car back and yourself to the terminal. None of that makes renting wrong. If you want to day-trip to Beaufort, wander the Sea Islands, or keep your own schedule for a week, rent the car and enjoy it — I write novels about those islands, so I mean that. But if the car would sit parked outside your hotel for three days while you walk the squares — and downtown Savannah is a walking town, that is its whole charm — you paid rent on a parked car. Two fixed rides, one each way, usually beat that math by a mile.
What I Would Do, If I Was Not Me
Here is my honest scorecard. Solo, light bag, middle of the day, downtown hotel? The bus or a calm-day rideshare will treat you fine. Need a car all week for island hopping? Rent it, and rent it early. Landing late, traveling with kids, headed to Tybee or Hilton Head, or just done making decisions after a day of flying? Book a fixed ride and be done. That is the whole Live Oak idea: book your ride in advance, see the fare, pay or choose to pay your driver, and land knowing somebody is waiting. I meet you at the commercial curb outside baggage claim — lower arrivals level, door D2, right across the sidewalk from the baggage-claim signs for your airline. Two honest fine-print items, because plain talk is the brand: we do not provide child seats, so bring your own, and cancellations are a full refund up to 24 hours before pickup, while same-day cancellations are not refundable, because that spot on my calendar was held for you. No surge. No meter. No surprises. Just a Savannah driver, a fair flat price, and — fair warning — probably one story about a brick fort on the way in.
Need a ride?
Get your fixed upfront fare and book in minutes.
Midweek in Savannah moves a little slower — and so does my calendar. Tuesday and Wednesday rides are wide open: airport runs, Tybee, Hilton Head, downtown. Book at liveoaktaxisav.com — the price you see is the price you pay.
Meet Your Driver
You're riding with the man who wrote the history of this coast
I'm Gary "Chris" Lamb — Savannah local, history graduate, and author of the Sea Islands Freedom novels, set right here during the Civil War. The ground I write about is the ground I drive on every day. Book your ride, and if you're curious about the stories under these streets, just ask.