Savannah Airport to the Historic District, Tybee and Hilton Head: What Each Option Costs
The city bus costs 1.50 dollars and the airport does not mention it exists. The Airport Express people search for was withdrawn. Verified 2026 fares, taxi caps and what has no service at all.
Sammie O
Savannah airport has a city bus for 1.50 dollars, and almost nobody uses it, because the airport’s own ground transportation page does not mention it exists. The route that people search for, the 100X Airport Express, was withdrawn, though its 2017 timetable is still live and still ranks. This page sets out what every option actually costs, checked against Savannah Hilton Head International Airport and Chatham Area Transit in September 2026.
What each option costs
| Destination | Bus | Taxi | Uber or Lyft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Historic District | 1.50 dollars | About 28 dollars | 26 to 31 dollars |
| Tybee Island | No service | About 53 dollars | Not published |
| Hilton Head Island | No service | 80 to 85 dollars | From about 65 dollars |
The airport puts the Historic District at 10 miles and 20 minutes. Uber’s own aggregate says 12 miles and 22 minutes. Both are cited below.
The bus that exists, and the one that does not
Chatham Area Transit does serve the airport, on route 3, West Chatham and Sav HHI Airport. But read CAT’s own description before you plan around it. Its words are that this is not a direct airport shuttle service but part of CAT’s regular fixed route service.
The fare is 1.50 dollars one way with free transfers for 90 minutes. A day pass is 3 dollars, a week is 14 and a month is 50. There is no airport surcharge. The run between the airport and the Intermodal Transit Center downtown takes about 19 minutes.
Three things limit it.
- A service cut in August 2026 removed one bus from route 3 all day on weekdays, leaving tripper hours of 6am to 10am and 2pm to 6pm. A midday or evening arrival may find nothing.
- The stop is not at the terminal door. The nearest is Sav Airport and Airways Avenue, about 174 yards away, a three minute walk.
- The airport’s own ground transportation page never mentions CAT at all.
Now the route that no longer runs. CAT’s 100X Airport Express timetable from 2017 is still on their server and still turns up in search, quoting 5 dollars one way, 8 return, and a note that regular local passes do not cover airport service. It is not on the current schedules page. Do not plan around it and do not budget 5 dollars.
One more thing worth knowing before you search. There is a lookalike domain, savannahinternationalairport dot com, which is not the airport. The real site is savannahairport dot com.
The free downtown shuttle, which does not reach the airport
The dot Express Shuttle is still free, run by CAT with the City of Savannah. Two loops, Forsyth and Downtown, roughly every ten minutes, Monday to Friday 7am to 7pm and shorter hours at weekends.
The Savannah Belles Ferry is also free, 7am to 10pm daily, between River Street and Hutchinson Island.
Neither goes anywhere near the airport. They are Historic District only.
Two CAT affiliated sites give different stop counts for the dot, 18 on CAT’s own page and 37 on the dot’s site, and different weekend closing times. We have used CAT’s figures.
Taxis, and a cap that one operator exceeds
There is no published airport flat rate at Savannah. What the airport publishes is a metered maximum.
| Charge | Maximum |
|---|---|
| First sixth of a mile | 3.23 dollars |
| Each sixth of a mile after | 54 cents |
| First mile, not to exceed | 6.47 dollars |
| Each mile after, not to exceed | 2.69 dollars |
| Extra passengers beyond one | 1.00 dollar each |
| Waiting or traffic delay | 25 dollars an hour |
| Standard baggage | No charge |
The mileage component adjusts every 1 March by inflation. A fuel surcharge of 1 dollar applies when petrol reaches 3.50 a gallon and 2 dollars at 4 dollars. The airport also notes that drivers have flexibility in fares to stay competitive with rideshare, which is why quoted prices vary.
Savannah Yellow Cab publishes its own flat rate of 28 dollars to the Historic District plus 5 dollars per extra person, with other destinations at 2.94 a mile and a 3 dollar card fee.
Note that 2.94 a mile is above the airport’s stated ceiling of 2.69. Either the airport’s page predates the March 2026 inflation adjustment or the operator is over the cap. We could not reconcile it, so both figures are here.
Taxis wait on the lower level outside baggage claim.
Uber and Lyft
Pickup is at the north entrance of baggage claim.
Uber publishes its own averages for the Savannah to airport pair, observed in September 2026: UberX 26 dollars, Priority 27, Comfort 33, UberXXL 35 and UberXL 37, with an overall average of 31 dollars across 12 miles and 22 minutes.
A third party guide puts the airport to downtown run at 15 to 25 dollars outside surge, which contradicts Uber’s own figures. We would plan on Uber’s.
The airport pickup fee is unpublished. Neither the airport, Uber nor Lyft states one, and the only figure we found, 2.50 dollars, comes from a third party aggregator with no date on it.
Shuttles and private transfers
The airport lists eight shuttle and pre-arranged transport operators and publishes no fares for any of them. All require advance booking and quote individually.
We looked for a scheduled shared seat airport shuttle with a published per person fare and could not find one. Two operators we checked state plainly that their service is private and priced per vehicle rather than per seat.
Marketplace listings, per group and one way, start around 34 to 70 dollars to downtown, 100 dollars to Tybee Island and 59 dollars to Hilton Head.
If something is advertised to you as a shared shuttle with a per person price, ask the operator directly, because none publishes one.
Rental cars, with no shuttle
Nine brands operate from the terminal itself. Counters are in baggage claim and the cars are in covered lots adjacent to the building. There is no bus.
Counter hours vary by company, opening between 7am and 8am and closing between 8pm and 1am.
The Customer Facility Charge is 3 dollars per rental contract day, from the airport commission’s own financial report. That report covers 2022 and is the most recent one published on the airport’s site, so the current figure is unconfirmed. The concession recovery percentage is not disclosed anywhere we could find.
Hilton Head, which the airport is named after
It is about 35 miles away, in a different state, and the airport puts the drive at 45 minutes.
There is no public transport connection at all. CAT does not cross the state line, and Palmetto Breeze, the Hilton Head operator, publishes no Savannah or airport route.
The airport’s own advice is that you travel by rideshare, rental car or taxi. Third party figures put a taxi at 80 dollars to the north end and 85 to the south, plus 10 dollars per passenger beyond two, and Uber or Lyft from about 65 dollars each way, surging to 180 for a standard car and 280 for an XL. One car service quotes a flat 135 dollars for pickups between 7am and 6pm.
Pre-booked private transfers start around 59 dollars one way for the group.
Tybee Island
The airport gives 27 miles. There is no bus. CAT’s route list contains no Tybee service, and route 20, which covers Skidaway and Coffee Bluff, is currently suspended. Nothing runs from the airport or from downtown.
A taxi is quoted at 53 dollars by a third party and private transfers start around 100 dollars for the group. Tybee Turtle Transit runs 9am to 3:30am daily and is listed as serving Tybee, downtown and the airport, but publishes no fares and takes bookings by phone.
What we could not confirm
The Uber and Lyft airport pickup fee. Only a third party figure exists.
Route 3’s exact departure times and whether it runs to the airport on Sundays.
The current rental car facility charge, since the latest published figure is from 2022, and the concession recovery percentage.
Any per person shared shuttle fare from this airport to anywhere. No operator publishes one.
Tybee Turtle Transit’s fares, and taxi fares to River Street specifically.
Sources
- Savannah Hilton Head International Airport, ground transportation
- Savannah Hilton Head International Airport, taxi cab rate system
- Savannah Hilton Head International Airport, surrounding area distances
- Chatham Area Transit, current schedules
- Chatham Area Transit, fares
- Chatham Area Transit, free downtown services
- Uber, Savannah airport
- Savannah Yellow Cab, fares
Sammie O publishes Germ Trips, a travel guide covering hotels, restaurants, airport transfers and chauffeur services. The guides aim for practical detail and a clear recommendation rather than an undifferentiated list. Where a town has no good option, the guides say so and point to the nearest one that does. Guides are AI drafted. A small number have been checked against official listings, and those say so on the page.
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