Beyond the Tourist Trap: When Breweries Go Off the Beaten Path

Traveling to any new city invites the risk of falling into tourist traps. Savvier globetrotters may know not to book a hotel in Times Square or limit their Hawaiian getaway to Waikiki, but sometimes visitors of new cities simply don’t know where to venture beyond the city center. Throwing craft beer tourism into this mix only complicates things. While many breweries continue to open in the middle of tourist-packed towns, others are finding their own voice outside the noise.

About a year ago, James and Liz Massey had just announced they were going to open a brewery in their home town—Savannah, Georgia. As a beautiful historic town draped with iconic Spanish moss and rich Southern cuisine, Savannah’s tourism industry was, and still is, bursting at the seams. While numerous businesses—breweries in particular—reside in Savannah’s historic downtown district to take advantage of tourism, James and Liz decided to open their brewery, Two Tides Brewing Co., a few miles outside of the city center in the Starland District.