The quickest way to drive from the Washington, D.C., area to Savannah, Ga., is to steel your nerves, grit your teeth and high-tail it for nine and a half hours down the monotonous, multilane, McDonald’s-laden highway called I-95. Looking for Southern culture? Try a McRib sandwich.  But there’s an alternative. It’ll take you a lot longer — six days or so — but offers so much more: a mishmash of coastal and inland roads that form U.S. 17, from Winchester, Va., as far as Savannah. The route has one constant appeal — good barbecue — and, outside of gas expenses, it offers plenty of frugal options: bursts of Civil War history, alligator-filled wildlife reserves, old plantations and schlocky miniature golf courses.  Courageously agreeing to be frugal along with me was Cris Kang, a Brazilian who, despite more than a decade in the United States, had spent so little time in the South that she was unfamiliar with grits and somewhat perplexed by the concept of Americans who could be as warm and hospitable as the people in her own country.  1. CHEAP WINE, FUN DESCRIPTIONS: Fox Meadow Vineyards, Linden, Va.  Not only are the wine tastings at Fox Meadow Vineyards generous — $5 for six pours (on weekdays), cheese pairings included — but the descriptions on offer are even more impressive. One example of many: “Palate flavors boast blackberry and dark braised fig while meandering into a finish of overripe crushed pomegranate.” Precisely what I was thinking.  2. A FRUGAL ATTRACTION, BUT NOT IN THE RAIN: The Civil War battlefields at Fredericksburg, Va.  The National Park Service-run visitor center here documents the Battle of Fredericksburg with knowledgeable staff and an excellent free film, setting the context for what happened in 1862. Then we went to see the battlefield, following the Sunken Road Walking Trail. The trail traces the road where the Confederate Army held off the attacking Union from behind a stone wall, parts of which still exist. Informational signs and some still-standing buildings (including one with a bullet-pocked interior) help one imagine the carnage. But save it for a sunny day: history is harder to appreciate when you’re soaked — as we were.  3. FAVORITE ACTIVITY, FREE (SORT OF): Colonial Williamsburg  Wandering the shops and exhibitions of Colonial Williamsburg and chatting with staff members in period costume costs $40 and multiple hours, neither of which fit our plans. But since the recreated town is gatelessly integrated into modern-day Williamsburg, it costs nothing to stroll through the colony for an hour, though you’ll miss out on demonstrations and building interiors.  4. FAVORITE ACTIVITY, CHEAP: Canoeing in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge  You can’t just drive by a place with a name as great as this one’s. But without hours to hike the refuge’s miles of trails, we instead stopped at Chesapeake Campground, right on U.S.17, to rent a canoe for only $2 an hour. Our 45-minute paddle along the murky but beautifully reflective stretch of the Intracoastal Waterway that runs along the park’s eastern edge was a peaceful break from driving. (The wooden boardwalk that cuts through a portion of the swamp just over the North Carolina border — also right off 17 — was another quick, tranquil escape.)  5. FAVORITE BARBECUE, FREE: Moore’s Old Tyme Barbecue, New Bern, N.C.  We had arranged a stay with two New Bern residents, Chris Allaman and his girlfriend, Rachel, via CouchSurfing, and I texted them in advance to see if they had any local barbecue suggestions. In an act of generosity I’ve found common among CouchSurfing members, they went ahead and bought us a takeout feast from their favorite local spot. The pulled pork was too vinegary (in the Carolinas style) for Cris — though not for me — but we both adored the chicken and the company (which included three Chihuahuas and a Pomeranian).  6. BEST UNPLANNED DISCOVERY: Seaside Bakery, Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.  Wrong turns can be frustrating, but they yield discoveries often enough to make me believe I’m not crazy to travel without a dashboard GPS unit. Early one morning in North Carolina, while attempting a U-turn, we spotted Seaside Bakery and decided to make a stop. Inside was a peppy whirlwind of a woman named Carolyn Wright, five years into a successful wedding cake and bakery business. “I’m airlifting an order of cupcakes to Mexico, isn’t that cool!” she told us, apropos of nothing and not long before sticking a layer of just-baked wedding cake in our noses (“Smell that, isn’t that awesome?”). Free samples abounded, and we headed off with “morning glory carrot” and chocolate “black bottom” muffin “caps,” a cinnamon roll and two really good coffees, all for just $13.50.  7. BEST NOVELTY FOR FOREIGNERS: Miniature golf in North Myrtle Beach, S.C.  It was Cris who spotted the first of what must be dozens of miniature golf courses along U.S. 17 in and around Myrtle Beach. “What’s that?” she asked. A revelation: there’s virtually no miniature golf in Brazil. Time to bridge a cultural divide. We pulled over at Molten Mountain, a mini-golf course situated around (and within) a fake volcano that spouted “lava,” which resembled watered-down cherry Kool-Aid. At $9 per person it was the most expensive activity of the trip. But it was worth it for the moment when I announced the score with one hole to go (Seth 41, Cris 45), and Cris, slightly misinterpreting the golf scoring system, celebrated her imminent “victory.”  8. FAVORITE BARBECUE, CHEAP, PART ONE: Hog Heaven, Pawleys Island, S.C.  It was lunchtime and we were driving through a forested stretch of road south of Myrtle Beach when a barbecue shack called Hog Heaven appeared, with a lawn sign in front urging us to “Re-elect Sheriff Lane Cribb.” I’m not a South Carolina registered voter, of course, but I am an unregistered lover of $6.95 lunch buffets that include pulled pork, fried chicken, sides, a salad bar, banana pudding and outdoor wooden tables at the edge of the woods.  9. BEST TACTIC: Follow the Local Lead  Chatting up whoever you meet can lead to great (and in this case, free) discoveries. For example, the owner of the Carolina Country Store in Georgetown, S.C., David Bilderback, sent us out to see a rare example of fine chicken coop architecture: his flock lives in a replica of an Old West town, complete with saloon and bordello.  10. FAVORITE DETOUR: McClellanville, S.C.  Just short of Charleston, I turned on a whim down a side road leading to the town of McClellanville, population about 500. Pretty houses led to a tiny downtown, where a sign pointed us to an art show put on by the local public high school. The director of the local history museum, which was closed for the day, directed us toward a few of the town’s other attractions: the shrimping boats at the dock, the old wood-shingled Episcopal Church, and T.W. Graham and Co., the wildly popular (but not all that cheap) local restaurant specializing — no surprise — in shrimp. Meal for two, with fried green tomatoes and dessert: $48.  11. WORST ACTIVITY, CHEAP: Charles Towne Landing, Charleston, S.C.  Before the trip, I had signed up for YipIt, a site that compiles daily deal offers for travelers in the cities they’re planning to visit. When I got an e-mail offering two tickets for entry and audio tours at Charles Towne Landing for $10 instead of the normal $25, I went for it. It was the site of the original British settlement of Charleston and promised “interpretive rangers in 17th-century dress.” Though the audio tour did offer some interesting history, we never found those re-enactors, making the whole thing rather boring, especially with lively Charleston just down the road. (A spokesman for the park said interpreters do demonstrations daily according to a schedule posted in the visitors’ center.)  12. FAVORITE DESSERT, FREE: The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg, Charleston, S.C., branch  Most stores limit free food samples, but not the Peanut Shop, where bowls beckoned with chocolate-covered cashews, peanut brittle and plenty more, simply begging to be feasted upon. I’m pretty sure you can also exchange money for the same products packaged in cans and boxes, but I can’t confirm that.  13. FAVORITE TOUR, FREE: Savannah, Ga.  Organized tours are usually expensive, and only sometimes worth it. Yet Savannah’s Spanish-moss-draped, monument-filled squares and the historic houses that surround them just beg for some guidance. Solution: be your own tour guide by printing out the city’s exhaustive but useful 111-page official tour guide manual — or, as I did, sending it to your Kindle — from savannahga.gov. Only hitches: it’s a lot to carry around (unless you go the Kindle route) and your tour guide can still start sounding monotonous after an hour, even though it’s you.  14. FAVORITE BARBECUE, CHEAP, PART TWO: Randy’s Bar-B-Q, Savannah, Ga.  Our last meal turned into a search for barbecue. Our first stop, Angel’s, was sold out for the day. The folks there recommended the recently reopened Wall’s, but gave us the wrong address (it’s at 515 East York Lane, not 212, guys). I stepped into a nearby art gallery, and the owner, William Armstrong, sent us out of the historic district, through a low-income, decidedly nonhistoric section of the city where we finally found Randy’s Bar-B-Q, a stand-alone brick cube where the teenager working the takeout window had a one-phrase vocabulary: “What chu got?” A proper response is “Half-slab of ribs” ($10). They come meaty and smoky and slathered in a sauce that any uptight no-fun barbecue elitist would say was too sweet.  I had no complaints, but Cris did: she rightfully would have preferred a proper meal in the historic district before the nine hour-plus overnight drive up I-95 that followed. For some people, though not me, it turns out there’s such a thing as too much barbecue.  Here was my method for navigating the complicated world of car rentals, starting from my brother’s house in Silver Spring, Md., where we began our journey: (1) Look for the cheapest weeklong rental on Hotwire.com ($171 with taxes, via Budget), but (2) actually reserve through Budget.com, cutting the price by about $15 using their “Pay Now” option. (3) Google “Budget discount code” and enter a code found on rentalcarmomma.com to save 10 percent. Total cost: $140.  To save on gas costs, we insisted on a compact car, and ended up with a Nissan Versa that averaged 29.4 miles per gallon over 1,760 miles for a total of $226.  To hold lodging costs to under my $100-a-night maximum while still satisfying my travel companion’s slightly higher standards, we mixed it up: Night 1 in suburban York County, Va., via Airbnb.com ($95); Night 2 via CouchSurfing in New Bern, N.C. (free); Night 3 in a Sunset Beach, N.C., motel found en route using Google Maps and the phone ($73); Night 4 in the Palm Hotel in Isle of Palms, S.C., via bidding on Priceline ($89); Night 5 in another Airbnb place in Savannah, Ga., ($94). Our final night, on the way home, we stayed in a Days Inn for $68.  For food, we packed snacks and drinks for the road ($30) and stuck to restaurants where most entrees were under $10.  Our total cost for seven days and six nights on the road: $1,313, about $100 per person per day.
The Frugal Traveler makes his way from Washington to Savannah, along back roads and byways where good barbecue and miniature golf await.