Things to Do in Tybee Island

Sunrise on the South Beach jetties

You will hear the Atlantic slapping granite rocks and feel needle-fine spray while the sky cycles through sherbet colors. Fishermen in rubber boots cast for whiting. Pelicans skim so close you hear their wings cut the air. The first light catches the Tybee Island lighthouse in the distance.

Climb the 178-step lighthouse

Your thighs will burn halfway up the cast-iron spiral. But the view rewards you with 360 degrees of green maritime forest, tin-roofed cottages, and cargo ships lining the Savannah river. Inside the keeper's cottage museum you can still smell kerosene from the original 1867 lens.

Back-River dolphin paddleboard

From the launch at Alley Three you glide over glass-calm water the color of weak sweet tea. Pods of bottlenose dolphins surface with audible puffs. You will feel their wake rock your board while cordgrass rustles either side of the channel.

Fort Pulaski's moonlight tour

Cicadas drill in the oaks as you walk the brick casemates with only lantern light. The air smells of damp lime mortar and gunpowder residue. A ranger fires a Civil-War-era Springfield - the crack echoes off the Tybee Island marsh like thunder rolling uphill.

Little Tybee castaway day

Water-taxi drivers drop you on an undeveloped barrier island thirty minutes south. You will wade through warm shallows, hear nothing but fiddler crabs clicking, and taste sea spray on every breeze. Bring everything - there are no facilities, just sand, shells, and ospreys overhead.

South Beach: neon-lit motels steps from the pier and late-night bars, perfect if you want to hear live music until 2 a.m.

Mid Island: low-key cottages on stilts, quieter lanes where you smell jasmine at night and walk five minutes to sand.

North Beach: condo blocks face the shipping channel. Mornings bring foghorns and the smell of diesel. But you watch dolphins from the balcony.

Back River: small B&Bs overlooking marsh creeks. Sunsets paint the water copper and you will hear only herons.

Lazaretto Creek: rental houses on deep water with private docks, good for kayaks or bringing a boat.

Little Savannah on the west side: still technically Tybee Island but with a neighborhood feel, oak shade, and cheaper weekly rates.