USA: Golden Isles, Georgia St. Simons Island
“Still in peaceful dreams I see, The road leads back to you, Georgia.”
Ray Charles
I’ve visited St. Simons many times in the past 15 years. My husband has family there and we’ve gone down for various holidays and vacations.⛱
Each visit we’ve done something unique mixed in with some of the same things. I won’t tell you about everything there is to do but I will tell you what I would do/recommend if it was your first and possibly only visit.
Start off with some history by doing a Trolly Tour. (I really enjoyed it.) They start and end near Pier Village. It takes you to a few historic places around the island and tells the history of each area. I did this tour during the first few years of visiting and really appreciated learning the history.
Here’s the Trolly Tour Info:
http://www.stsimonstours.com/tour-sites
You could visit Pier Village before or after your tour. It’s a great area to visit any time of day for a meals and shopping. For breakfast check out the Sand Castle for a great buffet, enjoy lunch at Barbara Jean’s (I love their Crab Cakes) and Dinner would be fun at Brogens. There are various shops that sell art, jewelry, clothing, souvenirs, nic-nacs and furniture. It is a busy area and sometimes you may have to circle the parking lot or park down the street.
Certain times of year they do have different events/art fairs. I’ve enjoyed going to the Sunshine Festival during 4th of July weekend for many years.
There are two Museums worth a visit. You can get a combined ticket for both online or in either Museum store. The first is the Lighthouse Museum near Pier Village. You can see the Keepers Dwelling and climb to the top for terrific views of St. Simons. They also have interesting artifacts used in the Lighthouse.
The second is the WWII Frontline Museum near the Coastguard Station. It shows the importance and the roles played by coastal Georgians during WWII. There are many interactive exhibits and we learned a lot on our visit.
Dinner on one evening would be at the very popular Crab Trap, get there early because there is usually a wait. Like most places with “Crab” in the title they have crab legs and fancy holes in the center of the table for you to discard your rubbish. (If you don’t want to work so hard for your dinner their fried shrimp is good too.)
Of course no trip to an island would be complete without a few beach days🏖. We enjoy going to Coast Guard Station and usually aim to get there before 10am. Parking is free but it will fill up. We’ve never had a problem finding parking if we get there before 10am, but we have left and seen many cars parked along the street.
For more shopping and restaurants head to Redfern Village. They have unique shops and restaurant.
Another unique experience is The Lady Jane a former shrimping boat that departs near the Marshside Restaurant and takes you on quite an adventure. They throw the net out and catch sea life. They record and show you what they caught and throw most of it back in the water. They caught a turtle on our voyage and it was very cool. They recorded some detailed info about the Turtle before releasing it. You can book a private voyage or a scheduled trip.
Here’s the info:
http://www.shrimpcruise.com/index.html
Kayaking and Paddleboarding tours are also available. Our most recent visit we went Kayaking around/in the Marsh, and I loved it. Our guides used paddle boards to find our paths and their knowledge to try and find us some wildlife to see.🦌 We saw a few dolphins 🐬 very close and it was a lot of fun.
You’ll see a lot of golf carts around the island. You can rent them along with bikes and other fun transportation. If you are there on the 4th of July you can watch the Parade of Golf Carts on East Beach in the morning or the larger Sunshine Festival Parade that starts at 2:30pm at Mallory Park. You can rent a cart yourself, decorate it and enter it into the parade.
I hope you visit St. Simons and fall in love with it like I have.🥰
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