🥾 ActiveWeekend · from Savannah, GA
Cumberland Island Day Hike & Tybee Island Paddle
Two days using the Georgia coast's most dramatic active landscapes — Cumberland Island National Seashore on day one, and Tybee Island sea kayaking on day two. Cumberland Island is the largest barrier island on the US East Coast (36,000 acres) and one of the least visited National Seashores; the island is accessible only by a federally operated ferry from St. Marys, GA (80 miles south of Savannah). The island has no paved roads, no cars except for the few island residents, no stores, and 17 miles of undeveloped Atlantic beach. Wild horses — descendants of horses brought to the island by the Carnegie family in the late 19th century — roam freely in bands of 100-200 across the maritime forest and beach dunes. The island's interior trail system connects the ferry dock at Sea Camp to the northern Dungeness ruins via 18 miles of unpaved track.
Day 1 — Cumberland Island NSeashore: ferry from St. Marys, Dungeness ruins (Carnegie mansion), wild horse encounter, 17-mile undeveloped beach, overnight St. MarysDay 2 — Tybee Island: sea kayak tour through back-river channels, Tybee Island Lighthouse (1742), return to Savannah
Day 1 — Cumberland Island National Seashore
Day 1 — Cumberland Island National Seashore
🚗 1 hr 20 min driving📍 4 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Savannah, GA → St. Marys, GA — Cumberland Island Ferry
1 hr 20 min8:00 AM → 9:20 AM
Cumberland Island — Dungeness Trail & Ruins
★ 4.7A 4.5-mile round trip from the Sea Camp ferry dock to the Dungeness ruins — the burned shell of Thomas Carnegie's 1884 mansion (59 rooms, built after Andrew Carnegie's brother Thomas acquired most of the island). The Carnegies developed the southern end of the island with a hunting and resort estate; after Lucy Carnegie's death in 1916 the estate fell into disrepair and the main house burned in 1959. The ruins stand intact in the landscape with wild horses grazing around them, Spanish moss on the remaining brick walls, and the live oak canopy closing overhead.
9:20 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
Cumberland Island Beach — Atlantic Shore
★ 4.8The undeveloped Atlantic beach of Cumberland Island — 17 miles of beach with no concession stands, no structures, and typically fewer than 300 visitors on the entire island per day (the ferry has a daily visitor cap). The beach is the widest section of undeveloped shoreline on the East Coast; loggerhead sea turtles nest here May-August (active management program). Wild horses are frequently seen on the beach near the Dungeness southern end.
10:20 AM📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
Continue at Cumberland Island — Return Ferry
★ 4.7Use the afternoon to explore a different side of Cumberland Island — Dungeness Trail & Ruins — there's more to discover beyond the morning highlights.
12:00 PM📍 See location
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Evening
St. Marys — Historic Waterfront
★ 4.7Overnight in St. Marys — a colonial-era port town on the Cumberland Sound with intact 19th-century streetscapes. The historic Riverview Hotel (1916 waterfront, on the National Register) and the Spencer House Inn (1872 Victorian) are the most atmospheric options. St. Marys' waterfront restaurants serve local seafood; the town's orange Street Historic District is a walkable evening destination.
5:00 PM📍 See location
Day 2 — Tybee Island — Return to Savannah
Day 2 — Tybee Island — Return to Savannah
🚗 2 hr 10 min driving📍 2 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
St. Marys, GA → Tybee Island, GA
1 hr 40 min8:00 AM → 9:40 AM
Tybee Island — Back River Kayak Tour
A guided kayak tour through the Tybee Island back-river salt marsh channels — the tidal creek network on the island's western (inland) side where the marsh is sheltered from the Atlantic. Bottlenose dolphins are the most reliable encounter on guided tours (a resident pod uses the Tybee Creek channels); fiddler crabs, clapper rails, and diamondback terrapins are marsh residents. Multiple outfitters offer guided tours from Tybee's Bull River Marina.
9:40 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
Tybee Island Lighthouse — North Beach
★ 4.7The Tybee Island Lighthouse (1742, rebuilt to current form in 1867) — one of the oldest in the United States, still active as a US Coast Guard navigation aid. The 154-step climb to the top provides views of the Savannah River entrance, Fort Pulaski on the opposite bank, and the open Atlantic. The North Beach at the base of the lighthouse is the island's quietest beach section; the Tybee Pier area to the south is the more commercial beach zone.
10:40 AM📍 See location
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Evening
🚗
Drive
Tybee Island, GA → Savannah, GA
30 min5:00 PM → 5:30 PM
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