Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida, are common stopovers for cruisers heading south along the Eastern Seaboard at this time of year. About halfway between them, near Mile Marker 675 on the Intracoastal Waterway, is a gem of a spot: St. Simons Island, Georgia.
This barrier island is part of Georgia’s Golden Isles region, with permanent residents as well as a seasonal influx of visitors during summer and autumn. The island is marketed as “unhurried and underdeveloped,” combining a beach lifestyle with golf, restaurants, spas, boutiques and the like.
“We’ve found that a lot of people aren’t going to Florida because it’s getting so expensive, between insurance and dockage being much harder to find,” says Kyle Schieferdecker, the dockmaster at Brunswick Landing Marina, which is just a few miles from St. Simons and can take yachts up to 240 feet long. “People are starting to come up here. Our weather isn’t much different from Jacksonville and north Florida.”
Most of the boats that come through this area are between about 40 and 150 feet length overall. Folks can go ashore to explore all the offerings on land, or zip up and down the Georgia coastline by tender.
“Fernandina or Savannah even are easy trips,” Schieferdecker says. “It’s a couple hours on the boat with a tender that runs at 25 knots.”
Check out more: Yacht Towns
On St. Simons Island, of course, there’s a lighthouse; it was built in 1872 and restored in 1975, and is now open for tours. Visitors can climb up to the tower or check out the museum exhibits in the Keeper’s Dwelling.
Nature lovers who want to get off the boat and stretch their legs can head over to Cannon’s Point Preserve, which spans 644 acres and includes options for kayaking, fishing and picnicking. Some of this preserve’s shell middens—collections of shells left behind by earlier populations—date to 2500 BCE.
That walk is a fun look back in time before heading over to Pier Village for modern-day dining and entertainment.
Pier Village
This is the downtown social hub on St. Simons Island. Restaurants include Barbara Jean’s, which serves up crab cakes and she-crab soup, as well as Iguanas, known for locally caught wild Georgia shrimp and scallops. Shops are fun and quirky, from St. Simons Bait & Tackle to Moondance Vintage Clothing, which sells pieces from the 1940s through the 1970s. Neptune Park has water views along with picnic tables, a children’s playground and a mini-golf course. The bandstand hosts events. Tasty treats are on the menu at St. Simons Sweets, which has 24 flavors of homemade ice cream along with pralines, brownie sticks and more.
WWII Museum
The World War II home front museum has its home on St. Simons Island, housed in the 1936 Historic St. Simons Coast Guard Station. Interactive exhibits detail how this region was instrumental in protecting the US coast from German submarines, training fighter pilots, and building Liberty Ships to supply the troops overseas. Children’s exhibits include maritime skills-building such as tying knots, giving the little ones a way to learn something they can use out on the water every day. The World War II heritage trail, which the museum is part of, includes 11 sites showcasing the ways that Southern states were critical to the war effort.
