Ogle posh resorts, coastal salt marshes, swamps, tidal estuaries, shrimping villages, museums, Millionaire’s Row, and historic houses.
The Georgia coastline is interlaced with shrimping villages, swamps, salt marshes, and tidal estuaries, all linked by a maze of bridges and causeways leading to the state’s “golden isles.” This string of barrier islands features posh resorts and coastal salt marshes. The tour begins in Jekyll Island, a former winter playground for the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and Morgans. Tag along the Jekyll Island Causeway (Route 520) to U.S. 17, and head north to Brunswick. Founded in 1771, Brunswick is one of Georgia’s largest oystering and shrimping ports. Its Old Town is lined with renovated historic homes. To the east and north, you will locate the Marshes of Glynn, one of the most biologically diverse environments anywhere.
Just east of Brunswick, three more islands are grouped together. Little St. Simons is accessible only by boat, while Sea Island and St. Simons can be accessed by the F.J. Torras Causeway. On St. Simons Island, travel around the Ford Frederica National Monument, a fortified town built in the mid-1700s to protect against the Spanish regime. Museum of Coastal History, and St. Simons Lighthouse, and a strand of shelling beaches complete the picture. The exclusive Sea Island is home to the Cloisters, a posh resort dating from the 1920s, as well as Sea Island Drive, also familiar as Millionaire’s Row. Returning to U.S. 17, the drive continues through the rice fields, floodgates, and dikes that made the area a rice-growing mecca during the 1800s, and on into Darien, which houses the Fort King George State Historic Site, a reconstruction of a British outpost, circa 1721-36. From Darien, Route 99 heads through the Thicket, with rum distillery and sugar mill ruins, and past the shrimping community of Valona before rejoining U.S. 17 at Eulonia, and ending in Savannah. Of particular interest is the restored the Savannah History Museum, Savannah Riverfront, and a variety of historic districts dating from the 18th Century.
Starting Point:
Jekyll Island, GA
Distance of Drive:
108 miles
Must Eat:
Tubby’s
115 River Street, Savannah, GA 31401
Good Stop For: Local Seafood
Best Time of Year for Drive:
Year round
Points of Interest on Drive:
Fort King George State Historic Site
Jekyll Island
St. Simons Lighthouse and Museum of Coastal History
Ford Frederica National Monument
Marshes of Glynn
Savannah History Museum
Tagged with: best time:yearround • Georgia
Filed under: Best Road Trips