Cumberland Island National Seashore

[fred09]

oh what a beauty:) We have great memories of this trip.

We had deserted beaches on Cumberland Island. This was a must-visit. We stayed in St Mary's GA the night before and after a trip to Cumberland, preferably in the old downtown area for ambiance, although there are motels along Interstate 95. There was also a State Park--Crooked River SP--that is relatively close. They had cabins but probably would not accept 2-day reservations that time of year--usually requires 7 days in season.

You could stay at Jekyll but would have to get up pretty early to get to St Mary's to catch the Cumberland ferry and it's nice to be close when you get back to take a quick shower and rest.

Be sure to bring a cooler with water, lunch, etc to Cumberland as you will be there from around 9-10 am to 430pm or so. Ferry runs twice daily going out and once coming in.

Get off at Dungeness Dock. Great walk up to old home site and then on to the beach--this ruin is from early 1900s owned by Lucy Carnegie as winter home--Carnegies owned most of island--related to the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. Prior to than it got its name from home built by Nathaniel Greene, a Revolutionary War general, who was granted the land after independence gained from England.

Sea Camp is other option--you can rent bikes there but don't bother as the road along island gets very sandy and you end up pushing quite a bit. Dungeness is by far best place when walking. Stick to that end of island and you will get plenty of walking in and see most good stuff. The beach will be practically empty. We went once and I could barely seen any others on beach. Only 1 bathroom and thats back approximately 1/2 mile at Dungeness ruins area, so can be problematic to swim.

Make sure you bring sunscreen with high pdf, wear a good wide-brimmed hat, dress lightly. It will be very hot that time of year no matter where you go along coast. Also, get a strong insect repellent, maybe with DEET or sometimes Avon Skin So Soft lotion works {don't ask me why, but it does} without the DEET chemicals. At Dungeness first part of walk from dock to ruins is mostly shady, but walk out to beach can be pretty hot.

Savannah is going to be hot and muggy too.

I would also suggest trying to arrange Cumberland and/or Jekyll on weekdays to lessen crowds.