Sapelo Island Tours

Your tour starts promptly at 8 a.m. at the Sapelo Island Visitors Center, 1866 Landing Rd. SE, Darien, GA 31305. Meet your guide upstairs in the red elevated Visitors Center building. He will be the tall gray haired man wearing a blue U.S. Coast Guard cap. He will give you a brief 15 minute overview of the Center's excellent small time line museum before a 300 yard walk to the ferry dock where you will pay the mate the ferry fee for your group including your guide and board the ferry for the 30 minute trip to Sapelo Island five miles offshore. Be on the lookout for dolphins, sea turtles, sea gulls, pelicans, and sometimes even a bald eagle!

On arrival on the Island, board the seven passenger rental van and drive first to the University of Georgia's Marine Institute in the former R.J. Reynolds dairy and horse barn, including the one of a kind wild turkey fountain.

Next is the historic R.J. Reynolds Mansion, built in 1810. where multimillionaire Richard "Dick" Joshua Reynolds Jr. lived with his four wives during five divorces!

Then you will drive on the causeway to the historic Sapelo Island Lighthouse, build in 1820, and climb the adjacent beacon light if you wish, and even the lighthouse itself on Wednesday and Saturday mornings only.

Next is the beautiful unspoiled Nanny Goat beach, where huge loggerhead sea turtles nest during summer, and their hatchlings emerge in the fall. Wade in the water or swim or beachcomb for fossilized sharks teeth if you wish. Then we tour the Hog Hammock National Historic Area community of Gullah Geechee of descendants of the Island's former plantation slaves and the haunted Behavior cemetery!

The ferry to the mainland leaves promptly at 12:00 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and 12:30 on Saturday.