Little St. Simons Island in Georgia Provides Surf Fishing, Dolphin Kayak Excursions, and seven miles of Undeveloped Seashores

Touring to observe loggerhead turtle nests, work with researchers to catch and mark bats, look ahead to greater than 300 chicken species, and sail on riverways with wholesome populations of river otters, alligators, and occasional flamingos may counsel going to Costa Rica, Panama, or Colombia. However in central Georgia’s Golden Isles, Little St. Simons Island affords a uncommon coastal wilderness immersion inside home borders.

“There aren’t numerous locations in mainland America the place you’ll be able to simply have an actual journey,” says Jamie Pazur, the overall supervisor of the largely undeveloped island the place visitors in a single day in a 1917 looking lodge or one among 5 cozy cabins amid 11,000 acres of wilderness.

Situated within the 135-square-mile delta of the Altamaha River the place it meets the ocean—among the many best estuaries on the Atlantic coast—the barrier island exists to get visitors into nature. It makes use of its proceeds to fund the island-based Heart for Coastal Conservation, incomes it a spot on Journey + Leisure’s 2025 World Imaginative and prescient Awards listing for its work in defending the habitat for a wide range of natural world.

“Our visitors are contributing to conservation after they come keep right here,” says Scott Coleman, the island’s ecological supervisor who directs the Heart for Coastal Conservation, including that that is true even when guests want to easily learn below a stay oak tree moderately than have interaction in programming.

However it’s the island’s naturalist-led actions that make it an academic journey. Very like a safari camp, visitors have the selection of morning and afternoon excursions akin to shell walks on seven miles of undisturbed seashores, surf fishing for ocean species, kayaking tidal rivers looking for dolphins, birding from a pontoon boat within the marsh, mountaineering among the 26 miles of trails, and taking a wildlife-watching journey at the back of an open pickup truck.

At evening, after a social hour by the pool or an oyster roast, a naturalist or researcher may give a chat on oystercatcher breeding on the island, the introduction of armadillos, or the success of its 40-year program to guard sea turtles, leading to a development fee amongst loggerheads of three p.c a 12 months.

Rustic lodging for a most of 32 visitors—obtainable for full-island buyouts—add to the locations’s throwback allure, with rockers on the porches and cabins with knotty-pine interiors. Marsh views and the shade of stay oaks keep the connection to nature and stays embrace every day Lowcountry meals rigorously sourced from native farmers or the on-site backyard. 

For individuals who need to keep away from group excursions, Little St. Simons encourages visitors to take a motorcycle to an empty seaside or line up their very own kayak outing full with a packed picnic lunch.

Pazur provides, “When our visitors come right here, we feed them nicely, we give them snug lodging, after which we give them nothing to fret about to allow them to spend as a lot time as potential exterior the primary compound the place all of the buildings are, having fun with the island and actually attending to expertise nature.”