Jekyll Island is off the coast of southeastern Georgia. This golden island, one of a series of islands stretching from the Florida border to the Georgia coast and into South Carolina, is a fascinating port of call for small cruise lines that cross the Intracoastal Waterway such as American Cruise Lines or for those on driving vacations in the deep south. Visiting the same place for over 20 years has given me the opportunity to explore all there is to do and see on Jekyll Island. I feel like my memories of Jekyll are like one of those time-lapse cameras that takes a photo periodically, only my photos are a year apart!
Unlike many offshore islands that have become too large and developed, Jekyll has improved with age due to the hard work of the State of Georgia and others.
The island is covered in live oak trees, Spanish moss, and palmetto. Across the island, there are over 20 miles of walking and biking trails. You can always find a quiet place on the beach. Few locals come to Jekyll from nearby Brunswick due to the “parking” fee charged to all cars entering the island. There are a few year-round residents and a handful of hotels along the beach. It is definitely not a place to visit if you are looking for night life!
Some small ship cruise lines visit Jekyll Island as a port of call. These cruises are during the fall or spring along the Intracoastal Waterway. Since many conventional ships are starting from nearby Jacksonville or Port Canaveral, Florida, Jekyll is also a good place to stop for a day on your way to or from your cruise ship.
History of Jekyll Island
Jekyll has a fascinating history dating back to the late 1800s. The island was purchased from John Eugene duBignon in 1886 for $ 125,000 by some of the richest men in America as a hunting ground. His family had owned the island since 1800. The names of the owners are recognizable to most history buffs, and include JP Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, Marshall Field, John J. Hill, Everett Macy, William Rockefeller , Cornelius Vanderbilt and Richard Teller Crane. . The island was prized for its “splendid isolation.”
Club members commissioned architect Charles A. Alexander to design and build a sixty-room clubhouse. The Clubhouse was completed on November 1, 1887, and the first official season began in January 1888. In 1901, an attached annex was built to handle the growing needs of the members. A union of members, including JP Morgan and William Rockefeller, built a six-unit apartment building in 1896 that they called Sans Souci, the first condos!
The owners usually spent a couple of winter months on Jekyll Island, arriving by yacht from New York. (Remember, this was before Florida was developed or invented air conditioning.) The Jekyll Wharf, where they moored their yachts, is still used by boaters, sailors, and small cruise lines. Although Jekyll was a hunting center, it certainly didn’t look like any hunting or fishing camp I’ve been to with the About Fishing guide. Between 1886 and 1928, the owners built “cabins” along the marshy side of the island where they would be protected from the ocean.
Many of these beautiful country houses (mansions) have been restored or are currently in progress. The largest “cabin” is almost 8,000 square feet. The Jekyll Island Clubhouse is now a romantic Victorian hotel.
Throughout the Club’s history, many recreational amenities were added. The first golf course was established in 1898, and two more were completed in 1909. A yacht marina, swimming pool, tennis courts, bocci, croquet, and other recreational facilities were also available to assist members as they spent the summer. time on the island.
With the onset of the Great Depression, members of the Jekyll Island Club were disenchanted with the island. They began to travel to European spas and other places for their entertainment. After the 1942 season, the United States government asked members not to use the island during World War II due to concerns for the safety of the powerful owners. They never came back. The island was sold to the state of Georgia in 1947. The state attempted, until 1972, to operate the Clubhouse, Sans Souci and Crane Cottage as a hotel complex, but its efforts were unsuccessful and the buildings were closed.
In 1978, the 240-acre club district was designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1985, work began to restore the Club House, Annex, and Sans Souci into a world-class hotel and resort called the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. The $ 20 million in restoration funds have been invested in the buildings and grounds, as the facility can only be leased. Great care was taken to create a faithful restoration when installing modern conveniences. The Club is once again a showcase and is now available for everyone to enjoy.
Today, the 240-acre National Historic Landmark is often called “Millionaire’s Village.”
Page 2 >> Touring the Millionaire’s Village >>
A one-day stopover on Jekyll Island should include a tour of the Historic District, also called the Millionaire’s Village. Many of the cabins have been restored, and anyone who is fascinated by the old houses will love the tour. The current restoration project is one of the largest in the southeastern United States. Arriving via small cruise ship on the Intracoastal Waterway, you will dock at the same Jekyll Island Wharf used by some of the most luxurious pleasure craft ever built. From the pier, you can see the town presented before you.
The fascinating sea of grass on the other side of the canal is the famous Georgia ‘Glynn Marshes’, famous for the poet Sidney Lanier.
Tours run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. M. At 3 p. M. At the National Historic District Welcome Center, which is located on Shell Road, just steps from the pier. Make sure to check the schedules before you go. Tours are offered every day except Christmas and New Years, and the phone number is 912-635-4036. Inside the welcome center, you can first watch an 8-minute video presentation on the history of Jekyll Island and get tickets for a trolley tour of the district. The narrated tram tour will take you through the village, stopping at least 4 of the restored cabins.
Thirty-three of the original buildings still stand. The narrated tour lasts about 90 minutes, but you can easily spend a few hours or half a day exploring the little shops and houses that are not in the guided tour or just walking around the village on foot.
You can also take a self-guided walking tour of the 240-acre village. Walking gives you the opportunity to see the town at a slow pace that must be visited.
One word of caution: don’t forget to wear bug spray when roaming the island! Mosquitoes can be quite ferocious in South Georgia! After touring the cabins and the historic district, there is still time to rent a bike or explore the rest of the island by car or tour bus.
Page 3 >> Exploring Jekyll Island >>
ride bike
One of my favorite coastal activities on Jekyll Island is biking. The island is flat and has over 20 miles of biking and hiking trails. There are numerous places to rent bikes, and all will provide a map of the island with marked bike trails. In my opinion, the best ride on the island is a large circle that starts at the island’s Millionaire’s Village (historic district) and goes north to the Jekyll Fishing Pier at the north end of the island. As you leave the pier, cross the footbridge, through the swamp, and down the bike path along the beach path to the convention center, through the forest, and end up again at the Millionaire’s Village Welcome Center.
This circle tour takes at least 2 hours of steady pedaling, but you can shorten it by traversing the island on the golf course or using the road instead of the twisted bike path.
There are many other fascinating routes to take. Just get a map when you rent your bike and chart your own trail. You can go all over the island, but the southern tip of the island near the water park is not shaded and it can get very hot. I usually cross the island, following the bike paths or quiet streets, stopping often to look for alligators in the swamp.
Walk on the beach
Jekyll Island Beach is quiet and unspoiled. You can walk for hours and see only a handful of other people. If you go to the southern tip of the island near the South Dunes Picnic Area for a walk, you might not see someone else! I love walking along Jekyll beach because it is very quiet and not crowded. Due to the heat, Ronnie and I often hike at night in June with our red-beamed lantern looking for sea turtles that have come ashore to spawn. These heavy creatures are protected, and there is a fairly active sea turtle patrolling at night on its 4 wheels.
We’ve never been willing to stay up all night looking for turtles, so we haven’t seen one in Jekyll yet. However, I have often seen their footprints from the sea to the sand dunes. They are very distinctive! The sea turtle patrol marks and numbers each nest, warning everyone to keep their distance. Sea turtle lovers will enjoy a visit to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.
When you look at a map, you will see that Jekyll is located at the mouth of 2 large rivers. These rivers shed rich soil offshore and currents carry it to some areas of the beach. Due to this phenomenon, you may find the ocean floor covered in mud rather than sand when you go swimming at low tide. The sand on the beach and at high tide is golden in color and quite lovely. It is simply NOT the powdery white snow beach that you will find on the Gulf Coast. However, the richness of offshore mud means that you will find numerous sand dollars and other beautiful shells buried in the mud or washed ashore.
There is also a large sand bar that extends into the sea. This sandbar is fun to explore at low tide. (It is covered with high tide).
Jekyll’s unique salt marsh ecosystem, beaches and shorebirds are at the center of walks led by the Coastal Encounters Nature Center. Annual walks are scheduled and last 1 to 2 hours. They also have nightly turtle walks during the summer sunset season.
Other activities in Jekyll
If biking or walking on the beach is too tame for you, Jekyll also has 63 golf holes and 13 quick-drying clay tennis courts. Horseback riding is available at the fishing pier, and the beach and trail is another great way to explore this fascinating piece of Georgia. An 11 acre water park is fun for all ages. Offshore charters and offshore sailing and marsh cruising are available from Jekyll Harbor Marina south of the village on the Intracoastal Waterway. Dolphin watching trips are also popular.
We watch dolphins surf the beach almost every morning when the ocean is calm, so they must be plentiful in the rich seas off Jekyll.
For lovers of “culture,” the open-air Jekyll Island Theater offers musicals during June and July. Aspiring actors from Valdosta State University make up the cast, and tickets are reasonable. (Don’t forget bug spray for the outdoor theater!) For such a small island, there is so much to do! Jekyll Island, Georgia is a great place to spend the day on your Intracoastal Waterway cruise. Visit the historic district and explore the trails, beaches, and wetlands. Since Jekyll is state-owned and the land is managed, I hope it will continue to change for the better, or not change at all.
I hope you have the opportunity to visit the island. I think you will find that one day is not enough!
