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Places to go in Golden Isles.

Brunswick, St. Simons, Jekyll, Cumberland Island. 3 places worth the drive in this corner of Georgia.

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Cumberland Island National Seashore Beaches

Cumberland Island National Seashore

St. Marys, GA · Golden Isles

Cumberland Island is Georgia's largest barrier island, reachable only by ferry from St. Marys, where wild horses graze among the moss-draped oaks and tabby ruins of the Carnegie family's Dungeness estate. Beyond the historic district stretch more than 17 miles of undeveloped white-sand beach with almost no one on them. Spring and fall bring the mildest weather and the fewest bugs for hiking or biking the maritime forest.

Crooked River State Park Lakes & rivers

Crooked River State Park

St. Marys, GA · Golden Isles

Salt marsh, pine flatwoods, and live oaks dripping with Spanish moss spread across 500 acres on the south bank of the tidal Crooked River. Four miles of trails carry you past gopher tortoise burrows, fiddler-crab flats, and a birding platform on the Sempervirens loop, where wood storks, ospreys, and painted buntings turn up through the seasons. It is also the closest base for the ferry to Cumberland Island, with cottages, riverside campsites, and guided kayak trips out into the marsh.

Jekyll Island Club Attractions

Jekyll Island Club

Jekyll Island, GA · Golden Isles

From 1886 the Morgans, Rockefellers, Pulitzers and Vanderbilts wintered behind this turreted clubhouse, and in 1910 a few of them slipped onto the island in secret to draft the plan that became the Federal Reserve. The Queen Anne tower, wraparound verandas and croquet lawn still stand at the heart of a 240-acre National Historic Landmark District you can tour on foot or by trolley. Walk the same riverfront path where AT&T placed the first transcontinental phone call in 1915.