Tybee Island Beach and Pier

Tybee's life as a resort began with a railroad. In 1887 the Central of Georgia Railroad ran a line all the way out to the island, and to serve the growing crowds of tourists it built the island's first public pier in 1891. Suddenly Savannahians could ride the train straight to the sand for the day, and Tybee blossomed into what its own advertisements proudly called the Premier South Atlantic Resort, a place of bathhouses, boardwalks, and sea-breeze holidays.

The centerpiece of that golden age was the Tybrisa Pavilion, a large covered dance floor thrown open to the ocean air. For decades it was the beating heart of the island's social life, and in the 1930s and 1940s it became a regular stop on the Big Band circuit, hosting the touring orchestras and star bandleaders of the day. To dance at the Tybrisa on a warm night, with the surf sounding just beyond the rail, was a coastal Georgia rite of passage for a whole generation.

The old Tybrisa Pavilion did not survive. Fire took it in 1967, and for years the south end of Tybee felt the loss of its grand gathering place. It was the people of the island themselves who eventually brought it back: led by local effort, Chatham County built a new pavilion, the Tybrisa Pavilion II, in 1996, restoring a great public room over the water where the old one had stood.

The rebuilt pier and pavilion were later dedicated to the memory of Walter Parker, a long-serving Tybee mayor who championed the island, and in 2007 the whole complex took its current name, the Walter Parker Pier and Pavilion. The octagonal pavilion is open to everyone, free of charge, through the day and into the night, and it still does what its ancestor did: it gives the island a shared front porch on the Atlantic, a place to catch the breeze, watch the water, and gather.

The pier reaches well out over the surf and is free to walk, which makes it one of the best simple pleasures on the island. Anglers line the rail hoping for whiting, flounder, and sharks, brown pelicans glide by at eye level, and on a lucky day you can spot dolphins working the water offshore. It is a fine place to feel the ocean without getting wet, and a favorite perch for sunrise, since Tybee faces east into the Atlantic.

Down on the sand, the beach is the reason everyone comes. It shelves gently and runs wide, especially at low tide, giving families room for umbrellas, wading, and long barefoot walks. The pavilion anchors the whole scene, serving as the gathering point for island events through the year, from Easter sunrise services to sand-sculpture festivals on the adjacent beach. It is an unfussy, sociable, thoroughly Southern beach day, the kind Tybee has been perfecting since the trains first arrived.

The beach and pier sit at the south end of Tybee, an easy half-hour drive from downtown Savannah out U.S. 80 across the marsh. The beach is public and the pier and pavilion are free, but the island charges for parking, so budget for a metered space or a paid lot and allow a short walk to the sand. In the warm months, lifeguards patrol the main beach and it pays to mind the flags and the currents.

Come for a full beach day or just for a walk out the pier at sunrise, and give yourself time to stand under the pavilion and imagine the Big Band nights that once filled this same air. Pair it with the nearby lighthouse and marine science center for a classic Tybee outing, and you have one of the most easygoing, history-soaked beach stops on the Georgia coast.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.