Cumberland Island limits visitors to a few hundred people a day, and the mechanism is the ferry. There is no bridge and no public vehicle access; the boat from St Marys carries a fixed number and that number is the cap. The island is about twenty-eight kilometres long, most of it wilderness, and once the day boat leaves there are more wild horses on it than people.
The horses are feral descendants of animals left by successive owners over three centuries. The ruins at Dungeness are what remains of a Carnegie mansion that burned in 1959. Live oaks hung with Spanish moss form tunnels over the main track, and the Atlantic beach runs almost the whole length of the eastern side with nobody on it.
The Golden Isles
Georgia has a short coastline — about a hundred miles — and four barrier islands off it that were, in the early twentieth century, effectively owned by a handful of extremely wealthy families.
Jekyll Island was bought in 1886 by a club whose members included Morgans, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Pulitzers. At its height the membership was said to control a substantial share of the world's wealth, and the 1910 meeting that drafted the plan for the Federal Reserve took place there in secret, the participants travelling under assumed names. The state of Georgia bought the island in 1947 and it is now public.
Sea Island went the other way. The Cloister opened in 1928, designed by Addison Mizner, and the island has remained a private resort and residential community ever since.
St Simons is the populated one, with a village, a lighthouse and the causeway.
Little St Simons is privately owned, about four thousand hectares, and takes a maximum of thirty-two guests.
Amelia Island, just over the Florida line, is the southern end of the same chain and has the larger resorts.
The eight below run north to south.
Sea Island
The private island.
The Cloister at Sea Island occupies a 1928 Mizner building, rebuilt in the 2000s, with a spa, three golf courses and a beach club on a private island. It is the most formal resort in the American South and there is a dress code at dinner.
The Cloister at Sea Island
Sea Island · 5★ · $$$$
A 1928 Mizner building on a private island, with a dress code
Check availabilityThe Lodge at Sea Island sits beside the golf courses on the same island in a smaller English-country-house style property with butlers and a bagpiper at sunset.
The Lodge at Sea Island
Sea Island · 5★ · $$$$
English country house style with butlers and a bagpiper
Check availabilityThe Inn at Sea Island occupies a position on Sea Island with fewer rooms and a quieter tone at a lower rate.
The Inn at Sea Island
Sea Island · 4★ · $$$
Fewer rooms and a quieter tone at a lower rate
Check availabilitySt Simons and Jekyll
The public islands.
The King and Prince Beach & Golf Resort occupies a 1935 beachfront property on St Simons with several pools, a golf course and a long history as the island's hotel.
The King and Prince Beach & Golf Resort
St Simons Island · 4★ · $$$
A 1935 beachfront with pools and a golf course
Check availabilityJekyll Island Club Resort sits in the 1887 clubhouse of the Jekyll Island Club with the Gilded Age cottages around it, croquet on the lawn and the river outside.
Jekyll Island Club Resort
Jekyll Island · 4★ · $$$
The 1887 clubhouse with Gilded Age cottages around it
Check availabilityThe Westin Jekyll Island occupies a beachfront position on Jekyll with a pool, a garden and direct sand access.
The Westin Jekyll Island
Jekyll Island beachfront · 4★ · $$$
A pool and garden with direct sand access
Check availabilityAmelia Island
Over the Florida line.
The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island occupies a beachfront site with a spa, several restaurants and the most polished service on the chain.
The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island
Amelia Island · 5★ · $$$$
The most polished service on the chain, on the beach
Check availabilityOmni Amelia Island Resort sits on a large Amelia estate with two golf courses, a nature centre and full family facilities.
Omni Amelia Island Resort
Amelia Island · 4★ · $$$
Two golf courses, a nature centre and family facilities
Check availabilityWhat we have left off
The cottage rentals on St Simons and Amelia are excluded, and on both islands they are how a great many families take the summer. They are houses rather than hotels.
What to do
Book the Cumberland ferry well ahead. It sells out, the cap is the point, and a day there is the best thing on this coast.
Walk the Jekyll Island Club historic district and see the room where the Federal Reserve was drafted, which is now open and labelled.
Go to Driftwood Beach on Jekyll at low tide, where a retreating shoreline has left an entire forest of dead oaks standing on the sand.
Eat shrimp off the boats at Brunswick, and note that Georgia's wild-caught shrimp season and the local trawler fleet are both in long decline.
Walk under the live oaks at Fort Frederica on St Simons, a 1730s British colonial fort and town site now largely returned to grass.
Practical notes
Jacksonville and Savannah airports are each about ninety minutes from the Golden Isles; Brunswick has a small regional field.
March to May and September to November are the best windows. Summer is hot, humid and busy. Winter is mild and rates drop sharply.
Sea Island operates as a private community with controlled access; day visitors cannot simply drive on.
Every hotel bookable on the Georgia coast
Why is Cumberland Island capped?
There is no bridge. Ferry capacity from St Marys sets the daily limit, which is a few hundred people on an island twenty-eight kilometres long.
What happened at Jekyll in 1910?
A secret meeting of bankers and a Treasury official drafted the plan that became the Federal Reserve, travelling under assumed names.
Sea Island or Jekyll?
Sea Island for formality, golf and a private island. Jekyll for the Gilded Age history at a fraction of the price.
How many nights?
Four. Three on the islands and a day on Cumberland.