8 Things to Do Near the Tybee Island Pier

Ask what there is to do near the Tybee Island Pier and most answers quietly stretch the word "near." A kayak launch at the far end of the island. A fort out on the highway. The lighthouse, which is a genuinely good hour and is also at the opposite end of Tybee from the boards you're standing on.

This list holds itself to the walk. Eight things, all of them a few minutes on foot from where Tybrisa Street runs out and the pier begins, followed by two things people expect to find down here and won't. That second part matters more than it sounds. Planning an afternoon around an attraction that doesn't exist is a specific kind of vacation disappointment.

We write from 16 Tybrisa Street, a block or two up from the pier, which is also why the number is eight rather than ten. There's no boardwalk of amusements at this end of the island. There's a pier, a wide beach, one dense block of shops and kitchens, and a surf break down the sand. Handled unhurriedly, that's a full day.

1. Walk out over the water

The pier is free and opens at 6 a.m. Those two facts decide most of what follows, because free and early means you'll walk it more times than you intended to. It stays open until 11 p.m. daily.

What's out there is more than railings. Bait and tackle, fish-cleaning sinks, restrooms, showers, picnic tables, a snack bar, an ice cream stand and a full-service bar all sit on or beside the boards, plus the covered Tybrisa Pavilion. None of the stands publish their opening times, so treat an ice cream as a happy outcome rather than a plan you built the afternoon around. For the pier's history, the fishing paperwork in detail and how the pavilion gets booked, we wrote a full local's guide to the pier and pavilion.

2. Fish it, once the paperwork is sorted

Georgia asks two things of a saltwater angler, not one: a recreational fishing license and a Saltwater Information Program permit, usually shortened to SIP. The permit is free, but it's a separate item from the license, and the usual way people learn that is standing at the rail with a rod in hand. Sort both before you leave home. Our pier guide covers where they come from.

The setup here makes the whole exercise easier than fishing off a beach. Tackle is on site, the cleaning sinks save you improvising at an outdoor shower, and a 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. day covers dawn and dusk both. If you don't fish, standing at the rail while somebody else fights something invisible is a legitimate way to spend twenty minutes, and it needs no license and no money.

3. Take the shade under the pavilion

Shade is the scarce commodity on South Beach, and the covered Tybrisa Pavilion is the free answer to it. Picnic tables, a roof, a view out over the water, open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

It earns its keep twice a day. Once in the flat hour after lunch when the sand stops being fun, and again when one of the coast's fast afternoon storms rolls through and everybody on the beach needs a roof in a hurry. Coastal Georgia does that in summer with some regularity. The pavilion is the closest dry roof to the water.

4. Put a towel down on South Beach

South Beach is everything south of 14th Street, and the stretch either side of the pier is the best-supplied sand on the island, because the pier's restrooms, showers and food stands serve the beach as much as they serve the boards. You can spend a whole day on it without walking back to a car for anything.

We should be plain about our own geography, because plenty of Tybee lodging isn't. Sea and Breeze is steps from South Beach, not on it. Our door is on Tybrisa, the sand is a short walk down the street, and no room here looks at the ocean. What the address actually buys you is the walk: beach, pier and strip all reachable without moving the car once.

5. Walk south to the surf past 19th Street

The island's own beach guide puts Tybee's surf breaks past 19th Street, which from the pier is a walk down the sand rather than a drive. That's about as specific as anyone gets about surfing here, and the vagueness is honest. Nothing about the Georgia coast guarantees a rideable wave on the day you show up.

Go with that expectation and the walk is still worth it. The beach thins out the further south you get from the pier's amenities, so even a flat day buys you a quieter stretch of sand and something to watch if the locals are out.

6. Work the shopping block

The block of Tybrisa between the pier and our corner is the densest retail on this end of the island, and it's genuinely walkable in the sense that you can do all of it barefoot with a towel over your shoulder.

What's on it: Beach Bum Boutique at 13 Tybrisa, Mermaid Crossing and Sand Cat Studios both at 9 Tybrisa, Waves Surf Shop South, American Beachwear and Aloha Gifts, and two department stores, Christy's and TS Chus. Not one of them publishes dated seasonal hours anywhere we can find, which is the island's general attitude to the calendar. If a particular shop is the reason you're walking down, call it first.

7. Eat and drink without moving the car

The strip at the foot of the pier is why guests here tend to leave the car parked for a whole stay. Bernie's Oyster House, Doc's Bar, Lighthouse Pizza South, Rachel's Beach Bites, Raw Ingredients, Ripe Ingredients, Seaside Sweets, Windrose Cafe and Wet Willie's, which shares our street address at 16 Tybrisa, all sit within the same short walk.

The same hours caveat applies here and it applies harder, because a closed kitchen at 8 p.m. wrecks an evening in a way a closed gift shop doesn't. Nobody on this street publishes seasonal hours. Have a second choice in mind, which on Tybrisa means walking another thirty seconds. Our dining page keeps the wider island list for the nights you do want to drive.

8. Eat seafood at Pier 16, one block off the boards

Pier 16 Seafood sits at 1601 Inlet Avenue, which is a block off the pier and just far enough back to feel like a different errand from the strip. It's the nearest thing to the boards that isn't actually on them.

We'll leave the menu specifics to the restaurant, since we'd rather send you somewhere accurate than describe a dish we haven't confirmed is still on. What we can tell you is the geography, and the geography is the point of this whole list: from the end of the pier, it's a walk of a couple of minutes.

Two things visitors expect near the pier and won't find

Both of these come up often enough that leaving them out would make this list less useful, not more.

There is no mini golf and no arcade. Not by the pier, and as far as the island's own directories go, not anywhere on Tybee. Tybee Island Main Street's attractions directory runs to 14 entries: dolphin tours, bike and gear rentals, golf carts, kayak and jet-ski operators, the lighthouse, the Marine Science Center, Fort Pulaski, the Post Theater, shark-teeth tours. No putt-putt, no arcade. The shopping directory has none either. Tybee is a beach and a fishing pier, not a boardwalk town, and families planning a rainy hour should know that before they arrive rather than after.

Dolphin tours don't leave from here. Captain Derek's departs Lazaretto Creek Marina at 3 Old US Highway 80, out by the bridge at the island's west end. On a map that's the far side of Tybee from Tybrisa Street, and there is no version of it that's a walk from the pier. Drive it, enjoy it, and don't let a listicle file it under "near the pier." Our Captain Derek's spotlight covers that trip properly.

How we chose these eight

Three tests. Is it actually within a walk of the pier, with anything drive-only labeled as such? Does it appear in the island's own directories rather than only on a review aggregator? Would we send a friend? Everything above cleared all three.

You'll notice this post lists no opening times except the pier's and the pavilion's. That's deliberate. Not one pier-area shop or restaurant publishes dated seasonal hours, so naming the business and letting you call is the only version of this list that stays true in February. Guessing would be worse than useless.

Eight is simply what cleared the tests. Getting to a rounder ten would have meant inventing an amusement that isn't here or dressing up a Mid Beach stop as pier-adjacent, and a list padded that way sends someone on a walk that ends in a parking lot.

Stringing it together

The obvious order is the one the day gives you. Pier first thing, when the boards are all anglers and the gates have been open since six. Beach through the middle of the day, with the pavilion as the shade break when the sun gets serious. Shops in the late afternoon, when a wet swimsuit stops being a problem. Dinner on the strip, then the pier again after dark, with the lights of Tybrisa behind you and the water doing what it does. That's four of the eight without repeating yourself, and none of it touches a car.

Which is the argument for staying down here rather than driving in. Island parking is metered, so a day at the pier from anywhere else on Tybee starts with a meter app and ends with a clock in the back of your head. Guests here park free on site, one car per room, and walk. Our amenities page has the rest of what's included, and things to do widens the map past this one block.

Planning a stay at the end of Tybrisa? Our special offers take 10% off two nights and 15% off three, and if you want the fuller picture of the neighborhood first, start with the first-timer's guide to South Beach. Check availability when you're ready.