Reservations can be made up to a year in advance. We recommend booking at least 6 months in advance. If your preferred dates are not available, our guest services team would be happy to help you check alternative dates or add you to our waitlist.

Little St. Simons Island is accessible only by boat. Our ferry departs from the north end of St. Simons Island at the Hampton River Marina. In order to board the ferry, you must have reservations to be a guest of the Lodge. See Getting Here for directions.

Little St. Simons Island comprises over 11,000 acres and has seven miles of beach. Of the 11,000 acres, about 3,000 are upland while the remaining 8,000 or so is salt marsh. Aside from the 20 acre Lodge compound that includes the guest cottages and staff housing, the remainder of the island is undeveloped and consequently considered to be among the highest priority coastal conservation areas in all of Georgia.

The only people who live on the Island are about a dozen of our staff, and occasionally some visiting researchers. Our sixteen guest rooms accommodate up to 32 overnight guests.

The Lodge offers guided day trips on a limited schedule. Please see our Day Trips page for more details.

We’d love to have you visit on a scheduled day trip or spend a few nights with us, but you must have a reservation to come to the island. See Plan Your Trip to book your visit.

Our nightly rates are all-inclusive and, unless otherwise noted, are priced per couple. Rates include:

• Charming, well-appointed accommodations with high quality amenities.

• Boat transportation to and from the island; boat arrival is scheduled for 4:00pm and boat departure is scheduled for 10:00am.

• Daily breakfast, lunch, hors d'oeuvres, dinner, and assorted snacks.

• Unlimited soft drinks.

• Naturalist-led excursions offered twice daily, as well as use of the island's recreational equipment such as bicycles, fishing tackle, and kayaks.

With the exception of the occasional picnic lunch, all meals are served in the Hunting Lodge. However, if you request a sack lunch the night before, you may pick it up after breakfast the next day, put it in your bicycle basket and enjoy it at the location of your choice.

Meals are casual and served family-style. Breakfast is at 9:00am, lunch at 1:00pm, and dinner at 6:30pm. For early risers, continental breakfast is available starting at 7:30am. We serve hors d’oeuvres during social hour at 6:00pm. Don’t miss the meals! Not only is the food delicious, but mealtime is also when you learn about the naturalist-led activities.

We have beer and wine available for purchase on the Island. Our beers are mostly local Georgia beers, and our wines are all from California. We also carry hard seltzer and a gluten free cider. The beer and wine package is $20 per person per day, or you can purchase individual drinks a la carte at $6 per beer or $8 per glass of wine.

The Island also carries a number of higher end wines and champagnes available to purchase by the bottle. Wine lists can be found in the main lodge.

We do not offer liquor on the Island, but you are welcome to bring your own, and we have a number of the basic mixers, such as: Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, ginger ale, tonic water, club soda, orange juice, and cranberry juice.

You are also welcome to bring your own beer and wine, but we do ask that you consider it as part of your luggage allowance. Guests are allowed two pieces of luggage per person, so a case of beer or wine would count as one piece of luggage.

If you are booking a full island, we would be happy to add a full bar for the duration of your booking, and you can discuss pricing and details when you are planning your full island. Bartending services are not available, so any bar added to a full island booking will be self-serve.

Typical naturalist-led activities include fishing, kayaking, hiking, birding, seine netting, beachcombing, and truck-based excursions. The activities offered are based on factors such as tides, wind, temperature, season, what the wildlife is doing, as well as our guests’ interests. During breakfast and lunch each day, a naturalist will come into the dining room and talk about the activities for the day. You can indicate your interest in and ask questions about the particular activities at this time. If you are particularly interested in an activity, please let a naturalist know.

Everything is casual, even dinner, so you can leave your formal wear at home. There’s a lot to see and do here, and most of it is outside, so consult a weather forecast and pack accordingly. When it’s warm, in addition to your bathing suit and beach clothes, be sure to pack some lightweight, long-sleeved clothing with long pants to keep you covered in case flying insects are abundant. Bring footwear for hiking as well as shoes or sandals you don’t mind getting sandy, muddy, or wet.

Please limit luggage to no more than two bags per person or four per couple.

As an overnight guest, you have access to our fleet of cruiser-style bicycles, kayaks, and hiking trails. Our naturalists have trucks with benches built in the bed, and a set of portable steps to help you get in and out. Only LSSI staff may operate the trucks.

The island is great fun for kids and the Lodge welcomes children of all ages from Memorial Day through Labor Day but recommends they be at least three years of age being the family-style dining and outdoor excursions aren't very conducive to those under three. Children over the age of six are welcome year-round.

No pets are allowed on Little St. Simons Island.

There’s great fishing on the island, and if you catch something good to eat, our chef can cook it for you! When our naturalists offer fishing as an activity, you’ll be standing on the bank of a tidal creek or the beach. If you’d like to go fishing on your own, you’re welcome to take a bicycle equipped with a rod holder or fish off our dock! We have spinning reels and rods for fishing in the creek. Larger surf rods are reserved for guided surf fishing ventures. We can also provide gear for fly fishing for experienced fly fishermen. While we practice catch and release fishing, guests interested in keeping any of their catch may keep one fish (within legal size limits) per person per day and have it prepared by our kitchen. If you’d like to be taken on a guided, boat-based fishing trip, the office would be happy to provide you with contact information to arrange a trip with a local guide for an additional fee.

All of our cottages are located within a 20-acre compound located on the west side of the Island. It’s just over two miles from the Lodge to the ocean beach. This is about a twenty-minute bike ride or a ten-minute shuttle ride by one of our naturalists in a truck.

If you are under 16 years old, you may fish without a license. Otherwise, you will need a fishing license from the state of Georgia. You may purchase a three-day or annual fishing license on the island. A driver’s license number and social security number are required to purchase a license. Alternatively, you may purchase a Georgia fishing license in advance of your visit by visiting Go Outdoors Georgia.

With seven miles of private ocean beach, you can certainly swim in the ocean. However, if you prefer swimming in a pool, the Lodge has a junior Olympic-sized swimming pool. It is treated with salt instead of chlorine and is heated only by the sun, so it’s up to you to decide whether or not it’s warm enough.

You can learn more about what temperatures and conditions to expect by scrolling to the bottom of our Overview page.

Typically, rain showers don’t last all day. Even if they do, our naturalists will still conduct tours, so long as the weather conditions are not hazardous. When the weather pushes us indoors, our staff may offer presentations regarding the island’s wildlife and ecology or a craft activity. We also have several board and table games. It’s also nice to sit by the fire and read, or enjoy the company of those around you. LSSI is a great place to stay busy, or do absolutely nothing!

In this pristine coastal environment, insects are an integral part of life, and may be prevalent during your visit. During the warmer, wetter months, the mosquitos are prolific; it can be intense for guests who are not used to being out in the wild. During these times, guests feel most comfortable in light, long-sleeved shirts, and long pants. Insect repellents, in a variety of types, as well as mesh bug jackets, are available at all guest houses, the Hunting Lodge, and in our Naturalist trucks.

All accommodations are subject to an 18% service charge on the total reservation amount. Ninety percent of the service charge includes the following costs and services: parking at the marina, boat transfers to and from the island, wireless internet access (Wi-Fi), sunscreen, bug spray, with 10% of the charge going toward staff gratuities.

Staff receive a small gratuity from the service charge. Additional tipping is always welcome and will be split among the staff.

Georgia sales tax is 7%. The local lodging tax is an additional 1.67% of our total rate. The State’s Hotel/Motel Fee is $5 per room per night.

Camping is not allowed on LSSI.

Up until 1980, LSSI had its own diesel-powered generator which had been in use since the 1920s. Now the Island obtains power through submerged cables from St. Simons Island.

Our water comes from an artesian well, and tastes great. Whether it comes from one of our coolers, or from the sink in your room, it’s all good to drink.

Up until the 1980s, there was just a ship-to-shore phone system before they ran a submerged line from St. Simons Island. Today, we do have landline phones in our Lodge office. However, there are no televisions or phones in the guest rooms.

Most wireless carriers provide at least some service on the island, however, some offer better coverage than others. Verizon seems to work best over most of the island.

All guest buildings do have wireless internet access. We just got new fiber-optic cables, so you should be good for checking email, making phone calls, messaging, posting pictures from your visit, and the like. Due to our location, streaming content and video calls may not work well. Our internet connection uses a microwave dish system to send a signal across from Saint Simons Island, so it is also more prone to outages than on the mainland during high winds or storms.

Yes. All of our guest buildings are air-conditioned.

LSSI employs approximately 30 full and part-time staff, about half reside on-Island; the rest of the staff live off-Island and commute to and from the Island daily.

If you have an overnight reservation, it may be possible to bring your own boat. Please inquire when you make your reservation.

Little St. Simons Island has had to discontinue our guest skiff program due to changes in our liability insurance. We offer boat tours on our Skimmer when weather and tides allow, and offer creek and surf fishing as a naturalist activity, so please make sure a naturalist knows you want to go fishing! We also offer kayaking as a guided tour, or if you’d like to get out on the water on your own, you are welcome to take a kayak out – just ask a naturalist to get you set up!

One of our key conservation goals at Little St. Simons Island is to allow our guests the opportunity to experience our intact wildlife populations with minimal impacts or disturbance to the animals. In keeping with this goal, we do not allow guests to fly drones on the island.

Little St. Simons Island (LSSI) is home to the Center for Coastal Conservation, which implements all the ecological management and research on LSSI and works on a variety of projects throughout the year. Some examples of their work include graduate research projects and land and wildlife stewardship. The Center for Coastal Conservation uses stewardship tools to ensure that our rare habitats remain ecologically intact. Trail trimming, road maintenance, prescribed burning, boardwalk and walkway repairs, and structure management are some of the tools the Center for Coastal Conservation uses to maintain healthy ecosystems, limit disturbance to habitats and wildlife, and to help ensure the safety of staff and guests on the Island. The continued conservation of LSSI’s intact ecosystems allows for species of rare wildlife to reproduce successfully, including nesting shorebirds and sea turtles that utilize our 7-mile stretch of beach habitat.

While some of these management applications, nesting wildlife, and current conditions may affect or even close small portions of the island during part of your stay, with 11,000 acres to offer, there will still be plenty of Island for you to explore! We consider the ecological management of LSSI to be an integral part of a visit here and a valuable educational tool for our guests – please feel free to ask during your stay if you would like to learn more! We’d be happy to discuss any ongoing projects or talk about past and future projects, and Center for Coastal Conservation staff and visiting researchers often present about current work to Island guests.