Article Summary: Cumberland Island Tour Reviews, Cumberland Island Land and Legacy Tour, Cumberland Island Van Tour
Cumberland Island is mighty in so many ways. It’s 17.5 miles long, featuring 36,000 acres of wild marsh and tidal creeks.
Historic mansions dot the Cumberland Sound behind private roads. Grand Avenue, the only main road, stretches from north to south under oak colonnades.
Hundreds of wild horses graze in old cotton fields. There are four campgrounds and fifty miles of hiking trails.
Needless to say, one day isn’t enough to fully explore the island and learn about its fascinating colonial, plantation, and gilded age histories. But if one day on Cumberland Island is all you have, the Lands and Legacies Tour is the best option.
No matter how you choose to experience this National Seashore, adventure awaits.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. For more information, view my privacy policy.
Table of Contents
Getting to Cumberland Island
Cumberland Island is only accessible by boat. There is a passenger ferry that departs from St. Mary’s, Georgia. Reservations are recommended and can be made on the Cumberland Island Ferry website.
There are limited departure times, so plan carefully. This is not a national park you can expect to walk up and visit, particularly in the busy season of March-May and especially if you wish to see the island.
The ferry takes 45 minutes each way, traveling up scenic riverways with views of other coastal islands and fantastic birdwatching opportunities. Bring food and water!
Upon arrival, there are endless possibilities. Bike rentals are available (you can also bring bikes over on the ferry), hiking trails are plentiful, beachcombing yields multiple surprises, and the Lands and Legacies Tour van is waiting.
This tour takes you on a 30-mile adventure across Cumberland Island, showing you the main historic locales and scenes in only about six hours’ time. It’s a whirlwind tour packed full of information and lots of time riding in a van, but it’s more than worth every penny.
The Lands and Legacies Tour
For me, this tour is the best bang for your buck if you only have one day at Cumberland Island and want to see as much as possible. Plus, you will have an extremely knowledgeable tour guide providing you with information along the way.
Simply stated, I cannot recommend this tour enough.
In order to see everything that we saw, I believe it would have taken four days of backpacking, and I wouldn’t have learned nearly as much.
I would say the only downside is the amount of time spent in the van, but it is simply unavoidable. There’s no other way to see everything in six hours.
PARKS EXPERT TIP: Pack motion sickness remedies if you’re prone to car sickness. The main road (a.k.a. the only road) is incredibly bumpy and filled with potholes. You can also request to sit in the front beside the driver.
By far, the highlight of the tour is how much you learn about each place you visit. I had been wanting to visit Cumberland Island for years, but never knew that it had such an interesting human history.
I’ll give brief summaries below so I don’t spoil all of the facts. But, I’ll still give you a taste of what you’ll experience on the Lands and Legacies Tour.
Plantation Era
Your first stop along the journey is the grave of Robert Stafford. Born on the island, Stafford became a very wealthy plantation owner.
He was known for treating his slaves much differently than his counterparts on the mainland. Among other things, Stafford ensured they received an education and helped them save money they had earned.
You will drive by the old cotton fields he owned and see his estate. Currently, it is occupied by caretakers of the Carnegie properties on the island.
One day, the house will belong to the National Park Service and hopefully be open to the public.
The Gilded Era
The gilded era history was the most fascinating to me, and also one of the larger focuses of the Lands and Legacies Tour.
The Carnegie family had an enormous stake in Cumberland Island before it became a National Seashore, beginning with Lucy Coleman Carnegie.
Lucy, the wife of Thomas Carnegie, wanted to join other millionaires (such as the Rockefellers) on nearby Jekyll Island. However, due to her husband’s Scottish ancestry, her application was denied.
Therefore, she decided to build a winter home on Cumberland Island instead. Over time, she decided to reside full-time and her children joined her.
Eventually, her grandchildren owned the island and, in an attempt to keep it undeveloped and natural, they worked hard to donate the land to the National Park Service.
Pictured above is Plum Orchard Mansion, one of the stops on the Lands and Legacies Tour. Not only does time allow you to walk around the grounds and eat lunch here, but you’ll also get to tour the inside. There, you’ll learn about the ways of the wealthy Carnegie family.
To give you an idea, this house, built in 1900, contains a heated, indoor swimming pool. There was no shortage of money.
If you’re not on the Lands and Legacies Tour, park rangers also give daily tours of the mansion.
You will also visit Dungeness if time allows. Our tour guide, Mike, suggested a shorter lunch break in order to fit it in, and our group agreed. I would suggest doing the same.
Dungeness is a popular spot for other day visitors who are not on the tour since it’s not far from the dock. This was the home that Lucy had built as her winter home before making it her full-time residence.
As a result of suspected arson that still remains a mystery, the house burned down in 1959. The ruins left behind still grant a look back into the home’s enormous footprint, and the grounds themselves are gorgeous.
A Kennedy Connection
A little-known fact: John F. Kennedy, Jr. loved Cumberland Island.
He visited many times in his short life in an attempt to escape from the harassment of the paparazzi. He loved it so much, in fact, that he also chose to get married at a small church on the island to avoid a media frenzy.
The church (pictured above) is located on the northern end of the island and is impossible to reach in just a day’s visit. If you’d like to see the church and you only have one day on Cumberland Island, definitely elect to take the Lands and Legacies Tour.
Here, you’ll also learn about what happened to Stafford’s 300 slaves and the wild woman of Cumberland Island.
Wildlife and the Wild Horses of Cumberland
There are approximately 150 wild horses on Cumberland Island making it one of the best national parks for wildlife viewing. Their existence is quite controversial, with many activist groups attempting to relocate them. We saw quite a few on our drive.
If we hadn’t taken the Lands and Legacies Tour, I believe we still would have seen a couple, but perhaps not as many. If seeing the horses is one of your top priorities, you’ll cover more ground on the tour and, therefore, have a better chance of spotting them.
We saw them in the cotton fields, at the Plum Orchard Mansion, grazing along the roadside, and at the ruins of Dungeness. Needless to say, they’re very spread out and very common.
Cumberland Island is also an excellent place for birdwatching, particularly if you’d like to see herons or egrets. Our tour guide also mentioned wood storks, but I never saw one.
He also said they sometimes see alligators sunning in the tidal creeks you’ll pass. The island is also home to deer, wild hogs, armadillos, and various other creatures.
There are, of course, sea critters as well. Oyster shells littered the coastline and we saw a few conch shells too. We didn’t have time for beachcombing, but I’m sure you’d find fascinating things. Surprisingly, you can collect shells from the island. You just have to make sure there’s nothing living inside!
Summary of One Day at Cumberland Island
On my weekend trip to the coastal islands and national parks of Florida and Georgia, Cumberland Island was my favorite stop. I would recommend this trip be at the top of your list if you plan to be in the area.
We saw so much and learned more than I expected. I don’t find history particularly interesting as I’m more of a natural history person, but our tour guide did a great job keeping me intrigued for six hours.
It was also a lot of information to remember, so I commend him for his knowledge. We visited on a pretty cold day by Georgia standards and appreciated the heated van.
Pin The Lands and Legacies Tour of Cumberland Island National Seashore
I hope to return to Cumberland Island again one day and do some camping and hiking. When I do, I’ll have irreplaceable knowledge thanks to this tour. There’s nothing quite like walking the hallways of a Carnegie mansion or driving the same roads as a Kennedy, and you can do both on Georgia’s unique Cumberland Island.
0 Comments