Pam

Has anyone stayed at the Greyfield Inn on Cumberland Island? How was it?

Ashleigh

Sorry I can't answer you, but isn't that where JFK Jr got married? Where exactly is the island?

Caroline

It's on the coast of Georgia and an extremely cool place. Wild horses run on the beach, or so I've heard. I've always wanted to go there!

J T Kirk

I've never stayed at the Greyfield, but Cumberland is a neat place. Check out the Carnegie ruins - a large house that burned many many years ago. (It probably doesn't sound neat, but it makes for some great photos.) The wild horses still roam, and seeing them on the beach is awesome. It's a wild place, left (relatively) untouched by man.

OliveOyl

We've only done Cumberland as a day trip but the Greyfield is supposed to be fantastic--but not for everyone. You are on an island with virtually nothing but nature surrounding you--a plus for many, me included, but with their dress requirements for dinner, it seems formal beyond it's surroundings. It's undoubtedly an attempt to recapture the flavor of the era when it was used by the Carnegies.

I agree about looking at the burned out Carnegie ruins, Dungeness, (at the other end of the island). Eerily beautiful with the rusting hulks of their old cars across the little dirt road only adding to the atmosphere, sitting there looking as if they'd been parked that way 60 years ago, and someone just walked away...forever. I know rusting old cars don't sound beautiful, but it all added to the aurora. Some of the wild horses were grazing off to one side of the ruins while we were there. Dungeness had been a palatial mansion built in the late 1800's but with a Gatsby era heyday. Allegedly it was burned (1959) by a mainlander who had been shot earlier by a Dungeness caretaker for hunting deer there without the Carnegie's permission.

We walked from that area across the dunes, down the beach a couple of miles and back in through a maritime forest and the camping area to the 2nd ferry dock without seeing another soul.

It is the island John Kennedy was married on, and they stayed at the Greyfield I believe. It's a beautiful peaceful spot.

x

Yes, that is where JFK Jr was married...and the Greyfield Inn is the only lodging there. I will warn you that to get to the Island you go through St. Marys...a pit. So don't base the island on what you see before you get there.

OO

But to get to the Greyfield, you take their boat from Fernandina Beach, FL. The ferry from St Marys takes you to the other two docks, down the island a good ways from the Greystone.

Postal

I don't know how long it has been since the poster has been in St. Marys, but the waterfront area is very nice these days, including a brand new park along the water.

The day I spent on Cumberland Island in July was one of the best days I've had in my whole life! (And I'm 46) Seeing several herds of wild horses, deer, wild turkeys, and miles of wilderness was just incredible. How about walking two miles of beach along the ocean and seeing only four other people? It was unbelievable.

One funny thought - when I saw the row of rusted out cars that a previous poster mentioned, I half expected to see a VW Beetle in perfect shape at the end of the row!

DeeDee

It is a very special place.

x

I was in St. Marys a month ago...still just as bad as when we lived there.

05dml

How are the beaches at cumberland island? can you lie on them and go swimming? (maybe a dumb question but i wanted to make sure it wasn't like a rock beach!)
also, do any of the georgia isles have any sort of recreation?

teresaandgreg

The beach on cumberland island is incredible. And yes, you can lay about on a totally uncrowded beach and swim.

bsam

There is plenty of recreation on most of the Georgia isles including fishing (inland and deep sea), sailing, kayaking, golf, bicycling, horseback riding.