Brunswick, GA

Brunswick is a historic port city in Glynn County on the southeastern coast of Georgia, with a city population of roughly 16,000 residents. The city has a laid-back coastal character, marked by live oaks draped in Spanish moss, an old downtown laid out in oak-shaded squares, and a long maritime heritage tied to shrimping and timber. Brunswick is best known as the mainland gateway to the Golden Isles — Jekyll Island, St. Simons Island, Sea Island, and Little St. Simons Island — and as a convenient stop for travelers moving between Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida. It sits about 80 miles south of Savannah, a drive of roughly an hour and a half, and roughly 75 miles north of Jacksonville.

Jekyll Island is the largest of the nearby barrier islands and just a short drive southeast of Brunswick across the causeway. The island is home to Jekyll Island State Park, whose beaches, maritime forests, and miles of bike paths draw visitors year-round. The historic Jekyll Island Club district, with its Victorian-era clubhouse and cottages, anchors the island's cultural and dining scene, and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center offers a family-friendly look at local wildlife rehabilitation.

A few minutes farther south lies St. Simons Island, connected to Brunswick by the F.J. Torras Causeway. The island is best known for the Fort Frederica National Monument, the archaeological remains of an 18th-century British colonial settlement on the island's north end, and for the iconic St. Simons Lighthouse, a working 1872 brick tower that has guided ships through the Marshes of Glynn for more than a century. Pier Village, at the island's southern end, clusters shops, restaurants, and a public fishing pier along the waterfront.

Back on the mainland, downtown Brunswick's Old Town Historic District rewards an afternoon of wandering, with Federal and Victorian-era storefronts around Newcastle, Halifax, and Union squares. The Brunswick Riverwalk traces the banks of the East River through the downtown, and a few blocks inland the Historic Ritz Theatre hosts community performances and traveling exhibits. About 20 minutes north of the city, the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation State Historic Site preserves a former 19th-century rice plantation, with a museum and grounds that are open to visitors.

Brunswick's appeal as a short-term-rental base lies in this combination of mainland convenience and island access. Guests can stay in historic downtown homes, riverfront properties, or quiet residential neighborhoods while remaining within a short drive of three very different barrier islands, a national monument, working lighthouses, and the shrimp fleets that still call the local docks home. The city's central position along the Atlantic coast, between Savannah and Jacksonville and just inland from the Golden Isles, makes it a flexible anchor for a coastal Georgia getaway.