The Best Sunset Spots on Tybee Island

The east-facing thing trips up first-time visitors. Tybee's beach faces the Atlantic, so the sunrise here is dramatic and the sunset is — over your shoulder. For the actual show, you need to know where to walk.

Here are five spots, roughly in order of how easy they are to find. The first three are everyone's standard picks. The last two are worth the extra effort.

1. Lazaretto Creek Bridge

The bridge into Tybee from US-80 isn't a spot most visitors think of as scenic until they see it at sunset. Pull off at the small marina lot on the right just before the bridge, walk to the bridge railing, and look west toward the marsh. The sun drops behind the marsh grass and the creek mirrors the color back. Shrimp boats coming in for the night silhouette against it.

This is the easiest sunset on Tybee — five minutes from the inn, free parking, and you can be back in your room before dark.

Practical: Park at Lazaretto Creek Marina (free). The bridge has a pedestrian walkway on the south side. Bring bug spray; the marsh is generous.

2. The North End of the Beach

The far north end of Tybee — past the lighthouse, where the beach curves toward the inlet — gets the longest golden-hour light of any beach on the island. Because the dunes and the lighthouse are taller than anything around them, the last sun stays on them longer than on the rest of the beach.

This is the walk for the romantic version of the trip. Park at the North Beach lot, walk past the lifeguard stand, and keep going north until you can see the channel markers in the inlet. Twenty minutes either direction is enough to feel like the day has wound down.

Practical: North Beach lot, metered (free after 8 PM in summer). Bring a hat — even in the last light, the reflection off the water is bright.

3. The Tybee Pier (at low tide, just before sunset)

The pier itself faces east, so the sun isn't dropping into your photo. But the sky to the west lights up — pink, orange, sometimes a deep purple after a thunderstorm — and reflects on the wet sand at low tide. You're shooting the sky, not the sun.

The pier is the most photographed spot on Tybee for a reason. The structure cuts dramatic lines across whatever the sky is doing.

Practical: 16th Street, walk out to the end of the pier. Free to walk on. Bring a wide-angle if you have one.

4. The Back River End of Chatham Avenue

This is the one to know about. Drive down Chatham Avenue (the road that runs along the back-river side of the island), all the way south, until the pavement ends near the boat ramps. Park where you can find space and walk down to the sand spit that opens onto the Back River.

This is the only place on Tybee where you can stand on a beach and watch the sun drop directly into water. The river is wide here — wide enough that the sun finishes its descent below the western horizon, not into a tree line. There's almost always a handful of locals there with a cooler and a folding chair. Bring one and join them.

Practical: Park where Chatham Avenue ends; limited curbside spots. Bring bug spray (this is marsh-adjacent) and a flashlight for the walk back if you stay past dark.

5. The Lighthouse Grounds at Dusk

Not technically a sunset spot for the sky — the grounds close at 5:30 PM in summer, so you can't be there for the actual sun-drop — but the half hour right before they close, when the lighthouse itself catches the last warm light, is something else. The white tower turns gold. The keeper's cottages look the way they did a century ago.

If you've been to Tybee three times and never been to the lighthouse, this is the visit to make. Come for the last admission of the day, climb to the top while the light is warm, and time your descent to be on the grounds for the last quarter hour before close.

Practical: 30 Meddin Drive. Last entry 4:30 PM. Adult ticket $12. The 178-step climb is worth it; the view from the top at golden hour is unmatched on the island.

What we'd skip

A few "sunset spots" you'll see recommended that don't deliver:

• The end of Butler Avenue (16th Street). Faces east, gets early shade, no real view of the sun.
• The Crab Shack parking lot. People recommend this for the marsh view but the actual dining patio is much better — go in for dinner instead.
• Anywhere with palm trees in the foreground for the photo. Tybee has palms but they're scattered; you'll wander a long time looking for the perfect frame and miss the light.

How to time it

A few rules from doing this a lot:

• Arrive 30 minutes before sunset. The best light is the 20 minutes before the sun hits the horizon, not the moment of disappearance. If you show up at 8:25 for an 8:30 sunset, you've already missed it.
• Stay 15 minutes after. The post-sunset color — the deep oranges and the after-glow — is often better than the sunset itself. Don't pack up too fast.
• Watch the weather. Tybee's best sunsets are usually the day after a thunderstorm, when the air is clean. Flat blue-sky days don't make for memorable color.
• Check the official sunset time for the day you're going. Summer sunset varies more than people think — June 21 vs. July 21 is fifteen minutes different.

A few photography tips

If sunset photography is the reason you're making the trip:

• Shoot in manual or aperture priority. Sunset light fools auto-exposure. Start at f/8, ISO 100, and adjust shutter speed to get the histogram you want.
• Use a polarizer carefully. It deepens the sky and removes water glare, but at sunset it can flatten the warm colors you came for. Try with and without.
• Bring a tripod for after the sun drops. The 15-minute post-sunset window is when the deepest colors appear, but light fades fast — you'll need 1/15s or slower handheld, and a tripod is more forgiving.
• Phones do remarkably well now. If you're shooting on an iPhone or Pixel, use the HDR mode and tap to expose for the sky (not the foreground). Night mode kicks in automatically once the light drops; let it.
• Don't forget the foreground. A photo of just the sky is forgettable. A photo of the sky over a marsh grass silhouette, a fisherman on the pier, or a couple walking the beach is the one you'll print.

The classic Tybee shot is the pier silhouette against a pink/orange sky — but it's so frequently photographed that it's hard to make distinctive. Look for something else: the shrimp boat coming under the Lazaretto Creek bridge, the lighthouse catching the last gold, the wet sand reflecting after the tide drops.

Where to eat after

If you've timed sunset right and you're hungry, our Dining guide covers the kitchens we send guests to first. A-J's Dockside is the locals' choice if you want to linger with the water still visible. Pier 16 Seafood is the move if you want shrimp and grits and a quick walk back to the inn.

A few more sunset-adjacent dinner notes:

• Reservations matter on weekends. A 7 PM dinner in July at A-J's without a reservation can mean an 8:30 seating — by which point you've missed the light.
• Plan dinner after sunset, not during. Most Tybee restaurants don't have a clear sunset view from the table. Better to spend the actual light outside, then walk to dinner.
• Bring a layer. Tybee evenings cool down fast after the sun drops, even in July. A light long-sleeve in your beach bag makes the difference between staying for the post-sunset color and bailing because you're cold.

A note on Sunday evenings

If you're staying through Sunday, Sunday sunset is the quietest sunset of the week. Weekenders have gone home, locals are putting kids to bed for the school week, and the beach (and back-river side) is at its emptiest. If you can swing one extra night just for a Sunday sunset, do it. It's the version of Tybee that most visitors never see.

Sunset on Tybee is the kind of thing you should make plans around at least one night of your stay. The beach gives you a thousand sunrises; the back-river side gives you one show you came for. Pick a spot, set a calendar reminder, and bring a friend.

We're a block off the beach and a short drive from any of these — see our rooms if you're still planning the trip.