The field guide
Everything Tybee expects you to already know.
Parking, the beach ordinance, the flags, the turtles, and how to read a tide table. Checked against the city and NOAA in September 2026. When this page and a posted sign disagree, the sign wins.
01 · Before you cross the bridge
Parking
Tybee is a pay-to-park island. Not "mostly." There is no free public parking anywhere on it, including the residential side streets, and enforcement is genuinely year-round.
- $4.00 per hour
- 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. enforced
- Every day, year-round
- Park TYB app
Do this before you leave home
Download the Park TYB app and add a card while you still have good signal and patience. Cell service on the causeway and in the beach lots at peak hours is bad enough that people give up and eat the ticket.
If you are staying in a rental
Ask your manager how many off-street spaces come with the house and get the number in writing. On Tybee this is worth real money: a week of app parking for two cars runs well past what most people budget, and a driveway removes the problem entirely. It is a fair question to ask before you book.
Longer stays and repeat visits
The city sells annual decals — $300 standard, $175 for seniors 62 and over, and $400 for a transferable pass. These are handled at Parking Services, 1509 Strand Avenue, near the pier; they are no longer done at city hall. The office number is (912) 472-5101. For a single week this is not worth it. For a family who comes three times a year, do the math.
Electric vehicles
There is charging in the North Beach lot by the lighthouse. Note that you are still paying to park while you charge.
02 · On the sand
The beach ordinance
Tybee's beach rules are stricter than most visitors expect and more relaxed than most visitors expect, in a combination that catches almost everybody out. You can carry a drink. You cannot bring your dog.
-
No
Dogs and pets on the beach. Certified guide dogs excepted. This is the one that ruins trips — see below. Minimum $200; minimum $400 for a repeat within 12 months
-
No
Glass or breakable containers anywhere on the beach or the crossovers. Cans and cups only.
-
No
Smoking or vaping on the beach or the crossovers. $300
-
No
Open fires of any kind, including charcoal, and including inside a grill.
-
No
Motorized vehicles on the sand.
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No
Shark fishing. Fishing generally is allowed only in designated areas. Up to $300, and the ordinance allows for more
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Yes
Drinks, within the open-container ordinance. To-go cups leave bars legally here. Keep it out of glass and do not treat this as an invitation to bring a keg.
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Care
Tents, canopies and umbrellas are fine during the day but cannot be left overnight. Anything still standing after dark is both a violation and an obstacle for nesting turtles.
-
Care
Cigarette butts count as litter under the ordinance, along with food, cans, bottles and fruit peel. There is no separate, more forgiving category for small trash.
03 · The one people get wrong
Dogs
Dogs are prohibited on Tybee's beaches. There is no early-morning exception, no leashed exception, and no off-season exception. The reasons are sea turtle nests and shorebird nesting grounds, both of which are on the beach for a large part of the year and neither of which a dog can be expected to respect.
People arrive having driven four hours with a dog in the back, assuming that a leash and good intentions will cover it, and are turned around at the crossover. Plan around it before you book, not at the dune line.
What you can do instead
There is a dog park next to the River's End campground on the north end. Leashed dogs are fine on the neighborhood streets, on the sidewalks, and at a number of outdoor patios. Several of the island's rentals are dog-friendly, and off-island there are dog-friendly beaches within driving distance — but not here.
04 · In the water
Lifeguards, flags and rip currents
Tybee Island Ocean Rescue staffs the beach daily from May 1 through October 31, 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with reduced coverage in the off season. Towers sit at the Taylor Street crossover on North Beach, at 15th Street, at 17th Street, and just north of 19th Street near the Back River sandbar.
- Green
Calm water.
- Yellow
Moderate surf and currents. Most summer days are this.
- Red
Rough, choppy water, strong currents, or high danger.
- Purple
Dangerous marine life — usually jellyfish.
- Double red
Water closed to swimming. This is not advisory.
If you are caught in a rip
Do not fight it. A rip current pulls out, not under, and it is narrow. Swim across it, parallel to the beach, until you are out of the pull, and then come in at an angle. Exhausting yourself swimming straight at the shore is how this goes wrong. Do not swim alone, and if you are unsure, stay out.
The Back River sandbar near 19th Street deserves particular respect. It looks like a shallow, family-friendly wade, and on a falling tide the channel between the bar and the beach runs hard. People get stranded on it every season.
Ocean Rescue's non-emergency line for current conditions is (912) 786-0911. In an emergency, flag a guard or call 911.
05 · May to October
Sea turtle season
Loggerheads nest on Tybee from May 1 through the end of October. Nests are found, marked and monitored by the Tybee Island Sea Turtle Project, and the island runs a "Lights Out on Tybee" program through the whole season.
Hatchlings orient by the brightest thing on the horizon. On a natural beach that is the sea. On a developed one it is a porch light, a phone screen, or a rental's kitchen window, and a misdirected hatchling almost never makes it back.
- Off
Beachfront lights by 10 p.m. That includes anything visible from the sand.
- Off
Phone screens on the beach at night. A screen at the dune line is a beacon.
- Red
Red flashlights only after dark. A red marker on a white lens is enough.
- Do
Fill in your holes and flatten your sandcastles before you leave. A hole is a trap for a hatchling and for a nesting female.
- Do
Take your gear with you. Chairs, tents and coolers left overnight block the crawl.
- Never
Approach a marked nest or a crawling turtle. Watch from well back and keep lights off entirely.
The Tybee Island Marine Science Center is the place to go if any of this interests your kids, and it is the right number to have if you find a stranded or injured turtle or terrapin.
06 · The skill worth having
Reading the tide
Two highs and two lows a day, roughly six hours and thirteen minutes apart, sliding about fifty minutes later each day. The official reference is NOAA station 8670870 at Fort Pulaski, which sits up the Savannah River from the oceanfront — the beach turns roughly fifteen minutes earlier than the table says.
The range matters more than the times. Around the new and full moon you get spring tides, with the biggest swing and the strongest currents; around the quarter moons you get neaps, with less of both. A spring low is when North Beach's flats are at their widest and the shelling is best. A spring high is when the beach is at its narrowest and the Back River is at its most deceptive.
A rough planning rule
Beach day with small children: aim to arrive two hours before low, so the sand is opening up rather than closing in and you are not repeatedly moving your camp. Boat, kayak or paddleboard: go within two hours of high. Shelling, tidepools, the walk to the lighthouse: two hours either side of low.