OurCoast.com :: Outdoors

Courtesy Best Read Guide

The scenic hour-long drive to Beaufort meanders through pines and oaks, along winding creeks and across stretches of marshland. No doubt you will arrive at the community's waterfront main street feeling visually refreshed and ready for more-and you will get it.

Beaufort's 18th- and 19th-century homes-many of which are large and lavish-remind visitors of the town's prosperous past ties to Sea Island cotton planters. The charming homes and churches have been preserved, making this a graceful ante-bellum getaway. Many private houses in the historic district are open to the public just twice a year, during the annual Fall House Tour in mid-October and the Spring Tour of Homes and Gardens in April or May.

If that doesn't suit your schedule, book an overnight stay at one of several historic bed and breakfasts. (A popular stopover with New York-to-Florida commuters, Beaufort is also a favorite among early retirees, many of whom have converted grand homes into B&Bs). Among the choices for your home away from home in Beaufort are Rhett House Inn, an 1820, three-story, 14-columned structure that was once a rich planter's home; Cuthbert House Inn, a 1790 bay-front home with original crown molding and fireplaces; and the understated Craven Street Inn, with high ceilings, long porches and hardwood floors.

Depending on your mood, you can take a self-guided walking tour, a carriage tour, a van tour, and a water tour or rent a bicycle. On Bay Street, the restored John Mark Verdier House Museum, built about 1790, is furnished as it would have been between 1790 and the visit of Lafayette in 1825. It was the headquarters for Union forces during the Civil War.

Visit the Tybee Lighthouse web site at tybeelighthouse.org.

Greater Beaufort Chamber of Commerce. (843) 524-3163.