Tangier Island Itineraries & Packages

An overnight trip to Tangier Island offers a memorable experience. Explore this beautiful secluded island on the Chesapeake Bay and find out how crabbers make a living.

If you want a relaxing getaway, an overnight stay, with no plan, is perfect. However, if you want to find out about the working culture of Tangier, purchase an overnight tour package. You'll have a fascinating experience seeing how waterman make a living on the Chesapeake.

Honorary Waterman’s Tour

All inclusive price includes:

• Crab shanty experience
• Crab boat tour
• Overnight stay at a bed & breakfast (See the available accommodations by clicking on Eat & Sleep on Island icon)
• One breakfast
• Two lunches including one Hilda Crockett’s all-you-can-eat crabcake boarding house-style meals
• One menu style dinner at Fisherman’s Corner. This is the place to enjoy softshells or crab-stuffed flounder

Day One

Arrival

Depending on which ferry you take, you will arrive at the Tangier dock late morning or early afternoon. A B&B staff member will meet you at the dock and transport you to your inn. The innkeeper will give you a brief orientation to the island and outline in more detail what you will be doing.

Lunch All you can eat crab cake meal At Hilda Crockett’s Chesapeake House (included)

Afternoon Trip to crab shanty to see how a waterman works his floats and watch crabs molt.

In the shanty, a waterman will show you how he tells when a crab is about to shed its old shell. You will get to see a crab wriggle out of its old shell and become a softshell. The waterman will explain the whole process and show you how he markets his crabs. Here you will start to understand why Tangier is sometimes referred to as the soft crab capital of the world.

Later in the afternoon you will have time to walk the island and the beach or go through the new Tangier History Museum and Interpretive Cultural Center.  Should wish you can take a golf cart tour ($5 additional charge).  There are also free kayak tours of the island’s creeks.  If you prefer, a guide will take you on a kayak tour of more than 1.5 hours for an additional charge of $15 per person with a two person minimum. This tour can be tide challenged, so it needs to be scheduled accordingly. You can make arrangements for the kayak tour at the History Museum. If you come on the Crisfield Ferry you can take your kayak tour on the afternoon of second day.

6:30 p.m. Dinner (included) at the Fisherman’s Corner

7:30 p.m.

Free time. Try sitting on the dock of the Bay wasting time. Listen to the watermen’s voices floating across the water as they tend their floats. Given your afternoon experience, you’ll now know what they are doing. Observe the fishing birds working the shallows. Go for a walk and read the island’s historical signs.

Day Two

Pack your belongings for check out. Your luggage will be transported to the dock before the ferry is ready to leave. Leave out clothes if you wish to change before leaving the island.

7:30 a.m. Breakfast (included) at B&B

9 a.m. Transport from the B&B to a crab boat. You will go out on a boat to watch hard crab pots be pulled aboard and learn how the waterman catches crabs. He will explain the crab’s life cycle. You will also go up the Bay to near Smith Island where you will pull along side a “bar cat” boat. You will observe the “bar cat” Captain hand pull a scrape aboard looking for soft crabs about to shed. These crabs will go into the shanty floats that you observed the previous day.

Your boat Captain will also show you nesting fishing birds if the time of year is right. But regardless of the season, you will see birds and other wildlife. If the wind is right you will circle Tangier so you can observe where portions of the island are being washed into the Bay. There is a graphic in the museum that illustrates this disappearance and now you can observe the physical reality of it. Your Captain can show where houses had to be moved or abandoned because of the erosion. He can show you where to walk the beach to look for Native American arrowheads that are still found on rare occasions.

By the time you return to the dock you will have a much better understanding of how a living is made on Tangier.

12:15 p.m.

Lunch (included) at the sandwich shop of your choice.

Afternoon Free time and prepare to catch the ferry. The Reedville ferry leaves at 2:15 and the Crisfield ferry leaves at 4:00.

Cost of package if staying at Hilda Crockett's Chesapeake House

• Double Occupancy(all inclusive) - $149.55 per person
• Single Occupancy(all inclusive) - $187.00

• Children (with parents) over age of seven add $85 per child

For Hilda Crockett's waterman's package availability information call 757-891-2331. To see more information on Hilda Crockett's click here.

Cost of package if staying at the Bay View Inn (Sunday thru Thursday). Rooms have private baths.

• Double Occupancy(all inclusive) - $159 per person
• Single Occupancy (all inclusive)- $219 per person

For Bay View waterman's package availability information call 757-891-2396. To see more information on Bay View Inn click here.

Call for information on children.

You will need to make ferry arrangements separately. Tourist ferries run every day during the seaon.

Latest News

Waterman for a Weekend Chesapeake Life reports on a trip to Tangier in the magazine's weekender department. Virginia's Time Machine The Wall Street Journal found Tangier "fascinating." See the WSJ's multimedia presentation. "Just a Natural Playground" Richmond Times-Dispatch puts Tangier on its "10 places you need to see in Virginia" list.

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