Tilghman’s Winter Tranquility
This Eastern Shore island's relaxed nature has year-round appeal.
November 25, 2008
Photography courtesy of the Talbot County Office of Tourism
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A Chesapeake Bay Island, even one with a drawbridge to the mainland, may seem an unlikely destination for a winter vacation or weekend. But plenty of people have discovered that much of what draws visitors to Tilghman Island in warm weather is still there even when the temperatures drop.
Situated at the tip of the Bay Hundred peninsula on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Tilghman looks out over miles of open water to the east, south and west, providing magnificent sunrises and sunsets almost every day of the year. The quality of the light attracts landscape and seascape artists year-round, some of whom maintain homes on the island.
Although this traditional watermen’s community can seem far away from modern America, it’s only a two-hour drive from Washington and Baltimore. It’s a slightly longer drive – three and a half hours – for Betty and Jim Reynolds, who visit Tilghman regularly from their home in Brigatine, N.J., near Atlantic City.
“We go all the time,” says Betty, a schoolteacher. On winter visits, Jim, a farmer, often goes hunting for goose or deer while Betty stalks other prey in the shops of the nearby towns of St. Michaels and Easton.
But the real draw for the Reynoldses may be the food. “We always stay at Harrison’s Chesapeake House,” Betty says. “We love the Friday night oyster buffet. We’ve brought down friends who swore they’d never eat an oyster, and now they can’t wait to get there and pick up a plate of raw ones.”
Harrison’s has been a sport-fishing destination for more than a century. For the Reynoldses, it’s also a place for entertainment. “We sometimes book 16 rooms,” Betty says. “We’ll bring down a group of friends and enjoy the disc jockey or the karaoke.”
In addition to singing, hunting, shopping and eating, some people find Tilghman the perfect place to do nothing. They find comfortable chairs by a window and enjoy a big sky that rivals that of Montana, or watch the Vs form as Canada geese take to the air.
“My wife and I have been going to Tilghman Island in every season of year since the mid-’90s,” says Randy Rosebro of Cedar Point, N.C. He and his wife, Sue, retired to North Carolina about seven years ago from Frederick, Md., but their favorite getaway has remained the same, even though the drive now lasts 11 hours.
“We like the pace there,” Randy says. “I read, I play my guitar, we walk around the island and we go up to St. Michaels and walk around there.”
The Rosebros always stay at the Chesapeake Wood Duck Inn, where they don’t have to go out to eat on blustery winter nights. “His dinners are some of the best I’ve ever had,” Randy says of Jeffrey Bushey, a chef who runs the inn with his wife, Kimberly, “and the accommodations are wonderful.”
Other regular visitors to Tilghman are Tage and Kate Jakobsen of Baltimore County. “It’s about two hours from my door to the Tilghman Island Inn,” says Kate, who is an administrative assistant for a physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She says she visits the island almost once a month, usually from Thursday to Monday, and then her husband, a stained-glass artist, joins her late on Fridays. “I usually stay close to the inn,” she says. “I like every minute I can get there. To me, it feels like an old shoe.”
Dogwood Harbor on Tilghman Island
Kate’s ties to Tilghman date back to her childhood when her father would take her fishing there. Now she likes to watch the boats going back and forth in Knapps Narrows, the band of water in front of the Tilghman Island Inn that separates Tilghman from the mainland. “The food is outstanding,” she says of the inn’s dining room, where co-owner David McCallum has created a menu and wine list that have attracted national attention. In fact, Kate was making plans to go to one of the inn’s themed wine dinners when she was interviewed for this article.
It takes Tom and Carolyn Nolan about three hours to reach Tilghman from their home in Harleysville, Pa., north of Philadelphia, but they’re willing to make the drive almost every weekend in the summer to use their boat, which they keep at a Tilghman marina. In the winter, when the boat is out of the water, they still make up to four visits to stay at the Lazyjack Inn on Dogwood Harbor.
In addition to checking on their boat, Tom says that he and his wife visit the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, an hour’s drive from the Lazyjack. “But mainly, we go out to dinner,” he says. “We’ve been coming to Tilghman for 15 to 18 years now,” which means a lot of research into where to eat. “The Tilghman Island Inn is the best on the island,” he says of the inn’s restaurant.
Most of the B&Bs and inns on Tilghman offer winter packages that include some meals. Here’s a guide to your place on Tilghman:
- Black Walnut Point Inn
410-886-2452, www.blackwalnutpoint.com
This inn, set in a 57-acre wildlife preserve, was once a vacation spot for Soviet diplomats based in Washington. Winter rates for its four rooms and three cottages start at $120 and include a continental breakfast. Other meals are not available; there is a two-night minimum on weekends.
- Chesapeake Wood Duck Inn
410-886-2070, 800-956-2071, www.woodduckinn.com
The Wood Duck overlooks Dogwood Harbor, which is home to several skipjacks, the traditional sailboat used by Chesapeake Bay watermen. Winter rates for its seven rooms start at $129 and include a significant breakfast. Dinners are available only to guests by reservation. A “Winter Escape” package, available Nov. 26 to March 21 this season, includes a Saturday night room, a four-course dinner for two and breakfast on Sunday morning.
- Harrison’s Chesapeake House
410-886-2121, www.chesapeakehouse.com
This rambling inn has 56 rooms that start at $85 in winter. A two-night “Winter Getaway” package, which includes dinner each night and a full breakfast each morning, is $279 per couple. Its dining room, which is open to the public, offers a $29.99 buffet on Friday nights during oyster season, with oysters prepared as many as eight or nine ways; a Saturday night prime rib buffet is $21.99.
- Inn at Knapps Narrows
410-886-2720, 800-322-5181, www.knappsnarrowsmarina.com
This inn, on the mainland at the drawbridge to Tilghman Island, has a full-service marina and a restaurant, the Bay Hundred, that is open to the public. Its 20 rooms, all of which have water views, start at $80 on winter weekdays and include a continental breakfast. A changing menu of packages is offered during the winter.
- Lazyjack Inn on Dogwood Harbor
410-886-2215, 800-690-5080, www.lazyjackinn.com
The Lazyjack, which is across Dogwood Harbor from the Chesapeake Wood Duck Inn, is elegantly housed in a mid-19th-century house. Its two rooms and two suites, some of which have fireplaces and whirlpool tubs, start at $156 a night in winter and include a full breakfast. A two-night “Winter Blues Breaker” package, including a four-course breakfast each morning and a fruit and cheese tray in the room, is $330 to $407, depending on the room.
- Tilghman Island Inn
410-886-2141, 800-866-2141, www.tilghmanislandinn.com
This inn overlooks Knapps Narrows and an expansive wetlands with great blue herons and other waterfowl. It allows guests to have dogs with them in the first-floor rooms, all of which have direct outdoor access. Its 20 rooms (10 with water views) start at $125 for winter weekdays; $150 for a first-floor room on the water side. Two-night weekend packages, which include a five-course dinner for two, breakfast and Sunday brunch, are $480 to $580, depending on the room.
