Tybee Named America’s Healthiest Beach

A national magazine is honoring Tybee Island as America’s healthiest beach.  Health magazine is giving Tybee the top spot in its July-August issue.

Tybee earned high marks from the judge’s panel, using criteria such as the average cost to stay in the area, the variety of healthy activities and healthy food available, air and water quality, and presence of emergency personnel like lifeguards.

“It shows that we are doing a great job with our beach water quality, which is a really important issue. A lot of communities around the country have had to close down their beaches because they haven’t necessarily been good stewards of their environment, and we’ve taken proactive measures to make sure our beach water quality is very good,“ said Mayor Jason Buelterman.

Biking, walking, and other outdoor activities helped Tybee score well with Health magazine and with those who stay here often.

“You can bicycle any where here on the island and we love to walk on the beach, it’s a nice long beach, you can walk forever really. but I will say when I’m here I tend to eat a lot more fried food than I ever would in Massachusetts,“ said Debbie Davidson, a Massachusetts resident who also owns a condo on Tybee.

The city and volunteers also work hard to keep the beaches litter-free. Visitors and long-time islanders say being named Healthiest Beach is an exciting honor for the entire Tybee community.

“We’ll look for that healthy attitude out there, all those people out walking ‘cause we really have seen quite a few people out running and out on their bicycles and stuff,“ said Don Dorrell of Indiana, a first-time visitor to Tybee.

“They evaluated beaches all around the United States and for our little tiny community to take home this honor is quite something,“ said Buelterman.

Click here to view the list of America’s Healthiest Beach and Lake Getaways.