The Best Ice Cream & Sweet Treats on Tybee Island

Tybee has a dozen places to get a beer and a plate of shrimp for every one place to get a scoop of ice cream, which is part of why the scoop shops matter. They're the other half of a beach day. Sand in your shoes, sunscreen on your forehead, a cone dripping faster than you can eat it: that's the version of Tybee nobody puts on a postcard and everybody remembers.

This is a short list, on purpose. Three dedicated treat shops, one chain we'll admit to, a grocery store with a surprising baked good, and a handful of restaurants with dessert worth saving room for.

A note on timing before we start. This is a seasonal beach town, and shop hours move around with the weather and the crowds. Check each place's own page for hours and prices before you go.

The Sugar Shack

Start at 301 1st Street, where the island's longest-running ice cream shop has been handing out cones for more than thirty years. It's open year-round now, with a full menu, which is not something you can say about every scoop shop on a barrier island.

The draw is hand-dipped ice cream in a long list of flavors, and the one locals point to is banana pudding. If you only order one thing, order that. If you're traveling with people who don't commit to a flavor without sampling, this is a good place to be patient, because the case is big enough to need a minute.

Visit Tybee's food guide, How to Eat Your Way Through Tybee Island, includes it, and that's where to check current details.

Seaweed's Sno-Balls & Ice Cream

Seaweed's is a walk-up window at 1405 Butler Avenue, next to Sting Ray's Seafood. Butler Avenue is also the street the Sandcastle Inn sits on, which is one reason we know this window by sight.

The specialty is the sno-ball. If you've only had a snow cone, the difference is the ice: shaved fine and soft, so the syrup soaks through instead of pooling at the bottom. It's the New Orleans way, and Seaweed's does it in a wide range of flavors. The window also does ice cream, sundaes and shakes, so a group that can't agree has options that don't involve splitting up.

Savannah Magazine called it "an essential stop" in a 2024 feature on Highway 80's hot spots and hidden gems. On a hot afternoon, the sno-ball is the better answer than ice cream, because it melts into something you can drink rather than something you have to wear.

Seaside Sweets

Seaside Sweets is on the South End, next to Seaside Sisters, and it's the one on this list that functions as a proper old-fashioned sweet shop. The ice cream and gelato are made from scratch, and around them you get bulk candy, saltwater taffy, fudge and coffee.

That mix makes it the best stop for the person who wants something to take home. A bag of taffy survives a car ride to Savannah. A scoop doesn't. Visit Tybee lists it in its shopping guide, so look there for the current address and hours.

It's also a decent plan B when the line at a cone window is long. Coffee in the morning, gelato in the afternoon, same door.

Ben & Jerry's

Yes, it's a national chain, and no, it isn't what we'd call a Tybee original. It earns a line here because it's a locally owned franchise, re-opened in 2024 after a change of ownership, and it's at 15 (C) Tybrisa Street, the main strip running toward the beach. The brand's own Tybee Island page has its current hours.

Go here when you want a flavor you already know, or when somebody in the group has strong feelings about a particular pint. Go to the Sugar Shack or Seaside Sweets when you want something that could only be on Tybee.

Tybee Market IGA

This one is not a sweet shop, which is exactly why it's on the list. The island's grocery store, at 1111 Butler Avenue, makes fresh cinnamon rolls with vanilla glaze, and you can pre-order them for pickup.

It's an unusually good trick for a beach morning. The inn doesn't serve breakfast, so a pre-ordered cinnamon roll, picked up while you're already buying sunscreen and ice, is about as practical as a sweet start to the day gets. The write-up is in the same Savannah Magazine feature as Seaweed's.

Pier 16

Now the sit-down tier. Visit Tybee's current guide to sweet spots on the island names four restaurants for a dessert worth ordering on purpose, and the cleanest way to use it is as a menu of excuses to stay at the table.

Pier 16's pick is the Peanut Butter Explosion Cake. The name does most of the explaining. This is a dessert to split between at least two people, preferably after a dinner light enough to allow it.

Fannie's on the Beach

Fannie's gets the Key Lime Pie nod. It's the right dessert for a beach restaurant: cold, sharp, a little sweet, and light enough that you can still walk home afterwards. If you're comparing restaurants for a sunset dinner and one of them has a pie you've been thinking about all week, that's a legitimate tiebreaker.

Sting Ray's

The Chocolate Mousse Pie is Sting Ray's contribution. Seaweed's sno-ball window is next door, so if the pie wasn't enough, there's a second dessert a few steps away. Nobody is keeping score.

Rock House

Rock House rounds out the Visit Tybee list with a Triple Chocolate Cake, which is exactly as unsubtle as it sounds. Order it when the table has agreed the day was long enough to deserve it.

One more mention

The Crab Shack serves New York cheesecake and Leopold's ice cream, the Savannah favorite, as its dessert end. There's no standalone Leopold's shop on Tybee, so this is the place on the island where you'll find it.

Which one to pick

The best stop depends on what you want. For a classic cone, go to the Sugar Shack. For something cold and flavored on a hot afternoon, go to Seaweed's. For something to carry home, go to Seaside Sweets. For a grown-up finish to dinner, pick a restaurant from the list above.

Fitting it into a trip

If you're building a day around sweets, a few ideas that don't require a car.

Start on Butler Avenue, where the inn sits. Tybee Market IGA is at 1111 Butler, so a pre-ordered cinnamon roll is the morning stop. Seaweed's is at 1405 Butler, next to Sting Ray's Seafood, which means a sno-ball in the afternoon and a slice of Chocolate Mousse Pie after dinner can happen on the same block. That is the whole sweet itinerary for one street, and it needs no planning beyond the pre-order.

For a second day, work the other direction. The Sugar Shack at 301 1st Street is the classic cone, and banana pudding is the order. Seaside Sweets on the South End is where you stock up on taffy and fudge before the drive home. Ben & Jerry's on Tybrisa Street is the easy fallback for anyone in the group who wants a flavor they already know.

Walk the South End in the afternoon, with Seaside Sweets as the anchor. The Sugar Shack is on 1st Street on the north side, about a mile and a half from us. Tybee is about three miles end to end, and the south end packs the pier, the beach access and most of the restaurants into a handful of blocks. Parking is metered on the island, so leaving the car at the inn and walking saves you the meter and the circling. Our budget guide works through the parking math.

If you travel with a dog, the ice cream walk is a good one to know about. Dogs aren't allowed on any Tybee beach, so the usual compromise is a leashed stroll through town with a cone for you. We're pet-friendly at the inn, and our dog-friendly guide covers what else is open to four-legged guests.

For more on where to eat around the island, our dining page is the place to start. For the rest of a day, things to do has the beach, the lighthouse and the rest of the list. If you're looking at dates, our special offers page shows what's currently available, and our rooms are simple, comfortable and priced for a trip where you'd like money left over for a second scoop.