Daufuskie Island ferry: the county boat from Pinckney Island to Melrose Landing

Look at a map of the South Carolina coast and Daufuskie is the last piece of land before the Savannah River and the Georgia state line: a sea island of about 2.5 by 5 miles, wedged between Hilton Head to the north and the river mouth to the south. It has roughly 450 year-round residents, dirt roads, alligators in the ponds, and no road connection of any kind. Either you come by private boat or you come by ferry.

The ferry that Beaufort County pays for leaves from C.C. Haigh, Jr. Boat Landing on Pinckney Island, which US 278 crosses on its way onto Hilton Head, and lands at Melrose Landing on Daufuskie. It is run under contract by Lowcountry Ferry, which has held the job since January 16, 2024, and which sets the schedule and sells every ticket. The county's role is the subsidy, the landings and the discount program for islanders.

That split explains most of what follows: a single visitor fare with online booking, a separate set of discounted fares for residents that visitors cannot touch, and two public docks that the county has been rearranging for the past two years. Among the Southern routes we cover, no other has seen its operator and both of its landings change so recently.

Four crossings each way, the same seven days a week

Daily schedule with no end date, as published by Lowcountry Ferry and in Beaufort County's January 2026 passenger guide; read on September 25, 2026   Lowcountry Ferry — Book a Trip and Trip Times · 2026-09-25

Thirty dollars a leg, and what the luggage adds

Every ticket covers a single direction, and the booking system sells the outbound and the return as separate trips, each at $30.00. A day visitor who goes over at 10:00 and comes back on the 14:30 therefore books two departures and pays $60.00. Each seat is tied to a specific boat, and the contractor asks islanders not to hold several places on the same day.

Each ticket includes one carry-on the size of airline cabin luggage, up to 50 lb, and one personal item such as a purse or a small backpack. Everything beyond that is cargo, priced by weight, and a wagon counts as cargo unless you hold a resident's pass.

Fares shown in Lowcountry Ferry's booking system on September 25, 2026   Lowcountry Ferry — booking system and visitor FAQs · 2026-09-25

A county boat ramp off US 278 and a dock the county now owns

From Mackay Creek to Melrose Landing, about an hour on the water

Measured on the map, the landings lie a little over eight miles apart as the crow flies, and the contractor does not publish the course it takes from the county ramp on Mackay Creek. It puts the whole trip at approximately an hour, and the timetable is built around that, with ninety minutes between each departure from Pinckney Island and the next one back from Melrose.

Anything too big for the passenger cabin goes by a separate luggage barge, which crosses once a day when there is enough to carry. For lumber, appliances or building supplies the contractor points people to the barge operating out of Broad Creek instead.

Booking a seat, packing light and landing without a car

• Reserve online first

  Seats are booked through the contractor's website, one direction at a time. Book the return when you book the outbound, and hold only the seats you will use: the contractor asks islanders not to reserve several boats on the same day.

• Forty-five minutes early

  Riders are asked to be at the landing 45 minutes before departure. The gate closes five minutes before the boat leaves, and it leaves on time.

• One carry-on, one personal item

  The allowance is a 22 x 14 x 9 in bag up to 50 lb plus something the size of a purse or a standard backpack. Put cold food in cooler bags that fit a 27-gallon tote, since that is how extra items are counted.

• Rent the cart before you cross

  The island is about 2.5 by 5 miles, mostly dirt roads, with no downtown and no streetlights. Carts are in short supply in season, and a rental's ground transport from the dock is a separate arrangement from a cart.

• Water only on board

  Eating and drinking on the vessel are not allowed apart from bottled water, and glass is banned. Tap water on the island is drinkable, so a refillable bottle is the lighter choice.

• Residents carry two IDs

  Anyone traveling at a discounted rate must show a government photo ID, a valid QDR card with the county, ferry and Palmetto Breeze logos, and a matching ticket; without the card the full fare applies.

A court order, a new contractor and a dock bought for the public

Until the end of 2023 the public boat to Daufuskie left from Buckingham Landing. A court order ended that, and from January 1, 2024 the county switched the embarkation point to the C.C. Haigh ramp; in the last days of December riders could already park at Pinckney and take a shuttle to Buckingham, so that their cars would be waiting on the right side when they came home. Two weeks later, on January 16, Lowcountry Ferry took over the contract from the previous provider, with online reservations opening that month.

The island end followed in December 2025. Melrose Landing had been privately owned, and under a settlement the county and Redfish Holdings split it: the county took the road, the parking and the main pier, and the owners of the Melrose Resort kept the southwest docks. The county called the result a permanent, county-owned embarkation point and promised to drop parking and access fees on the island side. The crossing works on a different model from the North Carolina run to Bald Head Island, on which a private company runs a larger ferry that a public authority is trying to buy, and from the fare-free Savannah Belles just across the state line.

Questions riders bring to the C.C. Haigh ramp