Start from 26 curated places around Ocean Springs, MS, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Vestige
The most serious restaurant on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and one of the few with national recognition to match that claim: Michelin Guide listed and a James Beard Outstanding Restaurant semifinalist. The format is a multi-course contemporary tasting menu built around Gulf seafood and local produce, run by a husband-and-wife team whose cooking shows strong Japanese influence in texture and restraint. Reservations are essential, the room is intimate, and the service is the kind that explains every course without making the explanation feel like a lecture.
The Tatonut Shop
A Government Street institution that has been making potato-flour doughnuts since the 1960s under the same family, and the light, airy texture that comes from the potato starch is genuinely unlike anything at a chain shop. The no-frills counter setup, the long weekend lines, and the dedicated local following are all part of the experience. The Katrina Pieces, irregular fry-off scraps that were born out of post-hurricane supply rationing, became a permanent menu item because customers would not let them go.
Trails & outdoors
Gulf Islands Seashore: Davis Bayou Area Trail
The main hiking trail in the Mississippi section of Gulf Islands National Seashore, a 2.7-mile out-and-back route through coastal forest and over bayou boardwalks that starts at the visitor center parking lot. The trail passes through habitat that transitions from pine scrub to dense hardwood along the bayou banks, and it connects to the Nature's Way interpretive loop and the CCC Spur Trail for visitors who want to extend the walk. Wildlife sightings are common: great blue herons, osprey, and the occasional alligator basking on the far bank.
Fontainebleau Nature Trail
A 1.6-mile loop trail in the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge that follows a pine forest ridge above Davis Bayou, offering views across the bayou and through the wet pine savanna that the refuge was established to protect. The trail is the best public-access walk to see the endangered habitat that supports one of the rarest birds in North America; the cranes themselves are elusive but the refuge staff can advise on current sightings. Birdwatchers consistently rate it among the top birding walks on the Gulf Coast.
Things to do
Mary C. O'Keefe Cultural Arts Center
A 1927 public school building that survived to become Ocean Springs' primary performing arts venue and community cultural hub, housing a 300-seat intimate theater, two local galleries, and the History of Ocean Springs Museum. The programming calendar runs from classical candlelight concerts and theatrical productions to culinary events and visual art openings, and the acoustics in the renovated theater reward even midsize performances with surprisingly rich sound. It is the indoor event anchor for a town that hosts an unusually active arts calendar given its size.
Lost Spring Brewing Company
An Ocean Springs craft brewery launched in 2021 that has become a social anchor on Bellande Avenue for the town's younger resident base and visiting weekenders. The indoor space is compact but the outdoor seating is generous, and the programming mixes house-brewed seasonal ales with craft cocktails, imported beers, and a rotating live music calendar. The vibe runs toward inclusive and casual, and the big screen for sports and the friendly bar staff give it staying power beyond a single visit.
Landmarks & sights
Walter Anderson Museum of Art
The anchor of Ocean Springs' identity as an art town, built around the life and work of Mississippi artist-philosopher Walter Anderson, who spent decades painting Gulf Coast birds, plants, and seascapes with an intensity that reads more like obsession than hobby. The centerpiece is the Little Room, a floor-to-ceiling mural Anderson painted secretly in his cottage and only discovered after his death, moved here and displayed in its own cathedral-like chamber. The adjoining 3,000-square-foot Community Center mural, commissioned for a dollar, is the most ambitious public artwork in the state.
Shearwater Pottery
The Anderson family pottery studio has operated on the same wooded property since the late 1920s, and the cluttered compound of production sheds and kilns looks like a working artist's space rather than a retail destination. Peter Anderson's descendants still throw pots here, and visitors can watch production happening on the same vintage equipment used for nearly a century. The showroom sells functional ware, figurines, and decorative tiles that show up on mealtimes in houses all over the Gulf Coast.