23 Best Things to Do in Ocean Springs, MS
Ocean Springs sits on the north shore of Biloxi Bay, about an hour east of New Orleans. It is a small city, roughly 18,000 people, but it punches well above its weight for things to do. The arts scene is real, the food scene is serious, the water access is plentiful, and the pace is slower than the casino strip across the bridge. If you are coming from out of town and have two or three days, you will not run out of things to fill them.
Here is what is actually worth your time.
1. Walter Anderson Museum of Art
The Walter Anderson Museum of Art on Washington Avenue is the anchor of the cultural district and the reason many people make the drive to Ocean Springs in the first place. Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965) was a Mississippi-born artist who spent the last two decades of his life making thousands of paintings, drawings, and watercolors, most of them rooted in the Gulf Coast landscape. He paddled alone to Horn Island repeatedly, sometimes in rough weather, and documented what he found there with obsessive precision.
The museum’s collection spans his watercolors, block prints, and murals. The centerpiece is the Community Center Room, a small building behind the main museum where Anderson secretly covered every wall and the ceiling with a dense mural depicting a Gulf storm. He worked on it alone over years and sealed the windows with newspaper. No one saw it until after he died. Standing in that room is one of the more striking things you can do in Mississippi.
Allow at least 90 minutes. The gift shop carries quality prints.
2. Front Beach and East Beach
Ocean Springs has two accessible public beaches on the bay side. Front Beach is on the western end of the waterfront, near downtown, with a pier, calm water, and views of Biloxi across the bay. East Beach runs east along the shoreline and is less crowded on weekdays. Neither beach has the wide sugar-sand look of Pensacola, but the water is warm in summer and both spots are good for a swim, a walk, or watching boats come in and out.
Sunset at Front Beach is particularly good when the sky is clear. Bring your own chairs, as shade structures are limited.
3. Gulf Islands National Seashore, Davis Bayou Unit
Most people think of Gulf Islands National Seashore as the barrier islands, and those are worth the ferry trip. But the Davis Bayou Unit, on the east side of Ocean Springs off Park Road, is a free, underused park you can walk into any day of the week.
The unit has short hiking trails through salt marsh and pine forest, a campground, a boat launch, and a visitor center with exhibits on the seashore’s ecology and history. The 1.5-mile Davis Bayou Nature Trail goes through the marsh and is good for birding, particularly from fall through spring. Great blue herons are a constant. Clapper rails, ospreys, and painted buntings show up seasonally.
Admission is free. The campground takes reservations through recreation.gov.
4. Historic Downtown and Government Street
The core of downtown Ocean Springs is roughly a six-block stretch centered on Washington Avenue and Government Street. The buildings along here are a mix of Victorian storefronts, early-twentieth-century commercial blocks, and the occasional newer infill, and the city has done a reasonable job of keeping chain retail out. What you get instead is independent galleries, clothing shops, bookstores, and a concentration of restaurants that would not embarrass a city ten times the size.
The Anderson-designed murals inside the Ocean Springs Community Center building (not the museum, the civic building) are worth finding. The public art scattered through the downtown blocks rewards slow walking. If you are here on a weekend, give yourself two hours just to walk it.
For food and coffee while you explore downtown, see our best restaurants in Ocean Springs and best coffee shops in Ocean Springs guides.
5. Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center
The Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center, on Washington Avenue near the bayou, is the main performing arts venue in Ocean Springs. It hosts theater productions, music performances, gallery shows, and community events throughout the year. The building itself was renovated and expanded from an old school, and the main performance hall has decent acoustics and sightlines.
Check their calendar before your visit. If something is on during your stay, it is usually worth the ticket price. The center also has visual arts programming and classes that are open to the public.
6. Kayaking and Paddleboarding the Bayou
Ocean Springs sits at the confluence of Biloxi Bay and several tidal bayous, including the main Davis Bayou. Kayaking or paddleboarding through the marsh gives you access to parts of the coast that are invisible from the road.
Several local outfitters offer rentals and guided tours. The marshes around Davis Bayou and the shoreline east toward Pascagoula are the most productive for wildlife, particularly in the early morning. You will see mullet jumping, occasional dolphins working the bay, and more bird species than you would expect this close to a town.
The water is shallow and protected enough that moderate paddlers can handle it without a guide, but a guided trip adds context if you are not already familiar with the marsh ecosystem.
7. Peter Anderson Arts and Crafts Festival
The Peter Anderson Festival happens on the first weekend of November each year, and it is the largest arts and crafts festival on the Gulf Coast. It draws around 200 juried artists and roughly 100,000 visitors over two days, which is a remarkable number for a town this size.
The festival is named for Peter Anderson, Walter’s brother, who founded the Shearwater Pottery on Porteaux Bay Road. It is free to attend, covers the entire downtown area, and the quality of the work is generally high. If you are planning a fall trip to Ocean Springs, build it around this weekend. Book lodging months in advance.
8. Shearwater Pottery
Shearwater Pottery has operated on the Anderson family property on Porteaux Bay Road since Peter Anderson founded it in 1928. The family still runs it. They sell functional pottery, decorative pieces, and collectibles made on site, and the property has a small museum area that covers the Anderson family’s artistic legacy alongside the Walter Anderson Museum.
The drive out on Porteaux Bay Road is pleasant. The shop hours are limited, so check ahead before making the trip.
9. The Ocean Springs Harbor
The Ocean Springs Small Craft Harbor, off Hwy 90 near downtown, is a working marina with commercial and recreational boats. There is public access to walk the docks, watch the fishing boats unload, and catch views across the bay toward Biloxi. Charter fishing boats depart from here regularly for trips into the Gulf and around the barrier islands.
If you want fresh catch to take home or cook yourself, talk to the dock captains when boats come in. Several run informal sales off the boat.
10. Fishing, Inshore and Offshore
The waters around Ocean Springs are some of the best accessible fishing on the northern Gulf Coast. Inshore, the marshes and grass flats hold redfish, speckled trout, and flounder. The bay has sheepshead around structure. Offshore trips reach blue-water species including amberjack, red snapper, and king mackerel.
The harbor has multiple charter operators offering half-day, full-day, and overnight trips. Prices and boats vary, and your experience will depend heavily on the captain. If you are fishing inshore from shore or from a kayak, the Davis Bayou area and the grass flats east of town are productive.
Mississippi requires a fishing license for most saltwater fishing. Check current regulations at the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources website.
11. The Fairground Area and Farmer’s Market
Ocean Springs holds a Saturday morning farmers market at the old fairground near Washington Avenue. It runs seasonally and carries produce from local farms, prepared foods, and craft goods alongside fresh seafood. The market is smaller than a big-city counterpart, but the local vegetable growers and the fishmongers selling Gulf shrimp and oysters are worth the stop.
12. Gulf Islands National Seashore Barrier Islands (Horn Island, West Ship Island)
The barrier islands that make up Gulf Islands National Seashore are accessible by ferry from Gulfport (for West Ship Island) and by private boat for the others. Horn Island, the island Walter Anderson returned to repeatedly, is accessible by private boat only and requires permits for overnight camping. It is undeveloped, has no facilities, and the interior is mostly slash pine forest surrounded by Gulf beach. Going there is an experience distinct from anything on the mainland.
West Ship Island has a staffed visitor center, a historic fort (Fort Massachusetts), and a ferry service from Gulfport. It is a more practical day trip than Horn Island for visitors without a boat.
13. Biloxi Bay Bridge and the Crossing
The bridge connecting Ocean Springs to Biloxi across Biloxi Bay is one of the longer bay crossings on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The view from the bridge, looking west toward the Gulf and east toward the marsh, is a good orientation to the geography. If you are driving from New Orleans, the bridge gives you your first real look at what the coast is doing here, and it is a better introduction than the casino skyline on the other side.
14. Best Seafood in Ocean Springs
The combination of proximity to the Gulf and a culture that has been eating local seafood for generations means that Ocean Springs has a legitimate seafood dining scene. Oysters, Gulf shrimp, blue crab, and fresh fin fish all appear regularly on local menus. The options range from no-frills seafood shacks to sit-down restaurants with serious kitchens.
For a full rundown of where to eat, see our best seafood restaurants in Ocean Springs guide. We track what is actually good and update it when things change.
15. Art Galleries on Washington Avenue
Outside the Anderson Museum, Washington Avenue and the surrounding blocks have a cluster of independent galleries showing work by Gulf Coast artists. The quality varies, but several of the galleries have programming that changes regularly and represents artists worth knowing. If you are buying art, the concentration of options makes this stretch a serious place to spend an afternoon.
16. The Ocean Springs Boardwalk and Waterfront Park
The waterfront park area near Front Beach has a boardwalk section that runs along the bayou edge before it meets the bay. It is a short walk, maybe a quarter mile of boardwalk, but it offers close access to the marsh and is a better place to watch birds and fish jumping than the beach itself. Families with kids find the shallower, calmer water here easier to manage than the open beach.
17. Live Music
Ocean Springs has a live music culture that shows up in its bars and restaurants throughout the week, not just on weekends. The style leans toward blues, Gulf Coast soul, country, and rock, with occasional jazz. Several downtown venues book local and regional acts regularly. If music is a reason you travel, check the venue calendars in advance. The scene is small enough that a good act will be packed.
18. Ocean Springs Events and Annual Calendar
Beyond the Peter Anderson Festival, Ocean Springs has a calendar of annual events including the Spring Food and Wine Festival, holiday events on Washington Avenue, and recurring art walks. The Ocean Springs events calendar page on this site tracks the schedule. If you are planning a trip around an event, build in a night on each side to have time for the non-event parts of town.
19. Birding at Davis Bayou and the Marsh
Ocean Springs sits in a productive birding zone. The Davis Bayou unit, the marsh edges along the bay, and the scrub areas around the barrier islands all hold species that attract serious birders. Painted buntings appear in winter at feeders around town and in coastal scrub. Shorebird migrations through here in spring and fall bring species you will not find farther inland. The fall hawk migration, while not in the same league as the Texas coast, is visible from elevated spots near the shore.
The Mississippi Sandhill Crane refuge is a short drive east toward Gautier. The cranes are non-migratory, and the refuge has guided tours worth booking in advance.
20. The Anderson-Influenced Visual Art Trail
If you go deep on Walter Anderson’s work, you start noticing his influence on the visual culture of the city: murals, shop signage, public tile work, and the general color palette of downtown. Several other Ocean Springs artists have built on the tradition he represents, and the galleries and studios scattered through the city form something close to an informal art trail. Pick up a gallery map at the Walter Anderson Museum or the Mary C. O’Keefe.
21. Eating and Drinking Downtown
Ocean Springs has restaurants worth traveling for. The downtown blocks have a high density of independent places, from casual lunch spots to more serious dinner kitchens. For coffee before a morning walk through the galleries, the best coffee shops in Ocean Springs guide covers what is actually good.
22. Antiques and Independent Retail
The side streets off Washington Avenue have antique shops and used book dealers that are worth exploring if that is your thing. The quality and pricing are generally more reasonable than comparable shops in New Orleans or Nashville. A few of the dealers specialize in Gulf Coast furniture and decorative objects from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
23. Just Driving the Neighborhoods
The residential neighborhoods west of downtown, particularly along Lover’s Lane and the streets that run toward the bay, have well-maintained Victorian and Craftsman houses behind live oak canopies. The streets are not set up for walking safely in most places, but driving them slowly gives you a sense of what the city looked like before the Gulf Coast became the casino coast. Hurricane Katrina wiped out significant parts of the southern neighborhoods in 2005, but Ocean Springs rebuilt more intact than most Mississippi Gulf Coast cities.
Planning Your Trip
Ocean Springs is a 90-minute drive from New Orleans, about 15 minutes from Gulfport, and roughly 40 minutes from Mobile. The city does not have a commercial airport. Gulf Coast summer temperatures run hot and humid, so May and June are tolerable but July and August are genuinely difficult if you plan to be outside for long stretches. October and November are the best months. The Peter Anderson Festival falls in early November, and temperatures are generally in the 60s and 70s by then.
For more on what to eat and drink during your stay, see the best restaurants in Ocean Springs and best seafood restaurants in Ocean Springs guides.