One of the most sought-after tour tickets in the Georgetown area is for the annual Plantation Home Tour (843/545-8291). Sponsored by the Episcopal Church Women of Prince George Winyah Parish, this event, generally happening the first week in April, brings visitors onto many local private antebellum estates that are not open to the public at any other time. Each ticket is for either the Friday or Saturday tour, both of which feature a different set of homes. Tickets include a tea at the Winyah Indigo Society Hall each afternoon.

For a standard downtown tour, get on one of the blue and white trams of Swamp Fox Historic District Tours (1001 Front St., 843/527-6469), which leave daily on the hour starting at 10 a.m. near the Harborwalk.

The best walking tour of Georgetown is Miss Nell’s Tours (843/546-3975, Tues. and Thurs. 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., other times by appointment). Leaving from the Harborwalk Bookstore (723 Front St.), Miss Nell, who’s been doing this for over 20 years, takes you on a delightful trek through Georgetown’s charming downtown waterfront.

Water dominates life in this region, and that may just be the best way to enjoy it. One of the more interesting local water-borne tours is on board the Jolly Rover and Carolina Rover (735 Front St., 843/546-8822, www.rovertours.com, Mon.–Sat., times and prices vary). The former is an honest-to-goodness tall ship which takes you on a two-hour tour of beautiful Winyah Bay and the Intracoastal Waterway, all courtesy of a crew in period dress. The latter takes you on a three-hour ecotour to nearby North Island, site of the historic Georgetown Lighthouse. You can’t tour the Lighthouse itself, but you can get pretty darn close to it on this tour.

The always-entertaining Cap’n Sandy’s Tours (343 Ida Dr., 843/527-4106) also takes you to North Island in the shadow of the Lighthouse; call for times and rates.

For a more intense maritime ecotourism experience, contact Black River Outdoors Center and Expeditions (21 Garden Ave., 843/546-4840, www.blackriveroutdoors.com). Their stock-in-trade is a nice half-day tour by kayak ($55 adults, $35 ages 12 and under), generally including creeks in and around Huntington Beach and through the fascinating matrix of blackwater/cypress swamps that once comprised the rice kingdom of Georgetown and vicinity. They also offer a harbor tour for $35 per person.

For a much simpler, less nature-oriented water tour, try Cap’n Rod’s Lowcountry Tours (843/477-0287, www.lowcountrytours.com). Rod’s pontoon boat is on the Harborwalk just behind the Rice Museum. A three-hour “Plantation River Tour,” leaving Mon.–Sat. at 10 a.m., runs $25 for adults and $20 children.