Smith Island is Maryland's last inhabited offshore island without a bridge. It sits low in the Chesapeake Bay west of Crisfield, reached by passenger ferry, private boat, or not at all. That isolation is the point: the island moves by water, golf cart, skiff, bicycle, and foot.
The three villages of Ewell, Rhodes Point, and Tylerton still feel like working Chesapeake communities rather than a resort. Watermen leave for crab and oyster grounds, small docks line the channels, and the local accent carries traces of old coastal speech. The island is also famous for Smith Island cake, a tall stack of thin yellow cake layers and fudge icing that became Maryland's official state dessert.
Most visitors come for a slow day: ride the ferry over, walk through Ewell, visit the Smith Island Cultural Center, eat seafood and cake, and watch the marshes and channels from the water. The northern half of the island belongs to Martin National Wildlife Refuge, a broad sweep of salt marsh important for birds and Chesapeake habitat.
Smith Island is fragile. Erosion and sea-level rise are part of the travel story here, not an abstract future problem. Go with patience, check ferry times before you commit, and expect a place where weather and tides still have the final word.