Free Admission Day at Fort Pulaski: Constitution Day, September 17, 2026

Fort Pulaski National Monument is waiving its entrance fee on Thursday, September 17, 2026, for Constitution Day, and the park's own event listing confirms the date. If the fort has been sitting on your family's someday list, a fee-free weekday at the tail end of summer is the nudge that turns someday into an actual morning on the calendar.

First, the math, done straight, because the number usually attached to free-admission days is inflated. Fort Pulaski's standard fee is $10 per person, and children under 16 are already free, every single day of the year. So the September 17 waiver does not save a family of four with two kids $40. It saves the two adults $20. That's still real money for a morning out, and it travels with a second free thing that makes the day genuinely cheap: the Junior Ranger program costs nothing any day of the year either. For a U.S.-resident family, the whole visit on the 17th runs on gas money.

The under-16 rule has a flip side worth knowing. The more people in your group who are 16 or older, the more the free day is worth. A three-generation crew with four adults saves $40. Add a 16-year-old and it's $50. For once, a teenager counting as an adult at the gate works in your favor.

The date, the hours, and the fine print

Thursday, September 17, 2026. Constitution Day marks the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787, and the park is marking it by dropping the entrance fee. The grounds are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the fort itself closes at 4:30 p.m., and the visitor center and restrooms close at 5. That stagger matters more than it looks: arrive at 3 p.m. and you're not getting a leisurely visit, you're getting a jog through a National Monument. Treat it as a morning.

The address is 41 Cockspur Island Road, Savannah, GA 31410, though the Savannah part undersells how close this is to the beach. Cockspur Island sits in the mouth of the Savannah River just off US-80, between Tybee and the city, and since US-80 is the only road on and off Tybee, you pass the park entrance every time you drive to or from the island. It's a short drive from here, on the way to everywhere else you'd go anyway. The park's number is (912) 219-4233 if you want to confirm anything that morning.

Two pieces of fine print. The waiver is for U.S. residents, and the NPS listing is explicit that standard admission rates apply for visitors from abroad, so if you've got international family in the car, they'll pay the normal rate while everyone else walks in free. And the listing is a fee waiver, not a festival. We're not promising ranger programs, cannon demonstrations, or anything ceremonial, because the park hasn't announced any. If something gets added, the park's event calendar will say so. The free door is the event.

What it costs the other 364 days

Some context, partly for anyone reading this after the 17th. The standard entrance fee, as the park currently publishes it, is $10 per person for visitors 16 and older, and a ticket stays valid for seven consecutive days, which is a quietly generous rule for anyone spending a week in the area. An annual Fort Pulaski pass runs $35. Payment is by credit or debit card only, no cash. Federal fees change on their own schedule, so treat those numbers as current-as-published and check the NPS fee page before a full-price visit. None of it applies on the free day, but it's what puts that $20 saving on solid footing.

The two-hour plan with kids

Start at the visitor center and pick up a Junior Ranger handbook before anyone heads for the fort. The program is free, it's open to children and adults of all ages, and the park says the book can take up to two hours to work through, which makes it less an activity sheet than the spine of the whole visit. Finishers earn a badge and a certificate. Non-finishers have options the park spells out itself: mail the completed book back later, or download the pages and wrap up at home. That flexibility takes the pressure off a family with one fast reader and one slow-moving four-year-old.

The fort rewards wandering more than a checklist. The moat is the opener, a real one you can walk beside, and it lands with kids in a way no exhibit panel ever will. Inside the walls, the parade ground is open grass with room to run, which the kid who just did the car ride will appreciate as much as anything historical, and the exhibits in the fort's restored rooms and the walk along the walls fill out the visit at whatever pace your group actually moves. If your kids are old enough to ask why this particular pile of bricks matters, the answer is standing right there: a section of wall breached by rifled cannon in 1862 and patched afterward, a bombardment of about 30 hours that made forts like this one obsolete almost overnight. We've told that story properly in our full Fort Pulaski guide, so this post won't restate it. The short version works fine in the car.

If the group's stamina outlasts the fort, the grounds also hold marsh and river trails where herons, egrets, and osprey are regulars, a different kind of scenery from anything on Tybee's beach side. It's the rare stop that gives the birdwatching grandparent and the moat-obsessed seven-year-old the same parking lot.

Budget about two hours inside at a comfortable pace, which pairs neatly with the handbook's two hours, since they run at the same time. The visitor center's park film and indoor exhibits are the built-in break, and in September that matters twice: once as relief from the heat, once as shelter if an afternoon shower moves through.

Arrive early, pack like it's summer

Go in the morning. We can't tell you how busy a fee-free Thursday will be, and we won't pretend to. Local schools went back on August 3, which argues for a quiet weekday, but free days have their own gravity, so we won't promise an empty parade ground either. What we can say for certain: the fort closes at 4:30, Savannah-area September normals run to highs around 86, and the fort's brick and open grounds offer little shade by early afternoon. A 9 or 10 a.m. start gets the handbook done before lunch and skips the hottest stretch of the day.

Pack water, sunscreen, hats, and closed shoes for the walking. September around Savannah also averages a bit over four inches of rain, most of it arriving in short afternoon bursts rather than washed-out days, so a light rain layer earns its spot in the bag. There's a paved parking area at the visitor center, and the walk in from the car is short.

Where to stay for it

The fort sits between Savannah and Tybee, so either works as a base, and plenty of visitors treat it as a stop on the drive between the two. The case for the island side is everything that surrounds the fort morning. Tybee's beaches are lifeguarded daily through October 31, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and the water at the NOAA station beside the island has averaged around 80 degrees in September for three years running. A free fort in the morning and a warm, guarded ocean in the afternoon is about as good as a family day here gets.

We're Dunes Inn & Suites at 1409 Butler Ave, 54 rooms across two buildings, a short walk from South Beach. A few pieces of family arithmetic that fit this particular trip. Parking in our lot is free for guests, one car per room, while public parking on the island runs $4.00 an hour, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 365 days a year. The 2 Queen Beds with Kitchenette room has a mini-fridge, microwave, and stovetop, which is how a fort-day cooler gets packed without a restaurant receipt. We don't serve breakfast on site, one more argument for that stovetop. Bigger crews have the Mini Suite and the two-bedroom apartment, each sleeping six, and the four-adult multi-generational group saving $40 at the gate fits in exactly those rooms. If the free day talks you into staying longer, our special offers page carries standing discounts of 10 percent on two nights and 15 percent on three.

What else is on that week

September 17 is a Thursday, which shapes the week nicely if you can stretch the trip around it. The Tybee Island Marine Science Center at the island's north end is open Wednesday through Monday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and makes a natural indoor companion for the day before or after. Stay into the following week and the center's calendar improves further: Toddler Thursday on September 24, built for ages 1–4, and the release of Ossie, a rehabilitated loggerhead sea turtle, on Saturday, September 26 at 10 a.m., free with regular admission. On Mondays through October there's the farmers market on the Light Station grounds, 4 to 7 p.m. Our September family calendar has the whole month in one place, and the things to do page covers the standing attractions for the days in between.

Planning to be on Tybee for the 17th? Check availability for that week, pencil the fort in for the morning, and let the $20 you didn't spend at the gate cover the ice cream after.