Courtesy Coastal Discovery Museum

In 2007, a 19th-century Hilton Head Island plantation became home to the Coastal Discovery Museum, where interpreters unlock mysteries of the salt marsh while groups observe fiddler crabs and marsh birds from meandering boardwalks.

Tours ramble past marsh tackies, South Carolina’s state heritage horses, romping in paddocks and past gardens where chrysalises morph into butterflies and 100 varieties of vibrant camellias bloom all winter.

“You can’t turn around without seeing something related to the history and environment of the Lowcountry,” said vice president of programs Natalie Hefter.

The museum’s offerings range from an Island Discovery Van Tour to a Civil War-era chat or a Dolphin Nature Cruise. In a Blue Crab Discovery Program, visitors learn how to cook and pick crabs, then get to gobble them down.

www.coastaldiscovery.org