Ocean Springs and the Gulf Coast

A live-oak art town on the Mississippi Sound — Walter Anderson’s islands, potato-flour doughnuts, and a beach with a bridge view.

The short version

• Ocean Springs sits 90 miles east on I-10 — about an hour and a half by car. Amtrak’s Mardi Gras trains also run twice daily from New Orleans to Biloxi in under two hours, and a short cab across the bay bridge finishes the job — a genuinely usable car-free route.
• Walter Anderson rowed twelve miles offshore to Horn Island for weeks at a time to paint pelicans, crabs, and hurricanes on typing paper; the museum built around his life’s work — including the “little room” he painted floor to ceiling in secret — anchors downtown; hours at walterandersonmuseum.org.
• Washington Avenue runs under a tunnel of live oaks past galleries, coffee roasters, and the Tatonut Shop, where potato-flour doughnuts have drawn lines since the 1960s and sell out with no remorse.
• Front Beach gives the town its gulf edge — white sand, calm Sound water, and the Biloxi Bay bridge arcing across the sunset — a walk, not a destination resort, which is the charm.
• The Davis Bayou unit of Gulf Islands National Seashore keeps marsh boardwalks, alligators, and bayou kayak launches five minutes from downtown, free — trail maps at nps.gov/guis.

Serious Day Tour Man saysThe train is real but it stops in Biloxi, not Ocean Springs — budget the short cab across the bridge and check the return schedule before you linger over a second doughnut, because two departures a day means missing one matters. Drivers: Tatonut runs out and takes days off like a shop that has nothing to prove, so go in the morning and have a backup pastry plan.

Getting there

Two honest routes: I-10 east for 90 minutes, or Amtrak’s Mardi Gras service from Union Passenger Terminal to Biloxi — two trains a day each way, under two hours — then a ten-minute cab over the bay bridge into Ocean Springs. The train turns the Gulf Coast into scenery instead of interstate; the car buys flexibility for Davis Bayou and an evening return. Once in town, everything downtown is walkable and the bayou is a five-minute drive or a long bike ride.

The day

Start under the oaks on Washington Avenue — Tatonut before the trays empty, coffee after — then give the Walter Anderson museum its full ninety minutes: the Horn Island logs, the watercolors, and the painted room he never showed anyone make the town make sense. Lunch downtown runs from po-boys to white-tablecloth southern. Afternoon splits by temperament: Davis Bayou’s boardwalks and gator-spotting for the outdoor case, or the pottery and gallery crawl — Shearwater Pottery, founded by Anderson’s family, still throws and sells — for the indoor one. End on Front Beach as the light drops and the bridge goes silhouette, then drive or ride home fed.

When to go

October through May is the Gulf Coast’s kind season — soft air, open patios, and festival weekends, with the Peter Anderson Festival in early November turning the whole downtown into a craft fair of serious size. Summer runs hot and humid with afternoon storms; mornings and the bayou’s shade handle it. Hurricane season asks only that you check the forecast like everyone else here does.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you get to Ocean Springs from New Orleans?
Drive I-10 east about 90 minutes, or take Amtrak’s Mardi Gras train to Biloxi — twice daily, under two hours — and cab across the bay bridge. The train makes it a legitimately car-free day if you respect the schedule.

Who was Walter Anderson?
A Gulf Coast painter who rowed to the barrier islands for weeks alone, producing thousands of watercolors of birds, water, and weather — and a secret room painted wall to wall, discovered after his death in 1965. The downtown museum holds the room and the best of the work.

Is the beach worth it?
Front Beach is a calm-water Sound beach made for walks and sunsets rather than surf — bring the camera for the bridge, not the boogie board. The barrier islands Anderson painted lie offshore in the national seashore.

What is Tatonut?
A family doughnut shop frying potato-flour doughnuts since the 1960s — light, slightly tangy, and gone by late morning on weekends. It keeps its own hours; going early is the only strategy.

What is at Davis Bayou?
The mainland unit of Gulf Islands National Seashore: free marsh boardwalks, a visitor center, kayak launches, and resident alligators five minutes from downtown — an easy green hour between galleries and the beach.