Though only twelve miles long and five miles wide, Hilton Head Island manages to pack a lot in—real natural beauty, world-class golf, award winning restaurants, quality shopping, elegant homes, and friendly locals characterize this community.
Charming plantation communities are balanced with extensive wilderness areas to create a home that invites habitation while protecting the natural features that make this place so special. Strict building codes aim to preserve the surroundings, chain stores and the like are less commercialized and much of the local signage is low to the ground, minimizing clutter.
Hilton Head’s northern end—near the bridge to the mainland—is more residential than the resort orientated southern end. Windmill Harbor along the Intracoastal Waterway has lovely homes that reference historic Charleston style architecture, and the award winning South Carolina Yacht Club. A superb waterfront sports center also caters to residents.
Peaceful Spanish Wells faces Broad Creek and has streets lined in moss-draped ancient oaks. Many Spanish Wells homes have private docks, and the community also sports a private golf course and club.
Hilton Head Plantation is one of the islands largest residential neighborhoods, and it sits between Port Royal Sound and the Intracoastal Waterway. Four top-notch golf courses, a recreation center, several tennis courts, swimming pools, boating facilities, and miles of bike and jogging trails keep residents healthy and happy, and there are two lovely nature conservancies within the community as well. Seabrook Farms has garden space, and there are over two miles of clean white beach to enjoy.
On the subject of beaches, Hilton Head has over 6 miles of soft white sand, and locals enjoy a wide range of water sports, attested to by the number of boats in the island’s ten marinas. Cruises and tours take you up close to dolphins and other wildlife, and kayakers often enjoy a peaceful trip along the region’s wildlife rich inland waterways.
Hilton Head is well equipped for recreation in general, with several top-notch tennis facilities, recreation centers, and swimming pools, and a high number of sport fields and wilderness parks for a region of this size. Biking, horseback riding, and hiking trails crisscross the island and enable residents to get up close to herons, egrets, wood ducks, Carolina chickadees, jays, bluebirds, and yellow-rumped warblers, not to mention turtles, white-tail deer and small brown rabbits!
Renowned across the country for the caliber of its golf courses, Hilton Head was named one of the nations “Top Ten” best destinations by Golf Digest. With over 20 courses in the immediate vicinity, it will take you a while to experience all there is to enjoy here.
A popular holiday destination that sees an average 2 million visitors annually, Hilton Head has many world class resorts, sophisticated restaurants, and upscale shopping areas alongside family friendly seafood joints, funky specialty stores, and fun open air markets. There is a good local history museum and a family fun center, and a varied range of community events and festivals each year.
LOCATION
Beautiful Hilton Head Island is just off the southern coast of South Carolina and is part of Beaufort County. Highway-278 (locally known as the William Hilton Parkway,) runs down most of the island and connects it to the mainland. About 18 miles west of the island, SH-278 intersects with I-95, a major coastal interstate.
I-95 journeys south to Savannah, Georgia (about 40 miles from Hilton Head) before traveling through Georgia to Florida and down into Miami. I-95 north travels to Florence and into North Carolina and beyond.
Bluffton is about 6 miles from Hilton Head, and is just off SH-278, and Beaufort, the County seat, is about 35 miles away.
TRANSPORTATION/AIRPORTS
Thanks to its popularity as a holiday spot, Hilton Head Island is extremely accessible. The 12 mile island has its own centrally located regional airport, and the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport is only about 45 minutes away by car. With 53 flights daily to 16 major cities across the southern, central, and eastern states, this larger airport connects locals and visitors alike to national and international centers.
The Lowcountry Regional Transportation Authority operates a bus service throughout Beaufort County and surrounding counties, linking Hilton Head and Bluffton with Beaufort and other Lowcountry towns and centers. The LRTA also has a dial-a-ride service, offers transport to those on Medicaid, and coordinates vanpooling.
Amtrak operates out of Savannah, with trains traveling to major east coast centers.
With 10 marinas on the island, it’s not hard to enjoy the water in a big way. Many residents own their own water craft, but a variety of powerboats and waverunners can also be rented at several of the marinas. Charter companies offer tours to see outlying islands, dolphins and more, and kayaks and waterskiing gear can also be rented.
The County completed the relatively new Cross Island Parkway in 1999, designed to alleviate traffic during the summer peak-season. The Parkway is paid for by toll, and residents can use a 'Palmetto Pass,' which saves them 50% on the cost.
A BRIEF HISTORY
Native Americans lived on Hilton Head Island as from as early as 10,000 years ago, living off the land and sea. The first non-indigenous people to visit the region were Spaniards, who briefly checked out and named nearby St Helena Island. The first European to claim Hilton Head was William Hilton, who surveyed it and claimed it for England in 1663, naming it “Hilton’s Headland”.
Hilton worked tirelessly to promote settlement but English settlers were slow to respond, nervous as they were about the local tribal people living on the island, and the Spaniards and their colonial ambitions. It wasn’t until the early eighteen hundreds that Hilton’s Head began to be settled and planted, and by then South Carolina was an established colony with a plantation based economy.
Land owners on Hilton Head grew cotton, rice and indigo, labor intensive crops that relied on slave labor. The planters amassed large profits on the backs of the African slaves, but the onset of the Civil War changed this forever.
Many Civil War battles were fought around Hilton Head and the lovely antebellum homes and flourishing crops were left behind by the planters. Many plantation homes remain on the island today. The island remained a quiet spot for decades, until the close of the Second World War, when the resulting developmental boom lead to burgeoning development throughout the country.
The island’s first bridge was built in 1956, and developer Charles Fraser created “Sea Pines”, the island’s first resort community, and several new developments followed. Fraser worked hard to render his development environmentally sound, and his code of conduct has been a positive influence on subsequent development.
- NUMBER1EXPERT 
