Hilton Head Island & Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort!
- Mary Faucette
- 4 hours ago
- 6 min read
For breakfast this morning I had beignets (Mickey-shaped of course), which were delicious. I’ve now got a hankering for some Dole Whip, so I’ll head over to get some. Where am I? Not at a Walt Disney World Resort or Disney Springs, but on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina! This article is a two-fer—that is, it will review a USA hotspot (Hilton Head Island) and a Disney Vacation Club Resort—Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort at Shelter Cove.
Let’s start with some brief island history (since I love history). The name Hilton Head dates back to 1663 when an English sea captain exploring off the coast of South Carolina spotted a prominent bluff and named it Hilton Head after himself. Captain Hilton (no relation to the Hilton Hotel chain), however, was not the first to explore the area as the Spaniards had been there dating back to 1526. And, of course, Native Americans had traveled and lived in the area for thousands of years before, leaving behind shell rings that can be seen today!
In the 1860’s descendants of enslaved African people (who were brought to South Carolina in the 1700’s) established the self-sufficient Gullah neighborhoods. Given their isolated locations, these neighborhoods were able to preserve the Gullah vibrant traditions, food, crafts, and language. Today, Hilton Head offers many opportunities to learn about and experience this rich culture. To discover more, visit the Gullah Museum of HHI and the historic Mitchelville Freedom Park (the location of a freedman’s camp after the Civil War). You can also take a Gullah history tour and/or attend various festivals held in February, July, and October. The Original Gullah Festival occurs every Memorial Day weekend in Beaufort, a short drive from Hilton Head.
Hilton Head Island became an officially incorporated municipality in 1983 and is home to just under 39,000 inhabitants. But in the summer months the invasion of tourists can increase the population to anywhere from 150,000 to 300,000 people. Hilton Head’s unique eco-system also makes it home to a variety of wildlife and sea life, including alligators, sharks, dolphins, turtles and manatee, and also deer, foxes, coyotes, and bobcats. If you spend a week there, you will certainly see many of these, in addition to a variety of 350 species of birds that call, or tweet, HHI home. We often see deer grazing at night and once I saw a shark at the beach, in calf-high water! As people tell me, he was a little one (about 3-4 feet long), but coming “face to face” with him was surely a sobering moment!
The island’s salt marshes, essential for the quality of life for the local wildlife, make up the bulk of its ecosystem. Given the unique shape and location of the island, HHI experiences dramatic changes in its tides—a change that can vary between 6 to 10 feet, some of the highest variations on the East Coast. These shifts are responsible for cleaning, circulating nutrients, and bringing food to the marshes, creating an environment for sea life to live the high life! In addition, since low tides lead to shallow tidal creeks which keep larger predators out, dolphins live, frolic, and nurse their babies in abundance, making any dolphin cruise tour company pretty sure to deliver on the promise to see these beauties. But I’ve often also seen dolphins swimming, and jumping ala Sea World style, when at the beach or in the inlet known as Broad Creek behind the Disney resort.
Of course HHI has the beach, golfing, mini-golf courses, great places to eat, and lots of bike paths (it is a mecca for cruisers), but what else is there to do? There’s a great shopping plaza around Coligny Beach Park and the Tanger outlets are just over the bridge in Bluffton. Hilton Head also has a distillery where you enjoy a tasting of rum or other spirts or take a class in making cocktails. Enjoy theatre? HHI has a surprisingly good professional theatre at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina. There we’ve seen Broadway musicals like Something Rotten, Come From Away and Mean Girls.
A visit to Sea Pines, the community on the southwest side of the island (which does require the purchase of a $10 day pass) is well worth it. If you enjoy spotting alligators in the wild, you can often see them on a sunny day next to waterways—but don’t approach them of course! The Sea Pines Forest Preserve offers hours of exploration where you can find the 4,000-year-old Sea Pines Shell Ring, one of the shell rings I alluded to above, built by the Native Americans who first inhabited the island. The preserve also has a wildflower field and a Vanishing Swamp. You can also find the Stoney-Baynard Ruins in Sea Pines, which are the ruins of an old plantation that Union soldiers took over during the Civil War. Besides seeing what is left of this plantation, you can also take a stroll on the adjacent hiking trails. In Harbour Town, the main village in Sea Pines, you can visit the lighthouse, have your pick of great seafood restaurants, or catch a glimpse of (and at times even walk around) the final hole where the RBC Heritage PGA tournament is held.
While there are many types of accommodations on the island my absolute favorite is Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort. At the risk of sounding defensive, I am going to address some criticism I’ve heard leveled against this beloved resort. First, Disney’s main lodging is not on the beach. It is instead located on its own gated charming private island across a walkable small bridge from Shelter Cove Marina. I recently heard that you can “park” your boat for free at the marina if you are staying at Disney (now, all I need is a boat!). Shelter Cove has the benefit offering a range of great restaurants, shopping, and entertainment, including the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina I mentioned earlier. It is where HarbourFest is held all summer long, complete with family entertainment and fireworks several nights a week. All this is an easy stroll from Disney's island resort.
The rooms are all DVC—so each has a kitchen and balcony, and the one- and two-bedroom units have Murphy beds in the kitchen/living room. There’s a fishing pier and a pool and slide, and activities throughout the day. The Disney lifeguards are the most active I’ve ever seen; they diligently scan the pool and never sit down! Tide Me Over is the food service option for breakfast through an early dinner and a poolside cart is now available which serves adult beverages. A mercantile near the pool does sell Disney merchandise, but that is mostly where the “Disney” ends. I recently sat through a presentation of another vacation club on the island and when they heard we were DVC members and recently stayed at the DVC HHI resort, they remarked, “isn’t that for kids?” They must have never been to this Disney resort because there is nothing about this resort that makes it more or less “just for kids.” In fact, we saw way more kids at the other resort than we did at Disney!
What makes this DVC resort lovely are the quaint touches and attention to detail both inside the units and outside. Around the property there are hammocks, Adirondack chairs, and games like bocci ball, all interspersed throughout the live oak trees that populate the property. The resort hugs Broad Creek, where you can witness the tidal changes to the marsh throughout the day and commune with herons up close! You feel completely immersed with the nature of the island—which is what Hilton Head is all about, right?
Disney does have available to its guests a beach house in Palmetto Dunes, a short car or shuttle drive. There, the beach is a short walk from the garage or parking lot. At the beach house, there is another pool, a spot for lunch and drinks (including those yummy “pina-co-lavas” which are raspberry pina coladas), clean bathrooms, and an air-conditioned lounge area with games, TV, and a fireplace.
So, I find the Disney resort the “best of all worlds.” A lovely beachfront resort by day and a relaxing, quiet fishing lodge immersed in nature by night—which is also walking distance to good food and entertainment. And did I mention the Dole Whip and Disney beignets?
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