Best of Hilton Head
Photo by Camylla Battani on Unsplash
It’s Travel blog time again! This summer we took the kids to Hilton Head South Carolina and it was amazing. If you’ve not been to South Carolina, go. It is a beautiful state and Hilton Head is a great place that is family friendly, there’s so much to do outdoors and the beaches are so much fun.
Travel: Hilton Head has just opened up an airport on the island which obviously makes travel to and from now so much more convenient than when you would have to fly into Charlestown, rent a car and then drive another hour+ to Hilton Head. We flew United this time - which is a quick 3 hour flight from Dallas to HH and then grabbed an Uber that was roughly 20 min from the airport to our condo.
Where we stayed:
You can find our condo on VRBO - #1441590
This is a wonderful place to stay. We had two bedrooms as well as a sleeper sofa in the living room. The master sports a king bed and the guest has two singles where the kids stayed and then my folks went on this trip with us and stayed on the sleeper sofa in the living room. We are clean freaks in the Hubbart household and vacation is always more restful when the place we stay feels just as clean as our home. Shorewood Villas did not disappoint. It’s very clean, up to date, close to the beach and the owners Jon & Suzanne were so helpful before and during our stay! Affordable, clean, friendly, great location… This truly is the place to stay!
Best things we did:
Bike rentals - We rented bikes for everyone for the entire week and made that our predominate mode of transportation. This was probably the fan favorite of everything we did during the week. It’s always so much fun to spend a week being able to get everywhere you want to go on a bike… It’s like being a kid again and getting your workouts in all day long riding everywhere. Place we rented: Bicycle Billy’s
Mini Golf - Dax has become a mini golf fanatic… He got on a kick of watching ‘Holey Moley’ on TV, so when we passed the mini golf courses on the way to our condo he was all about it. Unlike the DFW area, Hilton Head has a beautiful landscape of trees, green grass, flowers, etc… We actually ended up playing two different days at Legendary Golf. It’s reasonably priced, has fun holes, and they have one of those little ice cream freezers in the club house where we grabbed our fam favorite summer 19’ Push Pops! Mini Golf always presents a great opportunity to make fun memories as a family laughing, cheering on your kids when they sink a hole in 1 and to just be a kid again.
Family Beach Time - The condo we stayed in is right on the beach, so just having a 2 min walk from the back door to standing on the beach we spent a lot of time boogie boarding, playing ball, wading out in the water, burying our children in the sand… Hanging at the beach was so much fun and so relaxing. Hilton Head beaches are clean, the water is nice, and the weather was perfect for our daily beach time.
Pool Bar Jim’s - We hit up the beach bar a few times mid-day to grab one of their specialty mixes. The Beach Bar has this what feels like an encyclopedia book of drinks to choose from - your biggest problem will be to narrow it down to one or two choices… The bar tenders are engaging and a lot of fun to get to know and this is a great spot to take a beach break with a nice cold drink (both adult and kid friendly).
Late Night Walks on the Beach - Riane and I made sure to take time each evening to either take Dax on the beach to hunt for crabs or we would just take a walk and talk about the day and life. We don’t get a lot of opportunities to just walk and talk about things that have nothing to do with work, or schedules, or life, etc… But to just enjoy each others company and Hilton Head was a great place to catch some make-up time for those moments.
Best places we ate:
Carolina Coffee & Crumbs - A+
This was a morning routine coffee spot. Riane and I would get out the door before everyone else was up to grab some coffee and a spend some time planning out the day and then head back to the condo to get everyone up and out the door for the day. The coffee is really good and it’s a super cute lil coffee shop. Great service, fun people and a total beach feel inside. They have a wide selection of muffins, shakes, a couple fun b-fast plates and is one of our top rated suggestions for food stops. It is literally down the street from the condo, so we would just hop on our bikes and ride the 3 minutes and enjoy the morning air when it’s really not that busy yet. It made for a perfect spot to have those quality conversations about life, what’s next, goals, hopes, dreams, etc… These are the special moments Riane and I get for this kind of thing and this was the perfect spot to get a few of those in during our stay.
Jane Bistro and Bar - A+
Best place we ate all week. I had this fish and grit cake that was amazing. This is the one spot that we put on repeat for dinner and went back to the last night we were there. We are somewhat picky when it comes to eating (which you may have picked up on if you’ve followed our blogs at all…) I’m definitely more of a diva with food than Riane, but we are both are food snobs… Jane Bistro is a must when you are in Hilton Head. The wait staff was super fun, the outdoor patio was beautiful in the summer evening and everyone in our family really enjoyed the meals we shared both nights we ate there. Jane’s Bistro is high quality and kid friendly. Both Tanner and Dax cleaned their plates both nights we ate there and we were excited to go back the second time. Not a normal thing for our family of 4, because one of them always has an issue with where we eat. Great food, great staff, and has that new modern “white brick” should have been on HGTV for the build process feel to it. Again, this is the place to eat in our opinion!
Tiki Hut - A
This is a fun little spot right on the beach that serves your food in a vintage metal lunch box… Really cool spot. The drinks are great as is the food, especially for a little dive bar sitting on the beach where you would typically expect a little more grease. Definitely recommend hitting this place up for lunch! The atmosphere is that fun, outside beach feel - that just wear your swimsuit if you want type of feel. (Like that’s what people are doing…)
A Low Country Backyard - B-
This is a cool little spot with a fun outdoor/backyard type vibe. They have multiple games for the kids to be up and playing while you are waiting on your food and it’s a good coastal seafood type place that has a quality banana pudding. A Low Country Backyard is more of a fun experience than it is a high quality restaurant but it was worth the ride over and we had a lot of fun with it. Don’t expect to come home thinking that’s the best food you’ve ever eaten, but do expect for your kids to have a lot of fun and to have a different dining experience than the normal sit down, order, eat and you’re out.
All said and done: Hilton Head was a win! A+. The entire family had a blast and it was yet another one for the books when it comes to “Hey you guys remember when __________.”
Happy travels