The Allure of Hilton Head Activities

The list of Hilton Head activities you can choose from is more like a library than a list. We see here at the Harbour Town Lighthouse that folks have been finding fun that fits them perfectly here for generations. All kinds of people with all kinds of interests and passions have found Hilton Head activities to be the perfect playground, the ideal refuge, or the exhilarating adventure they’ve been seeking for themselves, or their friends and family, or their loved ones, no matter what kind of detour or change of pace they had in mind.

Beyond the golf legends, more perfect even than the beaches on the “world’s best” lists, more enchanting than the loveliness of our sea island views or the sunsets from the Harbour Town Lighthouse, or the gorgeous sea birds, is that feeling that you made this place your own. The variety, the quality, and the expert guidance that accompany your own selection, from this library of Hilton Head activities, is unsurpassed.

Time to Tee It Up

They call this Golf Island for any number of reasons. Thirty-two is one of those, and it’s the number of golf courses from which you can take your choice. Harbour Town Golf Links, where the 18^th green is right here in the shadow of the Harbour Town Lighthouse, became world-famous for any number of reasons, and for lots of golfers it tops their list of Hilton Head activities. Since becoming the scene of that first Heritage Classic Tournament in 1969, and launching the comeback of golf legend Arnold Palmer, who had been winless for 14 months. Harbour Town Golf Links proved to be a stroke of luck for Palmer. He won another tournament the next week and was named Associated Press Athlete of the Decade just two weeks later. Those same Harbour Town Golf Links are now beheld for hours each year, by a worldwide TV audience. As a result, it’s the course that becomes a goal, a bucket-list round for golfers everywhere.

And speaking of the Heritage Classic, visitors come from across the nation and around the world to enjoy that week in April every year. Although winter here gets only as rough as a golf sweater, or at worst a jacket, Hilton Head Island turns in April from being just lots more pleasant than home – to full-blown paradise. Often the Heritage pro-am and qualifying rounds are played in sweater-vests and the finals in summer attire. This is the week when Hilton Head Island hits its stride, and you can feel the celebration.

The Halo Effect of the Heritage

PGA pros say that coming to the Heritage Classic each year, the week after the Masters, is like playing the Super Bowl and then going to Disney World – it’s a time they look forward to with their whole families. Someone said that the only folks who enjoy the Heritage Classic more than the pro golfers and the visitors are the Hilton Head Island residents. Just when we think we know how good it is to live here, the Heritage comes again, and we are reminded of a whole bunch more. You can see it in the way people walk the course, what they wear, the smiles and laughs.

So, for us, and for our frequent guests this is not just a tournament. The Heritage is truly a celebration of all the abundance of Hilton Head activities – it’s a celebration of the season, of this extraordinary place, and of golf itself.

And this is only the beginning. There are three courses to choose from without even leaving the Sea Pines gates. In addition to the Harbour Town Golf Links, where a young Pete Dye was the architect and Jack Nicklaus was the design consultant, there’s the newly refreshed Atlantic Dunes – in fact, a thorough reconstruction of Sea Pine’s original Ocean Course by Davis Love III – named NGCOA’s “National Course of the Year.” One of Pete Dye’s many returns to Sea Pines was to design our third course here, Heron Point, named to Golf Digest’s “Best Places to Play” list and South Carolina’s 2015 Course of the Year.

And just to think, among all the Hilton Head activities you can look forward to, there are 29 other courses within easy reach.

Beaches Named Among the Best in the World

Hilton Head Island beaches offer, even among themselves, a broad variety of choices, from the cozy coastline of Port Royal Sound to the bustling beach at the foot of Pope Avenue, and favorites such as Folly Field in between. The most fortunate beach vantage point of all might be the Sea Pines Beach Club, which is quite near the Harbour Town Lighthouse, too. At the Beach Club, you can enjoy oceanfront dining at Coast.

What all our Hilton Head Island beaches have in common is their own shade of near-white, fine sand and gentle Carolina surf. Our tides here are tamed by a long, slow approach through the shallows between our island and the reef that bounds between us and the Gulf Stream. There’s no question of what makes beach life one of the favorite Hilton Head activities.

Boating and Fishing for Even the Most Avid

Speaking of the Gulf Stream, its neighboring current is the source of the kind of fishing that even the most dedicated, most avid, and most expert will find more than satisfying. For those whose gamefish live even closer, there are charters and cruises to satisfy everyone, whether they aim to put in a line or not.

Our closest neighbor for boating excursion is Vagabond Cruises, and they’ve been taking off from right under the Harbour Town Lighthouse ever since the building of the lighthouse began in 1968. You can count on Vagabond Cruises for a dolphin cruise that the kids will enjoy, to dinner cruises for couples and other romantic grownups, to day cruises and shrimp-trawling expeditions, to a day cruise to the time-trippy strolling streets of historic Savannah. You can even catch what we think is the easiest ferry ride to Daufuskie Island, what some folks refer to as “the paradise beyond,” from right here, thanks to Vagabond Cruises.

Landmark and Guidepost for Hilton Head Activities

There are dozens and dozens of reasons to begin your Hilton Head activities right here at the Harbour Town Lighthouse. We are not only in the know about what’s going on this week, but also within walking distance from so many of the best Hilton Head activities of all. From the nearby playground delighting children and relieving parents every day of the year, to the abundant shopping of Harbour Town and The Shops at Sea Pines Center, to the 20  tennis courts of the Sea Pines Tennis Center alongside the Center Court where champions have served and volleyed, and the Smith Stearns Tennis Academy, where you can hone your own game, right here at the Harbour Town Lighthouse is the perfect place to begin.

We can’t wait to welcome you! Hope to see you soon.