We have the pleasure of welcoming so many visitors to America’s favorite vacation island, here at the Harbour Town Lighthouse, that we have come to notice some trends. This time of year, we find we are greeting a great many folks who have come to stay longer than even a week or two. Midwinter attracts many who are less fortunate, climate-wise, you might say. The recent winter storms that swept much of the Midwest and Northeast are not as rare as our friends up there might wish. As a result, we’ve made a lot of friends who came to stay awhile. The wealth of Hilton Head activities that await them assure long-term visitors that they will never run out of reasons to be glad they came – and stayed,
From Ontario and Western New York. From Cleveland and all along the Great Lakes, fans of Hilton Head Island long ago learned to take advantage of the abundant vacation rentals available all over Hilton Head Island. Staying to enjoy their favorite Hilton Head activities for as much as a month or two, our long-term guests are grateful for the abundance of fun things to do that are here for your enjoyment, any time of year.
Always Time to Tee it Up
Because a deep winter day on Hilton Head Island is when you switch from a golf sweater to a golf jacket, there’s rarely a time when a round of golf is not a favorite option among the many Hilton Head activities. There are 32 courses hereabouts that you can choose from, and so it is no wonder our nickname is Golf Island. And there are true legends behind this story.
Harbour Town Golf Links, where the 18th 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 attractions. 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 fourteen 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 this is only the beginning. There are three courses to choose from without even leaving the Sea Pines gates for your own Hilton Head activities. 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.
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 like 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 take your pick from refreshments at Fraser’s Tavern, to 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 a line in or not.
Our closest neighbor for a boating excursion is Vagabond Cruises, and they’ve been a favorite among Hilton Head activities for couples and families, 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
There are dozens of Hilton Head activities nearby, each one an excellent reason to begin your Hilton Head activities right here at the Harbour Town Lighthouse. Not only are we in-the-know about what’s going on this week, but we are 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.