20 Things TO DO & NOT TO DO on Hilton Head Island | South Carolina Travel Guide
The mistake on a first trip to Hilton Head Island is planning it around the golf, the lighthouse and an afternoon at Coligny, when the island is at its best on the back side and at low tide. --- ✅ How to travel more and visit your dream destinations without breaking the bank: https://travelmorepayless.com 2-Hour Hilton Head Guided Kayak Nature Tour: https://viator.tpo.lv/nCvooNff Hilton Head Island Dolphin Boat Cruise: https://viator.tpo.lv/mlrpRLWb Daufuskie Island Guided History Tour from Hilton Head: https://viator.tpo.lv/OqwGu8bT Beaufort City Minibus Tour: https://viator.tpo.lv/Y11Fl678 --- This guide covers the 20 things to do on Hilton Head that I'd actually plan a trip around, and the don'ts that cost first-timers a day. It starts with riding a bike on the beach at low tide, when the sand gets hard enough to ride for about twelve miles, then crosses to Fish Haul Beach Park on Port Royal Sound, where the falling tide leaves about half a mile of flats full of hermit crabs and blue crabs. Next door is Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park, the site of a town founded in 1862 by people who had escaped slavery, with Fort Howell a couple of minutes away. From there it's Pinckney Island for the egrets at Ibis Pond, and sunset at Skull Creek, because the ocean beach faces east and every sunset here happens over the marsh. In the middle of the island I cover a morning kayak trip with the dolphins, the free Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn, Shelter Cove and its Neptune statue, the Palmetto Dunes lagoon and where the island eats. On the south end, I explain the Sea Pines gate before you get there, why the Harbour Town lighthouse was never a real lighthouse and is still worth the climb, the 4,000-year-old shell ring in the Forest Preserve, the Stoney-Baynard Ruins and where the Baynard ghost story really belongs, plus my take on the Salty Dog. Then Coligny Beach, the stables and the Sandbox for families, and golf at Harbour Town Golf Links. The last two are off the island, Old Town Bluffton and Daufuskie Island, and I'll tell you when Daufuskie is worth the boat. Hilton Head is worth it for a first trip if you let the tide set the schedule. If you've been and there's a spot you'd add, tell me in the comments.