This past summer, we vacationed in Hilton Head for a week.  As I look out my wintery window (This post was written on January 23rd, 2010), the weather which reminds me of a grey cloudy horror movie setting, I keep daydreaming of the great time we had at Hilton Head Island in SC.

Hilton Head has a little bit for everybody, but it is mainly oriented towards families with kids.  The island is covered with some great bike paths, and HHI (Hilton Head Island) has a warm, friendly feeling practically everywhere.  The problem with Hilton Head is that if you rent a house for a week, it can get pretty expensive (thousands of dollars).

We usually go to the Sea Pines area to eat at “The Salty Dog” at least once.  It’s very touristy there, but it’s still cool in its own little commercial way…

One of the things I keep coming back too in my memories, was the kayaking ride with dolphins.  My son had such a great time seeing the dolphins continually surface as we paddled up the inlet.  I even perked up when I saw how close the dolphins were coming to the kayaks.  As expected, the rest of the Island was great too, the beaches were perfect, not too many people.  Dining was but good, albeit a bit pricey.

The reason I’m writing about HHI, is because I want to go over a few point of interest.

• If you rent a house, it’s cheaper to get one across the street from the beach.  The walk isn’t far, and really it’s not really that different.
• Consider renting an apartment for a week down there.  The have some good deals on these versus renting a house.
• Bring sunscreen 😉
• Rent some bikes!  It’s worth it.  If you have a young (and not quite ready to ride alone yet) child, consider getting a tag-along attachment.
• Bring golf clubs.
• Visit the “Harbour Town Lighthouse“, while the lighthouse isn’t anything too amazing (good view though), the history (look at the pictures and captions) during the climb up the lighthouse is pretty fascinating!

When we first went, we had no idea how laid back the bike riding would be…  They have special trails that make it a lot of fun.  I was intimidated by the golfing aspect of HHI, but they are many different levels of golf courses.  Since I’m a beginner, we went on a cheap one.  We had a blast, the only problem was the houses were too close to the course.  My ball kept going into home owner’s yards.

My son is very unfortunate in that he’s been stung twice by jellyfish (once at Hunting Island and another at HHI) on separate occasions.  So we don’t go far in the ocean anymore.  But typically the water is nice and warm.

I don’t know if we’ll go there this year since we’ve been have went there for the past 2 years.  But it’s definitely worth it to go at least once.

Beware of the palmetto bugs (big cockroaches), if you have a phobia of these type of bugs make sure they spray the house really well!