Hilton Head Beach, South Carolina 2023 Part One

The Drive

I was a little uneasy thinking about another long drive this year given that we were in Florida just two months earlier, but the one day trip is a lot easier than our drive to Indian Rocks Beach. We made good time on our way down, stopping at the Tennessee Welcome Center first and then making our way through I-40 through the mountains. I’ll admit I was completely captured by the beauty of the mountains I wanted so bad to get in there and explore around. It’s been years since we’ve spent any time in the mountains and I’d like to get back down here again. I think we’re going to book a fall vacation to North Carolina or something in the near future, or at least into the Smokies.

South Carolina seems really rural and then gets pricey once you get closer to the coast. I wanted to see the “lowlands” you always hear about and there were some instances of that along the road. Perhaps there is a way to see these in more detail, like a fly fishing guided trip or something for redfish in the future. The only other notable was how few stops there were along the way. Usually we find a few things on a road trip to see or to eat at but most of South Carolina along that part of the expressway we were on at least seemed fairly bleak.

The Stay

Our condo was really nice. I wasn’t sure what to expect here as I didn’t do the booking (my wife’s family did the research) and given my scheduling going into it I didn’t have much time to research the area. The actual condo is in a resort with various tennis courts and a pool although we didn’t spent much time there. We did try some pickle ball and we had some fun doing it. The grounds themselves were pretty and we found some nice vegetation, flowers, and trees. I am always interested in the local fauna, especially in warm places with long growing seasons.

The Beach

The beach was probably the wildest part of the trip. When we first arrived the tide was way in and I thought there was no way we were going to spend much time on the beach, even if I woke up really early and staked out a spot as the water was all the way up to the breaker dunes. However, this was an unusually high tide we found out and when the water went down the beach was enormous. It was really interesting how wide the beach was at this time of day and how people came out and started playing games and bocce ball. This was really neat and if we come down we are for sure bringing some more games to play. That maybe one thing I did notice about our stay here, just how active everyone was and given the many golf courses and tennis courts perhaps this is what people here prefer to do.

Local Sights

The area isn’t as touristy as Florida. It really feels like more of a community aka retirement community than anything else, at least of wealthy people. I thought it was interesting how every building looked alike, which I can appreciate as it didn’t make it feel like a Myrtle Beach or something which is supposedly tourist trap hell. Remarkably, finding a place to eat was fairly difficult. We did find one place where I had an amazing prime rib steak dinner. I did not however find anyplace to get a “low country” boil or local seafood.