Hilton Head Island Resort - useful information and photos - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Hilton Head Island Resort - useful information and photos
Contained in this post is some useful information about Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort. Now it's over to you - can you add any other helpful hints or do you have some photos you can share with us of the resort? If so, please post away with your thoughts and experiences!
Hilton Head Island Resort
22 Harbourside Lane, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928
Phone: 843 341-4100
Fax: 843 341-4130
The second non-Disney World resort to be built was the Hilton Head Island Resort, which opened in March 1996, making it the second DVC resort. The resort is about 45 miles north of Savannah, Georgia or 90 miles south of Charleston, South Carolina. If you’re planning on heading there from Walt Disney World, then it’s approximately a five hour drive.
Hilton Head Island is a top destination for golf and tennis lovers, with 21 golf courses on the Island alone and around 300 tennis courts in the area. Boat cruises are available and you can also go horseback riding or take historical tours, as well as explored the Coastal Discovery Museum, which looks at the low country’s cultural and environmental history.
The resort design of Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort is based on 1940s fishing and hunting lodge and it’s on a 15 acre island within an island. The resort includes the Big Dipper swimming pools, with a water tower slide and the Little Dipper pool, especially for children. Ben and Stretch’s Workout Room allows you to work out during your stay and the Community Hall offers board games, arts and crafts and card games. The Bonnet Creek Mercantile offers groceries and Disney merchandise. The Live Oak Lodge is home to Big Murggie’s Den, which has a pool table, board games, fireplace and TV and it’s also the shuttle stop for trips to Disney’s Beach House.
Disney’s Beach House is located about a mile away from the resort on three and a half acres of Atlantic Ocean beachfront. It’s a recreational facility, which gives you access to 12 miles of wide, sandy beaches and also includes a heated swimming pool, children’s wet-deck play area, arcade and various eating options.
There’s plenty to keep you busy at the Hilton Head Island Resort, including beach nature walks, goofy bingo, campfires, kayaking, dolphin excursions and special activities just for the kids and events for teenagers.
Eating options at the Hilton Head Island Resort are:
- Tide Me Over, a counter service take-out window, which is open daily for breakfast and lunch.
- Shelter Cove Marina offers a number of restaurants in a complex based just over the walking bridge from the resort.
- Signals Snack Bar based at Disney’s Beach House offers snacks, salads and sandwiches in peak season.
- Surfman’s Sand Bar also at Disney’s Beach House sells beverages, ice cream and light snacks.
The resort offers studios, one and two bedroom vacation homes and three bedroom grand villas.
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Re: Hilton Head Island Resort - useful information and photos
Now that we've enjoyed our first stay at Disney's Hilton Head Island resort, I wanted to share the photos and the impression that we had of it. I hope it's useful to anyone planning to go there in the future.
The first impression you get of the Disney resort is that it’s not easy to find. You need to know that it’s part of the Shelter Cove Harbour, but it’s not very well signposted. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502no_prv.gif[/img] You go to the right of Shelter Cove Harbour and you’re greeted with a barrier entry that you can either use your room key for or press a button and then you’re let in.
The issue with this resort is that the pool, shop, recreation hall and quick service place to eat are all in one place on the complex and a good five couple of minutes walk away from the Main Lodge, which is where you'll find check-in, guest services, an area to relax in (where some of the activites are held - the rest are in the recreation area) and the shuttle to the Beach House. What this means is that wherever you're staying, you're probably going to have to walk to get one of the facilities you want to use.
The main lodge building
Shadow’s kennel at the main entrance – for those who don’t know, Shadow is a dog that lives at this resort, at least that’s how the story goes anyway! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] The view looking one way....
.. and the other
The main pool and hot tub
The recreation area
The fire pit
The shop and counter service area
The fishing pier
More recreation area views
The community hall
The rooms here are superb and the studio we stayed in had to be the biggest we've ever experienced at a DVC resort. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]
The view from our room
Now there's another part to Disney's Hilton Head Island resort, the Beach House. This is on the right, just opposite the resort, about a mile’s drive away, so you either need to drive there or get the Disney shuttle bus that runs there. You also have to go through a security gate to enter the whole complex. They’ll wave you through, provided you have your Disney parking permit in the windscreen of your car. You have to use your room key to get into the beach house as well.
The beach house from the front - not much to see
The pool
The seating area by the pool
The indoor recreation area by the pool
The beach behind the Beach House, looking one way....
... and looking the other way...
... and looking out to sea
The view of the beach house from the beach
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PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I wish I would have had some pictures to look at before I went! Thanks for posting all of those Cheryl! There were lots of questions I had, and not a lot of information on this resort. So, here are some of the things I learned during my visit.
The resort is gorgeous. I just got back, and as we went in off season, we were one of the few people there, which made this resort feel even more secluded and our time there even more special. I read lots of reports on trip advisor where people complained about the beach being far away. We rented bikes for our length of stay, $50, and it took about a 10-15 ride to get to the beach. "We" consists of two adults, no kids. We only used our car when we were going off property for dinner. The bikes were a treat, as I hadn't been on one in several years.
The fishing there is actually decent. They have a nice pier, and we caught some decent sized fish--spotted trout, I think they were? It was hard to fish in low tide, which was usually in the middle of the afternoon. Pole rental was $5 a day, and you can get bait--a bag of 12 frozen shrimp--for $2.50. There is no light on the pier which makes fishing at night difficult.
We did the kayak tour as the dolphin tour requires a minimum of three people. You can pay for an extra person if you are only two, but we opted to not do this. Good thing as we saw about 8 dolphins, one mom and baby, and they swam all around our kayak for a good 45 minutes. The kayak tour was around $80 for both of us. Our guide, Sandy, was awesome! There is an option to have a double kayak if you have kids and don't want them to go solo.
Most of the cafes did close before 5 in the off season, so you will have to either have food in your room or go out for dinner. Make sure you get your refillable mug! There is one there, just like at every Disney Resort. Again, if you are going in off season, lots of restaurants are closed on the island. The pickings are slim.
In addition, we did the Japanese fish painting, the nature walk, and listened to Mr. Crabbe's stories. All were fabulous!
I did see two hidden Mickeys. One very obvious one in the fire pit, and one not so obvious in a tree. See if you can find them!
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: Like every DVC resort, if they have availability, they will sell rooms to non-members. 
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