Hilton
Head Island Real Estate and Relocation
Hilton
Head Island Living...climate,
golf
courses, tennis
facilities, fishing,
sailing and kayaking,
hiking and biking, equestrian,
and history. Hilton
Head Island has it all!
Climate
With an average daily temperature of 70
degrees and more than 220 days of sunshine
each year, Hilton
Head is best enjoyed outdoors, where exceptional
experiences abound in sports, recreation,
leisure and nature. Championship golf, world-class
tennis, and excellent sport fishing are
readily available throughout the island,
along with extensive stretches of hiking
and biking trails, accessible tidal creeks
for paddling or boating, as well as 12 miles
of unrestricted beach, sand dunes and surf.
Hilton
Head and Bluffton Golf...
Acclaimed as a world-class golf resort,
Hilton Head features a wide variety of challenges
and delights along dozens of outstanding
public courses designed by the game's greatest
names to conform to the island's adventurous
and pleasurable landscape. Sea Pines Plantation's
Harbour Town Golf Links is rated among the
top 100 courses in the world by Golf Magazine
in 2007, and is home to the PGA's prestigious
Verizon Heritage Classic each Spring. Nearby,
Mark McCumer's newly redesigned Ocean Course
is home to The Golf Academy at Sea Pines
Resort, rated among the top ten golf schools
in the U.S. by Golf & Travel Magazine.
From the dramatic oceanfront settings and
Champion Grass of the Arthur Hills course
at Palmetto
Dunes, to the challenging lay out of
Pete Dye's Robber's Row amidst magnolias,
live oaks and historic sites of  Port
Royal Plantation, to the "must play"
tiered greens of Rees Jones' Oyster Reef
Golf Club at Hilton
Head Plantation, there are courses designed
for varying skill-levels and the ultimate
in dazzling natural surroundings. The Nicklaus-designed
Golden Bear Golf Club at Indigo
Run offers a high-tech parView GPS Electronic
Caddy system on every cart for overviews,
pin placement and tips on how to play each
hole, while surrounding the island, some
of the East Coast's most enjoyable amenities
and spectacular playing terrain can be found
on Arnold Palmer's Crescent Pointe course,
Davis Love III's Eagle's Pointe Gold Club,
and Clyde Johnston's Old South Gold Links.
Hilton Head's mild climate year-round and
affordable Fall, Winter and Spring rates
on luxury accommodations makes any season
perfect for a golf getaway, and is made
even easier by the island's unique reservation
center - The Golf Island Call Center - helping
visitors coordinate courses, lodgings, tee
times and vacation plans, at 888-465-3475
or www.golfisland.com.
Hilton Head Tennis Facilities...
Tennis Magazine annually rates Hilton Head
facilities among the top tennis resorts
in the world, with more than 140 courts
featuring clay, grass and hard surfaces.
Under the direction of former pro star Stan
Smith, Sea Pines Racquet Club offers an
award-winning program of teaching venues,
instructional programs and vacation packages,
while at Shipyard
Plantation, international coaching star
Dennis Van Der Meer has been recognized
by the President's Council on Physical Fitness
and Sports for his outstanding clinics.
Palmetto
Dunes Tennis Center features 23 clay
and 2 Nova ProBounce courts and is rated
and the top instructional and youth tennis
resorts by Tennis Resorts Online. Hilton
Head Beach and Tennis Resort features a
family-friendly vacation package of tennis
and beachfront accommodations.
Hilton Head Island Fishing...
Fishing charters are as plentiful as the
catch at Hilton Head, as off-shore an in-shore
excursions offer year-round angling on conventional
tackle or fly-fishing for cobia, tarpon,
grouper, snapper, sharks,  bluefish,
jack crevalle, king and spanish mackerel.
South Carolina has an enhanced coastal fishing
with a productive artificial reef program
that has generated extensive areas of new
live bottom in more than forty locations.
In addition, Hilton Head fishing benefits
from bountiful in-shore habitats of a state
that boasts the longest stretch of pristine
coastline on the Atlantic. Full-day charters
include off-shore trips to the Gulf Stream
aboard luxurious Viking, Hatteras and Crusader
yachts, where excitement of a billfish strike
or landing a florid-colored mahi-mahi are
unparalleled. Closer to shore of Hilton
Head's most challenging catches are readily-available
in creeks and sounds nearby. Redfish, also
called red drum, channel bass and spot-tailed
bass, are highly-regarded by local guides
as a large fish that fights hard in shallow
water, and can be taken on light tackle
or fly rod. With numbers of redfish benefitting
from state fry-release programs, the chance
of hooking one is very good.
Hilton Head Island Sailing
and Kayak adventures...
For those wishing to catch only the spectacular
view, the island offers a number of nature
cruises, sailing charters, and kayak tours.
Sunrise and sunset trips capture the serene
romantic beauty of Hilton Head's open waters,
beaches and forests, while zodiac rides
and paddling cruises offer a closer look
at frolicking bottlenose dolphins. Hilton
Head's waters are frequented by both resident
and migrating dolphins, which interact in
groups called pods. These air-breathing
mammals frequently surface to breathe, feed
and play, often riding wakes of passing
boats, or splashing with tail slaps and
belly flops. Some of the dolphins' most
visibly acrobatic moves are made chasing
schools of fish. In one behavior known as
"tailing", the creatures nose-dive
into muddy shallows, probing for fish as
their flukes thrashing the water's surface.
In another, known as "stranding",
the dolphins swim full-speed on to beaches,
pushing water and fish ahead of them, then
gobble up the fish and wiggle back into
the water.
Hiking and Biking...
Other fascinating species can be seen along
Hilton Head's miles and miles of hiking
and biking trails.  Wending
past picturesque lagoons, open expanses
of salt marsh, towering moss-covered oaks,
and undulating sand dunes, trails through
areas such as the historic Sea Pines Forest
Reserve and Audubon-Newhall Preserve, the
Pinckney Island Wildlife Refuge, and the
Dolphin Head Recreation Area and the Whooping
Crane Conservancy in Hilton Head Plantation
offer glimpses of turtles, alligators, red-winged
blackbirds, great blue herons, raccoons,
osprey, owls and white ibis. The loggerhead
sea turtle is a long-time visitor to Hilton
Head, as this air-breathing reptile has
emerged from the sea to nest for millions
of years. Helped by island "lights
out" programs that keep the wary animal
from avoiding populous areas, giant turtles
as big as 300 pounds waddle ashore to lay
eggs in the sand during summer months, and
weeks later, a new generation of tiny hatchlings
appears and wriggles back into the waves.
Another highly-visible natural species found
hiking throughout Hilton Head is Spanish
moss, hanging in stringy, gray tufts stretching
as much as 25 feet from the outstretched
branches of big oaks. Not a true moss, but
actually related to the pineapple, Spanish
moss got its name from its resemblance to
the beards of early Spanish explorers. Known
as an epiphyte, which is a plant that grows
on top of another, the moss uses oak limbs
only as a vantage point to capture nutrients
from the air.
Hilton Head History...
Amidst nature's beauty throughout the Hilton
Head area, historical sites add a cultural
flavor. The Museum of Hilton Head Island
offers guided history tours and beach walks
for observation of archeological digs, cotton
plantation ruins, and Civil War forts, or
visitors can take in numerous sites on their
own. Fort Mitchel in Hilton
Head Plantation displays the remnants
of a mile-long earthwork defense built in
1862 by Union troops. During the war, thousands
of escaped slaves flocked to the area, and
Mitchelville later became the first town
in the South built by freed slaves. Fish
Haul Plantation was the first permanent
settlement on Hilton Head in 1717, and became
a significant producer of cotton. In ruins
today, it holds a remarkable place in history
as the pre-Civil War home of Thomas and
Percival Drayton, who would ironically eventually
face each other as enemies during the great
naval battle for the island in 1861, Thomas
in command of the Confederate defenders,
Percival leading the attacking Union squadron.
More about the history
of the island.
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