Top 10 reasons WE LOVE the lowcountry
There is so much to love about Southern Beaufort County, from its natural beauty to the incredibly active volunteer community to its wide range of things to do and see. The following are our picks for the top things we love about this amazing community.

#1 - the beaches
For many of us, the litany of amenities and leisure activities in Southern Beaufort County are all just bonus points. They still pale in comparison to what draws many people here in the first place: the majestic awe of the 12 miles of white sand beaches that line the island and provide a launching pad for a unique ecosystem. The island’s beachfront is large enough so that when the crowds get too tourist-heavy at Coligny Beach, you can go north a bit and find a nearly uninhabited stretch to call your own.

The wide continental shelf keeps wave activity in the ocean mostly peaceful and calm, adding to the relaxation factor on a beach day. But we love the beach all year round. Few things are as peaceful as a stroll down an empty beach on a sunny winter day, contemplating how those ghost crabs hide out in the cooler months and trying to guess where that year’s batch of loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings have made their way to in the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.

#2 - sports and leisure

If you’re bored on a warm day on Hilton Head, you’re not looking nearly hard enough for something to do. Everyone knows about the golf courses that draw droves of visitors, and the tennis complexes that play host to national and regional tournaments. But it doesn’t stop there: the area’s yearlong pleasant weather breeds a broad array of opportunities for sports and leisure activities. The many athletic fields attract large and popular soccer leagues and ultimate Frisbee games. Ball fields at Crossings Park provide ample room for little league teams to play. Kayakers take their time paddling through the calm waters of Broad Creek, where paddleboarding (a broad surfboard a rider stands on with a paddle) is also becoming increasingly popular.

#3 - family-friendly

Families with children of all ages continue to make Hilton Head their choice for the annual vacation, and the kids — even the ones far too young for the golf course — seem to be having a blast. This is because Hilton Head doesn’t have to rise to levels of noisy, protruding amusements to appeal to the whole family: the island itself is playground enough. The paved leisure trails make bike riding even in large groups a breeze, the vast expanses of white-sand beach provide ample room for Frisbee and other games. On any idle summer day, The Sandbox children’s museum is packed with young ones crawling over the play-sized replica of Capt. William Hilton’s ship. The Main Street Youth Theater bustles with activity as children as young as 7 rehearse lines. While children elsewhere might only read about the ecosystem, the programs at the Coastal Discovery Museum actually wades them through the marshes for a squishy educational experience.

#4 - food (AND food and beverage people)

We don’t begrudge other resort areas for it, but chain restaurants really have never been our thing. Sure there’s a line to get into Carrabba’s on a summer night, but the Sea Shack draws a devoted following of people who cram into its tiny parking lot or crowd around the few picnic tables to get a taste of their fried grouper and hush puppies. Some of the top restaurants in town are the quirky and out of the way places, but well worth your trouble to find, like CQ’s in Harbour Town, located in a former art studio owned by the artist who designed the Jolly Green Giant.

 

Islanders take great pride in the preponderance of locally-owned businesses, because it means you get a level of service and detail not found at bigger restaurants. It also means you get to experience the flare of local culinary creativity at any of the dozens of small restaurants, steak houses or seafood joints. Some also sell shrimp and other seafood pulled from local waters, which means your dining dollars further help strengthen the community.

#5 - cultural scene, community events

There’s a peculiar lull in the season — between the shadow of the Verizon Heritage PGA golf tournament and the oncoming stampede of summer visitors — when, some say, Hilton Head is at its best. This is the festival season, where every weekend presents an opportunity to get out of the house and mingle in that blissful early summer sun, and it reminds us of how much we all like to get together for a big community event.

WineFest gives a chance to rub elbows and tip glasses with everyone from neighbors to politicians; WingFest is a locals-heavy affair of messy lips and good cheer; and it seems like everyone in town comes out for the St. Patrick’s Day parade every year.

Even the most golf-averse resident is powerless to the appeal of the social and community aspects of the Verizon Heritage, the island’s largest event, which turns largely into a miles-long yard party for the course of the week, in addition to helping raise money for scholarships and scores of charities.

We’re good at using our resources to the fullest – the wide-open spaces of Honey Horn for festivals, the glow of new sun over an early morning half-marathon, the thrill of being able to watch a miserable-looking snowy football game on a TV while standing outside a bar at an oyster roast, a faint chill barely able to penetrate your light winter jacket

#6 - community involvement

Hilton Head’s residents are known for having big wallets and big houses. They also have big hearts. The charitable organizations and functions in Hilton Head and Bluffton run the gamut: Habitat for Humanity builds low-cost homes on the mainland to help prevent people from being priced out of the area; Volunteers in Medicine offers free health care to anyone who needs it and Deep Well Project helps fill in the gaps to provide food, rent assistance or temporary housing to anyone in need. Long-running community dinners on Thanksgiving and Christmas — always free and always friendly — ensure that no one ever has to spend a holiday alone, whether it’s elderly residents without anywhere else to go or stranded travelers unable to see their families. The weekend calendars for the island and Bluffton are always filled with a bevy of fundraisers for local charities or causes, and anyone in need never has far to go

#7 - culture, history, islands

Planned communities in the area didn’t start with Sea Pines in the 1950s. Their genesis was much earlier, and much more humble when, in 1862, recently freed slaves laid the cornerstones for Mitchelville, the first village of its kind in the country. The settlement had regular trash pickup, planned streets and even the state’s first compulsory education laws. It’s easy to forget about the island’s past with all the new development stretching from the ocean to I-95, but Hilton Head, Daufuskie and the other sea islands are practically floating on a bed of the nation’s history. The unique Gullah culture of the islands has faded over the years, but preservationists are fighting hard to retain it, and now you can buy a Gullah-translated version of The Bible and dine on authentic Lowcountry boil at Dye’s Gullah Fixins. You can take a tour of Hilton Head and see Native American shell rings; visit the remnants of a Civil War steam gun in Port Royal Plantation or pass through waterways where colonists and the British scuffled during the Revolutionary War.

#8 - laid-back lifestyle

You’ve got at least a few levels of dress to consider on the island — semi-formal, formal, business meeting professional, etc. — but odds are the one you’re the most familiar with is Hilton Head Casual. It’s particular brand island wear (polo shirts, khakis, loafers) that has become acceptable for most events, from Town Council meetings to fundraisers and dinner parties. It reflects the feeling of being on perpetual vacation: Even as we’re conducting business, we’re still doing it on a beautiful island that people flock to in droves to forget their worries.

The laid-back attitude is hard to avoid. The average year-round resident is addicted to brunch, distrusting of haste, unable to refuse a daiquiri when offered, prone to sun lazing and perfectly content to spend a day on a boat with nothing to pass the time but a good book. They’re also clever in their use of heat lamps and outdoor fireplaces to win the battle over the brief threat of winter, but never so impolite a host as to not ask it to sit a spell for a martini or two.

#9 - quirky arts

Downtown Bluffton may be small, but it’s hard to deny that the heart of it – that 1 square mile of the old town – is downright adorable. It’s mostly because the arts scene there is so palpable, and so quirky. The streets are lined with funky arts shops that erupt from houses in the former fishing village and spill out into the lawns. Places like Pluff Mudd Art and The Store draw us in with their promise of twisted glass sculptures, unique lawn decorations and cute slipcovers. Daufuskie Island has a similar collection of original artistry, including pottery in a house that looks like it was rescued from a fairy tale.

We’ve got our share of art galleries on the island, where visitors can find a range of displays, from peaceful beach scenes to loud and experimental 3D art. The wide expanse of arts and handmade goods in the area owes a lot to the large population of retired residents. Instead of spending retirement on the couch, they’ve used their free time to express their creativity, and to put some art in your life in the process.

#10 - environment

In “The Lords of Discipline,” Pat Conroy called the sights and smells of the Lowcountry “an almost irreversible antidote to the charms of other landscapes, other alien geographies. You can be moved profoundly by other vistas, by other oceans, by soaring mountain ranges, but you can never be seduced.” The seduction by the environment of Hilton Head is impressive. On an island larger than the Manhattan, Hilton Head’s development process has been tinkered with to make sure homes and stores weave in between the stately live oaks and quiet marshes rather than trampling all over them. A haze of Spanish Moss dangles sleepily from the trees, giving the whole vista a fuzzy, dreamlike quality. The population of wildlife here exhibits the success in keeping at least some of the negative effects of development at bay. You can encounter snakes while traversing a wooded trail, gaze in wonder as a pod of dolphins wanders playfully by your boat or climb a tree on a pleasant February spring day in Fish Haul Creek Park and watch a bald eagle soar by, peaking down only to size up dinner options in the below tidal pool bubbling with stranded fish.

Courtesy of:  Tim Donnelly of Hilton head monthly