Travel Guide: Family Trip to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Where We Stayed
I will be the first to admit I did very little research before this trip. I looked into a few hotels & let my husbands family take the reigns on the rest of the planning and pick what they wanted to once we were there.
We ended up booking the Omni Hilton Head Oceanfront Resort. It was perfect for our family trip! Multiple pools, mostly kid friendly & we had access to the beach which was awesome. We didn’t have a separate room to put Mackenzie’s crib in like we did when we stayed at the JW Marriot in Orlando, but the room was PLENTY big for her crib to not be right up against our bed. Our room also had a mini fridge & sink so we could easily wash all of Mackenzie’s cups. I made sure to bring our Oxo Tot travel drying rack & brush. Of course we used our Slumberpod along with a portable sound machine to recreate how she sleeps at home.
For the beach, you could rent chairs & umbrellas on the beach for a cost, but if you’re willing to carry the chairs & umbrella yourself you can get them from the hotel for free. We did this one of the days & while it was definitely a little bit of a pain to carry everything to and from the beach, it was nice that it wasn’t an extra fee. The day we went down to the beach it was perfect, it was low tide & the waters were calm. I bought this mono beach so I could set up some shade & water for Mackenzie to hang out in. It was super easy to set up, but next time I would definitely dig a little before setting it up so the pool could hold more water! I also bought these silicone sand toys so I could easily pack them in our suitcase.
The pools were super kid friendly, except the one area where it was adults only. There was staff walking around so you could order food & drinks poolside, but you could also sit at the restaurant right at the bar. Mackenzie LOVED the pool & I would recommend bringing toys & floats for your kids to play with because if you don’t they’ll want what all the other kids have (take it from me haha).
There were also a couple of places to eat at the hotel so you didn’t always have to go out for food. The first night we ate the steak restaurant, HH Prime & it was pretty good. We also ate here for breakfast our last morning here. Those were the only meals we ate at the hotel besides getting lunch from the pool bar, Buoy Bar.
If you’re looking to book anything to do on the island, there was a concierge who was super helpful. My husband was able to book a golf tee time through them as well!
Where We Ate
For breakfast one morning we headed to Hilton Head Social Bakery. They have so many pastries to choose from & everything we got was delicious!
Another breakfast place we went to was The French Bakery. One thing to note is they didn’t have a kid menu. I ordered french toast & shared it with Mackenzie.
We headed to Stack’s Pancakes one morning & they had some pretty delicious pancakes, but I LOVED my egg sandwich on a biscuit!
We ate at the pool bar for lunch most days since Mackenzie went down for her nap around 12:30/1pm every day.
My MIL & SIL did got out for Poke Bowls at Al’s Aloha Kitchen & they said they were delicious!
Each night we went out for dinner & our favorite was by far The Red Fish! Everyone loved their meal & it was definitely the nicest restaurant we went to on the island, but they still offered a kid menu (almost every place on the island is kid friendly & I love that)!
Skull Creek Dockside is a very popular restaurant! We were told by a few people to check it out while we were there. I’m glad we got there early because there was about a 45 minute wait when I put our name down, but in the end we really only waited 25 minutes. This restaurant is right on the water & while you’re waiting you can hang outside at the outside bar, play a game of corn hole, or play on the playground on site.
One of the nights my in laws took Mackenzie out to dinner & myself, my husband, & his sister went out by ourselves! My in-laws took Mackenzie to Giuseppi’s which is an italian restaurant & definitely a popular one! They had about a 40 minute wait for a table, but luckily I packed a bento box for Mackenzie so while they waited for a table, she was able to eat & didn’t get fussy. While they were eating pizza & pasta, we headed to Nectar Farm Kitchen.
Things To Do
The reason we booked Hilton Head Island for a family trip was because I wanted to spend most time at the pool or the beach. We wanted to see parts of the island, but we didn’t want to feel like every minute of every day was planned. Also, since Mackenzie takes one nap smack in the middle of the day we had to be back at the hotel for a good chunk of the afternoon. We did walk around a few areas that I’ll list below, but besides that we were basically at the hotel in the pool or at the beach.
There were three parts we were told to check out, Harbour Town, Coligny, & Shelter Cove.
Harbour Town is within Sea Pines so we had to pay $9 just to enter. We parked & walked around Harbour Town which had bunch of shops & some restaurants. There was also a pretty big playground right where we parked! There’s also a lighthouse there that you can walk up if you’re feeling so inclined.
Shelter Cove was directly across from where we were staying so we drove over there and walked around. We were there pretty early (10am on a Tuesday) so it was pretty quiet while we were there, but there were a lot of shops & this is where Giuseppi’s is located.
Lastly we headed to Coligny Plaza to walk around. My favorite store was Island Girl, which carried many of my favorite brands for Mackenzie. There were a ton of shops & restaurants here if you’re in the area. There is also a beach in Coligny, but we didn’t check it out.
There are a handful of mini golf courses in the area and we went to Legendary Golf which was pretty close to where we were staying. It was a great activity to do early in the morning before Mackenzie’s nap!
The Sandbox is an interactive children’s museum located on the island. We would have gone to if it had been rainy one of the days, but we never ended up going there.
We had such a great time in Hilton Head and I would definitely recommend it as a great location for a family trip!
Have you been to Hilton Head Island before? Leave your recommendations below.