We are coming to the end of a wonderful week on HHI. We loved our 2 bedroom villa, the marsh view, the general vibe of the resort and the feel of the island. To the OP, we did day trips to both Savannah and Charleston while we were here and really enjoyed both. Savannah is easier than we thought, about 45 minutes with no traffic (same distance as Beaufort). We did the hop on hop off trolley tour, tried to figure out ahead of time where we wanted to get off and felt like we saw a good portion of the historic area. Charleston is a long day trip, I agree, but all of us (me, DH, and DDs 14 and 12) felt that it was well worth it. The drive takes between 2 and 2 1/4 hours, and we had a great lunch when we got there and then took a walking tour of the historic area (mostly south of Broad Street) and then walked the major shopping street and visited a few other areas. We were exhausted when we got back in the car and got back to HHI just as it got dark, but we were really glad we made the trip. We also spent a wonderful day on Daufuskie Island, which was lovely and more fun than we expected and had a great kayak tour. There's so much to do around here! We are very bummed to be leaving and can't wait to come back!