Back from 2 nt at HHI!!

[peabody58]

As part of our 'Lets check out South Caroline for future retirement trip', DW and I spent 2 nts in an HHI DVC HA Studio in the Lodge last week (elevator access was nice). For those who have never experienced HHI DVC Resort, you must add it to your bucket list. The resort is extremely relaxing, the CM's awesome, and the area restaurant selection off the chart.

Why we keep getting assigned HA Studios is beyond me (2/3 times), but the room was large, clean, and very well maintained. Be fore warned that the new flat screen TV's are small and several guests have been complaining about the viewing size. We ended up watching the resorts DVD's on our laptop. Rocking chairs on the balcony allowed us some quality wine and marsh watching time.

We had a great time with Shadow (Disneys only animal mascot) during his Shadow Tails (Tale) time. She likes to sleep a lot and have her tummy rubbed.

While HHI itself is very nice, with lots of shopping, restaurants, golfing, biking and resort upon resort, be aware that it is intended to be a more 'relaxing' vacation vs. the commando WDW style vacation. We do plan on returning and doing more relaxing things such as biking and laying around the pool more. The camp fire and smores at the resort was a lot of fun. The jelly fish on the beaches was not too bad this year.

Savannah is only an hour drive away. You can easily drive to Savannah, do a trolley tour and be back to HHI before dark.

So - what are you waiting for: Just book it!

PS - We loved SC and look forward to future retirement in the Colombia/Lexington area in 5 - 8 years.

 

[MagikMom]

Hilton Head is one of our home resorts. We LOVE going there. It's soooooo relaxing. Glad you enjoyed it!

 

[bbn1122]

Sounds great...we will be there in August for the first time....

We are looking forward to something new....but we will be back to WDW next year....

 

[bobbiwoz]

As part of our 'Lets check out South Caroline for future retirement trip', DW and I spent 2 nts in an HHI DVC HA Studio in the Lodge last week (elevator access was nice). For those who have never experienced HHI DVC Resort, you must add it to your bucket list. The resort is extremely relaxing, the CM's awesome, and the area restaurant selection off the chart.

Why we keep getting assigned HA Studios is beyond me (2/3 times), but the room was large, clean, and very well maintained. Be fore warned that the new flat screen TV's are small and several guests have been complaining about the viewing size. We ended up watching the resorts DVD's on our laptop. Rocking chairs on the balcony allowed us some quality wine and marsh watching time.

We had a great time with Shadow (Disneys only animal mascot) during his Shadow Tails (Tale) time. She likes to sleep a lot and have her tummy rubbed.

While HHI itself is very nice, with lots of shopping, restaurants, golfing, biking and resort upon resort, be aware that it is intended to be a more 'relaxing' vacation vs. the commando WDW style vacation. We do plan on returning and doing more relaxing things such as biking and laying around the pool more. The camp fire and smores at the resort was a lot of fun. The jelly fish on the beaches was not too bad this year.

Savannah is only an hour drive away. You can easily drive to Savannah, do a trolley tour and be back to HHI before dark.

So - what are you waiting for: Just book it!

PS - We loved SC and look forward to future retirement in the Colombia/Lexington area in 5 - 8 years.

It sounds like you really enjoyed yourselves! We had a HA studio just off the main lobby on our first stay in HHI.
I loved the rocking chairs, too! We head to HHI at the end of June!

 

[Disneypapa]

Thanks for the report. I have not visited HHI or Vero Beach, but intend to sometime soon.

 

[Simba's Mom]

As part of our 'Lets check out South Caroline for future retirement trip', DW and I spent 2 nts in an HHI DVC HA Studio in the Lodge last week (elevator access was nice).

PS - We loved SC and look forward to future retirement in the Colombia/Lexington area in 5 - 8 years.

Key question-how far is Columbia/Lexington from HHI? We LOVE HHI and would love to factor it in to our retirement plans. We looked into retirement on the island, but decided it's beyond our finances.

 

[bwvBound]

So - what are you waiting for: Just book it!

Glad you enjoyed it! We are waiting for a strongly compelling reason to make the cross-country trek. Perhaps a good work-related conference or equestrian event could lure us there. Oh, and we'd need killer airfare, too! Doubt those two are gonna line up any time soon ...

- bwvBound (kicking herself for booking Vero Beach via RCI before checking the summer airfare. OUCH!!!!!)

 

[peabody58]

Key question-how far is Columbia/Lexington from HHI? We LOVE HHI and would love to factor it in to our retirement plans. We looked into retirement on the island, but decided it's beyond our finances.

It is ~ 175 miles / 3 hours from Columbia/Lexington to HHI. It was a nice drive with the top down and Sirius 'The Bridge' cranked up.

We agree that financially, HHI retirement is beyond our reach. We actually do not want to retire close to the coast, mainly due to our concern over hurricanes. However, being a few short hours to the coast is perfect for us. Fortunately we are still in our long range planning phase (5 - 8 years), and we'll be making more trips to SC to check out potential areas to relocate to. As much as we liked Lexington/Columbia, DW now wants us to check out the Aiken area. Guess we'll be adding an extra day to our Oct road trip!

 

[Tinks "SS"]

Glad you enjoyed it! We are waiting for a strongly compelling reason to make the cross-country trek. Perhaps a good work-related conference or equestrian event could lure us there. Oh, and we'd need killer airfare, too! Doubt those two are gonna line up any time soon ...

- bwvBound (kicking herself for booking Vero Beach via RCI before checking the summer airfare. OUCH!!!!!)

hey there!! Might want to check airfares to ATL. those might not be too bad for you. It takes us about 4.5 hours to get to HHI from our house and it's an easy drive. I know that is still quite a drive but better than cross country. . HHI makes for a great weekend trip for us and we plan to going there more and more.

 

[hellerjw]

It is ~ 175 miles / 3 hours from Columbia/Lexington to HHI. It was a nice drive with the top down and Sirius 'The Bridge' cranked up.

We agree that financially, HHI retirement is beyond our reach. We actually do not want to retire close to the coast, mainly due to our concern over hurricanes. However, being a few short hours to the coast is perfect for us. Fortunately we are still in our long range planning phase (5 - 8 years), and we'll be making more trips to SC to check out potential areas to relocate to. As much as we liked Lexington/Columbia, DW now wants us to check out the Aiken area. Guess we'll be adding an extra day to our Oct road trip!

You should also check out the Greenville area, in the northern part of the state. Weather is generally cooler in the summers and less humidity. We love it up here. We are minutes from the Blueridge Mountains, about 2 hours from Atlanta & Charlotte, parts of eastern Tennesee and most of Western North Carolina. HHI is about 4 1/2 hours away and its interstate all the way until you hit the outskirts of Bluffton. WDW is 9 hours by car so HHI is a great half-way point for us on our trips to WDW.