First-timers to HHI - what do we need to know?

[melanie18]

We leave on Friday for our 1st visit to HHI. It will be myself, DH & DD10 and my DSis and DN12. So c'mon all you HHI experts, what do we need to know?

We are planning a day trip to Savannah also. We really don't have a game plan, just winging it each day.

We are planning on Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House in Savannah and maybe lunch at The Lady & Sons. Also, want to go to Pino Gelato & Flamingo Doughnut Cafe (can you tell I have a sweet tooth?).


Give me all the good places to eat and things to do!

 

[Anal Annie]

Not an expert here but we just got back on Sat. nite from our first trip to HHI. I hope it cools off a bit for ya'll. We had heat index temps of 105-110 a few days & the water was REALLY warm. The last 2 days we were there there were lots of jellyfish! Just about everybody got stung. If it cools off that should make them less.

We almost went to Savannah but then didn't. It stormed a lot the first 2 days we were there & we just didn't feel like schleping around in the rain. Anyway, we had a so-so meal at San Miguels one nite & pizza at Giusseppi's one nite which was OK. One evening (Thurs) we did the Beach House party at the beach house with the "shrimp boil". That was a buffet which consisted of shrimp, sausage, red potatoes & corn on the cob cooked together. They also had cornbread muffins, home cooked green beans (the old fashioned way with bacon), pork tenderloin, hush puppies, gumbo, chicken fingers & cheesecake for dessert. It was OK - they played hula hoop & pool games for the kids after. It was from 6-8:00 and the adult price was about $25 pp. After that we went back to the resort for the campfire from 8-9:00 then from 9-10:00 they had "extra magic hours" for the pool slide.

We also had a good meal at Roastfish & Cornbread which was another "low country" style meal like the beach house party. I had blackened Mahi Mahi & collard greens which was good. Oh, and we tried alligator for our app.

Our 2 BEST meals were at Truffles Cafe and Alligator Grille which were also the most expensive places that we tried. You can get an internet coupon for either $25 or $50 for the Alligator Grille from restaurants.com which comes in REALLY HANDY 'cuz they're a little pricey. Truffles was very nice and probably a better value if you don't have a coupon - DS had a pasta dish, I had the crab cakes & DH had their ribs which he LOVED. We ordered the brie baked in puff pastry for an app. & it was awesome.

Lastly, one nite we ate at One Hot Mamas - I had the pulled pork sandwich which was really good & DH had a wing combo & DS had the sliders. That was a very reasonably priced meal and good - very, very casual diner style place.

You can check out all of these menus online or in the restaurant guide you can get from the check-in desk.

 

[Connears]

We leave on Friday for our 1st visit to HHI. It will be myself, DH & DD10 and my DSis and DN12. So c'mon all you HHI experts, what do we need to know?

We are planning a day trip to Savannah also. We really don't have a game plan, just winging it each day.

We are planning on Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House in Savannah and maybe lunch at The Lady & Sons. Also, want to go to Pino Gelato & Flamingo Doughnut Cafe (can you tell I have a sweet tooth?).


Give me all the good places to eat and things to do!

The resort has many activities(for adults, kids and families) and they will give you the schedule at check-in. There are many wonderful restaurants on the island and get the free book with menus at many of the stands on the island or go to hhidining.com. If you really want to go to Lady & Sons, know that they only take same day reservations at the podium starting at 9:30am for that day. When we were there in June, we decided to check around 1pm and they had nothing for dinner, but we were able to get lunch at 3pm so we took it and it was very good.

We find this is our relaxing vacation and love to go to Harbor Town, walk the beach, swim, play mini-golf(or real goldf for DH), SHOP(nice shops right at Shelter Cove and the outlet malls aren't far), see a movie, go out for dinner and we usually cook our breakfasts and some lunches(to take to beach or anywhere). Love sitting on your porch and watching kayakers(and sometimes dolphins!) at the entrance to Shelter Cove(not all have this view), playing pool in main lodge and shuffleboard at the main pool area, if you have kids the campsfires are great. We go every summer and usually a day on the way back to Boston from WDW vacation during xmas week. It is a wonderful resort!! Great CMs! Hope you find Mike the pool life guard-he is full of suggestions for dinner, activities, etc all over the island.

Connears

 

[jerseygal]

Thinking of a short 3 or 4 night vaca there around May 20th, 2011...

I saw a comment that parking by beach is limited if you go too late in morning? Shuttles run how often?

Are there alot of jellyfish that time of yr,late May early June or are jellyfish more common in August?

Loved Vero for 4 nights last week!!! Gorgeous water! NO JELLYFISH!
VERO IS AN AWESOME RESORT!

Thanks for any HHI infor!!!!!!!!

 

[Anal Annie]

Thinking of a short 3 or 4 night vaca there around May 20th, 2011...

I saw a comment that parking by beach is limited if you go too late in morning? Shuttles run how often?

Are there alot of jellyfish that time of yr,late May early June or are jellyfish more common in August?

Loved Vero for 4 nights last week!!! Gorgeous water! NO JELLYFISH!
VERO IS AN AWESOME RESORT!

Thanks for any HHI infor!!!!!!!!

We did 3 nights at Vero last summer followig a week at BCV...while it was a nice way to unwind after a hectic week & yes, VB is a great resort we didn't find much to do in the area and the beach was quite smallish. It bothered me that absolutely everything closed at 9:00 including most restaurants. Now that we have the 2 to compare we decided we like HHI better. The beach was about 3x wider and there was a lot more to do & more restaurants to choose from - nothing closed early & that was nice not to feel rushed to finish a late dinner.

Jellyfish & parking should not be a problem in May I don't think. Jellyfish are a summer problem all along the Eastern coastline during July & August...it mostly depends on the water temperature I think. We didn't have them last week at HH until later in the week. It rained & was cooler earlier in the week so they weren't around then around Wed. the sun came back out & it got REALLY hot again so they came back into the shallower water on Thurs & Fri.

It would be my guess that parking is only a problem at the beach house in the summer when the resort is full but I could be wrong. We had no problems with it as long as went over to the beach before 10:45-11:00 but that window between 11-11:30 is when it gets busy. We only waited on a space one day & then it was just a waiting game for someone to leave. We had gone waterskiing early that morning and had stopped by the beach between 10:30-11:00 & dropped off our chairs, umbrella & boogie boards on the beach so we could get "our spot". We went back to the resort to pack some sandwiches & grab the cooler etc. & when we came back around 11:30 the lot & garage was full so we had to wait for someone to leave. Spaces opened up again in the afternoon too once the early customers left. My guess is that it's just a problem between say 11:00 and 1:30 or 2:00. There was one day that we forgot to bring our hats & DH's book. I guess it was around Noon when I decided to go back to get them. The parking looked FULL so I just took the shuttle over & back and it only took about 20 min. The shuttle runs constantly back & forth all day in a continuous loop (from 10-5) and there's a "house phone" that calls the van directly. Before I decided to use it I called him & asked how long until he would be back to the beach house. He said he was on his way & was waiting out at the light to cross the main drag so I knew it would only be a few minutes. When he arrived I was the only one waiting to go back to the resort. He waited just a min. or two to see if anyone else would show up. Nobody came so he left for the resort. Our villa was in the main lodge so it was very close to the drop-off point. I told him I'd just be 2 minutes while I grabbed the hats & book & he said as long as nobody else came out or as long as nobody else called him from the beach house he'd be there. I got lucky & nobody called him until we were back on our way over to the beach house again. We were just about to turn into the parking lot when they rang. I understood that if someone called him while I ran into our villa that he'd leave & I'd have to wait.