Were you planning on driving to Savannah? You might want to consider taking the boat just for the fun of it. I don't have specific information but you could probably google it.
If you drive, be sure you have a map with good directions. Depending on traffic expect an hour to 1.5 hours each way.
In Savannah, definitely take one of the horse drawn trolleys. That'll give you a good sampling of the historic 'old' Savannah.
Pretty much all the action is along the river, shops and restaruants.
Have a great trip.
We had a Savannah/HHI trip over Thanksgiving and it was wonderful!
The trip from Savannah to Hilton Head and vice versa was not bad and only took about 40-50 minutes if that. It was a very nice drive. The roads are 2 lane, but we didn't have much traffic and the greenery was very nice with trees hanging over the roads.
You take U.S. 17 over the big bridge in Savannah, get on SR 170 until you get to US278, and take US278 into Hilton Head.
In Savannah, we enjoyed the river area very much, but also enjoyed the rest of the historic district. The Trolley tour was very helpful in giving you a lay of the land. We really enjoyed Forsythe Park and all of the beautiful squares especially Chippewa square, where they filmed Forrest Gump!
We stayed at a beautiful Hampton Inn in Savannah before heading to Hilton Head. There are 2 Hampton Inn's in the Historic District. We stayed at the one on MLK Jr., and it was sooo nice, and couldn't be beat for $95. The other one is much deeper in the middle of the historic district, but we were very close to the Vistors Center and the tour operators.
Our trip consisted of: 2 days in Savannah, beach combing, a dolphin tour, and hanging out at the HHI resort. We got a kick out of playing pool in Big Murgie's Den and other resort activities like storytelling from B'lou Crabbe,and just enjoying the beauty of the low country/marsh.
Make sure to get a free sample of Pralines on River Street. We went to the Chart House to eat, and it was very good but expensive.
If we had it to do over again, we would have spent more time at the beach house, but the trip was absolutely amazing!