HH Trip Report (packed with helpful tips?)

[Doctor P]

Setting the scene: Easter week trip (4/14-4/21 at HH) by me (golf, travel, and eating lover), DW (scrapbooking, beach, and outdoor lover), DD (16 yo soccer, beach, bike, and outdoor lover).

Left at 12:30 pm CDT from DD's high school in Aurora, IL. Drove till 9:30 pm EST, stopping in Berea, KY. Bad road construction in Lexington, KY added 20 minutes to trip.

Left Berea, KY at 6:30 am. Drove I-75 to I-40 to I-26 to I-95 to Rt. 278 to Business 278. Arrived at HH resort at 4:20 pm. Took nearly 3 hours to drive from junction of I-26 and I-95 to the resort. 11 mile backup for a van that was pulled off the shoulder on the left side of the road!!! First lesson of trip: Add at least one hour for traffic problems every day.

Checked into resort and were assigned a studio on the third floor of Live Oak Lodge overlooking the area between Live Oak Lodge and Building 13. Our balcony was quite private, but sometimes our neighbors were quite loud while on their balcony.

Comment on studio: HH studios are the most spacious of any DVC resort. I slept on the sofa bed--really wish all the DVC resorts got the new sofa beds like SSR, but the bed was more than adequate and above average for a sofa bed in terms of comfort.

After checking in, we quickly headed over to Broad Creek rentals and got three bikes rented for the week (total of $63 including tax using the family plan [first two bikes for $50, each additional for $10], including baskets, helmets, and locks if needed and available). We had received good advice to rent immediately. The resort had no more bike rentals available as of 8:45 am on Saturday morning, with still lots of people to be checked in. Subsequent guests were being referred to an off-site provider who seemed to offer the same rates and a delivery/pick-up service. We also booked the Shrimp Boil for Tuesday night April 18 at the time we checked in. The resort also provided extensive local information booklets to help us get started planning our stay on HH.

I will gradually add to the report in subsequent posts, but that's all for now, LOL.

 

[Judique]

Took nearly 3 hours to drive from junction of I-26 and I-95 to the resort. 11 mile backup for a van that was pulled off the shoulder on the left side of the road!!! First lesson of trip: Add at least one hour for traffic problems every day.

Sorry this happened to you, Doctor P. Were you carrying a road atlas? 26 and 95 can be bottlenecks even without a van on the roadside. I often detour around this area when there is a backup.

Can't wait to hear the rest of your report. We were there for the weekend, but I love to read what others have to say.

 

[elijahpep]

For the report DOC P!!!

Really sorry that my old Kentucky home roads held up your trip. It's seems that's the only big construction time there is the holidaze and weekends!

Glad you made it so safely. Interesting comments on room size!

Thanks again Doc!

~DW

 

[mbhoxsie]

We stayed in a HHI studio last year and were really quite suprised by the size of the room...

Maybe DW and I will use a HHI studio for a long weekend alone sometime in the future..

 

[dgaston]

Looking forward to your report. We are thinking about HH for our April vacation next year.

 

[Cruise04]

Don't come here often but wanted to add to the report (I'm his dw).

The neighbors were not that loud on their balcony, it was noise coming from their room (with their balcony door open - trust me, I spent a lot of time out there).

I LOVED this trip. I don't get to say that very often about most of our trips because they are so jam packed with not much relaxation time. I definitely got relaxation time in (unfortunately dh was sick for a few days and that added to the relaxation time). There is so much to see and do at HH. Saturday we did a dolphin tour (not the one that you can book through the resort) and that was fun. I love the water and the boat went out pretty far. We did finally get to see some dolphins but we had to go out by the Harbour Town area to see them. Although very windy it was still awesome. One word of caution, have a backup day if you go in the spring to do this. They ended up cancelling the later (1pm) trip because of the wind being so bad and the high tide. This time of year can get pretty windy it appears.

There are so many bike trails - awesome areas to bike. We did a little one hour ride one night and it was a nice ride. DD and I rode to Coligney (a tourist shopping area that is about 4 miles from the Disney resort) and that was also a nice ride, except for the rain. We took a day and went into the Harbour Town area and there are some AWESOME looking bike paths.

If you need to get your kids out into the open air to run around we found a nice little park that has an open area (people had their dogs there running around too) and an area with a soccer field. It was very nice (it was to the right of the traffic circle and down to the stop light and to the right and then left).

The Coligney shopping area is a nice little shopping area. We went there a few times and just walked around and in and out of the shops. One of the places we visited a few times was The Art Cafe - this is a place that has ceramic items that you can paint and create your own souvenir. That was fun and on the day it rained a nice place to kill some time (although it was busy that day).

There are so many shopping areas around there that you probably can go back 10 times and not hit them all. If you get a chance to go over to the Harbour Town area, I would suggest it. I think it is $5 to get into the area though but simply BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!

The room was great. We brought our own food with us and was able to make sandwiches for a few meals and also was able to grill on one of the grills one night as well. Would have done more but the price of meat out there was higher than we anticipated and we hadn't brought any more meat with us. We did, however, purchase and bring with some Kingsford bagged charcoal that are individual use bags and you just light the bag and it lights the charcoal. These were GREAT. I would get them again and suggest them to anyone that's wanting to grill. We didn't have to haul lighter fluid with us or a bigger bag of charcoal. We also made plenty of snacks and stuff from home and brought them as well so that we weren't spending a lot of money on food. We did have to get some milk and bread and salad mix. Piggly Wiggly down the road from the resort has an awesome salad bar by their deli counter and we got salads from there a few times. The one thing I wish they would do is put in the wardrobe/tv stands like they have BCV. It gives you more storage space and there is plenty of room in the studios for them. But the tv was nice. An addition that they didn't have 3 years ago was a DVD player in the room. That was nice because dd got a few DVD's for easter and we brought one with us that we hadn't watched yet in case we needed something for a rainy day. We had brought our portable DVD player with us as well.

The shrimp boil was okay - I'm a picky eater. I didn't care for the peel and eat shrimp - mainly the peeling just kind of grossed me out a bit. They also had apple cider marinated pork and that was great.

The weather was great - above average temps from 85-92 the first few days and then a cold front came through and it dipped down to the 70's. Being from IL that didn't bother me at all - I still wore shorts and actually got burnt the most on that day. We had rain 3 nights while sleeping and one day it rained during the day. It was great weather - couldn't have asked for any better. But several people told me this was not the norm for weather.

All in all it was a great trip. Didn't get a chance to see what DISers were going to be there the same time we were so didn't get to meet any. This is the first trip I've been on since being a DVC member that people actually walked by you and said hello and good morning or good afternoon. It is such a very friendly atmosphere. Absolutely wonderful.

Oh, one downfall. There was an emergency on our last night. I was very impressed with what appeared to be an immediate response by the staff at the resort. I got to witness that a bit as we were watching the ambulance and seeing what was going on from the 3rd floor balcony facing the parking lot. I felt so bad for the family - appeared to be an older girl. But I saw the first aid responder head off to what appeared to be the hospital before the ambulance left and then a van took one of the family members to what I'm assuming was the hospital at a later point as well. I was just very impressed and I hope that everything turned out okay for the family.

This is a place that I would highly recommend. It is just an awesome resort - there was plenty to do both at the resort and off the resort. I was looking for a very relaxing vacation and I got it. Being able to sit out on the balcony in the morning and drink my coffee and eat my breakfast was the best it has ever been!!!!!!! The other pluses is that it's only about 45 to Savannah with lots of history and things to do and about 2 hours to Charleston with, again, lots of history and things to do. It's situated very well. Also I believe it's only about 5-6 hours from WDW. We did go to Savannah on Easter (and ate at The Lady and Sons for Easter dinner - YUM) and then went to Charleston on our way home for part of the day.

If you have any questions, please feel free to pm me or post here and I'll see if I can answer. I'm sure Doctor P will have more later. He did some golfing.

Chris

 

[Doctor P]

Thanks to Cruise04 for filling in more of our trip report. One of the issues with our dolphin cruise was that the tide was going out at the same time as the wind was blowing the other way. This made for very rough water and difficulty in finding dolphins. We actually ended up finding the dolphins off of South Beach, almost all the way to the ocean through Calibogue Sound. Our captain said that normally they are not allowed to take cruises out that far due to time and the extra fuel it uses. But it was well worth it. We saw quite a few dolphins up close and it was just an awesome experience. The neatest part, and totally unexpected, was coming up on three dolphins about halfway back to the resort in Broad Creek. The dolphins had not yet come that far inland due to the water temperature, but they were there that day and were really neat.

A few more tidbits on the Savannah part of our journey: parking in the garages on Sundays is cheap and effective. If you don't mind a lack of ambience, you can travel for free all around the historic district using the CAT shuttle (a city bus) that runs a circuit around the area. On Sundays, it makes each stop (there are 32 as I recall) every 40 minutes. It DOES NOT run down on River Street, so you will need to walk down and back to that area of the waterfront. Savannah is less than 40 miles from Hilton Head and was an easy 45-50 minute drive through Bluffton and other small towns. Coming across the bridge into Savannah is breathtaking.

More on golf and Hilton Head restaurants in the next installment of my report.

 

[carriep1657]

Thank you both for your posts. We are making our first trip to HHI in 4 more weeks.

I can't wait to read what you write about restaurants. DH will be interested in reading what you post about golf.

I'm just planning on relaxing and go on a dolphin tour.

Which dophin tour did you take? Would you recommend it? Was there a bathroom on the boat?

 

[RobDoc]

Thanks for the thorough report(s)!

The studios at HH are indeed the largest of all DVC resorts (by about 60 sq ft) and the balconies are much larger than any other DVC resort too. The tip about the bike rental is a great suggestion and it sounds as though the resort was pretty well filled during your stay.

Keep the information coming!

 

[Doctor P]

Next installment is restaurants.

Here is where we ate this trip:

The Lady and Sons (Easter Sunday buffet)
Piggly Wiggly salad bar
Sea Shack (dinner)
Stacks (breakfast)
Crazy Crab at Harbourtown (lunch)
Giuseppe's
Longhorn Steakhouse
Lowcountry Boil at the Disney Beach House

Here is my impression of each place (Cruise04, DW, can post later as her impressions may be different):

The Lady and Sons: This was the second time we had eaten at this renowned Savannah eatery owned and operated by Paula Deen and her sons. The food was OK, but was really the same buffet we at in July 2003 on the way back from our Disney cruise. There was fried chicken (awesome!), baked chicken, seafood pasta in an Alfredo sauce (the seafood was really good, the Alfredo and pasta was OK), macaroni and cheese (very good), green beans (southern style), greens, a vegetable casserole (awesome), mashed potatoes, ham, and a very basic salad bar (with Paula's homemade bleu cheese dressing which was very good). Each person received a cheese biscuit and a hoecake (syrup was on the table). I didn't eat any hoecake (one of the few concessions I made to my diabetes at that meal), but the cheese biscuit was pretty good (but I still like Red Lobster's cheese biscuits better, LOL). Dessert was a choice of Gooey Sweet Potato Cake (interesting and OK, but nothing to write home about), homemade banana pudding (probably the best dessert--had that the last time and had a taste this time), and peach cobbler (DW said it was OK). Final verdict: if we go back, we will go when we can eat off the menu instead of the buffet. But we have also been spoiled as both times we have gone we have been able to have a reservation (Easter is one of the few days they still take reservations and it was essential to have a reservation that day). BTW, we preceded our meal by attending Easter mass at the historic Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Savannah. The church was beautiful and our mass was actually said by the long time Bishop of Savannah which was quite neat. He seemed like a very humble and loving man who was well regarded by the congregation.

Stacks: This little family restaurant/diner style eating establishment had ample portions for breakfast and had a quite extensive menu. The food was adequate and fairly priced, but was not spectacular by any means. Good basic food, but pretty greasy and heavy.

Sea Shack: This place is actually fairly hard to find, but was exactly as it had been described to us by our dolphin cruise Captain--not at all fancy, filled with locals. It is only a very tiny step up from the typical seafood shacks you see scattered through coastal areas in New England and the Middle Atlantic. DW had a popcorn shrimp platter and I had the Sea Shack platter (or something with a similar name). My platter had fried oysters, fried shrimp, fried fish (I think it was grouper possibly, judging by the texture, flavor, and appearance though it may also possibly have been cod), fried scallops, and a crab cake. You get a choice of two sides from a fairly extensive list--I chose french fries and a mixed vegetable (southern style). My fried shrimp and fried fish were exceptional, the fried oysters were very good, and I did not care for the crab cake. The meal was extremely affordable and the portions were ample. The total bill for DW and I was about $22.00 including one soft drink as well as the food. I don't think we will go back. It was OK, but it wasn't so good that it was a don't miss and DW is not a real big seafood eater anyway. I wouldn't tell people to avoid Sea Shack by any means, but I would rate it as good or adequate as opposed to excellent.

The Lowcountry Shrimp Boil was good, but seemingly a bit pricey at $25.00 per person. I thought the gumbo was quite good, the Lowcountry boil (especially the shrimp) very tasty, and the apple smoked pork loin was to die for. Dessert was New York Style cheesecake that was quite good. Entertainment was also very good. I would do it again based on the food, but might think twice about whether I might prefer to spend the money on another type of meal that had broader appeal for DW and DD.

The Crazy Crab was excellent in my opinion and I would eat there again. I had the seafood platter which had the same items as that at the Sea Shack except there were no scallops on this platter. Crazy Crab's platter wins for its fried oysters (sweet and succulent, but both places oysters were somewhat smaller than those I have eaten in restaurant along the Gulf and in Florida). The crab cake at Crazy Crab was to die for--large in size, primarily good quality blue crab meat that was perfectly prepared with appropriate spices and a minimum of fillers. The shrimp and fish were OK, but not spectacular. Perhaps the best item I ate on the whole trip was a cup of Crazy Crab's She Crab Soup. It was among the best crab soups I have ever tasted, and I have probably had two dozen different versions at various restaurants over time.

Giuseppe's--Frankly, we don't understand the hype. I hope there is better pizza on Hilton Head because their pizza bordered on inedible. I love pizza and I love cold pizza. I told DW, who also didn't like it, that it was OK to throw out the half a pizza we didn't eat. I'm not sure that I remember ever doing that with a pizza I had ordered and tasted. We eat a lot of pizza, and I have eaten pizza all over the country. What can I say--the crust was, at best, marginally edible; the sauce was...well...horrible; the cheese was fine, but very very bland and lacking in character and variety; the mushrooms were bitter; and the sausage was impossible to discern and lacked body, character, and any kind of flavor. Add to that the greasiness of the pizza and you had a grand slam loser. I thought the cheese garlic bread was OK, and the mozzarella sticks were OK, but I was sadly disappointed in the pizza.

Piggly Wiggly has an awesome full service deli and salad bar, as well as an awesome dessert bakery/shop. High quality, good prices, and great variety. We all enjoyed the salads we prepared for a late dinner on Easter night.

Longhorn Steakhouse. DW and I had eaten at the Longhorn in Dalton, GA on our fifth anniversary on our way to what turned out to be an aborted attempt (thanks to Hurricane Frances) to take a DCL cruise for our anniversary (the original schedule would have had us eating dinner on the ship rather than at Longhorn, but that's another story). So, we decided to take DD there since we liked it so well on our previous trip. We were not disappointed. Nice menu, nice quality, competitive prices, and a nice atmosphere.

Hope this helps with some information about food and restaurants. Be glad to answer any questions or provide clarifications upon request.

 

[byoung]

Great report so far.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Thank you for your reports. I'd/We'd love to visit HH some day.

Bobbi

 

[Doctor P]

Here is another brief installment on visiting Charleston, South Carolina from Hilton Head. From the resort, Charleston is about 116 miles. The CM at the desk was right on when she told me that it was between two and three hours depending on the way you go and traffic. It took us about 2.5 hours. One hint--do not try to take I-95 all the way up to I-26 and then drive into Charleston from there. That route is very much out of the way. What we did was take Route 278 back out of HH and across the bridge. We continued on all the way back to I-95 and then took I-95 north to about exit 32 (about 25 miles from the junction with 278) and then took Rt. 17 into Charleston from there. Once into Charleston, my recommendation would be to find your way to the Vistor's Center at 375 Meeting Street. There is an adjacent parking deck (.50 per half hour with a maximum charge of $8.00 for the day as I recall). The Visitor's Center has tons of information, a nice gift shop with reasonable prices, and is the place to pick up (small) bus tours of the historic district. If you buy your tour tickets outside by the buses you can avoid the $1.50 per ticket surcharge that is charged inside the visitor's center. Also, the way that they do the tours outside the visitor's center is much like catching a cab at a major airport. They have a little desk where they tell you about the costs and types of tours available and then put you on the next tour that is leaving, regardless of company. It keeps things moving and is very efficient. We chose to take a city tour that included admission to one historic house that was near the visitor's center. We did not have enough time to do the boat tour to Fort Sumter as that would have added three or four hours that we simply did not have during our visit. The cost of the tour, including the house, was $24.00 per person. The mini-bus tour was a thorough look at the historic area of Charleston and took about 100 minutes including a brief stop at The Battery where we looked out at Fort Sumter and some of the Charleston Harbor area. The historic house tour was quite nice (although the most interesting/exciting part was that they FOUND A DEAD BODY in the garden of the house next door just as we were getting to the house. So there was lots of police and coroner activity as they were trying to process the scene and figure out what was going on). It appeared that ultimately that there was probably no foul play, but it was kind of distracting as you might imagine!

After our tours we ate an awesomely good late lunch at an Italian restaurant a block from the Vistor's Center on King Street. Very good and very reasonable.

We would love to return to Charleston and see more of this beautiful city. It was well worth the detour and time spent. DW and I disagree about whether Charleston is a good day trip from HH. Personally, I think 5 hours of driving is a pretty challenging day trip (especially with the way traffic can be--we got caught in rush hour trying to leave the city), but those who are motivated to do it will be rewarded with one of the most charming historic cities in the United States.

 

[dgaston]

Thanks for all the info. My interest in HH for next April is definitely getting stronger!

 

[Simba's Mom]

Thanks for the report! How crowded was Sea Shack when you went? And where's Crazy Crab? We've never eaten there, but we love seafood. And if you golfed, where/how was it?

 

[Tamar]

This is a very timely thread, as we're leaving for HH next Saturday....we're spending Saturday night in Savannah, then 4 nights at HH, and the final two nights in the historic district of Charleston.

I'm especially interested in the drive from Charleston to Savannah, as we'll have to make that on the last day of our trip, and arrive in time for a 2pm flight. I was thinking we could hit the road at 10am, but it sounds like that might be pushing it if traffic is bad??

Tamar

 

[Doctor P]

To be safe I would allow as much as five hours ahead of your flight depending on how you go. There is quite a bit of road construction on US 17, including one lane highway. Most of the road is also two lanes although they have places where they add a lane for a short period of time for passing purposes. On a good day, the drive to the Savannah airport will be a little over three hours or so from Charleston. Add in time to return a rental car, which it sounds like you will be doing, as well as the required time for check in before your flight, and I would probably not be comfortable leaving later than 9:00 am and you might even want to leave earlier to allow more flexibility and contingency.

 

[Doctor P]

Sea Shack was fairly crowded when we went. We waited in line to order probably about 15-20 minutes and there were only a couple free tables after we ordered (they insist that no one sits down at a table until AFTER they have ordered--this helps turn the tables over and to keep them free for people right before they get their food). Food took another 15-20 minutes after that. There are two locations for Crazy Crab. The one we ate at was at the edge of the shopping area the the Harbourtown lighthouse and overlooked the water and harbor. The other location is probably about mile marker #2 or 3 on Business 278 as you go back toward the bridge to the mainland.

 

[cruise-o-matic]

Sorry we missed you Dr. P. We were there the week before Easter and had a blast. We were in studio 1126, which is down one floor on the other side of the Lodge. When we went in September, we had studio 1814, which IMHO, is probably the best located studio, until you have to haul laundry back & forth.

We've always enjoyed Guisseppes and had take out twice. And loved Bruster's ice cream next door too. And definitely enjoyed Old Oyster Factory as well. Not too crazy about San Miguels. Food was very bland.

We also did the day trip to Savanah. Got there shortly after 9:30 and already a long line. Enjoyed the heart healthy food . DW was dissapointed that Paula was having cooking classes that week and she didn't find out until it was too late to sign up. We did the touristy thing and took the Old Savanah Tours trolley. Got off at the Market to go eat at L&S and when we got back on, we had the same driver and he was great. But I liked your tips and we'll probably do that next time. We'd also like to see Beaufort too.

Charleston is too far away and we normally go there with family on MLK weekwend when my parents make their East Coast winter excursion. We always enjoy Hyman's Seafood just north of the market.

Our tip is to sign up for the activities as soon as you get there, b/c the popular ones like Kid's Night Out fill up fast.

Our 11 month window opens up Monday for next Easter. We're planning to stay either 6 or 7 nights next Spring Break.

 

[Sammie]

Thanks for the report from both of you. Glad you had a great trip, it truly is a special place.

Curious about something you said about your meals. That you found meat to be much higher in the area than your home area, that surprises me. As we found prices to be comparable to what we pay at home.