Hilton Head Island stop over.

[Simba's Mom]

I personally would not waste points to do that. I haven't been to the HHI resort in many years, but it is just a hotel. It's not on the beach, and there is really nothing special about staying there. I'd stay somewhere along the interstate and use the points in Florida

Yup, just a hotel. But I'll make the supreme sacrifice and "force myself" to stay there. No one else needs to make reservations-leave it all for us!

 

[MEK]

We are traveling to WDW in mid September and we were planning on driving down and staying somewhere halfway since its a long trip.

We were thinking of booking at HHI for the one night.

Was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this. We are traveling from NJ and will have our 5 month old baby with us.

Was wondering if anyone else in DVC has done this.

thanks!

As the OP's have said, this resort truly is a gem. It took us 11hours to drive there from southern new castle county Delaware and that was with lunch and 2 other bathroom/gas breaks. We left at 6am and arrived at 5pm. We really couldn't see much of the resort that evening, but it was late October. I think it would be incredibly hard to get and leave the next morning. It's such a cool resort. As I recall, it took more than 25 minutes to get to the resort and my GF was shaving time OFF the GPS on 95.

As other's have mentioned, you might want to try 301 south to avoid the traffic around DC. We did this on a sunday morning and it worked like a charm. It connects to I-95 north of Richmond.

 

[csharpwv]

HHI Is a fantastic resort - and I highly suggest that you leave home and drive through the night, arrive at HHI during the day - not in the evening.
Last year we left my in-laws home in northeastern PA on thanksgiving night, drove through the night and even with a nap in the early AM - we arrived at HHI shortly after 1:00pm.

That gave us enough time to check in, check out the resort, go to the grocery store, and then come back in time for our room to be ready, make dinner, and then off to the beach house just in time to watch the sunset at the beach!

It was a GREAT way to start a vacation - and then the next morning we were up and on the road by 11:00am (just in time to stop at the outlets to check out a few after thanksgiving deals.

We did a stop over at HHI on the way down and on the way back for that trip - and then we spent the 4th of July week there this summer.

We LOVE the resort - it is SO Disney, but not over the top! - It's perfect!

IF you plan to check in late at night, and leave early in the morning... I'm not sure it would be worth your time. BUT if you plan to check in early, and check out late - then it would definitely be worth your time... be sure to plan a trip to the beach house!

 

[pb4ugo]

dvcmikey - if you have the points and no other planned use for the USE THEM AT HHI! it is a great place to spend the nite! even with an evening arrival you have time to go out for a bite to eat or order a pizza to be delivered by giusseppe's! dh and i have often used hhi as a stopover when travelling to/from florida and/or visiting family in the carolinas!

one suggestion is to consider leaving home a couple hours earlier so that your arrival is a bit earlier and you can get in a bit more relaxation at the resort after your drive. we travel from central jersey, so we can empathize and sympathize with that drive!

use the points and save your cash for the mouse!