Hilton Head questions

[Briman]

We are excited for our first trip to HHI this August and have a few questions. How bad is it taking the shuttle to the beach? Do they rent the bike trailers to tow the kiddies in? And lastly, can you bring your own beach chairs/umbrellas/etc. to the beach? Thanks in advance!

 

[cindala]

Speaking from our experience of staying in Harbor Town in Sea Pines, we rented bikes and rode to the beach each day. Although our kids are much older, we rented a bike trailer to put our beach chairs in to bring each day with us. We found that purchasing the chairs at Walgreen's was cheaper than renting them for the week. So yes, you can bring your own chairs and umbrellas to the beach.

The location of Disney on Hilton Head is a bit further from the beach though than we were in Harbor Town.

 

[kmccl]

Never took the shuttle, we just drove each time, but there were many other people taking the shuttle and didn't seem to have any problem. Yes they do rent bike trailers to pull kids with. Would be an easy bike ride to the beach house. If you ride to the beach house, when you get out to William Hilton Parkway (I think that is the name of the main road) take a left and it will take you near the water and there is a path under the main road. And yes you can bring your own beach chairs and umbrellas. Have a wonderful trip. We love HHI!!!

 

[marynvince]

shuttle is very conveinent and trip takes all of 5 minutes.

 

[RobDoc]

The Disney shuttle runs from 10:00am - 4:00pm.

At the time of your trip there is also a free shuttle service provided by the Palmetto Dunes merchants that runs from about 8:00am - 9:00pm. They will take guests anyplace within Palmetto Dunes and will pick up at the Disney resort too. They will take you to the beach, the mall, grocery store, restaurants, etc. - so if you want to go to the beach earlier than 10am or stay later than 4pm, the Palmetto Dunes Buggy is a great option. It runs from about April - October.

 

[Briman]

Thanks for the informative replies! We had heard that parking could be difficult at times so we were thinking of the bikes. Even more excited now that we know getting to the beach will be easy!

 

[mrichlen]

You can bring your own chairs, etc... to the beach (try to get there early, it gets pretty crowded by lunch time!). You can also rent them. We picked up everything (boogie boards, sand toys, etc...) at Wal-Mart on the way in. Have a GREAT time. I love HHI!

 

[MinnieGi]

We go in the summer crowds and like to get to the beach early around 9:00/9:30 and never have trouble finding a spot. Starting around 11:00 is when it seems to fill up. We like to bring our own chairs/umbrella/sand toys so getting a spot is key. Also later in the day its not hard to get a spot at the beach house.

Have fun, we love our time at HHI!

 

[Briman]

With a one year old and a seven year old getting to the beach early sure won't be a problem!

 

[WiscBill]

We are excited for our first trip to HHI this August and have a few questions. How bad is it taking the shuttle to the beach? Do they rent the bike trailers to tow the kiddies in? And lastly, can you bring your own beach chairs/umbrellas/etc. to the beach? Thanks in advance!

We were there on Memorial day weekend. The shuttle is very easy to take and I would recommend using it unless you want to drive to the beach house. The parking lot to the beach house is open to the public so it does fill up early. When the parking lot was full, we would get a message on our phone in the room telling us to the use the shuttle.

Yes, you can rent bike trailers. However, I don't think it would be a good idea to use them to get to the beach house. The ride is only about 1.5 miles and most of it is on dedicated bike paths. The bad part is that you need to go on a fairly narrow underpass that runs under the main highway to get to the beach house. The underpass is a boardwalk type structure with two sharp turns. It is really not wide enough for two bikes to pass in opposite directions, certainly not one with a trailer. After you cross under the highway, you need to make a sharp right turn and then go up an incline before you enter the bike path on the other side of the highway which leads to the beach. Once across, it's not a bad ride, although you have to pay attention to the signs that direct you to the beach house. Once at the beach house, there are bike racks in the parking garage under the beach house where you can lock your bike.

Going back, you have to go to downhill and then make a sharp left when you cross using the underpass. Most of the bikes have only coaster brakes so modulating your speed with a trailer would be hard. It would be best to dismount and walk the bike and trailer across the underpass. Even then you have to be very careful, as people do come down the incline at high speeds with very much a "get out of my way" riding style. Once across, there is one switch back turn at the end of the path, so you would have to dismount again in order to get the trailer up through the turn.

That said, we rode our bikes (DD is 9) to the beach a couple of times.

 

[dizzneebabe]

We've been there over the 4th of July week and even then, never had a problem getting a spot, but we'd arrive at the beach house by 9:30-10am every day. Mid-day it does tend to fill up, but as long as you're there early, you'll be fine!

Enjoy your time there...we LOVE HHI...absolutely LOVE it!

 

[chefkellyb]

DH would fill the back of our truck with all of the beach gear and drive over to the beach. The rest of us would ride our bikes over and meet DH there. If anyone didn't feel like riding a bike back, DH would drive them back with him. It was a fun way to get there while getting some exercise too! We did take the shuttle the first day to get a good feeling of the area and had no problems at all. Enjoy! We will be there next week!!! Can't wait!

 

[Connears]

We have been HHI for the last 5 summers, and just got back from July3-9th in 2 bedroom. Had not problem driving to beach house, but got there before 10am..shuttle is also very easy and reliable. We bring our own chairs, but you can rent them at the beach from the lifeguards. For 2 of the days we just got chairs around the beach house pool to relax, read, etc and then walked to the ocean to swim or stroll the beach. When parking lot is full you will get voicemail message saying so..DH dropped us off there twice and returned to resort while my sisters and I "beached it" and then came back for us, we offered to take shuttle but he's a doll....
PS-make sure to try the daily trivia challenge at the Merchantile..I got 4 pins(one for each day) for answering correctly!!!

Connears

 

[queendarvet]

Anyone know the cost of renting chairs and umbrellas at the beach? DH and I are thinking of trying a trip in early June.

 

[AmandaRG]

I understand that at WDW it can be pretty difficult to get reservations at the 7-month mark, but does that run true for HHI? We are thinking of Sept. 2012 and I'm curious as to how much trouble we might have, since we own at BLT.

 

[Connears]

Anyone know the cost of renting chairs and umbrellas at the beach? DH and I are thinking of trying a trip in early June.

I beleive it was $40/day for first day then goes down some for the others if you do a multi-day reservation..that's what lifeguard told us july 4th week. I did not rent though..you get canvas/wooden chair with unbrella and small table in between the chairs.

Connears

 

[MinnieGi]

I understand that at WDW it can be pretty difficult to get reservations at the 7-month mark, but does that run true for HHI? We are thinking of Sept. 2012 and I'm curious as to how much trouble we might have, since we own at BLT.

For Sept. I think you'll be fine. It's the summer months of June, July and August that is hard to get into HHI.

 

[queendarvet]

I beleive it was $40/day for first day then goes down some for the others if you do a multi-day reservation..that's what lifeguard told us july 4th week. I did not rent though..you get canvas/wooden chair with unbrella and small table in between the chairs.

Connears

Thanks! We'll probably bring our own but nice to know.