Originally posted by Doug Wolfe
I'm taking the family to Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort in South Carolina for the first time, May 21-28, 2005. We have booked a non-smoking 2-bedroom villa. Couple of quick questions?
1) What are the various views? Are there water views? Are there actually rooms in the main lodge?
2) Top picks for restaurants?
There are various views. The marsh view can be of water or marshgrass depending on the time of day, and season. Many of the choice location 2 bedrooms are surrounding the pool. Others look out over the marsh. Still others have interior views, which would be of other villas, surrounded by the live oaks covered in the hanging spanish moss. Some villas are along the marina side and from the stairs and bathrooms, you have a view of the boats and marina area - these tend to have porch views that are interior ie live oaks. If I were getting a two bedroom, I would request top floor, marshview, but not in Live Oak Lodge, unless I needed a handicapped room or elevator. At HH this would also mean wrestling all your stuff up there, but they do provide little carts at the parking area to help get it to the steps of your villa. The Live Oak Lodge rooms are nice, but there are more view options out in the detached buildings, plus, you would end up with a lockoff unit in the Lodge, which would have the queen and couch setup in the second bedroom, and two separate balconies. The two bedroom dedicated units in the detached villas have 2 queens in the second bedroom and have one long balcony with rockers and a picnic table on the porch.
Wherever you end up, you will be happy. HH is a great place, and despite all this talk we do about getting the perfect view, location, etc, I find that we are so busy doing things that we don't really sit out that much anyway. Plus the resort is just the perfect size - easy to walk around - nothing is far away, and if you feel like a great view, have a coffee or ice cream on the porch at Community Hall. From there you get a great marsh view, a pool view, a campfire view and easy access to free mug refills! Buy the refillable mugs here - they pay for themselves quickly and are good for a year - because if you go once, you will want to come back!
Restaurants - last visit we had an early bird at Redfish, which was pretty good. 13.95 salad, main course, dessert. Lots of HH places do early birds which work well if you have kids.
I don't like Mellow Mushroom - the pizza was okay but we couldn't survive the smoke.
I didn't like Guiseppes either - but - we did not try the one near the resort - I hear the one near the resort is much better then the one near Bluffton, so we will revisit and revise our opinion.
We don't tend to 'fine dine' a lot at HH. For us, it's a relaxing type of trip where we are happy doing easy food in the room, grabbing a pizza, heating soup and making sandwiches.
Two things I like at the resort - the onion rings (they are too fattening but other then that) and the grilled chicken ceasar sandwich with fries at Signals at the Beach House- it is the best chicken fastfood sandwich ever!
I also enjoyed the shrimp boil which is put on by the resort. But, I felt the summer barbecue is too crowded and not relaxing although the offerings were okay.
Do anything Chef Gordon is offering, you can't miss. He does a cooking demo on appetizers and also there was one with desserts...haven't seen it in a while though. But Longview Cooking Club should not be missed....or...if you can do Private Affair.
I'll be there 2 times before your May trip - Thanksgiving and Easter. If we try any new restaurants, I will do a review.
