If you follow us on Instagram, you know that we recently got to do a bit of travelling (finally!). We took a road trip down to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina for 1 week, and then travelled down to Orlando for another 2 weeks (which I will write a whole other blog post about). It would be an understatement to say I was excited to travel after an almost 2-year lockdown in Canada due to COVID. Being a nurse in a pandemic has been one of the hardest things I have yet to do, so having a 3-week hiatus was just what I needed for a little rejuvenation!
We headed down to Hilton Head Island right after I finished a day shift, and we drove the entire night through to get there! I don’t know where I got the energy to do an 18-hour drive right after working all day, but we did it and got into Hilton Head Island around 2 pm the next day. Right before entering Hilton Head, we stopped at IHOP; it was our first time there and it was delicious! After this, we checked into Waterside Resort by Spinnaker and completely crashed at the resort for the rest of the night, we were exhausted!
The next day we toured around the island, and I have to say it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. They have a lot of rules on the Island in terms of construction – like how you can’t have a building be taller than the tallest tree – which made the aesthetic of the Island beautiful. There were trees and plants everywhere, to the point that going to the grocery store looked like you were in a tropical forest. On the Island, all the stores are pushed back away from the road and there aren’t any tall signs/neon signs which was so refreshing! It was so nice just driving around the island listening to the Outer Banks soundtrack! We also spent a lot of time at Coligny Beach because it was only about a 10-minute walk from our resort. The beach area was gorgeous, and I could have spent all day just walking along the beach.
The second day we were there we visited Tanger Outlets for a little bit of shopping. There are many stores that they have in the South that we do not have in Canada so we were excited to visit them – Vineyard Vines, J. Crew Factory, Palmetto Moon, and Lilly Pulitzer to name a few.
On our third day, we toured around main street and found the cutest, and best, gluten free bakery called The G Free Spot! I was naturally thrilled to find anything Gluten Free and ordered the pumpkin roll and carrot cake cupcake. Both were amazing and I highly recommend picking up some treats there if you are ever on the island. We spent the rest of the day in Harbour Town and went on a sunset dolphin cruise later that night. Harbour Town was one of my favourite places on the Island because it is right on the water, has some great small shops, and is one of the best places to see the sunset! The dolphin cruise we went on was with Vagabond Cruises. It was very informative about the Island’s history and wildlife and was thoroughly enjoyable! My only regret was not bringing along a blanket because it was so cold once the sun set, and Meg and I were huddled together the whole way. You can also visit the Harbour Town lighthouse while you are on this side of the island. This is something we did not get to do but would love to when we go back! This was one of my favourite days of the whole trip.
The next few days were spent just touring the island more and exploring as much as we could. We did a lot of walking while we were here! We found one of our new favourite stores, Spartina, which originated on Daufuskie Island. It is seriously one of the cutest stores we have ever been to, and we bought some beautiful jewelry pieces from them!
Almost all the stores closed around 5, and it was dark by then as well, so our evenings were spent at the resort. It gave us a lot of good family time playing games, talking, relaxing in the hot tub and having movie nights. It was off season in Hilton Head so there weren’t as many people on the island – which we loved! It made for a very relaxing and quiet first week.
I could go on and on about how beautiful this place was and how much I loved it, but I will spare you. Needless to say, it is now one of my favourite places to travel and I hope to be going back to visit again soon!
If you have ever been to Hilton Head Island, I would love to hear recommendations for our next trip!
Love,
~ Sarah
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