Attractions on Hilton Head Island

Harbour Town and its striped lighthouse inside Sea Pines, the 605-acre Sea Pines Forest Preserve, Coligny Beach Park, the Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn, Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park, Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge on the causeway, and Shelter Cove Harbour for the boats and the summer fireworks. Between them they cover the island's beaches, marsh, heritage and working waterfront, and all but the gate pass and the lighthouse climb are free.

To drive in, yes. Non-guests buy a daily vehicle pass at the Greenwood or Ocean Gate, around $10 at the time of writing, valid for that whole day and covering Harbour Town, the Forest Preserve, the Stoney-Baynard Ruins and Lawton Stables. It is charged per car, not per person. Cyclists and pedestrians are generally waved through without paying. Guests staying inside, and people with a restaurant or tee-time reservation, are handled differently at the gate.

For the view over Calibogue Sound toward Daufuskie, yes, and it is 114 steps with exhibits on the landings rather than a bare spiral. Know what you are climbing, though: it was built in 1970 as a landmark for the new Sea Pines resort, not as a working navigational light. There is a separate per-person charge on top of the Sea Pines gate pass. Go late in the afternoon when the sound turns gold.

It is a boot-shaped barrier island about twelve miles long, with one main road — William Hilton Parkway, US-278 — running the full length and the Cross Island Parkway cutting across to the south end. The north end holds the history sites and the refuge, the middle holds the marinas on Broad Creek and most of the beach parks, and the south end is Coligny plus Sea Pines behind its gates. Plan one band per day rather than crossing the island twice.

Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park, the Audubon Newhall Preserve, Green's Shell Enclosure, Jarvis Creek Park and the grounds and marsh trails at the Coastal Discovery Museum, where donations are encouraged rather than required. Every beach on the island is free to walk onto, and parking at Coligny Beach Park is free year-round. The town's seventy-plus miles of public pathway cost nothing either.

It marks the site of Mitchelville, founded on the island's north end in 1862 and the first self-governed town of formerly enslaved people in the United States. It had elected officials, its own ordinances and compulsory schooling for children. The park is interpretive ground rather than surviving buildings, and it is free. Treat it as a morning rather than a stop — it is the most historically significant place on Hilton Head Island.

Yes, in essentially every freshwater lagoon on the island, including the ornamental ponds inside gated communities and on golf courses. The Sea Pines Forest Preserve lagoons are the place visitors see them most reliably. They are not usually a problem and become one when people feed them, which is a crime in South Carolina. Keep at least fifty feet back, never let a dog drink or swim at a lagoon edge, and do not walk the banks at dusk.

The north end is the island's quietest and most historically dense band. Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park, Fish Haul Creek Park for shelling and shorebirds on the low-tide flats, the Coastal Discovery Museum's 68 acres at Honey Horn, Green's Shell Enclosure Heritage Preserve, and the Skull Creek marinas for boat departures. Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge sits just off the island on the causeway. Most visitors staying at the south end never come up here.

An hour covers the main loop and the lagoon boardwalks; two to three hours lets you reach the Fish Island shell ring and walk the quieter trails. The 605-acre preserve is unpaved and can be soft after rain, so wear something you do not mind muddying. Access is included with the Sea Pines gate pass, so pair it with Harbour Town and the Stoney-Baynard Ruins on the same day rather than paying twice.

For anyone who likes birds, it is the best free hour on the trip. The refuge covers about 4,000 acres on the US-278 causeway, and Ibis Pond, roughly fifteen minutes in on a flat crushed-shell track, holds a serious wading-bird rookery in spring. There is a gravel lot and essentially nothing else — no water, no shop, minimal facilities. Go at first light, take repellent, and allow two hours if you want to reach the further loops.

Most of them, if you rent bikes. The island has more than seventy miles of public pathway plus a separate 17-mile network inside Sea Pines, and it is rated a Gold-level Bicycle Friendly Community. Cyclists also avoid the Sea Pines vehicle gate pass. The seasonal fare-free Breeze Trolley covers the south and mid-island loops from around April to Labor Day. For Pinckney Island, Mitchelville or a Savannah day, you will want a car.

If your week only allows three, make them one north-end morning at Mitchelville and Fish Haul Creek Park, one Sea Pines day covering Harbour Town, the Forest Preserve and the Stoney-Baynard Ruins on a single gate pass, and one early walk at Pinckney Island. Add a morning on the water and you have seen the actual island rather than the version on the postcards.