My wife Robin and I took at trip to Hilton Head Island to get away for the weekend. She had never been to Hilton Head Island before and I hadn’t been since I was a kid. My wife loves the beach and I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend. On the way down we stopped at a BBQ restaurant in Macon named High on the Hawg. The food was good and inexpensive. Although in a strip mall, it had a nice themed decor inside and presented a hometown feel. I submitted my first Trip Advisor review for the restaurant.

We had a reservation for three nights at Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort. Our family has been Disney fans for years and liked the idea of a more remote, relaxing vacation than Orlando; but still with the same Disney Resort feel. The resort is much less expensive in the off-season so we decided to take advantage of that. We wanted to see if either the resort or the island was a place we’d like to come back with the whole family. We checked in at the resort and were upgraded to a two-room villa. The two-room villa is a really nice vacation suite. The suite had a washer and dryer as well as a full kitchen and a jacuzzi tub. Having two bedrooms, living room, kitchen, dining area and deck, we decided that this would be a great place to relax with the kids. There’s plenty of room for everyone to spread out without all being in the same room for a few days. We ate dinner at Giuseppi’s, which turned out to be great Italian food.

On Friday we rented bikes and rode over to Disney’s beach house. Although the water was too cold to swim, the weather riding on the beach was nice. We did discover some interesting physics about riding on the beach. There was a pretty strong wind on the beach. As we rode up the beach (with the wind), I thought this is really easy and fun. When we turned around and rode back (against the wind), it was a different story. I couldn’t believe how hard it was to ride into the wind. We rode back onto the bike paths to a lunch stop. I really like the bike paths around the island. It’s really nice that you can ride a bike to almost anywhere on the island on paved bike paths. We had lunch at Fiesta Fresh, which has to be one of the best counter-service Mexican restaurants I’ve ever tried. It was inexpensive and very good quality food. We’ll definitely eat there again the next time we’re on the island.

Saturday we rode back to the beach and did a bit of beachcombing before the expected bad weather came in. It rained heavily all afteroon, but we relaxed in the villa and read, studied, and napped. Sunday morning we had brunch at Kenny B’s Cajun Cafe. It was a great brunch. My wife is from Louisiana and wanted to try the restaurant out. I enjoyed the Sunday brunch, but their regular menu is almost all seafood selections. I don’t eat seafood so I’d have a thin selection at other times. My wife enjoyed the brunch, but prefers the beignets at Cafe du Monde. After brunch we headed back toward home.

Hilton Head Island offers the right sort of combination for us that we both enjoyed. My wife is a beach lover, while I can do all I want to do at the beach in about two hours. The 50 miles of paved bike paths have a real appeal to me. Another feature of the island that we found really appealing was the building and construction controls. Due to the low buildings, buffering of trees everywhere, and the muted colors, the island doesn’t look as built up as it actually is. Although there are a Wal-Mart, Target, and Sam’s Club, you cannot see them from the road. This can make finding places a bit challenging for the newcomer, but is very asthetically pleasing. The appearance of the island is more like Jekyll in that it doesn’t appear built-up; however, it has plenty of shopping and dining without appearing clutterd and crowded like St. Simons.

We’re now trying to figure out when we can go back with the kids. If we go in the off-season, we would definitely stay at Disney’s Hilton Head Island resort again. However, in the more peak season, we would probably consider a vacation condo rental as they seem to be a bit more economical.