Hilton Head Island is an incredibly beautiful resort town that anchors the southern tip of South Carolina's coastline. What makes this semitropical island so unique? At the top of the list is the fact that visitors won't see large, splashy billboards or neon signs. What they will see is an island where the environment takes center stage, a place where development is strictly regulated.

There are 12 miles of sparkling beaches, amazing world-class restaurants, top-rated golf courses—Harbour Town Golf Links annually hosts the RBC Heritage Golf Tournament, a PGA Tour event—and a thriving tennis community. Wildlife abounds, including loggerhead sea turtles, alligators, snowy egrets, wood storks, and great blue heron, as well as dolphins, manatees, and various species of fish. There are lots of activities offered on the island, including parasailing, charter fishing, kayaking, and other water sports.

The island is home to several private gated communities, including Sea Pines, Hilton Head Plantation, Shipyard, Wexford, Long Cove, Port Royal, Indigo Run, Palmetto Hall, and Palmetto Dunes. Within these you’ll find upscale housing (some of it doubling as vacation rentals), golf courses, shopping, and restaurants. Sea Pines is one of the most famous of these communities, as it is known for the iconic candy-cane-stripe Hilton Head Lighthouse. There are also many areas on the island that are not behind security gates.

Hilton Head also has a rich history. The first people to live here were the Escamacus and Yemassee tribes. Hilton Head's first English settler arrived in 1717, also creating the island's first plantation. By 1860, 24 plantations were in operation on Hilton Head, all existing off the labor of enslaved people. After the Civil War, much of the land was confiscated from former plantation owners and given to formerly enslaved people, who created a collection of homes that came to be known as Mitchelville. It was America's first self-governing community of formerly enslaved African Americans. Their descendents make up the heart of the region's Gullah community today.