Hilton Head Hotels - Comfort And Value

Planning your next Hilton Head vacation on a budget? Hilton Head hotels may be a better value than Hilton Head resorts.

The first thing to realize when planning your vacation, especially if this is your first visit to Hilton Head, is there are huge variations between hotels and resorts in Hilton Head.

Understanding these disparities is the difference between spending a lot of money or saving a lot of money…..and lets face it, no one likes to spend more money than they have to.

This is why managing expectations when planning your vacation is so important.

I have stayed at quite a few of the Hilton Head SC hotels over the years and must say that a lot of them are actually quite good. Additionally, since Hilton Head is relatively a small island, a few of them are still very close to the island’s attractions, many of them within walking distances.

Forest Beach Area

Comfort Inn | 2 Tanglewood Dr, Hilton Head, SC | Phone: 843-842-6662

Holiday |1 South Forest Beach Dr, Hilton Head, SC | 843-785-5126

Plantation Area

Hampton-Inn | 1 Dillon Road, Hilton Head, SC | Phone 843-681-7900

Red Roof Inn | 5 Regency Parkway, Hilton Head, SC | Phone 843-686-6808

Mid-Island

Days Inn | 9 Marina Side Drive, Hilton Head, SC | Phone 843-842-4800

Quality Inn | 200 Museum Street, Hilton Head, SC | Phone 843-681-3655

Off-Island

Hilton Garden Inn | 1575 Fording Island Road, Hilton Head | 843-837-8111

Differences in Hilton Head Hotels and Resorts

The dissimilarities between Hilton Head hotels and Hilton Head resorts really boils down to four factors: price, provided benefits, location and on-site amenities.

• Resorts are usually much larger than hotels and therefore have a greater number of rooms and on a lot more land than hotels. Therefore, amenities like golf and tennis are more prevalent at resorts for guests to partake in. For example, the Inn at Harbour Town in Sea Pines resort butts up against the Harbour Town Golf Links golf course. You don’t have to go too far to play some great golf.

• Resorts tend to be closer to vacation attractions due to their size. So areas like beaches, marinas and shopping will be a lot closer or within walking distance. More times than not, hotels are closer to main entry points or highways and therefore participating in Hilton Head activities would require some means of transportation.

• Resorts tend to have more free perks and markdowns for guests. For example, they may provide free breakfast, golf & tennis discounts, wifi, shuttle services and tourist tickets to the latest attractions and discounts at restaurants.

• Hotels tend to have smaller fitness centers and one restaurant. Resorts may have multiple restaurants, bars or lounges, larger fitness centers, spas, computer rooms, etc.

• Resorts are built around the likes of guests and the interests they have for a vacation destination. So amenities like tennis, golf, fishing, tours, etc are major pluses in staying at a resort.

Now it may sound like resorts are a better choice than hotels. This is simply not always the case.

It really comes down to your expectations for your vacation. If you like being close to all the amenities and activities, not having to drive everywhere, then a resort may be the right choice.

However, if having access to all the available amenities at a resort doesn’t matter since you may not partake in a lot of them anyway, then a hotel may be the way to go. You can simply drive to the activities you wish to do.

The bottom line is for you to compare prices. Markdowns and freebies at the higher priced resorts do not necessarily translate into saving money when compared to hotels……in a lot of cases, they just don’t.