The South Carolina Lowcountry is a coastal region famous for its moss-draped oaks, tidal marshes, historic towns, and beautiful beaches. From Beaufort and Charleston to Hilton Head Island and Edisto Beach, the area blends Southern culture, fresh seafood, rich history, and outdoor recreation. Visitors can enjoy beach days, boating, wildlife viewing, and some of the most scenic coastal landscapes in the Southeast.
Hilton Head gives you 12 miles of pristine Atlantic beach, over 50 miles of public bike trails, 24 championship golf courses, Lowcountry dining that rivals what you’d find in Charleston, dolphin tours through tidal creeks, and a natural landscape so deliberately preserved that you won’t find a single billboard anywhere on the island.
You drive out of Beaufort, cross a series of bridges over salt marsh and tidal creeks, and then you arrive on a 5,000-acre barrier island that operates completely outside the normal rules of South Carolina beach tourism. No resort complex waits at the entrance. No gift shop strip lines the main road. What meets you instead is five miles of wild, undeveloped Atlantic beach, thousands of acres of maritime forest and salt marsh, a saltwater lagoon, and a historic lighthouse that SC State Parks just announced is reopening to the public