Is Bluffton or Hilton Head Island a Good Place to Retire?
The Secret Is Out
If you're considering retiring to Bluffton or Hilton Head Island, you're apparently not alone.
The secret is pretty clearly out on South Carolina. The state has been one of the fastest-growing places in the country, and you don't need Census data to figure out that the Lowcountry is getting a pretty good share of those new residents. Just try driving down Highway 278 at 5:00 in the afternoon.
I've been in this area for about 20 years, and the change has been incredible. Bluffton in particular is nothing like it was when I first got here. People are moving here from New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, the Midwest and just about everywhere else.
And I understand why.
The weather is good most of the year. Hilton Head has beautiful beaches. Golf is everywhere. If you like boating or fishing, you're surrounded by water. Savannah is right across the river. There are great restaurants, beautiful communities and plenty to do.
But if you're thinking about spending the next 20 or 30 years here, you probably need more than a list of reasons the Lowcountry keeps showing up on “Best Places to Retire” lists.
You need to know what it's actually like to live here.
First, Bluffton and Hilton Head Island Aren't the Same Place
People from outside the area tend to lump Bluffton and Hilton Head together. We don't.
Hilton Head is an island and a resort destination. You have 12 miles of beach, golf courses everywhere, bike paths, tennis, pickleball, marinas, restaurants and some beautiful residential communities. But you're also living somewhere millions of people visit on vacation.
Bluffton is on the mainland and feels much more like a year-round hometown. You've got Old Town Bluffton and the May River on one end, and then miles of newer neighborhoods, private communities, restaurants, shopping and development stretching out from there.
And the two are close.
That's one of the reasons Bluffton has become so popular. You can live in Bluffton, drive onto Hilton Head for the beach or dinner, and then come home without living in the middle of a resort destination.
On the other hand, if waking up on an island, riding your bike to the beach and having that Hilton Head lifestyle every day is the retirement you've pictured for yourself, Bluffton isn't going to completely replicate that.
Neither one is better.
They're different lifestyles separated by a bridge.
If You Like Being Outside, This Is a Pretty Great Place to Live
One of the biggest advantages of this area is how much of your life can happen outside.
Golf is obvious. There are courses everywhere, ranging from public courses to some pretty spectacular private clubs. But the Lowcountry isn't just golf.
You can boat. You can fish. You can kayak through the tidal creeks. You can walk or bike for miles on Hilton Head. You can spend the day on the May River. You can head to the beach. You can sit outside at a restaurant in February and wonder why you ever owned a snow shovel.
And you can do some version of those things for most of the year.
That's a big deal in retirement.
If you've finally reached the point where you control your own calendar, living somewhere that lets you actually use that time is worth something.
Yes, It Gets Hot. Really Hot.
I'm originally from Indiana, and when I moved to this area everyone told me, “You'll get used to the heat.”
I'm still waiting on that. It's been 20 years.
July and August in the Lowcountry are hot, but it's really the humidity that gets you. There are summer mornings when you step outside and you can almost feel the air pressing against you. You can break a sweat walking to your car at 8:00 in the morning.
Our dog is probably the best example. If we don't take her for a walk early in the morning, she'll spend the rest of the day with her head on our lap begging to go. It's like a mental exercise for her—she has to check that box every day. The problem is, she apparently has no memory of how hot it is outside. So if we finally give in at one or two in the afternoon, within a few minutes she's miserable and struggling in the heat.
Then the next morning, she's ready to start the entire process over again.
So I'm not going to sell you the weather as perfect year-round. It isn't. But here's the tradeoff: January. While my friends and family back in Indiana are dealing with snow, ice and gray skies, we're still playing golf, walking the dog, boating on a warm day and eating outside.
I'll take a couple of brutally hot months in exchange for the winters we get here.
Just do yourself a favor if you're considering retiring to Bluffton or Hilton Head Island: visit in July or August before you buy the house.
Everybody falls in love with the Lowcountry in April.
August is the test.
You're Going to Hear a Lot About Golf
There is a lot of golf here.
Hilton Head is obviously known for it, and the Bluffton area has an incredible number of golf communities. If your idea of retirement involves playing three or four days a week, you're going to have plenty of choices.
But one thing I'd think about before buying is whether you actually want to live in a private club community.
For some people, it's perfect. Golf is right outside the door. You have tennis, pickleball, a clubhouse, restaurants, pools, social events and a built-in group of people to meet.
That's especially valuable when you're moving here from somewhere else and don't know anybody.
But not everybody wants that lifestyle. You may want to live near Old Town Bluffton, have a little more space, live on the water, or simply not pay for a golf club you're never going to use.
Don't let a Realtor sell you somebody else's retirement.
Figure out what you actually want to do when you wake up on Tuesday morning.
Hilton Head Has the Beach. Bluffton Has the May River.
If being able to ride your bike to the ocean matters to you, Hilton Head has a pretty obvious advantage.
It's a beautiful island. The beaches are wide, the bike paths are fantastic, and there are places where you can park the car and barely need it for the rest of the day.
Bluffton's relationship with the water is different.
The May River is a huge part of Bluffton's identity. Old Town sits right along it, and boating, fishing, shrimping and spending time on the water are part of the culture here.
Then you've got all the creeks, rivers and marshes that make the Lowcountry look like the Lowcountry.
If you're a boater, though, spend some time understanding our water before deciding this is paradise.
We have tides.
Big ones.
The beautiful creek behind the house at high tide may look considerably different six hours later. That's part of the charm, but it's also something you should probably understand before buying a boat and a dock.
Savannah Is a Huge Advantage
One of the great things about this part of the Lowcountry is having Savannah right next door.
You can live in Bluffton, spend the evening in downtown Savannah and be home that night. You get great restaurants, concerts, history, festivals and everything else that comes with a real city without necessarily having to live in the middle of one.
And Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport is a bigger deal than people realize when they're considering a move to Bluffton or Hilton Head.
When you're retired, you probably want to travel. You probably want your kids and grandkids to visit. Having a good airport nearby makes that considerably easier.
It's also a manageable airport. You don't have to prepare yourself emotionally for the experience of flying out of Atlanta every time you want to go somewhere.
And Charleston is in the other direction.
Having Savannah and Charleston on either side of the Lowcountry is a pretty nice setup.
The Food Is Pretty Good Too
You're not going to struggle to find somewhere to eat.
Hilton Head has an enormous restaurant scene because of tourism, and Bluffton's restaurant scene has grown dramatically along with the population. Old Town alone can keep you busy for a while.
Seafood obviously plays a big role. Shrimp, oysters and fresh fish are everywhere.
But what I like is that you don't have to drive into Savannah every time you want a good dinner. Bluffton and Hilton Head both have plenty of places you'd actually want to go back to.
The downside?
Everybody else knows about them too.
During the busiest times of year, make a reservation.
The Social Side of Moving Here Is Better Than You Might Expect
I think this is one of the most underrated advantages of retiring to this area.
A lot of people here aren't from here.
That means when you move into a community, you aren't necessarily trying to break into a social circle that's been together for 40 years. Your neighbors may have moved here from Indiana, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Ohio or somewhere else just a few years before you did.
They had to make new friends too.
Golf, tennis, pickleball, boating, churches, volunteer organizations, clubs, neighborhood events and restaurants give people natural ways to meet each other.
That matters.
You can find the perfect house, have perfect weather and live five minutes from the beach, but retirement is going to get pretty boring if you don't have anybody to enjoy it with.
The Lowcountry Isn't a Sleepy Little Secret Anymore
This is probably the biggest change I've watched over the past 20 years.
Bluffton has grown enormously.
There are new neighborhoods, new shopping centers, new restaurants and new roads. Places that used to feel like they were way out in the middle of nowhere don't anymore.
There's a lot to like about that. We have more restaurants, more shopping, more services and more things to do than we did years ago.
But growth comes with traffic.
Highway 278 can get backed up. The bridges onto Hilton Head can get crowded. Tourist season is real. Saturday traffic onto and off the island during vacation season can test your patience.
And more development is coming.
So if you're looking at a house because you love the untouched woods across the street, I'd probably find out who owns those woods.
They may not be woods forever.
Yes, We Have Hurricanes. And Alligators.
You can't honestly talk about moving to the South Carolina coast without mentioning hurricanes.
They're part of living here.
Most of the time, hurricane season means watching weather forecasts a little more closely than the rest of the country. Occasionally it means making a real decision about whether you need to leave.
If you're considering a house, understand where it sits, whether it's in a flood zone, what the evacuation route looks like and what you're getting into.
And then there are alligators.
If there's a pond in your neighborhood, there's a pretty decent chance an alligator has been in it.
People who live here get used to them. You respect them, give them plenty of room and don't do anything stupid.
And if you're moving here with a dog, you learn pretty quickly not to let the dog wander around the edge of a lagoon.
It's not Ohio.
Healthcare Should Be on Your List
This isn't the most exciting part of choosing where to retire, but it's an important one.
When you're 60 or 65 and healthy, you may be much more interested in the golf course and how far the house is from the beach.
Hopefully you're going to live here for another 25 or 30 years.
At some point, access to doctors, specialists and hospitals may become considerably more important.
The Bluffton and Hilton Head area has local healthcare options, and Savannah gives you access to a much larger medical market just across the state line.
I wouldn't necessarily choose a retirement destination based entirely on healthcare.
But I wouldn't ignore it either.
Come Here More Than Once Before You Buy
This is probably the best advice I can give someone considering moving to Bluffton or Hilton Head.
Don't come for one week in April, play golf three times, eat outside every night and buy a house on Friday.
Of course you loved it.
It's April.
Come back in August.
Drive Highway 278 during rush hour. Go to the grocery store. Drive onto Hilton Head when everybody else is trying to get there. Spend time in Bluffton instead of only staying at a resort. Visit different neighborhoods and communities.
Go out to breakfast somewhere normal.
Figure out where you'd buy groceries, where you'd exercise, where you'd go to dinner, how long it takes to get to Savannah and whether you actually like the day-to-day rhythm of the place.
You're not choosing a vacation destination.
You're choosing where you're going to live.
So, Is Bluffton or Hilton Head Island a Good Place to Retire?
I think both can be fantastic places to retire. If you want beaches, bike paths and island living, Hilton Head is hard to beat. If you want more of a year-round hometown feel while still being minutes from Hilton Head and Savannah, Bluffton has an awful lot going for it.
Neither is perfect. It's hot. Hurricanes happen. Traffic has gotten worse. Development isn't slowing down. And if what you're looking for is a cheap, undiscovered little Southern town near the beach, you're probably a couple of decades late.
But maybe the best endorsement I can give the Lowcountry is my own story.
I moved here in 2006 with a promise from my wife that we'd move back to Indiana within five years.
Here I am 20 years later.
It turns out I had no idea what I was missing down here.
You can be on the water in the morning, play golf in the afternoon, have dinner in Savannah that night and wake up the next morning without shoveling snow.
After 20 years, I still think that's a pretty good deal.
