Hotels in Bluffton, SC

For Bluffton itself, the two small inns are the places to stay. Old Town Bluffton Inn has fourteen rooms on May River Road in the middle of Old Town, with Calhoun Street’s restaurants and galleries and the river all within a walk, and breakfast and an all-day pantry included. May River Manor is a six-suite manor house on five and a half wooded acres a few miles west, near Hampton Lake, with a saltwater pool, breakfast cooked to order and the grounds for small weddings and gatherings. Both are aimed at adults rather than families.

Two chain hotels sit between Old Town and the highway to the island. Spark by Hilton, the former Comfort Suites, is on Towne Drive just off US 278, with free breakfast and an outdoor pool; the Holiday Inn Express & Suites is on Bluffton Road (SC 46), the road that runs down to Old Town. From either one, Old Town is a short drive south and the Hilton Head bridges a short drive east.

The biggest group of hotels is at the western end of Bluffton, where US 278 reaches Sun City Hilton Head and the Okatie area: the Hampton Inn & Suites Bluffton-Sun City and Candlewood Suites side by side off the highway, the Best Western Plus in Okatie Village, and the Extended Stay America on Seagrass Station Road. The Okatie Hilton Head Hotel, in the old Fairfield Inn building on Okatie Center Boulevard, is part of the same cluster but carries an Okatie address, not a Bluffton one, and despite its name it is not a Hilton. These hotels suit visitors to Sun City, golfers playing the mainland courses (see our Bluffton golf guide) and anyone coming off I-95 who wants to stop short of the island. Candlewood and Extended Stay America are extended-stay hotels, useful for longer work trips.

Bluffton has one resort: Montage Palmetto Bluff, the full-service resort inside the roughly 20,000-acre Palmetto Bluff community on the May River at the south end of town. It has the spa, the restaurants on the river and the May River Golf Club. The town has no other resort; for the island’s, see our Hilton Head resorts guide, and for golf in the community, Palmetto Bluff golf.

Families and longer stays often do better in a rented house than a hotel room, and Bluffton has plenty of them, from cottages in Old Town to homes in Palmetto Bluff. For camping, Hilton Head National RV Resort on May River Road is a Bluffton property despite its name, and there are campgrounds farther out toward Hardeeville and Ridgeland. On the island side, our Hilton Head vacation rentals guide lists the rental companies.

Most people visiting the area for the beach stay on Hilton Head and drive over to Bluffton for dinner, the shops or the supermarket run. Bluffton makes sense as a base when the trip is about Old Town, a wedding at Palmetto Bluff or one of the inns, family in Sun City, golf on the mainland courses, or an early start toward Savannah. Every Bluffton hotel is across the bridges from the Atlantic beaches, so allow extra time for US 278 in summer. One more hotel sits just on the mainland side of the bridges: the Hilton Garden Inn Hilton Head on Fording Island Road, which carries a Hilton Head Island address. For the island’s hotels, start with our Hilton Head hotels guide.

Two Bluffton hotels changed names recently, which confuses maps and old bookings. The Comfort Suites on Towne Drive is now the Spark by Hilton Bluffton Hilton Head Island. And the Fairfield Inn and Suites Hilton Head Island Bluffton at 105 Okatie Center Boulevard North has closed under that name; the building is now the Okatie Hilton Head Hotel.