Indigo Run Hilton Head, South Carolina

Indigo Run has five security gates, 23 miles of private road and 11 miles of perimeter fence, watched around the clock by a force of ten armed security officers. The main entrance is on Indigo Run Drive, off William Hilton Parkway, and there is a back gate on Marshland Road. Residents drive through on an RFID tag or a decal; everyone else needs a pass, and drivers should have a license, registration and proof of insurance with them.

Guests come in on a resident’s pass, which the resident sets up for a date and time on the association’s Spark gate-pass app or through security at (843) 689-9339, staffed around the clock. Without a host, the gate can issue a one-day pass to Golden Bear Golf Club, The Golf Club at Indigo Run and the Sunningdale swim and tennis club. Guests can’t come in on a bicycle unless a resident sponsors them, and outside bike tours aren’t allowed.

There are two Jack Nicklaus courses inside the gate, and neither is owned by the association: Invited, the club company, runs both, along with the Sunningdale pool and racquet center. Golden Bear Golf Club sells public tee times, so a visitor can book a round and get a gate pass for it. The Golf Club at Indigo Run is private, for members and their guests. Club membership is optional for owners and open to people who live elsewhere on the island, so buying a home here doesn’t make you a member. Our Indigo Run golf page compares the two courses.

Every home in Indigo Run belongs to one of six neighborhoods, and several have their own gate, pool or association on top of the community’s. Minimum house sizes run from 2,000 square feet in Golden Bear to 2,500 in River Club and Broad Pointe.

The Preserve at Indigo Run is a separate villa community of 252 condos at 4 Indigo Run Drive, right by the Indigo Run entrance. It has its own gate, its own association, a pool and a tennis and pickleball court. It isn’t inside the Indigo Run gate and isn’t one of the Indigo Run association’s neighborhoods. Its villas have one to three bedrooms, and none can be rented for less than a year.

Seven miles of paved and natural trails wind under the live oaks and along the lagoons, and they join the island’s public pathway network, so residents can bike from home to the beach. Anglers fish the 50-plus acres of lagoons catch-and-release. Alligators, otters and turtles live in them, and painted buntings, barred owls and hawks nest in the trees.

The best of it is the rookery, a small island of trees in Otter Creek where colonial waterbirds have nested for more than fifteen years: roseate spoonbills, wood storks, great blue herons, great and snowy egrets and white ibis. It is best from April to August, seen quietly from the trail along the creek, with binoculars. Like the trails, it is for residents and their guests.

Indigo Hall, beside a lagoon looking over the fairways, is the community’s event center: a 2,200-square-foot hall that seats up to 200 and a covered 3,500-square-foot pavilion with a stone fireplace. Owners and residents can book it, and anyone else needs an owner to sponsor the event. The association’s social calendar runs from holiday parties and food-truck nights to concerts in the park and charity galas.

You can’t rent an Indigo Run home as a vacation rental. The association’s Rules and Regulations require every lease to run at least six months, with a copy given to the association before the tenant moves in and no subletting, and the covenants set the same six-month line. Tenants get a temporary gate pass until they finish the association’s orientation.

The Owners Club, on Aberdeen Court, is different: its villas are owned in shares and used by their owners for vacations, with bookings through the club’s office at (843) 342-2080. For a vacation stay, most of the island’s rentals are in Sea Pines, Palmetto Dunes, Shipyard, Shelter Cove and around Folly Field, and our Hilton Head vacation rentals guide covers the companies that rent them.

The Indigo Run Community Owners Association, the Indigo Run POA in everyday talk, runs the gates, roads, trails, lagoons and Indigo Hall from its office at 103 Indigo Run Drive, Hilton Head Island, SC 29926, open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. ((843) 689-7300). For 2026 its assessment is $2,818 a year for a home and $2,394 for an empty lot, and the neighborhoods with their own amenities add a fee of their own. The covenants, rules and design guidelines are public on the association’s website.

Most of the 942 homes are large single-family houses on lagoon, golf or creek lots, with villas and townhouses in Berwick Green and 26 lots still to build on. Our Indigo Run homes for sale page has the current listings and what a buyer should know about dues, transfer fees and renting. Indigo Run isn’t an age-restricted community.