Palmetto Hall Plantation, Hilton Head

There is one way in and out of Palmetto Hall by car: the security gate on Fort Howell Drive, just off Beach City Road. The roads inside are private and kept up by the association, and every car needs a resident’s decal, a commercial decal or a temporary pass. People on bikes use the same gate. The gatehouse is staffed by a contracted security company and answers at (843) 342-6482.

Guests come in on a resident’s say-so. Owners and tenants order guest passes online, or phone them in with their PIN, for up to 14 days at a time, and they should ask only for the days a guest is actually staying. Contractors and delivery trucks without an annual decal buy a day pass at the gate; for 2025 that was $15 for a car or pickup and more for bigger trucks.

The reason most visitors drive in without a host is the club. Both of its courses, the Arthur Hills Course and the Robert Cupp Course, sell public tee times, and the clubhouse restaurant, Terrapin, takes reservations from the public for lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch. Both are inside the gate, at 108 Fort Howell Drive. The association doesn’t publish how the gate handles a visitor with a tee time or a table, so book first and ask the club how to check in at the gate.

Our Palmetto Hall Golf & Country Club page compares the two courses, with a scorecard for each, and the Terrapin page has its hours and menus. The pool, the tennis courts and the rest of the clubhouse are for members and their guests.

In Palmetto Hall the club isn’t optional. The community’s covenants and the club’s bylaws require every owner to hold a membership, at least a social one, which is how residents get the pool with its pavilion, the two courts for tennis and pickleball, and the clubhouse’s dining and events. Golf memberships sit on top of that. Heritage Golf Group owns the club and sets its prices, and it bills separately from the association, so an owner pays two bills a year. New owners call the club at (843) 342-2582 to set up their membership.

The association has amenities of its own too: a ball field and recreation area in the Tucker Ridge neighborhood, at the corner of Fish Haul and Beach City Roads, which residents can book for a practice, and a paved walking trail with fitness stations. The golf course and its cart paths are off limits for walking, running or biking, and there is an active women’s club with book groups, dining groups and volunteer work.

You can’t rent out a home in Palmetto Hall for less than six months. The association’s Rules and Regulations require a written lease for a term of at least six months, which binds the tenant to the community’s rules. The owner gives the association a signed copy before the lease starts, and the tenant goes through an orientation with the association before getting a decal or a PIN. So there are no weekly or monthly vacation rentals here, and nobody can rent a room by the night.

If you are buying to rent it out, plan on long-term tenants; our Palmetto Hall homes for sale page covers what that means for a buyer. If you want to stay nearby, most of the island’s vacation 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 homes are single-family houses on lots along the fairways, the lagoons and the woods, on quiet streets and cul-de-sacs off Fort Howell Drive; there are no condos or villas. Owners pay the association’s annual assessment on January 1: for 2026, $2,220 for a home and $1,665 for an empty lot, plus the club membership. Changes to the outside of a house need the association’s Architectural Review Board first. Our Palmetto Hall POA page covers the association, its office and its rules.

The location is the other draw. The north end is away from the busiest tourist traffic, and the airport, the hospital, schools, the library and the shops on the north end are all a short drive, as is the bridge to the mainland. The association’s office is outside the gate, in an office park on Palmetto Parkway. If you are comparing communities, our Hilton Head neighborhoods guide sets Palmetto Hall beside the others.

Next to the community on Beach City Road is Fort Howell, an earthwork fort the Union Army built in 1864 with the 32nd United States Colored Infantry and the 144th New York Infantry to guard the island and the freedmen’s town of Mitchelville. It never saw a battle, it is one of the best-preserved Civil War field forts in South Carolina, and the Hilton Head Island Land Trust owns it.

The nearest beach is Fish Haul Beach Park, on Port Royal Sound at the end of Beach City Road, with a public lot and wide sand flats at low tide. For the ocean, our Hilton Head beaches guide lists the beach parks with parking.