Shelter Cove, Hilton Head Island, SC

Shelter Cove Harbour & Marina, at 1 Shelter Cove Lane, is the island’s deep-water marina: 178 slips taking boats up to 145 feet, a boardwalk of shops and restaurants around the basin, and the charter fleet that most visitors come for. Fishing trips, dolphin and nature cruises, sailing, sunset and dinner cruises, crabbing trips, kayaks, paddleboards and pontoon rentals all leave from these docks. The marina store keeps long hours in season, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Our island guides to boating, water sports and fishing cover what to book and when.

The King Neptune statue on the boardwalk is the landmark everyone meets at, and the shaded gazebo beside it is where the summer family shows happen. Waterfront tables ring the basin: Bistro 17 and Ela’s on the Water look straight down the creek. A note on driving here: satellite navigation does better with 13 Harbourside Lane than with the marina’s own postal address.

Shelter Cove Towne Centre is the open-air centre on the inland side of Shelter Cove Lane, at number 40. Belk and Kroger anchor it — the grocery store, its pharmacy and the fuel pumps are the practical reason most people on holiday end up here — and around them sit clothing shops, a jeweller, a bakery, salons, a barbershop, fitness studios and medical offices, with a lagoon and a park in the middle of it all. Our Hilton Head shopping guide covers the outlets and the island’s other centres.

It is also where much of the district’s evening life happens, with music and films in the park through the warm months, and the restaurants around the edge serving before and after: Chophouse 119, Jane Bistro & Bar, Tio’s Latin American Kitchen and Hilton Head Tavern among them. WaterWalk, the apartment community above the centre, is a place to live rather than to visit; our Hilton Head real estate guide is the better starting point for that.

Between the harbour and the Towne Centre there are about twenty places to eat, which makes this the densest dining cluster on Hilton Head Island outside Coligny. The harbour side is the waterfront one: seafood, Mexican, tavern food and ice cream, all with a view of the boats. The Towne Centre side runs from a steakhouse and a rooftop bar to pizza, a French bakery, coffee and a cookie shop. Our island Hilton Head dining guide and its waterfront restaurants list put both in context.

The summer series at the harbour, HarbourFest, runs from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. Fireworks go up over the water every Tuesday night of it, plus a show on the Fourth of July, and they start once the sky is properly dark rather than at a set time. Free family shows play at the gazebo on most weekday evenings in season. Our Hilton Head fireworks guide lists the island’s other displays.

The Towne Centre side has its own calendar: live music and outdoor film nights in the park through spring and summer. On Saturday mornings from February to December the Hilton Head Community Market fills the same park with produce, bakers and makers. Events at Shelter Cove are free to turn up to, and there is no charge to park for any of them.

Most Shelter Cove activities are on the water, and they leave from the docks described above. On land there is the park, the Saturday market, the free summer shows at the harbour gazebo, and the sculpture trail that runs between the Towne Centre and the creek. Two things people associate with Shelter Cove are not really of it: the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, at 14 Shelter Cove Lane, is a theatre with its own season, and the Island Recreation Center, which runs the park here, is a public gym and pool on the north end of the island at 20 Wilborn Road. Both are in our things to do on Hilton Head Island guide.

Shelter Cove Community Park sits behind the Towne Centre at 39 Shelter Cove Lane, looking over Broad Creek and the marsh. The Town keeps it open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and to 6 p.m. once the clocks go back. There is a playground, an event lawn, a big shelter that doubles as the stage for concerts, picnic areas, public art, restrooms, a waterfront promenade, bike racks by the pavilion, free parking and public Wi-Fi. The Island Recreation Center takes the bookings when the pavilion is reserved.

Staying at Shelter Cove means a condominium or a townhouse rather than a hotel room: buildings such as Captains Quarters, Mainsail, Harbourside, the Yacht Club, Anchorage, Tradewinds Trace and Newport Villas stand around the harbour and the creek, most of them a walk from the boardwalk. Newport Villas and the Peninsula at Newport are sold as Palmetto Dunes and Shelter Cove both, and share Palmetto Dunes amenities. Our Hilton Head vacation rentals guide covers the companies that manage them.

Two vacation-club resorts sit at the harbour itself, Marriott’s Harbour Point and Sunset Pointe and Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort, both listed among our Hilton Head resorts. Owners here rent short-term, so this is also a district where a rental-management company has plenty to do.