Shipyard Vacation Rentals on Hilton Head Island

• Complexes: about a dozen
• Bedrooms: mostly two and three
• Beach: private Beach Club for guests inside the gate
• Gate pass: arranged by whoever you book with

Shipyard rentals on Hilton Head Island, SC, are mostly villas: condos owned one by one, in complexes with their own pools, set along the golf course and its lagoons inside the Shipyard gate. Shipyard Plantation vacation rentals, as a lot of listings still call them, come with a pass through the gate, use of the private Shipyard Beach Club, and bike paths to the golf club, the tennis center and the beach.

The cards above are the complexes we have a page for. Below: how they differ, how booking works, and the gate and beach rules that come with Hilton Head Shipyard rentals. We do not take bookings; each page tells you about the place and who rents it.

Shipyard Condo Rentals and Villas

Almost every rental in Shipyard is a villa, which is what most places would call a condo: a two- or three-bedroom unit, sometimes a flat and sometimes a two-story townhome, in a complex with a shared pool. Shipyard condos on Hilton Head differ less by size than by where they sit. None of the complexes is on the sand (even Beachwalk, the closest, is across the road), so what you choose between is a short walk to the beach or a quieter spot on a fairway or a lagoon.

Closest to the Beach

Beachwalk, at the end of Shipyard Drive across from the Sonesta, is the closest villa complex to the beach, a five- to seven-minute walk from the Beach Club. Colonnade Club is about half a mile away and has a pool and spa heated in season, and Tennismaster, a few minutes from the Van der Meer tennis center, is about a ten-minute walk. The Greens, townhomes on the Galleon fairways, is about half a mile from the Beach Club, and the houses of Kingston Dunes, the one street of single-family rentals among these, are less than a mile away.

Golf and Lagoon Villas

Further in, the complexes trade the short walk for water and fairway views. Evian is a small neighborhood of stucco villa buildings around a five-acre lake, with its own pool and six tennis courts. Waterford, the first complex inside the US 278 gate, also sits on the Galleon nine, Sailmaster on the Brigantine nine, and Shipmaster has a pool that looks down a fairway. Golfmaster, near the Shipyard entrance, has its own tennis and pickleball courts. All three nines belong to Shipyard Golf Club.

At the Pope Avenue end, near Coligny Plaza, Townhouse Tennis has three-bedroom townhouses with private clay courts, and Windward Village, just past it, mixes one-bedroom flats and two-bedroom townhouses around a pool and spa.

Booking a Shipyard Rental

Units are owned separately, so there is no single front desk. Companies that rent Shipyard villas include Hilton Head Properties & Rentals, Hilton Head Rentals, Host & Home, host2coast, Sea Turtle Getaways, Sunset Rentals and The Vacation Company, and many of the same villas are listed on Vrbo and Airbnb as well. Where you book decides the details that matter: how your gate pass is arranged, whether pets are allowed and what the minimum stay is. For companies across the whole island, see our Hilton Head vacation rentals guide.

Gate Passes, Bikes and the Beach Club

Shipyard has two staffed gates, on Pope Avenue near Coligny and on William Hilton Parkway (US 278). The owner or your rental company authorizes a pass for the length of your stay, up to 30 days, and you collect it at whichever gate you use, so tell them which one if you are arriving late. As a guest staying inside the gate you can use the Shipyard Beach Club, the community’s deck and bar next to the Sonesta, and its beach access.

Bring or rent ordinary bikes. Golf carts are not allowed on Shipyard’s roads or paths, and e-bikes are allowed only when an owner has registered them with the association, so an e-bike from a rental shop cannot be ridden here. Everything else about the gates is on our Shipyard guide.

Hotels and Resorts Inside the Gate

Not every stay in Shipyard is a villa rental. The Sonesta Resort is the oceanfront hotel, and several vacation-club resorts, including Spinnaker at Shipyard and Port O’Call, are here too. They are on our Hilton Head resorts list.