Daufuskie Island Day Trip

Daufuskie Island is the Lowcountry with the volume turned down, and it is the best day trip from Hilton Head. It lies just across Calibogue Sound, about five miles long and two and a half miles wide, with no bridge to the mainland, so everyone arrives by boat, and the island has only about 300 permanent residents. Most roads are sand or dirt, golf carts are the main transportation, and the pace is set by tides and live oaks. For generations Daufuskie was a Gullah community of oystermen, farmers and fishermen; the oyster industry's collapse in the mid-twentieth century emptied much of the island, and Pat Conroy's memoir The Water Is Wide, drawn from the year he taught the island's children in the late 1960s, made it famous. Today you can explore that history at your own pace. The First Union African Baptist Church, established in 1881, is described as the island's oldest building, and the Mary Fields Cemetery, the largest Gullah cemetery on the island, has markers going back to 1926. A restored one-room schoolhouse now serves as part museum, part library. The Billie Burn Museum covers island history from pre-Colonial times, and the Robert Kennedy Historic Trail links it with tabby ruins, historic homes and an old logging railroad line. The Bloody Point Lighthouse and Museum stands on the south end, and Silver Dew Winery occupies an 1883 wick house built for the lighthouse. Artists and makers keep studios here, including the Iron Fish Gallery with its swing hanging from a giant oak. Bring a picnic or eat at Old Daufuskie Crab Company at Freeport Marina, known for deviled crab and sunset views.

Getting there is part of the adventure. Island Head runs a public ferry from Broad Creek Marina on Hilton Head to Freeport Marina on Daufuskie, about 45 minutes each way, with year-round day-trip round trips; departures are fewer outside the peak months, so check the current schedule. Faster water taxis run from Harbour Town in Sea Pines in about fifteen to twenty minutes, and from Old Town Bluffton on the May River in daylight hours. Several operators, including The Daufuskie Difference, package the boat with a narrated tour by a local guide, and the visitor bureau recommends reserving a golf cart through your ferry or tour operator before you arrive so it is waiting at the dock. Remember that the last boat back is non-negotiable.

How to spend the day: pick up your cart at Freeport, take the ferry company's map, and loop the island at an easy pace. Visit the church and cemeteries respectfully, stop at the museum and the schoolhouse, browse the studios, taste at the winery, and leave time for the public beach, a quiet, undeveloped strand with no shops or snack bars, so bring water and sunscreen. Lunch at the Crab Company or a picnic under the oaks is the classic midpoint. Wildlife includes alligators, wading birds, wood storks and, offshore, dolphins. The Beach Club at Melrose requires dinner reservations if you plan to stay late. Sallie Ann Robinson, a sixth-generation Gullah native known as the Daufuskie Chef, offers cooking demonstrations and talks on Gullah food traditions by arrangement.

Who it suits: anyone who wants a sense of the old Sea Islands, couples looking for a slow, romantic day, and families with kids who will love driving a golf cart (drivers must meet the rental company's age rules). It is less suited to anyone who needs constant services; shops and restaurants are few and hours are seasonal, and November and winter days are quiet. If you can, go on a calm, clear day, catch an early boat, and come back across the sound in the late afternoon light.