This is where they got it right. Spicebush at Sea Pines was one of the very first vacation properties to pioneer the field of fractional ownership, of ways to make sure that family and friends could look forward to an annual vacation in paradise, without the cares of owning a free-standing home. The distinctive touch that Spicebush applies to this process sets it entirely apart from the huge timeshare systems that were inspired by the breakthroughs that began right here.

Instead, Spicebush at Sea Pines makes that ownership decision just as easy to live with as it is to make in the beginning. Ask any owner. It’s well worth looking into. “More Hilton Head Island for less money,” is how one longtime Spicebush owner described it.

How We Got It Right

Spicebush at Sea Pines was one of the original vacation properties where people figured out how to secure a vacation in paradise that they could count on every year, long before timeshare resales on Hilton Head became a hot topic. In fact, the best-known of today’s timeshare systems, Marriott Vacation Club, began right here, because even before Hilton Head Island came to be named America’s favorite year after year by the travel magazines, Spicebush at Sea Pines was pioneering a more personal way for people to own a vacation they could enjoy – or exchange – without the expense and demands of owning a home here.

Timeshare resales on Hilton Head Island have kept these advantages within easy reach, even as demand for them has grown.

Not for Summer Only

In recent years, more folks have realized that summer is just the beginning of all the times they can enjoy on Hilton Head Island. We still remember when a Golf Magazine researcher investigated “the ideal golf getaway.” He concluded that it involved four friends (or eight) on Hilton Head Island – in October. Theatre lovers find a big-city-like season from fall through spring, and art lovers never run out of artists to appreciate or galleries to browse at any time of year.

One reason that this “inside knowledge” became so well-known is that more than 40 percent of Hilton Head Island vacationers are returning. They’ve been here before, sometimes year after year for a generation or more. But even the folks coming to Hilton Head Island for just their second or third or fourth visit say they feel a certain sense of belonging.

The Summers of Memory

In the early days, it was the loyalty of parents to the mission of bringing up school-age children that made Hilton Head Island a summertime resort. Not only did Sea Pines Founder Charles Fraser invent a way of nestling a world-class resort into the surroundings of nature, but he also found ways of putting this resort within the grasp of people who really needed the break. Spicebush at Sea Pines is a lovely example of this original vision.

In the generations since then, summer in Sea Pines has grown far beyond the limits of school vacations. Drawing on the nature of our climate, experienced visitors discovered that summer here is in fact just the beginning.