Among the newer developments on Hilton Head Island, the Chaplin Park area has been transformed from a woodsy neighborhood of mid-century cinderblock and siding cottages into a community of grand scale resort residences. The city park itself is a well-designed public space with basketball and tennis courts, a playground, and manicured fields for soccer and baseball, along with a section designated as a dog park where animals can play off the leash.

Bradley Beach Road is a street of 4-6 bedroom stucco homes in “Caribbean pastel” hues. Each of these has a private pool and garage space for two to four cars. Driessen Beach Park at the end of the street has parking and picnic facilities near the beach access.

Burke’s Beach is the most recent area to be redeveloped. The Marriott Surfwatch Resort is a gated timeshare villa community that spreads across several acres across from Chaplin Park. Elegant private homes now surround the Marriott property and line the numbered streets and Bradley Circle, Whelk and Urchin Manor Streets. Oceanfront Tuscan-style palazzos offer incomparable views of the Atlantic expanses.

Singleton Beach is an ocean-oriented executive residential area located in the mid-island section of the Atlantic shoreline. Home to many species of birds, this section of Hilton Head Island is part of an environmental “folly” – a low plain that bisects the island and drains into the ocean. The marshes here are fed by tidal creeks meandering through tall sawgrass.