Photo by @mcsweenphotography via @exploreblufftonsc

Bluffton, SC Neighborhoods to Explore

Old Town Bluffton

Photo by @casaderice via @exploreblufftonsc

Old Town is the neighborhood you actually explore on foot, and the reason most people fall for Bluffton in the first place. This is the historic district, a shaded grid of antebellum cottages, centuries-old churches, and live oaks that slopes gently down to the May River. It is small enough to cross in an afternoon and old enough to feel like a place that has kept its own pace while the rest of the Lowcountry grew up around it. Old Town Bluffton Inn sits right in the middle of it, which makes the whole neighborhood your front yard.

The Character of Old Town

What gives Old Town its character is not any single landmark but the way the town comes together. Calhoun Street and the Promenade are the social heart, where galleries, cafés, and porches spill into one another and evenings tend to slow down under the string lights. Down at the water, the May River waterfront and the old oyster docks are where people go to catch a breeze or a sunset. On Thursdays, the whole neighborhood turns out for the farmers market. You feel the personality of Bluffton less in any checklist and more in an unhurried afternoon spent wandering between all of it.

Communities and Golf

Courtesy of Belfair

Beyond Old Town, much of Bluffton is made up of private, gated communities built around golf and the water. Palmetto Bluff is the largest and best known, a 20,000-acre preserve along the May River. While the community itself is private, its Wilson Village is open to visitors, with a village green, a historic chapel, riverfront views, and a handful of shops, galleries, and restaurants worth the short drive out. The other communities, like Belfair, Berkeley Hall, Colleton River, and Oldfield, are residential and members-only, so you will not wander through them the way you would Old Town. If you want to play golf, though, you do not need an invitation. Bluffton has a strong lineup of public courses open to outside play, including Old South Golf Links, the Arnold Palmer-designed Crescent Pointe, Davis Love III's Eagle's Pointe, and Hilton Head National, all of which welcome visitors and take tee times.