With the exception of Myrtle Beach, the majority of the beaches in South Carolina are associated with the island they reside upon. The term 'island' can be a little misleading here, as these spots of land are not off in the distance, removed from the mainland. Rather, these are "low-country", the local term for this part of South Carolina, barrier islands - unless you have a good map, you really could not tell you were on an island.
Seabrook Island and the beach are one of these low-country islands. Seabrook is located about 30 minutes down from Charleston, South Carolina; you may have heard of Kiawah Island, which is the next island closer to Charleston. Seabrook is an affluent area that is a private gated community - to visit the beach you need to be on the pass list of one of the owners or be renting one of the vacation homes. The Seabrook Island development is very nice - the homes are very upscale, they have a golf course and equestrian center, there are various community pools and a beach club. These houses are not inexpensive rentals, as an Internet search on Seabrook Island vacation homes will certify.
Since the community is residential in nature, the majority of vacationers bring in groceries - there is a great shopping spot, just a bit up the road from the main entrance - Freshfields Village. The junction includes a wonderful high end grocery store, a couple of nice restaurants and some local clothing boutiques - it is very close, so making a quick snack run is no big deal.
The beach at Seabrook Island is what I would call a nature beach - here the focus is not really on the beach, because it is really not a great beach. The sand is a dark gray, extremely fine (very hard to get off your skin) and compacted. The water, maybe in part due to the sand color, is not a nice blue or green, but dark. The Atlantic at this spot, tends to be flat and mostly just a swimming beach - body surfing can be limited. To get to the beach, from the parking areas and beach club, you have to walk on a wood boardwalk that takes you over the coastal plain swamps - Beware - the mosquitoes are everywhere.
The one thing that this beach does have is wildlife - we saw deer on the boardwalk and in the grassy areas around the property, the sea shore was experiencing a turtle hatch because of the time of year and the full moon, there were hawks and bald eagles over head. Out in the ocean, we saw some small sharks, again due to the time of the season. But the most amazing thing was watching the dolphin herd a group of mullet into a shallow cove next to the beach to feed - the dolphin were within 10 feet and in such shallow water they actually were more out of the water than in, during 'lunch' time - an amazing experience.
All and all, I would call Seabrook Island Beach a destination spot - it is a very nice development, 30 minutes from the history and shopping of Charleston, top flight golf course and equestrian center, a long, flat beach to walk upon and the opportunity to see Mother Nature at play. As for a beach, you can do better!
