Best Places to Retire in South Carolina
Profile
Seabrook Island is a 2,200-acre island and club located on the Atlantic coast, 24 miles south of Charleston, SC. It has over three miles of unspoiled sand beach, beautiful salt marshes and acres of maritime forests with live oaks, pines, and palmetto palms. This planned community consists of vacation villas, cottages and private homes.
There are no hotels or high-rise condos on the island, and the island’s security gate entry assures a degree of privacy. The infrastructure on the island consists of three entities: The Town of Seabrook, which became incorporated in 1987, the Seabrook POA (Property Owners Association), and The Club at Seabrook Island (a private equity club that lies within the Town of Seabrook). The club, which dominates much of the land area, offers most of the amenities as well.
A small commercial area, which supports both Kiawah Island and Seabrook Island, is located just outside the gated entrances. http://seabrook.com/
The island offers two championship golf courses, award winning tennis, an equestrian center that offers beach riding, and a full-service marina village with shops, restaurants, nature tours, plus both onshore and offshore fishing. It also has a beach club, pools, a fitness center, recreation center, miles of biking trails, a kids camp, and more.
There are more than a dozen dining choices on the islands (Seabrook or Kiawah), including a pub and grill, deli, and four-diamond dining at the Osprey Point dining room. Shopping on the island includes a general store offering groceries and necessities, a farm market, bookstore, fish market, gift shops, boutiques, and the pro shops.
Nearby Charleston (population 100,000), a charming and culturally sophisticated city, is the major resource center for Seabrook. Just 24 miles away, it offers a variety of amenities including excellent art galleries, antique shops, dining for any taste, excellent live theater and dance, a professional symphony, opera, choral music, festivals and much more. It also has acute care hospitals and Charleston International Airport.
Arts & Culture
Charleston Symphony Orchestra has nearly 50 full-time professional musicians. It performs a busy year-round schedule with major concerts series, community concerts, special events and school programs throughout the state. http://www.charlestonsymphony.com/
Spoleto Festival USA offers 17 days and nights of performances in disciplines from opera, theater, music/theater and dance, to chamber, symphonic, and choral music. North Charleston Coliseum & Performing Arts Center is a 14,000-seat complex that is home to the South Carolina Stingrays ECHL hockey team, the Charleston Swamp Foxes, and the new NBDL North Charleston Lowgators basketball team.
The Performing Arts Center is a 2,300-seat facility with full production capabilities. It is home to the Broadway Nights Series, as well as other entertainment. http://www.coliseumpac.com/
North Charleston’s Cultural Arts Program hosts a variety of entertainment throughout the year. Its Dinner Theater Series at the Charleston Area Convention Center ballroom runs from fall to early spring. Plays, City Gallery exhibits, festivals and outdoor concerts — “Sunday in the Park” at Park Circle are some of the events. http://www.northcharleston.org/
There are more than 20 galleries in Charleston. In 1999 the Charleston Fine Arts Dealers Association was founded by a number of the gallery owners and artists to develop Charleston into a fine arts destination.
Patriots Point, located in nearby Mt. Pleasant, is one of the world’s largest naval and marine museums. Here you can board the aircraft carrier Yorktown and other permanently moored ships.
Charleston has many interesting museums, ranging from the Gibbes Museum of Art http://www.gibbesmuseum.org/ to the Karples Manuscript Museum and the Confederate Museum.
If you are looking for fine dining, a raw bar, a French restaurant, live jazz, low-country fare, outstanding seafood, and great ribs — Charleston has it all!
Recreation
Seabrook Island has 15 clay tennis courts and a full service pro shop, a 22-acre equestrian center that offers trail riding for all skill levels. It has a beach clubhouse with an informal restaurant, two swimming pools, a fitness center and a youth recreation center. Canoeing, kayaking, and fishing are available. http://seabrook.com/
Bohicket Marina, located just outside the security gate of Seabrook Island, is a superb marina with 200 wet slips, and dry storage for another 100 boats. It offers boat rentals and charters for onshore and offshore fishing, cocktail cruises, or exploring the ocean creeks.
There is an outstanding selection of championship caliber golf courses on Seabrook Island, on neighboring Kiawah Island, and at nearby locations. Crooked Oaks golf course is a Robert Trent Jones, Sr. links design. It has rolling fairways with guarded green and weaves through the live oaks and loblolly pines. It is the only course in the Charleston area that offers bentgrass greens.
Ocean Winds golf course, designed by A. Willard Byrd, runs out to the Atlantic Ocean, and with its ocean breezes and plentiful sand dunes, offers a challenging test of golf. It has tight fairways, and generous greens.
On nearby Kiawah Island there are five championship courses which are considered to be one of the finest collections of golf courses in the country. The Ocean Course is a 7300-yard layout that has hosted both the Ryder Cup Matches and the World Cup of Golf. Tiger Woods, David Duval, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Shigeki Maruyama and Toshi Izawa have all won here. The course was designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1991.
Osprey Point golf course, designed by Tom Fazio, is a par-72 layout that offers water views on every hole. It includes four large, natural lakes, salt marsh and forests of live oaks, pines, palmettos, and magnolias as its backdrop.
Oak Point golf course is a Scottish-American style course located one mile outside the main gate of the Resort. The course boarders on Haulover Creek and the Kiawah River, and along salt marsh lands, interspersed with live oaks. It is the areas newest course.
Turtle Point golf course is a Jack Nicklaus design that has been selected for several important championships, including the PGA Cup Matches. It has a three-hole stretch directly along the Atlantic Ocean. It also features a very impressive clubhouse with a ballroom that will host 380 people and a 1,500 ft. hospitality suite.
Gary Player designed Cougar Point. It features holes playing along broad expanses of tidal marsh, offering beautiful views out across the Kiawah River and acres of needlerush and spartina grass.
The Charleston Battery professional soccer club plays its home matches at Blackbaud Stadium, located on Daniel Island.
Carolina Ice Palace has 2 NHL-sized ice rinks for year-round public skating, youth and adult hockey, and figure skating. http://www.carolinaicepalace.com/
There are a number of other good courses in the area. http://www.charlestongolfinc.com/
Education
Charleston Southern University was founded in 1964. It is a fully accredited four-year independent liberal arts college affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Enrollment is 2,800. http://www.csuniv.edu/
The Citadel was founded in 1842 as The Military College of South Carolina. It enrolls 1,900 men and women in 19 degree programs.
The College of Charleston, founded in 1770, was incorporated into the state’s college system in 1970. Its mission is to provide a liberal arts curriculum providing quality education in the arts, sciences, education and business to 8,000 to 9,000 students. The graduate school was established in 1972 and offers 17 programs and five Masters degrees. http://www.cofc.edu/
Senior Programs
The Lowcountry Senior Center (Charleston) is a state-of-the-art facility designed and built to offer recreational opportunities for area residents age 50 and over. Seabrook Island residents are encouraged to take part in exercise classes, educational sessions, personal development, sports activities, computer labs, fitness workouts, trips, and other activities designed to encourage participation through social interaction.
College of Charleston Center for Creative Retirement (CCR) offers continuing education programs for seniors. It is a member-led organization focusing on enriching the mind through continued learning at the College of Charleston.
CCR is a learning center for members to pursue academic interests and a “clearing house” to share members’ unique talents and lifetime experiences. Established in 1993 at the College of Charleston, the CCR program is patterned after similar institutes at over 100 universities in the US. It is also affiliated with Elderhostel Institute Network to provide opportunities for domestic and international travel and study.
Hospitals
Medical University of South Carolina Medical Center is a 596-room acute care teaching hospital. http://www.musc.edu/
Roper Hospital, now a part of Roper St. Francis Healthcare, was founded in 1850 as the first community hospital in the Carolinas. It is a 453-bed acute care facility and a regional referral center. Services include a heart center with cardiac rehabilitation, a cancer center, orthopedics (including a joint replacement center), a neuroscience center and more.
Charleston Memorial Hospital, an affiliate of Medical University of South Carolina.
Airport
Charleston International Airport
Newspaper
The Post and Courier (Charleston)
State Taxes
http://www.sctax.org/default.htm
State Aging Agency
http://www.sctax.org/default.htm
Distances
Charleston – 24 miles
Myrtle Beach – 119 miles
Beaufort – 82 miles
Hilton Head – 109 miles
Savannah – 119 miles