Our Family Vacation to Seabrook Island, South Carolina

It’s been a month since we got back from our family vacation to Seabrook Island, South Carolina, and I’m finally getting around to sharing all the photos from our trip!

We finally made it out of the group chat and booked a family vacation with all the cousins on my husband’s side. We rented the most gorgeous beach house on Seabrook Island and spent the week swimming, cooking, eating, and just hanging out together.

Seabrook Island has been one of my favorite places to visit since our first trip a few years ago, but this vacation looked a little different. We kept things much more casual this time around, spending most of our days hanging around the pool, heading to the beach, and cooking big family dinners in the beautiful kitchen at the house, which, if you know me, is pretty much my ideal vacation.

I wanted to put together a little recap of our week and share a series of photos from the trip, along with some of the places we visited, what we ate, and a few of my favorite things about vacationing on Seabrook Island with family.

I think we’ve officially figured out how to travel with a baby and a toddler after our first trip: plan a stop for lunch, travel during nap time, and have the Ms. Rachel soundtrack ready to hit play. And, of course, I’m not going to make my other child listen to that the entire drive, so he had his own headphones.

We stopped for lunch at Matt’s Burgers in Summerville, about an hour outside of Seabrook Island, and the food and service were phenomenal. If we’re ever back in the area, I’ll want to go back ASAP. It ended up being the perfect place to break up the drive, eat a good lunch, and get everyone ready for the final stretch of the trip.

And, of course, it’s not a proper road trip without a coffee stop! We grabbed cappuccinos at Still Wild Coffee, plus a little golden latte for after the real latte and a “milk on ice” for my son.

It was pouring down rain the entire day, so there was something extra cozy about piling back into the car with warm coffees and continuing our drive toward the coast. Honestly, the rainy weather and coffee ended up setting the perfect mood for the start of our trip.

With the whole family getting together, we decided to rent one big beach house with a pool so the kids could swim their little hearts out all day long! Since most of our family lives in New Jersey, we don’t get to see them nearly as much as we’d like, so it was really special having everyone under one roof. The kids could wake up, run downstairs to find their cousins, spend the day swimming and playing together, and make the best memories.

We also managed to pull off the best surprise for Kyle’s mom! I told her she was coming down to surprise Kyle for his birthday, but little did she know, we were ALL in on it. When she arrived, her entire family was there waiting to surprise her! It was such a fun way to kick off the week and made having everyone together even more special.

The house had everything we needed to make the week comfortable, convenient, and a success with all the kids and gosh, the house was a dream! There was plenty of space for everyone to spread out, a beautiful kitchen where we could cook big family meals, and, of course, the pool, which quickly became the kids’ favorite place to be.

Having a house where we could all stay together made the trip so much more enjoyable. We weren’t constantly packing everyone up or trying to coordinate plans. We could make breakfast in our pajamas, let the kids swim while everyone hung out by the pool, cook dinner together, and spend our evenings relaxing at the house. With this many little ones, having a place that was part of the vacation and not just somewhere to sleep was absolutely the way to go.

I packed all the Legos, Magnatiles, action figures, and art supplies I could fit in the car, which ended up being perfect for downtime at the house. The house also had a bunch of board games for the kids, so there was always something for them to do when we weren’t at the beach or swimming in the pool. Between all the toys, games, cousins, and endless pool time, the kids stayed entertained the entire week which meant the adults actually got a chance to relax and hang out, too!

Since our family’s flights were delayed and they weren’t getting in until later that evening, I headed to the grocery store to stock up the house for the week. For our first night, I kept dinner super simple and threw together taco bowls for everyone as they arrived. Nothing fancy, but exactly what we needed after a long travel day!

One of my favorite parts about renting a house for a family vacation is being able to stock the kitchen and have easy meals, snacks, and drinks ready to go, especially with kids. And when the kitchen looks like this one did, I certainly didn’t mind spending a little extra time cooking!

The next day, we headed to one of my favorite spots, Café Eugenia in Freshfields Village, for lunch and to finally pull off our surprise for Kyle’s mom!

She thought she was meeting us there to surprise Kyle for his birthday, but when she walked in, her entire family was waiting for her! Somehow we managed to keep the secret, and seeing her reaction made it completely worth it.

After all the excitement, we settled in for lunch at Café Eugenia, which has become a must-visit for me whenever we’re in Seabrook. It was the perfect way to officially kick off our week with everyone finally together.

Whenever we visit Café Eugenia, I HAVE to order their quiche and yogurt parfait. They’re both so good that I actually ordered the exact same thing twice during our last trip!

And, of course, I had to grab my FAVORITE kombucha, the strawberry jalapeño flavor! It’s one of those things I look forward to whenever we visit because you can really only find it around the Lowcountry. If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend trying it!

I love a good surprise and it was a success!

We had perfect pool weather the entire trip! My son is an actual fish when it comes to water and we have to bribe him out of the pool. I think this was his dream house.

Fresh fruit by the pool!

We made dinner really easy that night and threw together a few sides, roasted potatoes, mac and cheese, burgers, and hot dogs on the grill! With a house full of kids, simple dinners were definitely the way to go.

And truly, is there anything better as a kid than spending hours swimming in the pool, finally drying off, and coming upstairs absolutely starving to a big plate of grilled food? It felt like the quintessential summer vacation night.

One of my favorite benefits of staying on Seabrook Island is having access to the Beach Club! We absolutely love spending a day here. The pools are right by the ocean, so you get the best of both worlds and you can hang out by the pool and still walk right down to the beach whenever you want.

There are also café and restaurant options right at the Beach Club, which makes it so easy with kids. Once we get there, we usually plan on staying for the entire day. We swim, grab lunch, head down to the beach, come back to the pool, order snacks and drinks, and just settle in for the day. It’s one of those places where you really don’t need an itinerary, and it’s always one of my favorite days of the trip.

Just when you think an entire day of swimming at the Beach Club would be enough…it wasn’t!

Card games on the patio? Yes, please.

We set out early one morning to go on a seashell hunt, which has become one of our favorite beach trip activities. There are SO many shells to find on Seabrook Island, and the kids could spend forever walking along the beach looking for their favorites.

We bring our collection home, wash all the shells, and paint them together. After our last Seabrook trip, I used some of our painted shells to decorate a picture frame and added one of our favorite photos from the beach. It turned into the sweetest little vacation keepsake! I’ll link that project here if you want to make one with your own beach treasures.

The tide was pretty far up on some of the beaches during this trip, but one of the nice things about Seabrook Island is that there are so many different beach access points. If we got to one area and there wasn’t much beach to explore, we’d just hop back in the car and try another spot!

It actually made our seashell hunt even more fun because we ended up exploring a few different stretches of the island instead of sticking to the same beach every day.

I talked more about the beach access points in the Seabrook travel guide from last time.

I need to recreate this photo of them running on day when they’re older.

Of course, once painting seashells was no longer entertaining, we moved on to our next art project. My son had me drawing Power Rangers for him to color.

One thing we didn’t get to do during our last visit was explore the farmers market at Freshfields Village, so I was excited that we finally made it this time! They had so many amazing local vendors set up around the square, and it was such a fun way to spend part of the morning.

We walked around, checked out all the different booths, and picked up a few treats from local vendors to bring home with us.

And, of course, I made a few stops at another one of my favorites, Java Java, for a cappuccino! It’s become one of my go-to coffee stops whenever we’re in the area, and apparently one cappuccino wasn’t enough because I found myself back there a few times throughout the trip.

While I was out, I picked up everything we needed to make one of my favorite easy family dinners: my Italian Pasta Salad, Perfect Marinated Grilled Chicken, and a big fresh salad!

This is exactly the kind of meal I love making at a beach house. You can prep most of it ahead of time, throw the chicken on the grill when everyone starts getting hungry, and set everything out family-style. It was simple, fresh, and perfect after another full day in the sun. Also PERFECT for leftovers!

I mean look at the char on that baby!!

I get so hungry just looking at this photo because I genuinely think this Italian Pasta Salad falls somewhere in my top ten favorite foods. I could eat it straight out of the bowl for days and somehow never get tired of it!

Mornings on the porch with this little one!

One morning, we all headed out early to one of the fishing areas on the island. Naturally, I had to tag along and serve as the designated alligator shield just in case one decided to emerge from the marsh. I was paranoid!

Thankfully, it was a very uneventful morning. No fish were caught, no alligators were seen, and there was absolutely no wild life drama, just a quiet morning on the marsh with everyone together.

We spent the entire day down by the pool.

We all went for a walk, spent a few hours down at the Beach Club, did some swimming back at the house, and then got cleaned up and ready for dinner!

We decided to head back to The Salty Dog Cafe, which we absolutely loved on our last trip. This time around, it wasn’t quite as good as we remembered, but we still really enjoyed being there. I think the scenery and atmosphere are a big part of what makes this spot so fun, the waterfront views are beautiful, especially in the evening, and it’s a great place to walk around with the kids after dinner.

One meal, and restaurant, that was absolutely unforgettable was dinner at The Ryder Cup Bar at Kiawah Island Golf Resort. Oh my goodness, the views! This ended up being one of my favorite evenings of the entire trip, and I already cannot wait to go back someday.

The restaurant overlooks the golf course and the ocean, and we were lucky enough to be there for the most gorgeous sunset of our entire trip. The sky just kept getting prettier as the evening went on, and it was one of those dinners where you find yourself stopping every few minutes just to take in the view.

Between the food, the scenery, the sunset, and having everyone together, it was such a special night and easily one of the highlights of our vacation. If you’re visiting Seabrook or Kiawah, this is one spot I’d absolutely put on your list!

Dinner at The Ryder Cup Bar

The food was fantastic! Honestly, the menu was almost too good because it made it so hard to decide what to order. The fried green tomatoes were phenomenal, and I had the fish tacos with a couscous salad and a side Caesar salad. Everything was incredible!

Of course, when you’re at dinner with family, everyone ends up trying a little bit of everyone else’s meal, and there wasn’t one thing I tried that I didn’t like. Between the food, the gorgeous views, and that incredible sunset, this was easily one of my favorite meals of the entire trip.

While we waited for our food, the kids played out on the green with all the other kids, running around and chasing golf balls. It was so nice being able to sit back, enjoy the view, and let them get some energy out before dinner. Definitely one of those little things that made the restaurant even more enjoyable for our whole family!

We could hardly wrangle these two for a picture because they were having way too much fun! And this baby is officially on the move. He crawls SO fast now, which makes getting a photo of him sitting still nearly impossible.

Per usual, pictures will never do a sunset like this justice.

On another positive note, The Ryder Cup made THE BEST housemade ice cream I’ve ever had. We don’t do sugar often, unless we’re on a trip of course, but this was worth all the sugar. They shared vanilla, chocolate, and fig, and so did their clothes.

Best night with the family.

We didn’t explore much of the Kiawah side the last time we were here, but after this trip, I think we might have to stay on Kiawah next time! Night Heron Park was incredible. I’ve honestly never seen anything like it!

There is SO much for families to do. Markets, pools, splash pads, playgrounds, trails, a nature center, activities for the kids, I mean, the list just goes on! We barely scratched the surface while we were there, and I immediately knew we needed to come back and spend more time exploring this side of the island.

We took the kids to the playground and then had lunch at The Nest.

I had a cappuccino and a farro salad topped with seasoned salmon, and it was so good!

On our last day, we soaked up as much time at the pool as we could before getting cleaned up and heading into town for dinner. I’m telling you, if you’re traveling with kids who love to swim, splurge for the house with a pool! Ours used it from morning until night, and it ended up being one of the best parts of the entire trip.

There was something so nice about not having to pack everyone up every time the kids wanted to swim. We could just walk outside, jump in, and enjoy it whenever we wanted. It was 100% worth it for our family!

For our last dinner, we headed to La Tela Pizzeria, and it was just as good as I remembered! We ordered a little bit of everything for the table, including breadsticks, pizza, chicken cutlets, and pasta. Everything was delicious!

The last time we walked this little strip, it was just us and one little boy. Coming back this time as a family of four felt so special.

And, of course, we ended our last evening the only way a beach vacation should end…with ice cream!