Marriott's SurfWatch

First time visitors at Hilton Head Island and the Marriott Surf Watch. A beautiful and peaceful place to visit. Our condo was large and had a wonderful view of the ocean. There is a wide beach to relax on, that isn’t crowded. The condo comes well equipped and plenty of parking. Many activities for the whole family. It is away from the crowds, but close to many restaurants and attractions.

Definitely not worth the amount of money you pay. Very outdated resort. No breakfast or cafe option on site. The Marketplace is bare with not much to offer. The beach pool is ridiculously small and way overcrowded, it’s crazy. Cannot even get a longe chair. I have stayed and way nicer Marriott properties. Not enough amenities for the amount of people and the money they are charging. And there is no pool hut for fresh towels, guess we are suppose to wash our own with the minimal amount of laudry detergent we were given for a place that sleeps 12 people. I just don’t understand. Villa is ok but all cabinets are extremely old and wonky. Fridge is all dented up. Will not be staying here again.

This was our first visit to SurfWatch but have been coming to Hilton Head Island for 30 years as we are owners at Grande Ocean on the other side of the Island closer to Sea Pines. This was an easy exchange through Interval International (trading a Marriott Aruba week)and it did not seem to be busy this time of year. The resort is small and quaint, not very large, only comprising of six buildings with villas (one building closer to Ocean, two courtyard buildings, and two garden view buildings and one in the main building where you check-in) with two pools and an indoor pool. We can now say that since we have stayed at all the Marriott Beach locations in Hilton Head (Monarc, Barony, Grande Ocean and now Surfwatch), this is our least favorite resort. The reason for the “8” rating is because it is not directly on the beach or easy access. Surfwatch was quiet the week we were there, however, Surfwatch lacks the character and “resort” feel that we prefer at Grande Ocean (that is very spread out, with easy beach access, 4 pools and an indoor pool, a larger beach area and lots of sitting areas). Surf Watch is a long walk to the beach but if you’re up to it, it is a nice stroll along the boardwalk. There are NO views of the ocean from the courtyard or the garden view buildings. Cabanas can be rented at the pool close to the ocean but there are no view of ocean from the Cabanas (in my opinion, they should be free on a first come basis). We found the beach area very small (not sure if high tides) but the week after, we spend at Grande Ocean with a very large beach area, biking on the beach and a much better beach experience. We also found there to be lots of “kissing bugs” and or flies (not sure if because of the “swamp” area but didn’t experience this at Grande Ocean the following week. Our villa was a first floor unit in the Tide 5500 building with views of the back pool, it was typical Marriott layout with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths, a stacked washer and dryer (although at Grande Ocean there is a full size washer and dryer); the kitchen is well equipped and the dining room and living room are standard. There is a large balcony with 4 chairs and table. The master bath had a very large walk-in shower that was amazing with dual controls and shower heads. It was a nuisance in the 5500 building with the elevator that could only be used IF a staff member came to operate it. Therefore, every time we wanted to go up or down, we had to wait for a staff member to come to run the elevator. We were told by staff that the elevator situation has been going on for months and each time it is repaired, it has problems again. They did fix it the last day of our stay. We also had to get a shuttle to the pool up front or to the beach. The entire week, were were only able to use the beach once or twice due to very short beach and high tides. The staff is very attentive and helpful and aim to please; the activities were fun and tokens were given to winners that

This was a special celebration for 1st Cousins being reunited and celebrating a birthday. The villa was so beautiful and enjoyable. I would visit again.

Beautiful MVC resort! Right in the beach with golf carts that they use as mini busses to take you around the resort. Just give them a call and they’ll pick you up. The activities were excellent as were the pools. A well maintained resort. We will return.

Warning to Elite Bonvoy members - this property does not honor late checkouts “due to being a timeshare property”. Spoke with manager on Sunday morning during the off-season when the property was clearly not full - he did not seem to care at all about status and did not budge on checkout time. Will be staying in a different Hilton Head property next time as a result.

Clean, modern and spacious rooms. Location was also great. Front desk was also very nice with smiles. We had a wonderful stay and will come back again soon.

Our family visited Marriott SurfWatch just before Christmas and had a wonderful stay. We stayed in a three-bedroom suite overlooking the gardens and lake. It was spacious, comfortable, and well-equipped with everything we needed. The resort provided all the essentials to start our stay and refreshed our supplies every other day, which was a nice touch. The front desk and concierge teams were friendly and always ready to help. We did have one issue — one of the bedrooms stayed cooler and more humid than the rest. Maintenance responded quickly with a large dehumidifier and even repaired what looked like an exterior crack. When that didn’t fully solve it, they offered to move us to another unit. We appreciated their effort and decided to stay since we were already settled in. There was plenty to do around the resort — beach walks, water aerobics, bingo, a magic show, the indoor pool and hot tub, beer and brats, wine and cheese social, and s’mores by the fire pit. The recreation staff made every event fun, and all the guests we met were friendly. Overall, it was a relaxing and fun vacation for our family, and we’d definitely come back!

I have been a Marriott destination club member for over a decade and have gone to this resort probably 4 times in the last 10 years on this recent stay our rooms were dirty, poor cleaning with trash and dirt under beds and furniture, the room furnishings were worn. We experienced overflowning public area trash bins over a three day weekend that were not emptied, hotel staff parking their work carts in handicap parking which caused guests needing them to be displaced, so overall I was not happy with this recent stay and will not go back for a while. Marriott seems to be more concerned with trying to sell us more vacation products as they continually bothered us during this vacation week than maintaining standards in their resorts.