Looking for a romantic get-away, and considering South Carolina. Any tips on Charleston or Hilton Head? What are the Outer Banks like? How much time would be needed in each of this three areas? Any recommendations for lodging or restaurants? No specific requirements on my part - looking for something that WOWed you!

Hilton Head is the beach and Charleston is a city.

The Outer Banks are the beaches of North Carolina. About a 10 hour drive from Charleston and 12 from Hilton Head.

Charleston is a city WITH beaches. You get it all. If you want to do both then there's your answer. If you want to shop (and by that I mean strolling, window shopping, not mall-trawling) and sightsee go to Chas.

Hilton Head has many more hotels on the beach...larger, more resort-y ones. If you are looking to just chill on the beach, ride bikes, golf, tennis, etc. then HH is your spot.

What time of year are you thinking of? What do you like to do?

Danna,

Doesn't it make you feel good to offer to help someone, and then be ignored?
I can't believe the number of posts I read on Fodors where someone posts asking for information or recommendations, and then disappears, never to be heard from again.
Equally irritating are the posters who ask a slew of questions, get a lot of people to respond, come back in to get more info, and then never do a trip report about the vacation/trip/what have you that they got the info for.
I wish they would realize this is a 2 way street, and feedback in the form of trip reports helps other posters, and also provides info to the responding posters on whether their answers were valuable to the original poster.

There was a similar post here last week about someone wanting to go to the North East specifically Charleston Hilton Head or OBX.