North and South Carolina boast 76 Four Diamond and seven Five Diamond rated accommodations and restaurants. Go Magazine will regularly feature articles describing these properties, with expanded stories available at AAA.com/diamonds.

By Tom Crosby
Myrtle Beach is one of the top East Coast tourist destinations, replete with restaurants, hotels, golf courses, souvenir shops, miles of sandy beach, rides, shows, museums and elbow-to-elbow people.

Behind this hectic scene, off Highway 17 bypass, is a AAA rated Four Diamond hotel and resort located on 2,200 landscaped and natural acres that overlooks and borders the Intracoastal Waterway and includes two championship golf courses and ten Har-Tru tennis courts.

The Mediterranean-style, tri-tower Marina Inn at Grande Dunes opened in 2006 and received its prestigious rating from AAA in 2007.

Burroughs & Chapin Company, a privately held development firm, owns the resort, which stretches from the Intracoastal Waterway to the Atlantic Ocean and includes a mix of single-family residences, timeshares, condominiums and Marina Inn hotel rooms. The company also owns several Myrtle Beach golf courses and attractions, including Broadway at the Beach, and co-owns the Coastal Grand-Myrtle Beach regional shopping mall.

They plan to build a European-style village between the Inn and the marina’s Anchor pub, with a Ruth Chris steakhouse, as part of a European style village, with fashionable shops, galleries and entertainment venues.

Guests find the Marina Inn entrance easily because it is across the street from The Carolina Opry and the Dixie Stampede.

The landscaped entrance road is lined with blooming flowers, ornamental bushes and palmetto trees. The parking lot is to the left with the porte cochere and valet parking to the right, past a small pool with three waterspouts.

LOBBY
Checking-in occurs at two small desks on the right to emphasize personal service; guests learn rooms prefaced with a seven (Marina Tower) are reached via a covered but outside corridor, while those rooms in the other towers prefaced with a six (Waterway and Harbor Towers) are reached through interior hallways.

The concierge desk is to the right, overlooking the stylish Southern European designer lobby with its decorative Italian marble floor, iconic white columns grouped in threes and center table topped with fresh flowers underneath a sparkling crystal chandelier.

Beyond the check-in desks, a lavishly furnished library sits adjacent to the intimate Reflections bar, which has a Tapas and drinks menu, and serves inside at small tables or the bar and outside on an elevated outdoor patio that overlooks swimming pools below and beyond, the 130-slip marina.

A gas fireplace rimmed with a dark marble mantle serves as centerpiece for the library and is fronted by more than a dozen stuffed leather chairs in various styles and two leather couches strategically placed about the room. Afternoon tea, lemonade and fresh cookies are served here daily. Tasteful knick-knacks rest upon dark mahogany shelves flanking the fireplace.  A telescope looks out one of two windows and focuses on the tee box at hole number 10 on the Par 72 Grande Dunes Golf Course designed by Roger Rulewich and ranked among the top 100 residential golf courses by Golfweek magazine.

To the library’s right, a circular stairway under another huge crystal chandelier leads to ground level, and the premier restaurant, Waterscapes, which boasts a low county menu created by Executive Chef James Clark, who grew up in South Carolina and worked at several well known and top-rated restaurants from Colorado to DC before coming to Waterscapes.

Outside the hotel there is a 1,800-square-foot Loggia and 10,000-square-foot meticulously landscaped Grande Lawn overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway.
When guests desire the traditional Myrtle Beach experience, a private shuttle takes them to the Grande Dunes beach outside the Marriott Resort at Grande Dunes on the ocean.

GUEST ROOMS
The Inn contains 66 hotel rooms and 164 suites or condominiums. Accommodations vary from a 450-square foot Grande Guest Room, to a 470-square foot Studio, to a Mediterranean Club Suite (680 square feet) with an oversized bedroom, to the Two Bedroom Suite (1,200 square feet) or the Three Bedroom Suite (1,800 square feet). All suites have a full kitchen and the 2/3 bedroom suites include a fireplace, dining room and a washer/dryer.

All rooms have balconies with wicker chairs and wicker table. Amenities are from Gilchrist and Soames, and include cleansing bars, body butter, shoe mitten, dental rinse, shower/hair purifier, body refresher, hair/protector and shampoo. Makeup mirrors are magnified.

Bathrooms include a loofah body scrubber, q-tips and cotton ball boxes made of Indonesian rattan and wood, designed by Selamal. a San Francisco firm. A dark framed mirror under decorative frosted glass lights sits above the sink.

The two-bedroom suite includes a living area with two sofas facing a cherry wood armoire with a safe, DVD player and 17-channel TV. Floor lamps add extra light. A gas fireplace is against one wall with a round table in the room’s center seating four and a narrow table along wall for glasses, ice chest and clock and lamp.

The modern kitchen is open to the large living/dining area, set apart with a waist-high, Corian top counter, and includes two sinks, GE refrigerator with side freezer and a coffee maker with 100% Arabica gourmet coffee by Diplomat.

BEDROOM
In the bedroom and living/dining room, fans whir overhead.  A king-size bed in the master bedroom was covered with a French duvet down comforter and sheets are 300-thread with hypoallergenic sheets and pillows are available upon request.

All rooms are equipped with wireless and both cordless and cord phones. Closets contain umbrellas, bathrobes, luggage racks, iron and ironing board.
Magazines include Southern Living, Coastal Living and a Grande Dunes brochure.

POOL AREA
From the balconies, rooms overlook a bi-level pool area with a 3-5 foot deep wading pool cascading gently over a marble drop-off to a shallow 1-3 foot deep pool below. Flanked by a pair of heated whirlpools on the upper level, both pools are surrounded by metal and cloth chairs, lounges and tables useful for sunbathing or watching children and friends water frolic.

An indoor heated pool bubbles on one end of the expansive patio with a heated whirlpool and is part of the largest pool, reachable by swimming without having to get out of the water. The indoor pool is 3-4 feet deep and includes swim-in-place stations with two jet streams to provide resistance. Several chairs, tables and rocking chairs surround the pool area.

The pool patio holds more than 100 lounges and chairs and more than two dozen tables seating two to four people. The pool area remains private with a magnetic lock triggered with a room key. Some tables are located outside of the locked iron fence area and receive food and bar service from the Poolside Grill.

ANCHOR CAFE
Reached via a concrete walkway paralleling the Inland Waterway, the Anchor Café sits next to the Inter-coastal Waterway and overlooks the golf course on the other bank.

Sitting on the outside veranda, drinkers and diners watch motorboats, sailboats, water skiers ply the waters and golfers play their shots where a left slice can end up in the water.  Metal tables surround the café on the outside with the bar forming the central point inside.

On the five-minute walk to the café (the inn provides a golf cart shuttle, if asked), strollers pass the 130-slip Marina, often full of bobbing sails and motorboats.

EXERCISE ROOM
The exercise room can be reached through the indoor pool area and contains a flat screen HD television and a floor-to-ceiling glass wall overlooking the pool area for those using the two treadmills or an elliptical workout machine. Three exercise bikes, a Hoist 4400 weight machine with three stations and a small sauna room are also available.