By Tom Crosby

( March 2008) With taste and 19th Century elegance, The Sanctuary on South Carolina’s Kiawah Island has quietly and graciously combined the charm of the old South with amenities the rich and famous require in their vacation mansions.

The 225-room, $135 million, seaside destination resort, which opened in 2004, earned AAA’s most prestigious Five Diamond rating in 2006 for its luxury and impeccable excellence in providing sophisticated service and first-class comfort.
“This is a refuge from the stress of modern life, a special place where everything comes together,” said Vijah Singh, hotel manager, “a beach among the top ten in the United States, 90 holes of tournament level golf, the nearby charming city of Charleston and a place where the environment is preserved.”

Possibly the last resort that will be built on the South Carolina shoreline, The Sanctuary incorporates the classical and historical flavor of nearby historic Charleston using the highest quality finishes of stone, stucco, wood, cooper, slate, ironwork and brick.

After entering the gated 10,000 acre Kiawah Island resort – which has only 600 permanent residents – Sanctuary guests drive two miles to reach the yellow-and-brown four-story Sanctuary, approaching via a curving entrance road lushly lined with palm trees and South Carolina flora.

Greeted by name under the porte cochere, guests are escorted through double-swinging, glass-paned doors onto the hallway’s dark walnut floors fronting the grand lobby, enjoying a view across an expanse of manicured green lawn to the Atlantic Ocean gently lapping a pristine, white sandy beach.

With 20-foot ceilings rimmed with white molding and louvers, stuffed chairs and couches strategically located to overlook the grand lawn and ocean beyond, the lobby invites small gatherings for conversation, relaxing, reading or playing chess or bridge. 

Designed to appeal as if you were visiting the home of a Southern gentleman, the huge lobby’s comfortable elegance combines three rooms – a library to the left with a gas fireplace and stocked bookcases; a main living room with stuffed chairs/couches and a corner grand piano played nightly, and a bar with paned bay windows outfitted with dark wood shutters and green leather chairs. The lobby’s cream-colored walls and columns contrast the polished dark walnut floors, dotted tastefully with oriental rugs.

The hallway is book ended by a pair of wide, curved wooden staircases that evoke memories of the movie “Gone With The Wind” and Scarlet O’Hara’s flirtatious descent to greet Rhett Butler. One staircase leads to the fine dining AAA Four Diamond rated Ocean Room restaurant; the other to the spa.

ROOMS
The Sanctuary’s 225 rooms include 135 with king-sized beds, and 97 double or queen-sized beds, with 90% featuring an ocean-view balcony. There are three suites, including a 3,100-square foot presidential suite.

Regular rooms are more than 520-square feet each - among the largest luxury guestrooms in the country - with five-fixture bathrooms hung with fluffy 5-foot long cotton towels, large marble walk-in showers with two showerheads and a bench, dual marble vanity sinks and deep soaking tubs beneath white wood shutters that open between the bathroom and the bedroom – all under 9-foot high ceilings.
Rooms have DVD/CD players, complimentary high-speed Internet access, huge cushioned chairs, walnut writing desks, flat-screen televisions with (#) channels and a wet bar above a built-in refrigerator and honor bar. (Regular room rates range from $275 to $625 a night, depending upon room type and season.)

Four-poster beds sit high above the carpeted floor, with 300-thread sheets, a dozen sleep and throw pillows and a goose down duvet cover.

ART AND ANTIQUES
Museums collect show pieces over time and The Sanctuary is dotted with antique furnishing and artwork collected over a period of years, all aimed at recreating the essence of a 19th Century Lowcounty seaside mansion, complete with old oil paintings of 19th Century families, and even their family pets, favorite horses and farm animals.

A connoisseur will find indigenous birds sculpted by master porcelain artist Edward Marshall Beohm, murals of Kiawah marshlands by Charleston artist Karen Larson Turner and antiques and artifacts that include crystal decanters, ancestral china, antique clocks, a brass-mounted armillary sphere, a Gorham silver soup tureen and beautifully woven sweetgrass baskets.

SPA
Located on the second floor, The Sanctuary’s world-class spa offers more than 75 different peels, waxing and hair services, pedicures, manicures and spa treatments in 12 treatment rooms with hardwood floors, shuttered windows and therapeutic color schemes.

The treatments, which can last from 60 minutes to four hours, range in price from $150 for a single to $540 for a couple that begins with a private soak for two in the Riverbath whirlpool tub, followed by candlelight Aroma Massages in a private room overlooking the ocean.

Men and women’s lounges have an aqua retreat with a mineral whirlpool, steam and sauna rooms. After treatment, a garden-inspired solarium offers magazines, juices, teas and soothing music for extending the relaxation

SHOPS/RESTAURANTS
Galleries and boutiques selling golf items, gifts, clothing and jewelry are located in various spots within The Sanctuary.

Dining options include the dinner-only AAA Four Diamond rated Ocean Room with a distinctive, old world style bar; Jasmine Porch, a less formal restaurant open for all three mealtimes; Sanctuary Gourmet across from the lobby bar; the Loggerhead Grill that overlooks The Sanctuary’s swimming pools and Beaches & Cream, a poolside ice-cream/candy summer shop.

Other restaurants on the island include The Turtle Point Bar and Grill, Osprey Point Grill, the Ocean Course Grill, Haulover Creek Bar and Grill – all at golf clubhouses – and The Market at Town Center in East Beach Village and Shrimper’s, a seafood restaurant at The Straw Market.

GOLF
Five world-class courses (one is off-island) use rolling sand dunes, expansive saltwater marshes and quiet maritime forests to provide settings accented by course designers Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Fazio, Gary Player and Clyde Johnson.

All the courses have won recognition from Golf Digest as “Best Places to Play” and the links-style Ocean Course has hosted events such as the World Cup, Ryder Cup, PGA Championship and Senior PGA championship. The PGA Championship returns there in 2012.

TENNIS
Two tennis centers share 23 Har-Tru courts and five hard courts. TENNIS magazine has ranked Kiawah among the top five tennis facilities in the nation for Best Game Matching, Best for Families, Best Teaching Staff and Best Tennis Program.

BEACH/BIKING/ACTIVITIES
For those who eschew The Sanctuary’s two swimming pools (one is incise), there are ten uninterrupted miles of pristine, white sand compacted enough for bicycles and easy walks. Kiawah’s beach has been rated among the nation’s top ten best beaches by the Travel Channel.

Beach lovers can travel to The Ocean Golf Course and walk along the
beach to where it curves into the channel.  At low tide, strollers can see the spit of a mile-long sandbar dotted with seagulls on each end of the crab-claw-shaped beach. Knobbed whelks, sand dollars, horseshoe crab coverings and other shells are easily found.

In front of The Ocean Course Clubhouse, you can see where a golf hole was built and used for the shooting of the climatic golf tournament scene in the movie “The Legend of Bagger Vance.”

Trained naturalists guide tours of Kiawah’s Lowcounty coastline, maritime forests and saltwater marshes while leading kayaking expeditions, birding excursions, fishing trips or other outdoor activities. Visits to the nature Center are popular for hands-on experiences for kids with snakes, turtles and an alligator.

The beach is a nesting ground for Loggerhead Sea Turtles, and residents man a Turtle Patrol that achieves a survival rate of 90%, compared to about 10% without assistance.

Thirty miles of paved bike paths wend and wind through Kiawah’s barrier island and combine exercise with enjoyment of moss-draped oak trees, splayed palmetto plants, semitropical bushes and flowers and visits to on-island shopping villages, parks and golf clubhouses.

A Kiawah Island visit is an amalgamation of experiences – the sight of an alligator sunning next to a golf course lake, a housekeeper’s smile, a sunset igniting clouds with brilliant red and orange colors or a deer at night startled into immobility by the sudden glare of headlights.

On Mingo Point in the summer there is an outdoor Oyster Roast and Bar BQ Monday evenings and there are other evening celebrations year-round, including fireworks on New Year’s Eve.         

AWARDS
AAA Five Diamond Award winner since 2005
#1 Ranked U.S. Family Resort – Travel + Leisure Family
#1 Ranked U.S. Resort Hotel – Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Resort
#1 Ranked Tennis Resort in the world – TennisResortsOnline.com
#2 Ranked U.S. Golf Resort – Travel + Leisure Golf
#2 Ranked Island to visit in North America – Conde Nast Traveler

The Sanctuary’s special features: Plush cotton robes; any Kiawah holiday event; white sand beaches you can walk, bike or sunbathe on; gentle ocean swells; deer Immobilized in the headlights; all the wildlife; kids' programs; the immaculately maintained grounds; the golf courses; the newspaper delivered to your front door for a small fee; dozens of special events every day; the beach views; employees who smile; Charleston only a half-hour away; horseback riding on the next beach over from Kiawah; more bike paths than you can ride in a day and easily found shells on the beach.

VILLAS AND HOMES
As a resort, Kiawah Island also has available villas and homes for rent, blending man-made structures with natural surroundings in an environmentally conscious setting.

More than 170 species of birds, 30 species of reptiles and amphibians and 18 species of mammals, including often-spotted white tail deer, call Kiawah home.
Visitors to Kiawah Island receive a security pass to keep visible on the vehicle’s dashboard during their visit. Another pass is required to enter the privately held Vanderhorst Plantation, Kiawah’s premier residential community.

The Plantation is one of three areas where the resort and villa homes are primarily grouped. The others are West Beach and East Beach. West Beach is near the Kiawah Island Inn and its beach and restaurants. East Beach is close to the 20-acre Night Heron Park and the resort’s conference center.

Visitors travel through the Vanderhorst Plantation to reach The Osprey Point Golf Course and dining room, and the world-renowned Ocean Golf Course. Kiawah’s aim is to make it known everywhere as the premier golf course resort in the United States.

Everywhere on the island the speed limit is 25 mph, firearms are prohibited and there is $200 fine for feeding the gators, often spotted sunning themselves on golf courses or on the banks of ponds shadowed by live oak trees dripping moss.
The gems of the villas are the beach houses, with spectacular views and upscale luxury.

FRESHFIELDS VILLAGE
Opened in 2006 (?), this is a quaint collection of upscale gift shops, restaurants, coffee and wine shops, clothing stores, grocery and drug store, banks and other businesses suitable for a small rural town. Located just past the roundabout on the road to Kiawah, it serves Kiawah, Seabrook and Johns Island, and sponsors holiday festivals, summer concerts and outdoor movies at different times of the year. (www.freshfieldsvillage.com) (Updated March 2008)

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