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Plenty of outdoor activities await you at The Boardwalk Inn at Wild Dunes Resort.
For those interested in golf, the resort offers two Tom Fazio designed golf courses, The Links and the Harbor. The Links Course has ocean views and is consistently rated among the most beautiful costal courses in the state. The Links Course has also been rated among the top 100 golf courses in the country, with the two finishing courses paralleling the beach.
Water sports like jet skiing, canoeing, kayaking, fishing, parasailing, four freshwater pools are available, as well as, a variety of tennis offerings and clinics.
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By Tom Crosby
(July 2009) The Boardwalk Inn, a 93-room hotel in the prestigious Wild Dunes® Resort on a barrier island near Charleston, South Carolina, opened in January, 1998, and has since become an anchor showcase for the resort, earning a coveted Four Diamond AAA rating soon after opening.
Wild Dunes Resort is a 1,600-acre, private oceanfront complex with miles of white sand beach on the northern tip of the Isle of Palms, bracketed by the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Intracoastal Waterway on the other.
The Boardwalk Inn is one of several types of accommodations offered by the resort, which now includes restaurants, spa services, hair salon, 17 Har-Tru tennis courts, two world-class golf courses, kids’ playground, ice cream shop, a swim center, grocery store, surf shop, and both seaside and inland pavilions.
The Links Golf Course is rated one of the 100 best courses in the United States and Wild Dunes has also been rated among the top 10 nationally for tennis.
A circular elevated driveway provides access to the Boardwalk Inn’s porte cochere where attentive valet and bell staff greet guests, guiding them inside to the check-in desk, past a circular table ablaze with fresh flowers brightening a spacious lobby.
Polished Brazilian cherry wood floors, off-white walls and cream-colored woodwork create an open, tropical lobby atmosphere. Colorful oriental rugs dot the floor.
The Bar
Social intertwining occurs in the bar, on the lobby’s right, opposite a Billiard Room and a Club Room for cards or watching wide screen television. The bar also serves as an overflow area for the Inn’s Sea Island Grill restaurant that is open seasonally. With bar stools strung along the Brazilian mahogany counter, which often serves as a 19th hole, the Grill serves those trying to forget - or brag about - their golf score.
A two-sided gas fireplace in the wall opposite the bar also serves the restaurant on the other side, a warming treat in either room during cool Carolina months.
A lobby couch and stuffed chairs provide a warm and intimate sitting area for sharing stories about the day’s events or requesting service from the concierge desk. A large model sailboat encased in plastic provides a seafaring ambiance.
The outdoor patio oversees a 47,400-gallon swimming pool ranging in depth from three to five feet, flanked on both sides by white-stripped canvas cabanas and white lounge chairs. Arching above the center of the pool is a concrete walkway leading to a grillwork iron gate that provides access to the resort’s namesake boardwalk and the Grand Pavilion, site of constant summertime activity.
The Boardwalk
The Boardwalk Inn name derives from the Victorian-style wooden boardwalk, which extends several hundred feet from the back of the 5-story Inn to the seaside pavilion and its oceanfront gazebo (The Grand Pavilion Café and Bar), located among the dunes only a stone’s throw from the ocean waves. Pastel-colored private townhouses and villas with balconies behind white wooden fences sit on each side of the boardwalk and are part of the Resort’s guest room inventory, boasting 3 and 4 bedrooms. Victorian-era streetlights and huge potted plants line the walkway and after dark, the view from the Inn’s rooms, across the illuminated swimming pool to the glowing seaside pavilion, becomes magical in the sea mist, as if taking a glimpse back in time.
The Rooms
The hotel contains 84 standard rooms and eight junior suites - each with a king bed and a patio. A two-level, 1,700 square foot presidential suite is also available.
The 485-square foot rooms include bathroom amenities with Aveda bath products. Custom-made shower curtains combat steam with mesh at the top and reduce claustrophobic angst. Armoires with flat screen televisions are custom made of cherry wood and artworks on the walls are limited edition paintings with an ocean theme. Teas, as well as coffee, are complimentary and a small jar of honey helps contribute to an English Victorian ambiance. Smoking is permitted on the balconies outside guest rooms.
The General Manager
“We have a coastal environment that appeals to many repeat guests who like the feel of ocean breezes, waking up and walking along the beach at sunrise,” said Frank Fredericks, Managing Director of Wild Dunes Resort. “They may see dolphins frolicking in the waves, shrimp boats putting out to sea or sand dollars washed ashore.”
The Activities
Water sports dominate recreational activities with jet skiing, canoeing, kayaking, fishing, parasailing, four freshwater pools (two are oceanfront at the Grand Pavilion) and the biggest pool of them all – the Atlantic Ocean.
Guests choose between two Tom Fazio designed golf courses, The Links and the Harbor. The Links Course has beautiful ocean views, meticulously manicured fairways, carpeted greens and enough beauty for it to be consistently rated among the most beautiful costal courses in the state. The Links and Harbor courses rate among the top 100 golf courses in the country, with the Links Course’s two finishing holes paralleling the beach.
Water comes into play on almost every Harbor Course hole as fairways skirt salt marshes and the Intracoastal Waterway.
Tennis fans can sample 17 Har-Tru courts and enjoy a variety of tennis clinics and offerings. Wild Dunes rates among the top tennis resorts in the country, according to Tennis magazine.
Special features: Taking your golf bags upon check-in and storing until your tee time, bathroom amenities, the illuminated pool at night that gives the entire area a romantic glow, complimentary local phone calls, Japanese robes, bike rentals, valet parking, complimentary shoeshine, complimentary weekday newspaper, triple-sheeted bed, two-speaker telephones, in-room coffee and tea maker with honey. (Updated July 2009)
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