Although The Cypress, at first glance, looks as if it were a historic old structure, with its siding and frame construction was purpose-built to be a B & B, opening May 1, 1997.
The Cypress Inn is a smoke-free facility.
Besides its AAA four-diamonds, the inn is listed in the Select Registry of Distinguished Inns of North America. It also was named by the Atlanta Journal and Constitution as one of the 20 best inns of the South in 2002. |
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By Jack Kneece
As soon as you walk in The Cypress bed and breakfast in Conway you realize how it got its AAA four-diamond rating. You are offered lemonade or iced-tea and cookies and the hosts are like old friends.
The Cypress Inn at 16 Elm St. in Conway, S.C. is a quiet hideaway convenient to everything enjoyable on the South Carolina coast, yet away from everything for quiet and solitude between excursions. It is a brief 20 minute drive from the hubbub of popular Myrtle Beach.
Owners Carol and Jim Ruddick treat guests like family and enjoy being good hosts. Guests can fish or canoe in the adjacent Waccamaw River, enjoy any of the attractions at nearby Myrtle Beach, or simply revel in the quiet of any of 12 guest rooms, each with an extra large Jacuzzi bath.
Each room offers plush bath robes, TV andVCRs, a video library, high speed internet connections and some have fireplaces. There are massage spa and getaway pacakges offered. Guests can also enjoy browsing and antiquing in the town of Conway. Room rates are from $110 to $210, seasonally adjusted, and corporate rates also are available for larger parties.
A small guest refrigerator is stocked with lemonade, sodas, iced tea and bottled water. Complimentary sherry, cookies and other treats also are provided. The inn serves a very good breakfast each morning that includes quality roast coffee, loose teas, breads, muffins, yogurt, cold or hot cereal, bagels and various hot chef selections.
Special diets can be accommodated with prior notice.
One room, available by request, has a jungle or European rain shower. It is a very large shower that pours a huge volume of water down like a tropical rain forest shower. The rooms are not numbered at The Cypress but have names—names like "Conservatory and Quinlan’s Quarters"
Although The Cypress, at first glance, looks as if it were a historic old structure, with its siding and frame construction was purpose-built to be a B & B, opening May 1, 1997.
 The place and the rooms are decorated with antiques, most of which the owners bought at auction in Atlanta. In fact, one guest from Atlanta recognized a luggage rack that had belonged to a relative, the Ruddicks said.
The Ruddicks live on the first floor to better service their guests. The inn has 12 unique and distinctive beds.
The vanities are a combination of old dressers and modern fine marble. One is even made from an old phonograph cabinet. Nikki and Rich Belucci,friends of the Ruddicks were commissioned to paint murals of wild fowl on the hallway landings, including a great blue heron. The murals are lifelike and provide a great detail of interest in the hallways. Three of the bedrooms have operating gas fireplaces.
A recent visitor found a bright and sparkling room that included a stained glass window separating the large bath from the rest of the room. The eclectic decor is a pleasing mix of the 1930s and even older, with quaint lamps, a faux marble fireplace, surrounded by a mahogany mantel, vertical striped wallpaper, heavy drapes with equally heavy valences over each large window.
The view outside was of the marina, jammed with power and sail boats of every size and description, glistening in the bright sun like a postcard photo. The bed was an antique sled style painted with an antiqued type green and gold patina finish. A large print of an old and interestingly inaccurate map of the world was framed above the gas fireplace. The heating and air conditioning are adjustable by guests in each room.
Ghiardelli chocolates were in a small metal basket by the bed. Persian rugs were in the bedroom, along with old car prints, old maps and even the ceiling had a vine decoration along the borders. There was a sconce-like electric candle by the door and a good selection of books atop the mantel.
The bathroom had large pump containers of shampoo —no brand names evident— and conditioner, body lotion and even Crest toothpaste, and a shower cap. To carry out the heron and crane theme of the hallway murals, a heron was etched in the mirror.
The comfortable bed had, as in all the rooms, a Sealey Posturepedic Plush mattress. The mattress was so comfortable that one travel writer recently made an appointment to interview the Ruddicks and slept through the appointed time and even the sound of his travel alarm.
The breakfast coffee was so unusually good that it prompted a question as to brand and origin. Turns out it is a special blend of coffee created fresh for the Ruddicks by Java Estates in Wilmington, N.C. The teas are from Harney & Son Fine Teas.
Carol cooks breakfast each morning, and a recent visitor found the breakfast of coffee, orange juice, blueberry pancakes and sausage very good.
The Cypress Inn is a smoke-free facility.
The inn has a meeting room that can seat up to 24. The meeting room is comfortable and sunny, decorated with plants, large windows and ceiling fans. Refreshments are included in the facility rental.
One recent party of Charleston attorneys with business in the area stayed in The Cypress, having traveled by power boat up the Intra coastal Waterway and docked just outside the inn in a marina.
Besides its AAA four-diamonds, the inn is listed in the Select Registry of Distinguished Inns of North America. It also was named by the Atlanta Journal and Constitution as one of the 20 best inns of the South in 2002.
This writer joked that the place was so pleasant that it seemed to have been designed by a feng shui expert. Then Jim Ruddick said one of the reasons the furniture and the layout of the rooms seems so right is because Carol is indeed a feng shui teacher who has actually taught classes in the art. Feng Shui is the technique propounded by the Chinese of planning spaces and furniture arrangement in the most pleasant way possible.
Carol and Jim each have MBAs. Jim worked as a retirement planner for an insurance company and Carol was a human resources executive with a bank.
The Ruddicks said they were trying to find a large old home or mansion in which to start their B & B. They liked the Conway area but could not find what they wanted. That's when they decided to build one to suit them. City officials worked with the Ruddicks to help facilitate the new project, hoping it also would be advantageous to the city.
Jim Ruddick said the couple frequented antique stores and estate auctions in the Atlanta area for years, purchasing furniture for their B & B before it was built.
There are several good restaurants in the Conway area, but one of them recommended by the Ruddicks is the AAA-rated Two Diamond Sidewheeler on the Waccamaw River. It was a walk of a block or two away along Conway’s River Walk––just far enough to build an appetite. The grouper and vegetables this writer had were excellent. It was a busy place, popular with locals and tourists alike.
The Ruddicks are very proud of their AAA Four Diamond rating which they have achieved for the past six years. This is truly an exceptional alternative to a trip to the beach.
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