Kiawah Island Travel and Things to Do Guide

A 13.5-square-mile barrier island that is enveloped by lush foliage and moss-draped trees, Kiawah Island is home to Kiawah Island Resort, a multi-amenity property with five golf courses and a 28-court tennis complex. Meeting venues in Kiawah Island are pretty much comprised of the Resort's luxury hotel, villa and private home accommodations, along with more than 40,000 square feet of meeting space. Kiawah Island is 19 miles from downtown Charleston, 33 miles from Charleston International Airport and 15 miles from Charleston Executive Airport on St. Johns Island. Hotel venues in Kiawah Island are diverse and flexible: The ultra-luxurious 255-room Sanctuary Hotel, a AAA 5 Diamond and Forbes 5 Star property, features some of the largest king rooms on the East Coast, as well as a 3,000-square-foot Presidential Suite. Nearly 600 rental villas offer quality furnishings and ocean, partial ocean and scenic views. Private home rentals range in size from three to eight bedrooms. Meeting facilities encompass the 10,800-square-foot East Beach Conference Center, highlighted by the 6,960-square-foot Governor's Hall that can accommodate 500 for a banquet and 800 auditorium-style; and 18,000 square feet of space at The Sanctuary Hotel, where the 6,060-square-foot Grand Oaks ballroom can handle 500 people for banquets and 677 theater-style. Special Kiawah Island event venues include the clubhouses at the Ocean Course, Turtle Point and Osprey Point; and spectacular oceanfront lawns at The Sanctuary Hotel. Golf-loving groups relish playing on Kiawah Island's five championship layouts sporting designer tags such as Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. The resort's headliner course is the Ocean Golf Course, a stunning oceanside layout designed by Pete Dye that hosted the 2012 PGA Championships. Offering more seaside holes than any other course in the Northern Hemisphere—10 along the Atlantic and 8 others parallel to those—the Ocean Course is ranked in the Top 100 best U.S. courses by all major golf publications. For outdoor activities, Kiawah Island has 10 miles of sandy beaches, 123 acres of parks and 30 miles of hiking and biking trails. Popular pre-and post-meeting and spouse program activities include the Spa at The Sanctuary, bicycling in 21-acre Heron Park, ocean kayaking, back-river excursions, tennis at the resort's complex, which has 23 clay courts and 5 hard courts, and day trips to historic Charleston.