The Cloister at Sea Island
A “Friendly Little Inn” Becomes the Grand Dame of Southern Resorts
Mar 1, 2009
Nearly a century ago, automotive pioneer and founder of the Hudson Motor Company Howard Coffin took a tour of the Georgia low country and its barrier islands. So taken was he with the natural beauty of the marshes that he aimed to introduce it to others via a “friendly little inn” opened on Sea Island in 1929. Eight decades later, Coffin’s experimental venture into the hospitality business reigns as the grand dame of southern coastal resorts.
Over the years, the Addison Mizner-designed resort became a favored place of respite among the nation’s elite, even hosting the 2004 G8 Summit. Now, on the heels of a massive, $500 million renovation, the five-star Cloister at Sea Island is more spectacular than ever.
Among the most impressive aspects of the renovation project is the resurrection of the Cloister’s centerpiece, its 30-suite main building and two 35-guestroom wings overlooking the Black Banks River and formal gardens. Architect Peter Capone added modern features while preserving many of Mizner’s original Old World Spanish Mediterranean design, including an exact recreation of the popular Spanish Lounge and Solarium. Antiques and art works were imported from around the globe and entire mountain villages were commissioned to hand-weave the property’s 670 Turkish rugs, in keeping with the Cloister’s tradition of sumptuous settings.
A new addition to the 156-room boutique resort is the expanded and relocated 65,000-square-foot spa, which offers an array of treatments designed after international customs, including Swedish stone massages, Indian jasmine scrubs, and Turkish and Japanese basu baths. Within the spa property is a fitness center, Wellness Cuisine center, salon and the Labyrinth, an outdoor, circular pathway patterned after the famous 13th-century labyrinth of France’s Chartres Cathedral for meditative walks.
The newly renovated Beach Club fronted by five miles of private beach is a must for families. Kids love the huge swimming pool, game room and ice cream parlor. Big George’s Raw Bar & Grill, a casual, ocean view restaurant, is named for Big George Drayton, a 40-year employee at the Cloister who welcomes everyone with an infectious smile.
Recreational options include golf, tennis, seaside horseback riding, vintage yacht cruises aboard the 71-foot, wooden Cloister Belle, and skeet, clay and five-stand shooting lessons (including the Annie Oakley Shooting Hour for Ladies). Sail boating, sea kayaking, funcycling and body boarding are offered for the water worshipers.
A favorite feature among couples and small parties is dinner in the reservation-only, medieval-styled wine cellar, where the walls are lined with hundreds of bottles of wine, including vintage bottles more than a century old. For a more casual affair, families love the Friday night Plantation Supper on nearby Rainbow Island, serving quintessential Southern fare like barbecue shrimp and corn on the cob on the porch or at a picnic table. Gospel and bluegrass players perform while kids roast marshmallows and chase rabbits darting through the sea grass. Other dining options, casual and elegant, abound.
A beloved Cloister character is Sea Island Naturalist Stacia Hendricks, who helps care for and introduces visitors to the island’s natural amenities via guided boat, jeep, bicycle or horseback tours. She keeps participants rapt with stories of the ancient Timucuan Indians who inhabited the area, migratory birds that fly to Sea Island from the Arctic Circle and nearby nesting sea turtles that take 34 years to mature and return, often from thousands of miles away, to the very beach where they were hatched to lay their own eggs.
“When people come to a point of the world like this,” Hendricks says, “it creates something that resonates with them like a fine wine or a wonderful meal.”
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