Luxury in the Blue Ridge Mountains

The Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa is just five hours north of Charleston. Treat yourself to a relaxing getaway at this elegant member of the Historic Hotels of America. Plan a long weekend playing 18 holes of golf, indoor/outdoor tennis, browsing boutiques, and dining on fabulous cuisine. The outdoor terrace rocking chairs are perfect for admiring the stunning Blue Ridge Mountains.

Ready for extreme pampering? Travel + Leisure magazine rated the Grove Park Spa as one of the Top Five Spa Resorts in the United States. You won’t be disappointed.

HISTORY

The resort’s guided history tour tells how Edwin W. Grove fell in love with this beautiful area, becoming the “Father of Modern Asheville” in the early 1900s. In 1912, work began to transform Sunset Mountain into a grand resort, and by 1913, national newspapers extolled Grove Park Inn as “the finest resort hotel in the world.” By 1935, The Grove Park Inn was buzzing with America’s elite, hosting guests like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Harry Houdini, Will Rogers, George Gershwin and U.S. presidents. In 1955, Texas businessman Charles A. Sammons became the owner, restoring and renovating Grove Park into a property worthy of dozens of awards like AAA Four Diamond, Mobil Four Star, and the Conde Nast Gold List.

THE SPA

In 2001, The Grove Park Inn opened their luxurious $42 million, 40,000-square-foot Spa. The spa is a wonderland of stone grottos, mineral pools with underwater music, plunge pools, cascading waterfalls, skylights, an inhalation room, sauna, and a eucalyptus-infused steam room. Mineral pools contain traces of sodium, potassium, magnesium and zinc. Your skin will be soft, your mind relaxed.

Get cozy in the lounge areas, enjoying herbal teas, dried fruit snacks, and magazines. Or unwind in the outdoor mineral pool, sky dreaming. Choose from dozens of pampering treatments. The “Sanctuary of the Senses” facial uses rose-petal essential oils and an enzyme mask to erase years from your face. Gentlemen, try the “De-Stress Body Treatment,” guaranteed to relax your overworked brain. Seeking something different? Try Reiki, for “emotional and spiritual balance,” or shiatsu, a Japanese treatment to harmonize “the body’s energy pathways.”

My “Mountain View Massage,” was 80 minutes of bliss in an outdoor pagoda. Breathing the sweet mountain air and listening to songbirds. Farewell stress, hello happiness.

DINING

Leave your diet at home: cuisine at The Grove Park Inn has garnered too many impressive awards. The Horizons Dining Room is ranked by Food & Wine magazine as one of the 50 best hotel restaurants in America. The menu offers artisan duck foie gras, wild-caught North Carolina black grouper, and Kobe beef. The Blue Ridge Dining Room serves fried green tomatoes and slow-roasted prime rib. Or enjoy casual elegance in the Magnolia Lounge with a burger and a strawberry mojito.

Warren and I dined al fresco at the Sunset Terrace, as the sky tinted pink over purple peaks. By 7pm, the restaurant buzzed with happy guests, sharing their par scores, spa treatments, and Asheville tours. Warren relished his juicy plump Prince Edward Island mussels, while I fell in love with almond-crusted trout, fresh from nearby Sorrells Creek. Toasting with their wine glasses, guests celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, and family reunions. Us? We celebrated life in one of America’s grandest resorts.

IF YOU GO

The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa
290 Macon Avenue
Asheville, NC. 28804
800-438-5800