"We stayed at the Sanctuary Hotel in Kiawah for a golf trip this past week. I'll do two reviews (the hotel and the golf). First, the hotel - it's top notch. The attentive service, friendliness of the staff, cleanliness of the entire property was off the charts and you can understand why it gets 5 stars. All of that greatness comes at a cost, it isn't the most wallet friendly hotel. It's pricey. We booked through our Chase Sapphire card where we get some perks like free breakfast every day. The benefit we were told equates to $42/day per person. The buffet just so happened to be $42 per person. The one day the buffet wasn't an option, so 3 eggs, potatoes, sausage, and toast was $38. The Ocean room was their higher end restaurant. We each had an appetizer, entree, two drinks each, and we split a dessert. All in with a tip was $320. All of the food we had was very, very good. The hotel name says it all, Sanctuary. You are pretty isolated. Kiawah Island doesn't really have a "downtown" to speak of. If you wanted to eat at a restaurant that's not in the hotel, you had to either drive or take a shuttle to one of the other courses' clubhouses and eat in the restaurant there. A shopping center-type area was there too, but we never had a chance to check it out. GOLF: We played Turtle Point, Cougar Point, and the Ocean Course where the PGA Championship and Ryder Cup were played. Becauses we stayed at the resort, we got discounted rates for golf ($370 for the Ocean course for those wondering + another $120 caddie tip- caddie is optional). You can book all tee times on their website, it's pretty simple. Even though the Ocean course is the big draw, we thought Turtle and Cougar were more challenging than the Ocean course. The Ocean course is wide open, you can spray the ball and still recover. The other two courses had lots of water in play and tree lined fairways. Alligators a plenty! For an idea of pricing of merchandise. We live in Pinehurst and a typical Peter Millar polo with the Pinehurst logo is about $115-125 (sorta pricey, but it has the logo on it, so you pay a premium, I get it). At Kiawah, the same polos were $140-170 - same shirt, different logo. I tried on a nice Peter Millar jacket, very nice and fit me well. I looked at the price tag: $330. Needless to say, I did not buy any merchandise. The entire island is small and has one lane roads. I can't possibly imagine the crowds and traffic during peak season. I liked Kiawah Island, but I didn't love it. I'll be back (in the offseason), but I'm not in a rush."

"We spent 3 nights here and had a great stay at Sanctuary. The service was exceptional, from check in, to the bellhop/valet, room service.......everyone was top notch and helpful. The property is gorgeous, and although we were not able to take advantage of the outdoor pools due to weather, we still took advantage of the indoor pool and gym. The location is very unique, i highly recommend taking the shuttle to the ocean course and having a meal/drink there to experience the history."

"My wife and I decided we need a "stay-cation" so booked rooms at the Sanctuary for a couple of nights recently. Unfortunately the weather was terrible but that's not the resort's fault. Room was a nice size with ocean views, decor was a bit dated but still nice. Best of all the staff was extremely friendly and accommodating. We will be back!"

"I went here with my dad for a golf trip and everything was super nice. The service was very good and the hotel food was also lovely."

"This is a rather interesting review to write. The Sanctuary Hotel was gorgeous. From the moment you arrive, you’ll notice how beautiful the hotel is and how amazing it actually smells! Once you walk through the doors, you are greeted with a gorgeous view across the property out over a verdant lawn to the ocean. There are several sitting rooms tastefully decorated that invite you to find a quiet spot to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. The hotel has an amazing location when staying on Kiawah Island. It’s incredibly convenient whether your day involves going to the beach, a lovely bike ride, a little tennis, or playing one of the amazing golf courses on the property. The restaurants were also terrific. We dined at the Ocean Room, the Atlantic Room, Jasmine Porch, and the Loggerhead restaurant by the pool. I won’t go into full details about the restaurants, but they all had wonderful selections, the service was impeccable, and the food really good. We also grabbed breakfast sandwiches from the coffee shop each morning, and the ladies there were terrific. Just a note, if you would like just an egg and cheese sandwich, make sure to order it the day before because they don’t have that option! The ladies always greeted us very warmly and were so friendly and left us with a good laugh. We found this to be such a delight when starting our day. This was like much of the service throughout the hotel. Everyone was really friendly and helpful. We loved all of the Jamaican staff. Our housekeeping staff we had were amazing! We did use the gym. With the exception of needing some updated towels, the gym was very good. It had plenty of treadmills so everyone’s not fighting over them! The gentleman working there was so friendly as well. Before I get to the big hiccup with our stay, I do want to say that we really did enjoy our time at The Sanctuary. In fact, if it weren’t for what I’m about to write, I would without hesitation stay here again. As glowing as our experience was, it was unfortunately hampered by something really big. We drove the quick 15 minutes from Charleston airport and arrived around 12:30 p.m. and were allowed to check in early, which was incredibly nice! We had booked an ocean view room for our anniversary. When we arrived in the room, we were in a rush to get to lunch and to the golf course, so we didn’t pay too much attention at the time. Once we got back to the room and were out on our patio enjoying a glass of wine, however, we realized we didn’t quite have an ocean view. So we called the operator and explained our discontent, and they said a manager would contact us right away. Well, no one ever contacted us, and we called two more times on different days after this. Two of the individuals we spoke to confirmed we were unfortunately put in a dunes view room, not an ocean view. Although we weren’t in our room terribly much, the times we were, we were very disappointed in what was provided to us. We had a couple of celebratory bottles of wine that we brought to enjoy the view, thus why we booked that category of room many months in advance. When we checked out, we assumed the discrepancy would’ve been taken care of with our bill, especially since we didn’t hear back from management. When it wasn’t, we requested to see a manager. That manager proceeded to tell us not only were we in an ocean view room , but we were in their premier ocean view room! Now, my wife and I travel quite a bit, and this statement was simply absurd. My wife, at 5 feet tall, could barely see any water from our view, and I could make out a fraction of the ocean in the far left corner only when I stood up. After explaining our discontent vehemently with the manager, she took 10% off of our room rate! To say we were disappointed is an understatement. This was an important anniversary for my wife and me, and we didn’t get the room we paid for. We understand mistakes do happen when you travel, but to not have a manager reach out to us at a luxury Five Star property after we requested one multiple times was simply unacceptable. We loved everything about Kiawah Island. We really enjoyed our time there. I dislike writing a review about a property we actually liked, but because of what transpired, my wife and I had an honest conversation as to whether or not we would ever come back to The Sanctuary. It’s not a cheap property, and we would have expected more from the management to address our issue. So if you do decide to stay there, I promise you you’ll really enjoy your time. Its a wonderful destination! Just make sure you get the room you paid for!"