Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 29, 1990 TAG: 9007290232
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By COLIN BESSONETTE COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In London, it's Claridge's, where France's Empress Eugenie visited Queen Victoria in 1860.
In Paris, it's the Hotel de Crillon, in a palace built in 1758 for Louis XV.
And if it's Hong Kong, it's the Peninsula, where diplomats, captains of industry and royalty have flocked since the hotel opened in 1841.
But you don't have to travel to the far corners of the world to steep yourself in luxury, U.S.A.-style.
The Southeast is the home of three one-of-a-kind luxury hotels:
The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.,
The Grove Park Inn and Country Club in Asheville, N.C., and
The Cloister at Sea Island, Ga.
Though none is inexpensive, all three offer special summer programs to attract families. At the Cloister and the Greenbrier, children stay free with parents and have free meals. At the Grove Park, children stay free, with meals extra.
This week, we're focusing on the Greenbrier.
White Sulphur Springs, tucked into the cleavage of the Appalachian Mountains just across the West Virginia border from Virginia, is typical small-town America: a handful of gas stations, small stores, a church or two and a couple of none-too-fancy motels. It has a well-worn look.
A small sign points to the Greenbrier. Twin pillars mark the entrance, with a winding drive leading to a massive, pillared white structure as grand in scope and scale as the White House.
The resort traces its heritage to 1778, when an arthritic woman, Amanda Anderson, claimed a miraculous cure from the mineral-laden waters of White Sulphur Springs. It didn't take long for word to get around, with people coming to the "magic fountain" and setting up tents, then attached cottages, which are still in use. In 1858, a huge hotel - the Grand Central, nicknamed the "Old White" - opened, with accommodations for 700 and a dining room 300 feet long. The Greenbrier was added in 1910 and the First in series of three grand hotels resort's place in history was assured, despite a wartime interruption when it was used as an internment center for German and Japanese diplomats and then as a 2,200-bed military hospital.
Today's Greenbrier has 650 guest rooms, 51 suites and 69 cottages. It has 30 lobbies of varying sizes. Its grounds are enormous - more than 6,500 hilly acres - with walking paths and roads linking the huge main building, the cottages, and a sports complex with three 18-hole golf courses, indoor and outdoor tennis courts and an outdoor pool. Minibuses and sleek black Cadillac limousines - real ones, not vans with the word "limousine" painted on the side - whisk guests where they want to go.
The hotel's decor is a rainbow of pastel walls, floral-patterned carpets and draperies, black-and-white marble floors, oil paintings, chandeliers, mirrors, pillars and sprays of flowers. It's the work of New York designer Dorothy Draper, who transformed the Greenbrier in the 1940s along a theme she called "romance and rhododendrons."
When her successor, Carleton Varney, first visited the Greenbrier in 1960, he was overwhelmed: "I had never seen a building quite that enormous, quite that grand," he said. "It was everyone's fantasy Georgian antebellum mansion, the one everyone dreams of occupying, from which women emerge as Scarlett O'Hara and men stride through the library as Rhett Butler."
But the resort doesn't live in the past. Today's guests have more than they can possibly do, even in a week: golf, tennis, swimming, hiking, horseback riding, workouts, croquet, bowling, trap and skeet shooting, platform tennis and carriage rides. In a state-of-the-art $7 million spa, they receive everything from facials and pedicures to medically supervised diet and exercise programs. Shops sell everything from designer clothing to sportswear, jewelry to imported toiletries, porcelain to outdoor gear.
No two guest rooms are alike, but all are decorated in the Greenbrier style. The ultimate is the Presidential Suite, with a library, den, dining room, living room (with grand piano) and seven bedrooms. The duke and duchess of Windsor stayed here; so did Prince Rainier and Princess Grace.
Afternoon tea, with a husband-and-wife pianist and violinist, is a tradition. Meals are social occasions, with formal breakfasts and dinners served in the main dining room and all three meals available in several specialty restaurants, some with a surcharge. The setting calls for a proper manner, which guests respect. A dress code is observed by everyone, including children.
At night, dancing is the main attraction, along with recent movies (such as "Hunt for Red October," "Driving Miss Daisy," "Steel Magnolias" and "Back to the Future III") in a full-size theater with a full-size screen.
Just two years younger than the United States, the Greenbrier is an American classic.
If you go
Planning a trip to the Greenbrier? Here's what you need to know:
Information: The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. 24986 (800-624-6070), or travel agents.
Getting there: The nearest airport is at Lewisburg Airport, W.Va.; travel agents can make reservations. Greenbrier shuttles meet every scheduled flight.
Cost: Rates, including breakfast and dinner daily, are $145-$198 per person, double, plus a daily service charge of $11.75 per person in lieu of tipping. Suites, guest cottages, guest houses and estate houses also are available.
Packages: Now through Sept. 3, the Greenbrier offers a Family Summer Vacation Program with daily rates starting at $290 for two parents and two children, including breakfast and dinner daily in the main dining room. A two-day minimum stay is required.
Golf packages, effective through Oct. 31, start at $374-$390 per person, double, and include two nights' accommodations, four meals and three days of unlimited golf.
Tennis packages, effective through Oct. 31, start at $322-$402 per person, double, including two nights' accommodations, four meals, two hours of outdoor tennis playing time (or one hour indoors) daily and tennis clinics.
Next week: The Grove Park Inn, Asheville, N.C.
by CNB