Dog Friendly Vacation Accommodations

So I booked my 2009 trip to Kiawah once again. The vacation this year is under a little bit different set of circumstances as we decided to include our dog into our vacation. She is considered family so we do not have the heart to send her off to the kennel for a week while we play on the beach. We are accustomed to renting through the resort on Kiawah which has successfully met our lodging needs every year. This year we had to obviously find dog friendly vacation accommodations, as the resort does not allow pets in their villas. After numerous searches on the web, we finally came across a great vacation rental network, www.VRBO.com. The “VRBO” stands for”vacation rental by owner”. This website has vacation rental properties all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Vacation property owners simply use this service to advertise their unit and feature pictures and lists amenities of the desired vacation property. The site also lists those vacation properties that cater to pet owners. We were able to get ourselves a unit for a week and I couldn’t be happier as the owner answered all my questions immediately.

Tea Grown In America

Tea is consumed by millions of Americans annually. Most tea we buy is most likely made from leaves grown in China and India. But what about the good old USA? Well, there is one tea plantation in North America that grows tea, the Charleston Tea Plantation located at 6617 Maybank Hwy in Wadmalaw Island.
This is a great place to take the family to tour the 127 acre plantation. That's right........tea grown in America. There is an air conditioned trolley tour that takes travels throughout the plantation where you will witness hundreds of thousands of tea bushes. In addition there is a large facility that shows how the tea leaves are made into tea from bush to cup.
Charleston, South Carolina is apparently the only location suitable in North America to grow tea leaves because of its sandy soil and sub tropical humid climate.
If you come down to Charleston or are an avid tea lover, come down to the Charleston Tea Plantation. There is even an great gift shop where one can taste several types of tea.

Famous Movies Made In Charleston: Kiawah

My wife and I have endured watching the mini series North & South (books I & II) over the last few days. I enjoy books and movies that cover this period of our history, whether fictional or not. Anyway, I recalled the plantation of Mont Royal from the movie being filmed at the Boone Hall Plantation. I do remember this from the tour (which I recommend). There are even some shots of the Cooper river (tributary) just to the south of the home that looked very familiar from our visit. I thought that perhaps the plantation of Resolute was also in South Carolina, but have learned that was filmed in Louisiana. It was also fun to see downtown Charleston filmed with dirt and sand thrown over the streets to create the old time effect.

I was able to put together another quick list of movies filmed in the area:

Charleston
Cold Mountain (2003)
Patriot (2000)
The Notebook (2004)
For the Boys (1991)

Kiawah
Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)

Live Kiawah Cam

In my rumblings and stumblings across the cyber universe, I managed to find a live kiawah cam feed accessible 24/7 for beach views! Be sure to check out the hall of fame shots from previous dates. There are some spectacular sunrise/sunset pics. You can access the link right here. Enjoy!

Top Ten Beach: Kiawah Island

Kiawah Island’s very own Beachwalker Park has achieved the ranking of #10 in Top 10 beaches in the United States. This is a pretty darn good achievement given the stiff competition (Hawaii included).

Every year this ranking system is established by Florida University’s very own Dr. Beach or Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman. Professor Leatherman of Florida International University established his ranking system of beaches upon several categories evaluating the beach and marine life affected by biological, physical, and human factors. His research and rankings are a culmination of studying over 650 beaches throughout America. His study has received mention on the NBC Today Show.
For more information, please visit http://www.drbeach.org

Kiawah 2008

Another March 2008 spent in Kiawah. We decided to rent through Resort Quest and had another wonderful year on the island. We got into our villa the day before Easter after our 16 hour drive and had time to take a quick walk to the beach and get back for dinner. This is the second time in eight years of which we have visited Kiawah during the Easter week and we were able to enjoy some of the really fun activities that are offered to the kids staying on the island. There was an easter egg hunt, rides, jumpies, music, ice cream socials, movies. The place was "hoppin" during the easter weekend and we all had a good time. After the weekend we did a whole lot of bike riding, golfing, and playing on the beach. The water temp was a little chilly so swimming was kept to a minimum. The kids did enjoy getting their feet wet as well as making sand castles.

Our trips into Charleston during the week featured none other than a trip to Sticky Fingers barbecue and another ghost tour. This time we decided to take the dungeon tour which was pretty impressive. I look to post some additional Kiawah 2008 information on this blog very soon.

Traveling with Pets

We are planning another excursion to the lowcountry and will be traveling with a dog this time around. (that's 15 and a half hours in the vehicle). We plan on taking plenty of stops since we have two little kids and the dog. I now realized that taking along the dog also affects where you can stop for overnight stays when en route to your destination. Lo and behold there are chain hotels/motels that are considered "pet friendly". I thought I would share some great websites I stumbled across to share with you travelers that like to bring fido with.

http://www.officialpethotels.com/
http://www.takeyourpet.com/
http://www.dogfriendly.com/

These sites make it easy. You can plug in the city, state, etc and the site will point out which hotels are "pet friendly". They also provide good traveling tips

October on the beach

October is one of the premier months to go to Kiawah. For me personnally that isn't going to happen........doh! Kids are in school now so that makes it unlikely. We are hoping for spring trip at this point. Those that have time to vacation this part of the year........I really urge you to go. The low country starts to cool off to bearable temperatures in October with the humidity coming down to reasonable temperatures for some golf, biking, and walking the beach.

Expected September Weather for Kiawah Island

As you may be aware, the hurricane season is officially here and it affects much of the southeastern U.S. When visiting the low country, please keep in mind any potential storms that may affect your destination. You can click to Weather Channel Hurricane link to get more information prior to departure. You might also want to familiarize yourself with evacuation routes should you be visiting the Carolinas or Georgia in the hurricane season.

When I have travelled to Kiawah in the past autumn seasons, I have had pretty good luck with the weather. September and October bring in much needed cooler temperatures that make family beach vacations really enjoyable. If you can pull off a week vacation in the fall, I strongly encourage a trip to Kiawah.

Accommodations on Kiawah

One reason I consider Kiawah the best family vacation destination can be attributed to the lack of commercialism on the island. That can be good and bad. Some travelers like access to McDonalds, Starbucks, etc. Personally, I can do without those amenities that I am regularly exposed to the other 50 weeks of the year that I work. During my time on the beach or golf course, I prefer to keep such commercialism out of mind and spirit. So where the heck do you stay on Kiawah Island if there are no Holiday Inns, Marriotts, or Hyatts? Well there are two types of accommodations available on the island: 1) Hotels and 2) Villas or homes. Your choice depends on which style of housing you prefer, as well as what your budget allows. There are some quality resorts from which to choose. They are as follows.

ResortQuest
The island offers up many different villas and homes for rent by a company called Resortquest. Resortquest is a property management company that contracts with homeowners to rent out their properties throughout the year. The website (See below)provides detailed information on just about anything you need to know about the units and their location. You can search properties by price, island location, etc. You can even reserve your rental way in advance via the web. We used this company last year and ended up with a unit one block away from our in-laws that own on the island. We picked a unit for a great price and a short, short, walk to the ocean. (You can rent units that are right on the ocean!) Please go to the link for more information.


Kiawah Island Golf Resort
Another rental option is through Kiawah Island Golf Resort. It offers up similiar rental types as mentioned above. However, the golf resort occasionally provides some cost effective golf packages that allow renters to enjoy lower than expected golf rates. I have yet to take advantage of this..shame on me.

The Sanctuary
This hotel is the feature attraction for island accommodations. The Sanctuary is situated on the Atlantic beachfront with truly awesome views everywhere you look. The amenities of this hotel include pool (outdoor and indoor), fitness center, spa, conference facilities, and golf accommodations. The Sanctuary is part of the Kiawah Island Golf Resort. I have yet to stay at this hotel mainly due to my budget constraints.

Vacation Rental by Owner
There are several villas also on the island that are rented directly by the private owners. Many of these owners advertise and rent their units through a website called vrbo.com. This site is actually pretty informative and provides rental information on vacation properties all over the world. This site is great for families that like to bring their dogs on vacation. Many of the rentals offered through vbro have paw print icons that indicate that such units allow pets. I will probably be renting through this site next year with our newly acquired golden retriever.