Biltmore Estate
Asheville, North Carolina
When you stay at the Biltmore, whether in the Inn on Biltmore Estate or the 209-room Village Hotel on Biltmore Estate that opened in December of last year, visitors have signed up for much more than the typical resort experience. While the estate has its own winery, extensive gardens and 15 dining options, the centerpiece of the Biltmore experience is its palatial private residence, the Biltmore House, the largest privately owned home in America.
The 35-bedroom mansion echoes a European palace more than any other private home in the United States thanks to its reliance on France’s finest chateaus for architectural inspiration. George Vanderbilt even replicated Chateau du Chambord’s exquisite double-helix staircase, purportedly designed by Leonardo da Vinci.
Groups can experience the home individually on a self-guided tour with audio or through a private architecture-focused, rooftop or upstairs-downstairs tour including typically off-limits bedrooms and servants’ quarters. A guided garden walk, a hands-on cooking class in the historic barn with farm-to-table ingredients from the estate’s own farm, and a horse-riding tour of the estate also offer groups an in-depth experience of exclusive areas of the estate.
www.biltmore.com
Wild Dunes Resort
Isle of Palms, South Carolina
The 300-room Wild Dunes Resort offers groups pristine beaches and rich coastal flora and fauna just 15 minutes from the James Beard Award-winning restaurants of downtown Charleston.
At Wild Dunes, the resort’s signature experiences for groups focus on its natural surroundings, such as a boat trip to uninhabited islands like Goat Island, home to roaming wild goats. There is no other civilization aside from the lavish oyster roast the resort sets up complete with a local ironsmith who helps attendees forge their own oyster shuckers on-site.
On the more civilized side, golf enthusiasts play the Links Course, Wild Dunes’ signature golf course, which last fall completed a $4 million upgrade and reconception by Tom Fazio. Other options include an ecotour followed by sunset drinks and clay pigeon shooting off the back of a boat in the intercoastal waterway. Jeffrey Payne, director of event management, recommends it for groups looking for an unusual way to get to know each other.
“People who have never held a shotgun before get a little wine in them and hit the target,” he said. “The burly guy you think is going to kill it is shown up by the 5-foot-2-inch-tall 70-year-old lady who blows it out of the water.”
www.wilddunes.com
Pinehurst Resort
Pinehurst, North Carolina
For golf lovers, there are few finer resorts in the country, if not the world, than the Pinehurst Resort. Since its inception in 1895, golf has been central to the Pinehurst experience, with its first course opening in 1898. Many call it the birthplace of American golf.
Guests have their pick of top courses, from No. 2, which has hosted the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup and four U.S. Opens, to the resort’s eight other courses designed by golf legends like Tom and George Fazio. Groups can also give their Pinehurst experience an exclusive twist with night-light golf and putting on the pool. But there’s plenty for nongolfers as well, as the resort has a storied history. Small groups can tour the more than 3,000-acre property in a horse-drawn carriage, and larger groups can walk the grounds for a historic tour culminating in high tea.
The property encompasses three hotels, each with a window into a different period in the resort’s history. The original accommodation, the Holly Inn, was built in 1895; the 230-room, AAA Four Diamond Carolina Hotel dates back to 1901, and the 42-room Manor Inn was added in 1925.
www.pinehurst.com
