Travel On The Level

When a St. Simons Island, GA, hotel celebrates its 75th anniversary, you know it's been doing something right.

In the case of the King and Prince Beach & Golf Resort, it's been doing a lot of things right.

First there was location - on the ocean with dance floors inside and out. Then there was policy. The other hotel, The Cloister on Sea Island, was marketed to the well-to-do and the K and P opened as a private dance club. After being leveled by two mysterious fires, K and P was rebuilt and opened to the public. In the meantime, The Cloister had become almost a private club and enclave for Midwesterners. K and P's live bands and dances were the hit of the island. Didn't take long for K and P to be known as the fun place to go.

Fancy, too. Rooms, food and service have always been important so it was where you went for those special occasions.

It still is. K and P's grand buffets - seafood on Friday night, brunch on Sunday and breakfast daily - are famous. Lodgings have all been updated and enlarged, varying from standard rooms or oceanfront suites to one- to three-bedroom condos and individual cottages.

Of course there are kids' activities, a spa, tennis and a challenging and beautiful Joe Lee golf course at the Hampton Club. But another set of amenities makes K and P unique. You don't often find a resort, especially in the South, with outdoor and indoor pools plus a wide swath of oceanfront beach. Actually, there are five pools, including the heated one indoors.

Best of all for Levelers, it's on a very flat island.

Warning: Be careful if booking a room in the hotel. Preserving yet updating and adding to the original building made for some strange configurations and passageways. Ask for a room near the elevator because avoiding stairs adds to the amount of walking you must do in the process.

I and several other travel writers were invited to K&P for a special birthday celebration which included an anniversary dinner featuring seven decades of Southern coastal cuisine. It was grand.

Executive Chef Robyn Gomez demonstrated his cooking techniques and let us in on the recipes for the resort's popular Shrimp and Grits and their yummy Oatmeal Raisin Muffins. I'll share these with you via posts to www.foodafar.blogspot.com.

So happy birthday, K and P, and many more to come!

Next, what else is there to do on St. Simons?