Kiawah Island
Kiawah is an island near Charleston, South Carolina. It has a security gate but we had passes because we rented a house for the week. Since the island has a number of public golf courses, a big hotel and a several restaurants I don't believe that is difficult to get a pass for the day.
The area is doing alright but many business appeared to be hurting. Many restaurants in Charleston and Kiawah have closed. The Bohicket Marina, near the entrance to Kiawah had 1 restaurant open and the rest of the place was a ghost town. Everyone we met and all the businesses we encountered were well maintained and followed Covid protocols.
The island has beautiful beaches, 4 public golf courses that are gorgeous and lots of houses to rent and There is a large hotel, the Sanctuary, https://kiawahresort.com/accommodations/the-sanctuary-hotel/which is on the beach and part of the Kiawah Island Golf Resort. You can also rent houses through the resort which gives some advantages to renters such as discounts on golf. We rented a house from Pam Harrington Realtors https://pamharringtonexclusives.com/kiawah/ The house was great, reasonably priced and everything went smoothly.
We had a great time without spending lots of money. 2/3 the cost of the Jersey shore for a house. The weather was great. The ocean was very swimmable. The island is a bikers paradise with trails everywhere. The island is about 40 minutes from Charleston. Charleston is worth seeing but I would not spend more than a day sightseeing. There are some great restaurants in Charleston but I would not go there for the fancy food.
Fish is easily obtainable in Kiawah. Local shrimp are really good. There is a small village at the entrance to the island, Freshfields https://freshfieldsvillage.com/directory/. There are a few restaurants, shops and a very good Harris Teeter supermarket. Harris Teeter had a great fish department with some local fish. Shrimp, snapper, mahi mahi and clams were somewhat local and all were very fresh. They had a great meat department as well.
There is also a very nice farm stand that sells fresh fish right before you get to Kiawah Island. They have tuna, Mahi, snapper, shrimp and flounder at various times. There is also a small cafe, The Hemingwayhttps://www.thehemingwaysc.com/, which has breakfast items and it also has an extraordinary wine shop with a small collection of excellent wines. I found a bottle of 2017 Pax Chenin Blanc Buddha’s Dharma Vineyard. I had never seen a Pax wine before. Good stuff from California. There is also a small barbecue and ice cream café next to Hemingway's.
Playing golf was great. I had a tee time late afternoon and played solo. A very relaxing and fun experience. Price of a round is steep and there was no late day discounts but everything was first class and the course, Cougar Point,https://kiawahresort.com/golf/cougar-point-golf-course/ was incredibly well maintained.
I cooked most nights but we went out to the Salty Dog Cafe https://www.bohicket.saltydog.com/in the Bohicket Marina one evening. We sat outside and they had a singer who was very good. The food was quite good and reasonably priced. We had local fish.
I brought wine with me to the island so we drank well. The kitchen in our house was incredibly well equipped so we had a great time cooking local food.
Roof top restaurant at Market Pavilion Hotel in Charleston https://www.marketpavilion.com/index.cfm. We had a nice lunch away from the crowds. Ambiance great, food OK.
