Number One South Carolina Resort

For the second consecutive year, travelers voted The Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort the number one South Carolina resort in the Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards for 2022. Rankings were determined by the magazine’s readers, who voted for their favorite hotels based on criteria such as quality of service, accommodations, amenities, dining, activities and family-friendliness.

This greatly envied recognition comes on the heels of other recent accolades. For the fourteenth consecutive year, Dr. Beach named Kiawah Island among his highly anticipated annual Top 10 Beaches in America. Once again, The Sanctuary received both Five Stars and Five Diamonds from Forbes Travel Guide and AAA, respectively. And TennisResortsOnline ranked the tennis program at Kiawah Island Golf Resort number one for the fifteenth out of the last seventeen years.

In her appearance on TODAY to announce the awards, Travel + Leisure editor in chief Jacqui Gifford noted that although Kiawah Island is only 20 miles south of Charleston, it feels a world away, and cited its beaches, golf courses, nature and outdoors activities, tennis programming, family friendliness, and the relaxed elegance of The Sanctuary for the island’s high scores.

It’s no secret South Carolina and the Charleston region perennially ranks as a top tourist destination. For the twelfth consecutive year, Travel + Leisure readers voted Charleston the top tourist city in the United States, and one of the top 25 best cities in the world. So many resort hotels in the state have ranked so highly in past World’s Best Awards that this year for the second time Travel + Leisure created a distinct award category solely for South Carolina properties. In addition to The Sanctuary finishing as the number one South Carolina resort hotel, readers also voted Kiawah Island as the number two island in the Continental United States.