The Carolina Hotel — Hotel in Pinehurst

I go there many times, usually for the Festival of Trees, during the Christmas season. They usually do it around after thanksgiving. I like this hotel because it's a historic gem of the South. It's elegant, beautiful, and massive for when the time it was built, and still is. They host exclusive events. The rooms are very expensive and sometimes really small. But every room has a view that has access to the fresh pine air, which is why the hotel has a T-sort of shape, originally planned when it was first built. My favorite part of the hotel is the copper roof, and white siding. It's the details and effort they put into the building I liked. My friend works at the receptionist desk, Lucy. She's a really nice lady. Say hi to her when you walk in, if she's there at the time you are there. The service is nice, and the comfort setting of the lobby is well mannered. In Pinehurst, they display the Concours d'Elegance each year, where they display classic, old, super, sport, rare, and exotic cars. We tried to go this year but it was rained out. The town this Hotel is in is a very quaint, charming, New English styled village. It's surrounded by neighborly towns that are beloved for each other. I recommend (if you do go and check out Pinehurst) to go see the friendly, peaceful, relaxed towns of Southern Pines, Carthage, Aberdeen, Cary, Robbins, Seagrove, and other little communities. they also host the U.S. Kids Golf tournament. It's where kids under the age of 8 compete to win a trophy, and is where they compete other kids from around the world. This is a national, annual event. The Hotel is open all year long, and they have the Golfers Hall of Fame displayed in the hallway. They have 2 giftshops, a coffee shop, a few restaurants with high end elegant food, and a breakfast buffet in the Dining room when you wake up. It's such a feast every time. If you don't want to eat at the Hotel, there's plenty restaurant choices in the surrounding area. I would choose, if you want something unique and special and fresh, to go to Ashtens, which is in Southern Pines. Visit the Carolina Hotel and see what you think. You might enjoy it. Please consider going here. This is also a well maintained area, and is clean and neat, incase you were wondering. This Hotel is in the Heart of Pinehurst, literally. This place is a nice winter vacation getaway from all of the cold from up north. It does snow here, seldomly, but it's is really breathtaking when it happens. Come and see it when you can, it's really quite spectacular. I give this place 5 stars, honestly. This review is from my personal experience. Again, stop by and see what you think, it's worth the time. Thank you for reading this, and again please visit when you can. There's lots to do and see. This Hotel is the main attraction in this area. the village is a charming, mostly casual golf resort community. Everyone's welcome...

Seven of us spent four nights at Pinehurst, staying at the Carolina Hotel and playing #7, #8, #9 (rained out after 5 holes), #2, #4, and #10. The golf courses were in fantastic shape, especially considering Hurricane Helene came through the morning of our afternoon round at #2.||Even though it's just opened, #10 is going to be a special golf course. And, unlike some/most of the other courses, it's actually easy to get a refreshment on the course. This was really the only disappointing part of the golf part of the trip -- we went hours without seeing a beverage cart, a water cooler, or a refreshment station on some of the courses. Considering the price and the reputation, they really need to do better.||I can't say enough good things about the food program at Pinehurst. It's fantastic. I honestly wasn't paying much attention to the prices, but I know every dish I had at any of the dinners was excellent.||The staff was generally great also. They try to anticipate what you want or need. They get you shuttled to and from places. Your clubs show up at the right place, on time. It's a pretty well-oiled machine.||THAT SAID....||Our group likes to ship clubs to resorts using Shipsticks. We all pay for FedEx boxes, even if we put a travel bag inside the box. The idea of just having an open suitcase on a FedEx truck/plane/whatever never sits well with any of us. As expected, our clubs (in boxes) were ready for us when we arrived and the front staff was helpful getting us checked in.||On Sunday when we left, we played #10 and returned to the Carolina Hotel. We all put our clubs into travel bags, gave the guys our bags and paperwork, and VERY SPECIFICALLY asked them to put the bags inside FedEx boxes. We were assured that this would happen.||Fast forward to Tuesday of the next week, when I returned home to see my travel bag, without a box, sitting on my front porch. The pockets were open, a few items inside were broken (and I'm going to, I guess, take that up with Shipsticks). ||It's awful that the people up front told me specifically that they'd put it in a box, knowing full well they had absolutely zero intention of doing so. I would have taken my clubs on the plane if I wanted them to come without a box. The gentlemen who took our clubs obviously didn't care a single bit.||His simple act of indifference and laziness soured me completely on what had been a great golf experience. I'm having to go through my bag and remember (or guess) what I'd put in there. There were broken things. This was completely unavoidable, and completely the fault of the resort. ||The service otherwise was fantastic -- as it should be if you pay $7,000 for five days at a resort -- but man...I'm so disappointed in the "last mile" of this trip. Such an unforced error by the...

I stayed here for 7 nights. I shipped my clubs there using ship sticks and it was very easy. The clubs got there on time and they were in perfect shape.

The look and historic feel of the hotel is great, the lobby is a nice place to relax and the front desk staff are helpful. Many picture taking opportunities and there are shuttles almost every 10 minutes. They will take you wherever you need, whether its a golf course or a specific restaurant, they will take you there. The beds are pretty comfy.

Now, the bathroom. The toilet doesn't always flush properly, and I had to flush 2-3 times for it to fully do the job. The water pressure in the shower is good, much better than the pressure back home, in California. The shower does not have a handheld attachment, which is not a big deal, but it is preferred for me.

Now, the room. The room is smaller than expected. I traveled with a party of 5 people. In our room, there were 2 queens, and 1 cot. The pictures for the room we booked showed a small living space, but that was not part of the room. There were no tables or even a couch. The building is old, so not everything works perfectly. When we arrived in our room, we wanted to open the windows, so there would be air circulation going on, for added safety because of covid, but they would not open. We called Room service and they saved the day again.

Amenities. Wifi was decent, but slow sometimes. The pool was nice, there was a small cafe there and nice relaxing chairs. there is putting green next to the pool. You can also take a short walk into the village. I played No. 6, which was beautiful.

Now, the food. The breakfast buffet, In the Carolina Dining Room, which was free in our package, was AMAZING. Normally, it is pretty pricey, I remember it being about 60 USD per person. The Ryder Cup Lounge and the Dining room for lunch and dinner, were decent, but not great. I was not satisfied being how pricey both are. They do have great service though and those waiters do deserve big tips. NOTE: THERE IS ONLY 1 VEGETARIAN ITEM ON THE MENU!!! I went to drum and quill, in the village and the food there is great!. I found that pretty much all the restaurants have few vegetarian items.

Overall: This deserves a 3 star, it is good, but not great or horrible.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

Aberdeen has all shops + more restaurants RDU is about 1 hour from Pinehurst Along the road, there are few gas stations. US 1 is a big freeway, more food and gas will be there. WATCH...