Prepare to be pampered

The best of a cultured tradition blooms within the flower-bedecked walls of the Greenbrier. Get used to having your smallest comfort anticipated and exquisitely satisfied.

By MARY JANE PARK

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 22, 2000

[Photos: Greenbrier] It began as a place housing travelers coming for curative powers of the springs and later served as a military hospital; now the elegant Greenbrier is renowned for its hospitality.

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. -- Even before 1778, when a Mrs. Anderson declared herself cured of rheumatism after bathing in water from the spring here and then drinking from it, people were drawn to this valley in the Allegheny mountains.

For the Shawnee, it had been a profitable hunting spot: A marsh fed by the spring's sulphuric waters drew deer, elk and buffalo.

By the 1830s, it was a favorite place for Southerners to spend the summer. Robert E. Lee was a frequent visitor.

The Greenbrier, the historic Georgian hotel where generations of families, politicians, celebrities and even royalty have resorted over the years, is a vast complex that sits on 6,500 acres and offers 650 accommodations -- including 121 guest houses.

It was used as a hospital for both the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War and again during World War II, and it housed foreign diplomats after Pearl Harbor was bombed.

Beyond its size and rich history, the Greenbrier is renowned for its hospitality.

It was named Resort of the Century by Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report last December, and recently was named by that newsletter's upscale readers as second only to the Boulders, in Carefree, Ariz., as the best U.S. resort hotel. It was the No. 1 resort destination in North America for readers of Conde Nast Traveler. It has received the AAA Five-Diamond Award of Excellence since the award's inception in 1976, and the Mobil Five-Star Award from 1961-1999. It is difficult to imagine why Mobil has dropped a star from the hotel's crown.

Greenbrier historian Robert S. Conte sought to explain some of the acclaim in The History of the Greenbrier, America's Resort.

"The word "resort' literally means a place to which people go for rest and relaxation, a pleasant escape from the demands of daily cares," Conte wrote. "It also connotes community, a gathering spot in a unique location. The mountains surrounding the Greenbrier and the soothing waters of the mineral spring have been constant features of the resort's setting, the context where the whirl of social life has evolved within the fluctuating whims, fashions and habits of American society."

In short, the hotel is a wonderful place to unwind.

Part of its appeal is its traditions, which can make guests feel at once pampered and slightly ill at ease. There is a dress code, even for young children. Service is impeccable, so much so that you may find yourself wondering whether there is an additional charge for valet parking (no) or the ice that is supplied to your room each afternoon (no, again).

A hotel brochure describes the staff as "ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen." Service charges are added to the bill; the hotel pays its staff rather than having workers depend on tips.

[Times photo: ] Relaxation options at the Greenbrier range from spa treatments to a quiet time fishing one of the nearby streams.

Then, there is the odd business of temporary membership in the Old White club. The "Old White" was the nickname given to a predecessor of the Greenbrier. The term referred to "its gleaming white paint and its location at White Sulphur Springs," Conte wrote, and not to racial segregation, which guests unfamiliar with the hotel may suspect. My observation was that both staff and clientele were ethnically diverse.

West Virginia law requires club membership for those who partake of alcoholic beverages, and the hotel automatically charges $6 for a club membership that lasts the duration of a guest's visit. Those who do not imbibe need only state that during checkout, and the fee will be erased.

My trip to the Greenbrier was for a conference in the off-season, in mid-March. The countryside still was bleak and bare, but forsythia had begun to put forth yellow blossoms. Inside the hotel, potted fresh tulips and hyacinths bloomed everywhere. Huge logs blazed in the main lobby's enormous fireplace.

One of the resort's lures is the now-famous underground bunker in which Congress was to be housed in case of a nuclear attack. The bunker was closed to tours when I was there, leading a colleague to suggest that it was the scene of a "great American chintz-reclamation project." He was referring to the Greenbrier's riotous decor, the legacy of designer Dorothy Draper, who decked the halls in an explosion of pinks, reds and greens.

My room had carpet the color of AstroTurf. Rhododendrons, the West Virginia state flower, bloom in grand fashion on floor coverings and wallpaper, in upholstery fabric, on the hotel china, even on plastic drinking cups. Roses are a another favorite floral theme.

Business travelers, especially, have come to expect amenities such as hair dryers, irons and ironing boards in their rooms, turndown service, even chocolates on the pillows.

Guests at the Greenbrier receive all of those niceties and more, including a thick terrycloth robe to be used during one's stay. Hang night clothes on the hook attached to the bathroom door or drape them over a chair, and you may find them laid out on the bed when you return for the evening.

(Signs throughout the hallways invite guests to be considerate of their neighbors. They read: "Quiet, please. . . . It's Sleepy Time Down South.")

Such is the attention to detail that the end sheets of toilet tissue are not only folded into points but also are sealed with a label bearing the hotel's signature script G. The sand in the hotel ashtrays has the same monogram, applied with a heavy mold. "It's a lot easier than drawing it," a hotel worker said, giving me a mischievous smile.

The excellence continues in the hotel's several dining rooms, and in the variety of activities it offers: swimming, fishing, bowling, exercise room, spa, beauty salon, children's programs. There are three golf courses, a movie theater, even a Land Rover driving school.

The Greenbrier Clinic offers a diagnostic package. You can take cooking classes or sign up for a weeklong program at the hotel's La Varenne Cooking School. Or you can relax by drafting a letter in the writing room off the lobby.

Not that the Greenbrier is stuck in the past: It has portals for computer modems, and for the powerful who visit but cannot really get away, the hotel sells the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.

Floor-to-ceiling windows and floral accents brighten this casual lounge at the Greenbrier.

All of these considerations come at a price, of course. The least expensive room in the off-season, from November through March, is $196 per person for a double room; the most expensive, $222. In high season, April through October, the least expensive room is $266 per person for a double room, the most expensive, $328. Deluxe suites and guest houses cost more. Breakfast and dinner are included.

The Greenbrier may seem to be in the middle of nowhere, but it is far from inaccessible. Amtrak trains stop in White Sulphur Springs. (The hotel's owner is the railway company CSX Corp.) The Greenbrier Valley Airport is about a 15-minute ride, the Roanoke Regional Airport is about 90 minutes away.

Its remoteness soon will change. In April, the hotel announced plans to develop a new sporting club and residential community, including estate homes, cluster cottages, single family homes and low-density neighborhoods.

If you go

GETTING THERE: The Greenbrier is just off Interstate-64 exits 181 and 174. Amtrak (800 872-7245) offers service to a depot across from the hotel's main gate. Air service is available to Greenbrier Valley Airport in Lewisburg, W.Va., about 15 minutes from the hotel, and to the Roanoke, Va., airport, about 90 minutes away. Limousine and other ground transportation is available from both airports.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Call (800) 624-6070; the Web site is http://www.greenbrier.com

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