Kingston Plantation- "Indoor Spaces"

Being "active" outdoors need not always be associated with specific
 activities... A stroll on a nature trail, beach front boardwalk, or 
along a neighborhood side walk can do wonders for some wheelers. Fresh 
air, open spaces, and free vitamin D sure helps me clear my mind, relax,
 and broaden my outlook. If you've followed any of ROARs blogs on 
travel, you would have noted that I preface many of them with "I am a 
very blessed man, and on occasion I get to travel with my wife's company
 to places that far exceed our personal budget". One of our favorite 
conference locations is Kingston Plantation in North Myrtle Beach South 
Carolina.

 The hotel is always clean, accommodating, and handicap 
friendly. The staff goes above and beyond to make us feel welcome, and 
they even offer free wheelchair accessible shuttle services to nearby 
eateries and shopping locations. .. Ask for "Jim" and tell him we sent 
you. 

      

The rooms are spacious, with double balcony entrance doors (see below for
pics of the bump ups)and king size beds. 

      

The bathrooms have an open floor 
plan with roll under sinks in all disability rooms, and easy access roll
 in showers in rooms 309 and 409, and transfer benches into "step ins" 
from rooms 509-1609. 

The "den/dinning" area is like wise spacious with a
 large pull out couch, deep set sink, tv, microwave, and dinning room 
table.

    

There are 3 elevators to help keep wait times down to a minimum, 
and the lobby area is massive with numerous check in stations, 
Starbucks, sports bar, and not one but two fantastic restaurants... The 
Coastal Grill and Vintage Twelve, both excellent in their own right with
 Vintage Twelve being a bit more "high end" with fancy dishes, quaint 
ambiance, and cozy seating...but who comes to the beach to stay 
inside?!? See Kingston Blog II for "outdoor spaces"...

A gem in the mountains...

For all you wheelers looking for a fun/accessible place to visit, 

check out The Hilton off I-26 North Exit 37 at Biltmore Park just 

South of Asheville NC.

The location is prime, just 14 minutes from the Biltmore Estate 

without staying right downtown, but far enough North to see some 

great Fall leaves and within "walking" distance of several great 

restaurants. Our room (301) was the ADA room with standard tub and 

roll under sink, (not what we had originally booked seeing as how a 

deep set standard tub is useless to a lot of folks with spinal cord

injuries) but the staff did great at thinking outside the box in an 

attempt to remedy the situation offering the roll in shower located

in the hotels spa as an option.

This Hilton only has two wheelchair accessible rooms with roll in showers 

(both were already occupied regardless that we had written confirmation 

of "wheelchair" booking status) but I must say their manager and staff 

worked hard to make our stay enjoyable despite the check-in blunder. The 

room was clean and very spacious with a fairly large bathroom, roll under 

sink with lots of leg room, king size bed, and amazing views from all the 

large windows... Plus a huge bonus, an accessible balcony overlooking the 

"town square"... Beautiful!! 

If you're ever in the Blue Ridge area, and want a friendly place to stay,

stop in to the Hilton, tell the management ROAR sent you, and enjoy... 

Oh, "skip" across the street to restaurant 131 Main and try their skillet 

cornbread while you're there...Delicious!!

Side note, we were impressed with their having chairs at the pool and 

hot tub...