The Lodge at Sea Island

From the moment I arrived, I could feel the excellence in every detail. The Lodge at Sea Island isn’t just a place to stay it’s an experience. The rooms are spotless and full of character, the service is unmatched, and the staff treat you like family. The view of the course and the peaceful energy around the property make it easy to relax, reflect, and reset. Definitely one of those rare places where luxury and peace meet perfectly. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I absolutely love this place!! Absolute relaxation. If you want to lay back and be catered to like the royalty you are... this is where you want to be and Christina Datil is who you want to talk to. From the milk and cookies, to the mint on my pillow, sweet 'Good night' messages, and massages.. I came home feeling like the dream I was living whilst in their care. I highly recommend you visiting here. You will not want to leave and will be planning your next stay before you get back home good.

Let me preface this review with the comment that it poured rain 75% of the time we were there. My wife and I have heard rave reviews about Sea Island, so we booked a quick 2 night weekend stay to get away after hosting guests at our Beach house for 4 weeks. Having never been here before, I wish I had done more research prior to booking. We stayed at the Lodge which is a beautiful building with an amazing hotel staff. Starting right at the guard house who alerted the hotel we were 30 seconds away, to the valet staff who greeted us by name, to our Butler assigned to us who helped us check in and gave us a tour of the building. Very impressive. Our room was very large with a couch, easy chair, desk and chair and a very nice bathroom. Plenty of closets. Excellent room. What we didn't realize was the Cloisters and the majority of advertised amenities like beach access, shooting range, equestrian facility, marina, walking paths, were all a 20 minute bus ride from the Lodge. ||We like to walk and what look like a very nice walking trail on the maps, turned out to be a "speedway" for golf carts moving to and from the cottages, etc., so it was very unsafe to walk there. We ended up walking laps in the parking lot to get our steps in. Also, there are DANGER signs at the water line, telling guests to stay off. Hence, no water access. SO, that all was disappointing. ||The lodge is a very short 4 minute drive to Mallery St., Neptune Park and the Lighthouse and museum. All worth visiting which we did Saturday morning, including walking up the 108+ steps to the observation level of the lighthouse. We walked up and down Mallery street, enjoying popping into the stores and enjoying a couple great cups of coffee while doing so. (My wife shopped - I held the coffees :-). )||So now let's talk Food. It was always our plan on Friday night to enjoy the Oak Room for our first night and then one of the restaurants at the Cloisters the second night. Night one we were introduced to "the system" of eating at the Lodge/Oak Room. 1) Reservations and taken only for seating between 5PM and 6PM. I guess this makes sense when you think about families, many multi-generational, staying at the Lodge in the Cottages. 2) What we didn't realize that the "game" is to get your party on "the wait List" starting at 6:01PM, so when the usually full 5-6PM seating starts exiting at say 645 - 700PM - you are first in line!! Imagine our surprise showing up at the desk at 7:45PM, being told 45-60 Min wait! 3) When I questioned the hostess she said, "you should have put your name on the wait list at 6:00PM". HUH??? 4) We waited 45 minutes. I had a flash back to the one and only time I ate at Longhorn Steak house with call ahead seating! ||I don't know, maybe it's just me, but staying in a 5-star resort with only 46 rooms, I would have expected much much more for their guests. Once we got thru that gamut, I have to tell you the best part of the meal was the bread and the drinks. My wife had a steak salad - the steak was well prepared. I had a "house specialty" - meatloaf. OK not great. But I guess, it's meatloaf. ||Saturday morning we wanted a quick sandwich before exploring and I was directed by a very knowledgeable and pleasant woman who was working the Oak Room, to the the pool house for a quick option. The 2 breakfast burritos I ordered were mush. I guess if I was eating it between shots on the golf course, I would not have noticed, but I took it back to our room and we both ended up throwing most of them away.||The Lodge concierge made a reservation for us at Tavola at the Cloisters for Saturday night. The hostess did not like that we showed up at 8:02 for an 8:15 reservation, and was visibly cold to us and told us that we were WAY TOO early. Really? oh well. Seated at 8:20. Again, the bread and drinks were great. The lobster ravioli was hard and tasteless and the meatballs/Alfredo (another $$$ speciality) was luke warm and nothing special at all. A clumping, I do mean CLUMP, of pasta and 5 meatballs. Very disappointing.||I will say the shuttle drivers were great - especially Tony who gave us a lot of great local info on the ride over to the Cloisters.||Sorry for the negativity - other than the restaurant personnel and experience, the Sea Island staff is truly amazing and makes you feel very special. The scenery is stunning. I guess we hit the restaurants $$$ on off nights......||If we go back again, maybe it won't rain and I maybe I will play golf! :-)

Our First Family Vacation — A Major Disappointment at The Lodge at Sea Island My husband and I were incredibly excited to take our first family vacation with our four-month-old daughter. After reading so many glowing reviews and hearing about the five-star luxury experience offered at The Lodge at Sea Island, we were hopeful this would be a peaceful, beautiful, and memorable stay. Unfortunately, our experience was anything but. The Lodge is undeniably beautiful with its sweeping coastal views and manicured grounds, and we had high expectations for the best of the best in terms of service and amenities. However, from our very first night, our stay was derailed in a way that made it not only uncomfortable but incredibly stressful. Around 5 a.m. on our first night, the fire alarms suddenly went off. Startled, both my husband and I jumped out of bed—hearts racing—only to find our infant daughter screaming in terror. Just as we managed to calm her and get her back to sleep nearly two hours later, the alarm went off again around 6 a.m., followed by yet another round around 8 a.m. At that point, sleep was out of the question and our entire day began on the wrong foot. What shocked us most was that no one at the front desk or in management acknowledged what happened. No apology, no explanation, no attempt to check in on us after such a frightening and disruptive night—especially knowing we had a baby with us. For a five-star property, this complete lack of accountability or communication was inexcusable. The issues didn’t stop there. The next day, we learned there had been a water leak at the resort. Buckets were lined up throughout the front lobby, catching drips from the ceiling. Then came a knock at our room door, followed by staff entering to say our room was the source of the leak and they would need access to it all day. So instead of letting our baby nap and settle in for her day, I had to hurriedly pack up all of her belongings, my things, and leave for the other resort areas. It was too hot to be outside with an infant, so I spent most of the time walking laps around the Beach Club lobby just trying to keep her calm and out of the sun. Several hours later, my husband received a text saying, “Oops—wrong room,” and that they no longer needed access. But by then, we had rearranged our entire day and I was already far away with a baby and all her gear. Again, not a word of apology, no gesture to make up for the inconvenience. As if all of this wasn’t enough, on the morning of our checkout, we woke up at 4 a.m. to get ready for a long travel day and discovered we had no running water in the room. No water to brush our teeth, no shower, no toilet—nothing. We had to rinse off and prepare using bottled water. At a five-star resort, this is simply unacceptable. Once again, no apology, no explanation, no offer of any kind to make up for the total failure of basic services. Even small details felt overlooked. The Lodge has a nightly milk and cookies service—which sounds lovely in theory—but the cookies were cold, not the warm, indulgent treat you might expect from a property of this caliber. The food overall was underwhelming, and the service throughout our stay felt detached and inconsistent. We left Sea Island feeling disappointed, exhausted, and let down. This was supposed to be a special trip—the first memory-making vacation with our daughter—and instead, it was filled with stress, disruption, and a complete lack of hospitality or care from the staff. We were not offered any compensation, not even a sincere “we’re sorry.” Unfortunately, we will not be returning to The Lodge at Sea Island. While the property may have five stars on paper, our experience was far from luxury. We’ll be looking elsewhere for our future family vacations—and we sincerely hope other families have better luck than we did.

Don't know anything about rooms, we stayed at Cloister, but food was awful 🤷‍♀️. Not sure how this place is 5*. They have to make their chef eat what they cook! Maybe then it will improve.

I’m very disappointed in this establishment and the lack of professionalism at The lodge. We have called, left messages, for days trying to just reserve a room like we do every year. No response, no return call and nothing. Ritz Carlton answers the phone and the Omni answers the phone on Ameila island. Don’t waste your time with these people.

Absolutely amazing service, accommodations, food and people. Nothing bad to say at all. Excellent!

What a wonderful treat dining in The Lodge at Sea Island Oak Room was for my wife and I. We stopped in on a slow post-Thanksgiving weekday evening and were treated to a wonderful delicious dinner. Our server Cericka was excellent. We were seated quickly by the hostess and ordered two Prosecco's. We enjoyed a delicious mini biscuits with bacon butter appetizer. My wife ordered a wonderful 6oz filet with Boursin whipped potatoes, roasted autumn veggies, and scallion steak sauce. I ordered the blackened Redfish with crab fried rice, green gumbo, and pickled Okra. Both entrees were served hot and were delicious.