ADVERTISING SECTION
Meeting and Conference Destinations:
Great Escapes

Florence Elston Inn and Conference Center | Wintergreen Resort

Mariners’ Landing Resort Conference Center (view PDF ad)
1217 Graves Harbor Trail
Huddleston, VA 24104
(800) 851-4988
www.marinerslanding.com
Contact: Matthew P. White, owner
mattw@marinerslanding.com

Located on 1,100 acres along the shores of Smith Mountain Lake in Southwest Virginia, Mariners Landing Resort and Conference Center is an ideal getaway location for a meeting or conference. The resort recently added a 4,000-square-foot ballroom and break-out rooms, able to hold 152 people for a banquet and 286 in a theater-style setting. The resort has a total of 7,500 square feet of available meeting space, and offers outdoor meeting space from April through October. In addition, the resort will add a 40,000-square-foot executive business meeting center by early 2008.

The resort’s location on the 22,000-acre lake offers conference goers a welcome respite from everyday stress. Smith Mountain Lake includes 500 miles of shoreline and is located about 30 miles east of Roanoke. The hotel’s 150 rooms include satellite television, a full kitchen and high-speed Internet. In addition to waterfront activities the lake has to offer, Mariners Landing guests have access to a private swimming beach, an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones, three pools, two hot tubs, a children’s playground and an award-winning restaurant, The Pointe. The resort also offers a variety of fitness activities, including two fitness centers and four miles of trails, a basketball court, a sand volleyball court and tennis courts.

Mariners Landing also provides guests access to the lake’s many attractions. The resort is conveniently located near Virginia Dare cruises, which offers cruise tours of the lake, the Hickory Hill winery, Long Meadows Farm Equestrian facility, Smith Mountain Lake State Park, Booker T. Washington National Memorial, boat and jet ski rental shops, National D-Day Memorial, Bridgewater Plaza’s shops and restaurants, massage therapy and executive team building courses.

Florence Elston Inn and Conference Center (view PDF ad)
450 Sweet Briar Drive
Sweet Briar, VA 24595
(434) 381-6266
(866) 381-6207
www.elstoninn.com
Contact: Pat Hutto, director
phutto@sbc.edu

Take the stress out of conferences at the Florence Elston Inn and Conference Center. Located on the 3,250-acre campus of Sweet Briar College in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the inn and conference center provides a serene setting to meet instead of the hectic pace of the typical conference. The conference center includes 10,000 square feet of meeting space and The Boxwood Room and Wailes Lounge for receptions and banquets. The inn can hold 150 people for a banquet and fit 175 to 200 when seated in a theater style. All rooms are equipped with high-tech audiovisual equipment and access to Sweet Briar College’s Ethernet. The center offers 10-inch LCD screens and mounted LCD projectors for computer applications. Complete catering services are available for conferences, meetings and receptions.

The inn provides 38 spacious hotel rooms and guests have access to two lounges and a wrap-around deck, where guests may catch a glimpse of roaming deer while sipping their morning coffee. Many rooms include patios and balconies overlooking the natural setting. The inn’s location on a college campus offers guests access to many amenities, including a fishing pond, miles of walking and hiking trails, six nature sanctuaries, art exhibits, theater performances and other cultural events. The inn also offers a “Stay and Play” golf package, which offers playing time at the Poplar Grove Golf Club just across the street.

Wintergreen Resort (view PDF ad)
Route 664
P.O. Box 706
Wintergreen, VA 22958
(800) 273-3390
Contact: John Hess, director of sales
jhess@wintergreenresort.com

There’s no better way to escape everyday pressures than by unwinding at an 11,000-acre resort peaking at 4,000 feet above sea level. Wintergreen Resort’s peaceful mountain setting offers meeting planners the perfect retreat location for helping conference attendees focus and unleash creativity. The resort features 40,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space, including 18 meeting rooms. The 8,000-square-foot Skyline Pavilion can accommodate up to 450 people for a banquet. Wintergreen is prepared to run conferences as smoothly as possible, offering a full-time events staff, wireless high-speed Internet, award-winning catering services, a business services center and airport shuttle service.
With Wintergreen’s full-scale resort, guests certainly won’t be bored on their downtime. Guests can be pampered with everything from a mountain mud wrap to a Swedish massage at Wintergreen’s Wintergarden Spa, which recently underwent a $4 million overhaul. The resort also offers six swimming pools, a 20-acre recreation area around Lake Monocan, top-rated ski slopes, an adventures sports center, horseback riding facility, a tennis academy, four restaurants and award-winning championship golf. The golf courses include Devils Knob Golf Course, Virginia’s highest course at 3,850 feet above sea level, and Stoney Creek Golf Course, a year-round course offering 27 holes.