A Collection of Exceptional Stories, Tips, Recipes, and Memorable Moments from the Ladies and Gentlemen of The Ritz-Carlton
Horse farms and hundreds of perfect-circle hay bales line the Greene County Veterans Memorial Highway. Sure, we could take Interstate 20 from Atlanta, but this route feels much more appropriate to The Ritz-Carlton Lodge, Reynolds Plantation — old barns and tiny white Baptist churches dotting the verdant landscape, an occasional rusty pickup truck, the porches of one antebellum town after another. Winding past the porticoed homes of Madison and over the placid expanse of Lake Oconee, I think, this is the Georgia that Ray Charles had on his mind.
We hang a left off the highway and there, just past the 11th tee of one of the world's most exalted golf courses, lies Reynolds Plantation, celebrating all things Southern. But if you're thinking chicken nuggets and popsicles, think again — as I did upon spilling a flute of champagne into my lobster salad during a road-weary nibble upon arrival. ("You know you're not roughing it when … " my husband, Justin, joked, handing me his cloth napkin stitched with The Ritz-Carlton lion.)
In the late 1800s a pair of cousins purchased this formidable portion of lushly wooded lakeside land as a retreat for their families, complete with a hunting lodge and all the fish they could catch. They named the lodge "Linger Longer" to express their desire to stay on at their most beloved place when work called them back to reality. …
Click here to read more in the Summer 2012 issue of The Ritz-Carlton Magazine