Grand Hotel at Point Clear Reaches Its Highest-Ever Finish in National Readers’ Choice Awards
The Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa in Point Clear earned top-three finishes in two national readers' choice categories, including its highest-ever No. 2 ranking.
POINT CLEAR, Ala. — The Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa has again been recognized in an annual national readers' choice travel awards program, this time landing in the top three of two separate lists. It marks the fourth consecutive year the Grand has appeared on the list of best waterfront hotels in the country and the eighth straight year on the list of best historic hotels. The resort has finished in the top five each time, but this year's No. 2 ranking is the highest it has ever achieved.
Modern amenities, preserved character
The Grand has undergone modernization aimed at making the property more practical and comfortable for contemporary guests, but the hotel's sense of history remains evident throughout — carried through the themes in guest rooms and common areas rather than confined to a display case in a lobby.
What the resort offers
As described in the awards program: "A bastion of Southern tradition and military heritage, Grand Hotel spreads 550 acres near the mouth of Mobile Bay. Rich in amenities, it offers guests two 18-hole golf courses, a full-service spa, a multitude of dining and drinking venues, croquet, tennis, pickleball, and a 36-slip marina." The Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa is located in Point Clear on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay.
A history dating to 1847
The first Grand Hotel was built at Point Clear in 1847, and guests originally arrived by steamboat. During the Civil War, part of the hotel served as a Confederate hospital beginning in 1863, and more than 300 soldiers who died there are buried in Confederate Rest, a cemetery on the resort grounds. The present main building opened in the early 1940s, and during World War II the property was leased to the U.S. Army and used for military training. The hotel staff still fires a cannon each afternoon in tribute to those who served.
The Retirement Systems of Alabama financed the purchase of the Grand Hotel in 1999, and the resort’s two 18-hole courses, Azalea and Dogwood, are part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. The hotel now operates as part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection.
