The 499-acre WaterColor development is among the latest resort/residential communities to take shape on the booming Florida Panhandle. It begins along the beach, filling in the gap between the village of Seaside (where "The Truman Show" was filmed) and Grayton Beach State Recreation Area. The WaterColor Inn—an upscale, 60-room boutique hotel—and BeachClub are there, just behind the dune line, as is a fitness center and collection of retail shops. From there the development extends north toward a sinuous body of water called Western Lake, where there is a restaurant and boathouse, and then east behind the village of Seaside, where the property culminates in a handsomely designed complex of five Har-Tru courts that fan out from a central pro shop.

Tennis Features

Pro Shop: 850-534-5000

Ordinarily I would not make much of a complex with only five tennis courts. I've made an exception in this case, however, because tennis director John Morris has more than two decades of experience running resort programs and has invested the tennis complex with high-quality staff and introduced such upscale services as mango-scented towels and pitchers of ice water.

Tennis Staff. John Morris grew up in Massachusetts, where he played junior tennis in the same era as Tim Mayotte. He went on to compete for Boston College and to teach for the legendary Welby van Horne at Choate. He then joined All American Sports—one of the great tennis camp operators of the 1970s and '80s—helping to run their programs at Topnotch at Stowe, Sugarbush, Callaway Gardens, and Amelia Island Plantation. With the demise of All American, he became the tennis director at Amelia, a position he held for almost 20 years before joining WaterColor early in 2002.
Morris's head pro is Chad Cage, the former men's and women's tennis coach at Southwestern College, where he had played No. 1 singles and doubles. Courts & Fees. 5 Har-Tru courts, 3 with lights. Court fees: None for guests of the WaterColor Inn or cottage renters.

Your Call

This is your opportunity to rate and review the resorts and camps you've visited. As material comes in I'll post it here, so you can read what others think.
So far, I haven't received any written feedback on WaterColor. If you've taken a tennis vacation there, I'd like to hear your reactions.

Other Recreation

Beach. The white-sand beaches of the Florida Panhandle are the region's greatest tourist asset, and four boardwalks over the 30-foot dunes provide guests of WaterColor with ready access to the sand and the emerald waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The experience is enhanced by the low-profile of virtually all the development along this stretch of coast. One of those boardwalks leaves from the BeachClub, which has a swimming pool and grill.

Golf Courses. Although WaterColor does not have a golf course within its 499 acres, guests can book tee times at the Tom Fazio-designed Camp Creek Golf Club, 6 miles to the east, where they share exclusive use with owners and guests of WaterSound. The 18-hole, par-72 course measures 7,159 yards and like many Fazio courses it looks hard but plays easy, making it appealing to players of all skill levels.

Spa & Fitness Center. Located steps from the WaterColor Inn, the resort's handsome fitness center looks unlike the typical workout facility. In it, retro ceiling fans spin above ergonomically designed Italian TechnoGym equipment and free weights. Each cardiovascular station has its own television, and there's a separate yoga room and garden with views of the dunes. Meanwhile, the WaterColor Inn was converting a dune-view room on the main level into a small massage and treatment area.

And ... The BoatHouse on Western Lake rents canoes, sea kayaks, and Hobie Cats. There's a extensive woodland trail system—some of it into neighboring Grayton Beach State Recreation Area—for biking and hiking.

Lodging

Designed by award-winning architect David Rockwell, the four-story WaterColor Inn draws its inspiration from the wood-frame and tin-roof "cracker cottages" of the rural Panhandle. Oversize shutters are a significant design element, as are covered porches, trellises, and stylized rafter rails. That gives this boutique hotel an appealingly casual appearance, and that continues inside in the relaxed beachhouse ambiance.
The result is a 60-room inn that is at once insouciant and rich in creature comforts. The public spaces are more like living rooms, lounges, and libraries and are furnished with the overstuffed sofas, club chairs, and ottomans of an elegant beach house. Check-in formalities take place at a discreet desk rather than a long counter. The rooms—junior suites, really, all of which face toward the dunes and Gulf—have balconies or terraces, kingsize beds and queensize sofa sleepers, elegant baths with walk-in showers, and such upscale amenities as Egyptian cotton sheets, DVDs, and high-speed Internet access. For something special look at the Rotunda rooms, which has 180-degree views from their generous balconies.
The inn aside, WaterColor has a stock of privately owned townhomes, cottages, and bungalows available for rent. These range in size from one to six bedrooms, some on the beach side of Scenic 30A, other in neighborhoods to the north.

Restaurants

Fish Out of Water, on the second floor of the Inn, is visually striking in its hand-blown seapods and oversize silk lampshades hand-painted with Gulf fishes, but it is chef Jason Brumm's deft ways with such local seafood as snapper, pompano, grouper, and Apalachicola oysters and unexpected preparations of meat and fowl—say, roast breast of guinea hen with traditional red beans and rice and Tasso ham—that attract diners from all over the Panhandle region.

See Also

If you're looking for other boutique hotels with access to tennis, check out:

• Gardiner's Resort, California
• The Inn at Manitou, Ontario, Canada
• Rancho Valencia Resort, California
• Sea Pines Resort, South Carolina, which has the 60-room Harbour Town Inn

Travel Essentials

Seasons. Year-round

WaterColor
34 Goldenrod Circle
Seagrove Beach, FL 32459
850-534-5000
Toll-free: 866-426-2656
Fax: 850-534-5001
Web Link: WaterColor

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Book Online: WaterColor

 

Travel Instructions. By Air: The nearest airports are the Okaloosa County Air Terminal in Fort Walton Beach (VPS), 30 minutes west; Panama City/Bay County International Airport (PFN), 50 minutes east; and Pensacola Regional Airport (PNS), 90 minutes west. Rental cars are available at all three.

General Tourist Information. Visit the Beaches of South Walton Tourist Development Council web site or contact them at 800-822-6877.

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