The current building was constructed in 1926, but a major renovation to the rooms of the hotel in 2000 reduced the number from 29 to 24 and created five new suites. The charming rooms feature high beds, handmade quilts and antiques. All rooms have porches overlooking the spectacular gardens surrounding the lodge. All the modern conveniences are included, but why turn on cable TV, when you can open the door to the porch, inhale the refreshing mountain air and watch trout break the water in the nearby stream. With a staff of 40, guests are given personal attention throughout their stay, one reason the inn continues as a Mobil four-star resort. Special touches include nightly turndown service, fresh flowers, furnished bathrobes and a complimentary welcome gift. Included with your stay is breakfast and dinner.

If variety is the spice of life, your palate is in for a real treat. Executive Chef John Hofland and his 48-member culinary staff rotate the menu daily. Hofland describes the food as "an eclectic blend of international cuisine with a Southern accent." Eggs benedict with fried green tomatoes at breakfast and the sautéed local trout with candied pecans, white grapes and chervil butter are among the favorites. Though you may feel a little full don’t pass up the deserts. You can diet when you return home.

Piano music is played during dinner on the ballroom floor. However dinner is not exclusive for inn guests, but reservations for non-guests are required. The most popular night for dining is the Thursday night seafood buffet.

To burn off all those calories a little exercise may be in order. The resort includes a championship golf course and club, pro shop, outdoor heated swimming pool, croquet courts, fully-equipped exercise room, eight tennis courts and children's playground and day camp. Area activities can include a hike at Grandfather Mountain, trout fishing along the area’s streams or canoeing on Kawana Lake or a train ride at Tweetsie for the kids.

Golf has always been a center of activity in Linville. A nine-hole course was developed during the late 1890s in the area known as Tanglewood. At the turn of the century, five more holes were added by Donald MacRae, brother of Hugh MacRae. To complete 18 holes, you would play four of the Eseeola holes twice.
Donald Ross was contracted to build a new course in Linville. He took a team of surveyors with him into the woods and rhododendron thickets for only two days of work. He left and later sent back the plans from his office. When they were laid out, they fitted the topography perfectly.

Construction on the new course began in June 1924 using mules with drag pans and two years later it was completed. The course was never drastically changed from the Ross's plan, but the Linville Company made a practice of working over two holes a year. They worked constantly with the view in mind of making it a championship course. By 1930 it was in perfect condition. From 1928 to 1934, both the old course and the new one were used simultaneously, but the new one gradually replaced the old one. In 1934, the old course was abandoned altogether.

In 1959, it was decided to make Linville Golf Club a private club to allow the surrounding cottage dwellers the ability to have long-term access to the course.

Guests of Eseeola Lodge, enjoy privileges at the spectacular Linville Golf Club. Golf Magazine has awarded Linville Golf Club a Silver Medal for being one of the "Best Golf Resorts in America." North Carolina Magazine recognizes it as one of the top-10 courses in the state and rates it five-stars.

Donald Ross was given a perfect piece of property for the course. In a relatively flat area of valley the course rolls over some hills bordered by woods and rhododendron. The best known hole is the par-4 third that crosses a trout filled steam twice and is played to an uphill sloping green.

The course has undergone a recent remodeling by Bobby Weed and renovations should be complete this spring. The cart paths are being replaced along with several bridges. Golfers will notice larger and improved teeing grounds on the course. The bumps and dips in the fairways originally made using mules and manual labor still survive today, giving it the old Donald Ross feel.

This small resort offers so many things other resorts can only dream about. You’ll wonder why you never came here before.

Rooms start at $325 per couple and include breakfast and dinner. The number for reservations is 1-800-742-6717.