Jekyll Island Club Resort and Jekyll Ocean Club

We visited the historic presidential suite during our tour. The spacious accommodation’s spiral staircase leads to a circular patio, which serves as the highest view on the entire property.

The presidential suite’s patio provides an excellent vantage point for scoping out the resort and island. Looking west, it’s easy to spot the property’s pool and the East River, which divides Jekyll Island from mainland Georgia.

The patio’s other view overlooks the entrance as well as the island. Just be careful taking the spiral staircase back inside.

The world’s first transcontinental phone call occurred on January 25, 1915, at Jekyll Island Club Resort. Theodore Newton Vail, president of American Telephone and Telegram (AT&T), called President Woodrow Wilson and other leaders across the country for the inaugural call, and a photograph commemorating the moment is placed inside the room. Today, guests can relive this momentous instance by visiting the room or reserving it for private events

Another public space within the hotel, this restored Victorian-style banquet space with iconic columns and gleaming woodwork serves daily Southern breakfast for guests.

Cherokee Cottage was built in 1904 and sits steps from the main property. The cottage is one of the historic, stand-alone properties that make up the Jekyll Island Club Resort, all of which have gotten modern upgrades and beachy murals. Cherokee Cottage houses 10 guest rooms, which we thought would be perfect for small groups hoping for a historical stay.

Spa Cabana, the resort’s on-site spa, offers spa treatments with ocean views. During our tour, we saw the reception area, which serves infused teas and happy hour cocktails while you get a spa treatment.

For heftier bites, Jekyll Ocean Club’s signature restaurant, Eighty Ocean Kitchen and Bar, serves daily breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as poolside beverage service. The restaurant is designed with a nautical theme and features an eclectic menu bringing together Southern staples like cornbread with daily catch and Italian flatbreads. We loved the charred flavor imparted in their delicacies by the fresh-cut Georgian wood smoking in the restaurant’s furnace oven.

Stargazers can enthrall in the Ocean Club’s understated monthly moonlight parties on the rooftop terrace, appropriately called the Astor Room. So if telescopes and cocktails are for you, booking your stay around the lunar cycle is worthwhile.

The moon wasn’t out during our (daytime) tour, but the Astor Room’s position overlooking the pool and just outside Eighty Ocean Kitchen and Bar still makes it worth a visit.

Back inside, each room at the Jekyll Ocean Club has a luxurious guest suite that is ocean-facing with a spacious bedroom area, living room and furnished porches to watch the sunrise. The room aesthetic is a mix of modern sophistication with beach chic. Every room has a minibar, a dinette, a coffee maker and a minifridge. Toiletries and robes are also available.