LaBastide, closed

French-inspired inn and restaurant is now a property in limbo

APRIL 6, 2011 10:04 a.m. (0)

La Bastide, the French-inspired inn and restaurant in the Blue Ridge foothills that was open to the public and used to fete wealthy potential residents to the gated Cliffs Communities, is closed and likely will reopen as a wellness retreat.

Jim Anthony, president and founder of The Cliffs Communities, said La Bastide was closed Jan. 3 to take advantage of the winter months to make repairs and to consider other uses for the inn designed to look like a villa in Provence, France, with a vineyard on the grounds.

He said the villa, which is about 13 years old, needed interior painting, floor work and some exterior refurbishing.  Continue reading...

 

They're offering tours of ghostly proportions

Upstate ghost tours gear up for the season

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 11:37 a.m. (0)

In the stifling heat and inky darkness of the old J.W. Bell Flour and Grain mill in Spartanburg, Bryan Henke remembers feeling something wasn’t right last August.

“It must have been 100 degrees up there on the third floor,” Henke said of the day when he and Matt Lovinggood’s team from South Carolina Paranormal Investigations were hunting for ghosts in the lead-in to cranking up their annual Spartanburg Ghost Tour on the Main Street Trolley.  Continue reading...

 

South Carolina tourism is bouncing back

Governor Haley warns against regionalism when promoting the state

MARCH 1, 2012 12:15 p.m. (0)

Greenville has seen a noticeable spike in tourism since the depths of the Great Recession, tourism officials said last Tuesday during the Governor’s Conference on Tourism and Travel at the Embassy Suites.

Tourist visits are up 9.7 percent since 2009. Figures from 2010 provided by Chris Stone of the Convention and Visitors Bureau showed 4.9 million visitors – that’s 13,600 per day – came to Greenville County, spending an estimated $957 million and creating 11,900 jobs.

Meanwhile, Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport showed a 38 percent jump in traffic, hotel tax collections were up 14 percent and restaurant sales were up 5 percent. Retail, reportedly, was holding even during the period.  Continue reading...