Will be in Charleston for 4 days on business and looking to play 3 rounds in or around the area.

Also Google maps says Kiawah is only 25 miles away, but takes an hour to get there. Any truth to the mileage?

What are the best courses to play in this area w/ in an hours drive of Charleston.

Spend 4 or 5 days in kiawah a few years ago. Every night except one, we drove into Charleston for dinner. Its a 35-40 minute drive, not bad at all.

Obviously, The Ocean Course is a great place to play. I've played there several times and love it.

Another one worth checking out is Rivertowne:

http://www.ginnbelvidere.com/rivertowne-country-club.aspx


Wild Dunes is great too. They have two courses the Links and the Harbor Courses. Personally, I prefer the Harbor course, its tight but has some great holes playing along the intercoastal waterways.

http://www.wilddunes.com/south-carolina-golf-courses.php

Kiawah is a bit of a drive for the road is somewhat narrow and as I remember, a few bridges that may close for a few minutes for a passing boat.

Its well worth it for the Ocean Course may be the best course I've played. Several of the other resort courses there are fine but if you can get on Cassique, its quite good. Wild Dunes is not bad but again, the Ocean Course is special.

Charleston is a great city. For fine dining, try Magnolia's. For lunch during the day, go to Justine's.

Agreed. Charleston is awesome. Its one of my favorite cities. I love downtown Charleston, you won't find better restaurants anywhere and the area is just cool in general.

I live in Charleston and how long it takes to get to Kiawah depends on where you'll be staying in the city. Charleston is not a big city but traffic can be a bear depending on where you're coming from and what time of day. If you're out on the West side you can make it in 20-30 minutes easy, if you're East in Mt. Pleasant or Downtown it's 45 minutes to an hour. Kiawah is expensive no matter which course you play, if you haven't seen the new Golf Digest best courses guide there are a couple of the other Kiawah courses that also made the best in state list. Rivertowne is a good suggestion if you can't make it to Kiawah, but it's pretty far out from downtown the opposite way in Mt. Pleasant off route 41. If you tell me whereabouts you'll be staying I can give you some better info as far as getting out there or other options if you don't want to try Kiawah.

Sanctuary at Kiawah is top notch
I enjoyed every bit of it
They have hotel + ocean course package which was great price
by the way Sanctuary has top notch spa which can earn you point with mrs.

Loved the setting and course!