It started with donuts. Beginning a love affair unscripted and unanticipated, Lindy Farley, of Atlanta, and her family wandered to Charlie’s Donut Truck from their nearby beach destination in search of breakfast confections. It was here that she receive a surprise invitation—hand-glazed, hand-sprinkled, and hand-delivered through the donut truck window—to look around at the early Alys Beach community that she had stumbled upon that morning.
Though only a few lots had been developed when Lindy first arrived at Alys Beach, Lindy knew she’d found the place she didn’t even know she needed. As she turned from the donut truck on 30A, she said to her daughter and son-inlaw, “Let’s make an appointment with the sales office.” And so began the sweet journey that transformed Lindy from a curious visitor into the unofficial Alys Beach Ambassador.
After learning of the rental program at Alys Beach, Lindy began bringing her family and friends to experience life in her favorite town, and over the course of four years and ten homes, her affection for this place has only increased. At Alys Beach, she’s celebrated milestones with lifelong girlfriends, enjoyed seaside dinners with family, and even made new, dear friends as she’s gotten to know others in the community.
“I’ve fallen in love with Alys Beach,” says Lindy. “The moment we see the white butteries in the distance, my stress level immediately drops, and my whole self feels a sigh of relief. And that feeling, even though I’ve come to this place so many times, has never abated. It’s like your first love, but the butterflies never fade.”
It’s not only the architecture, the thought and care given to every detail of the landscape, that calls Lindy to return time and time again. It’s the entire Alys Beach family.
“It’s so lovely to be on vacation in the first place, of course you’re happy to be in paradise. But, on top of that, you have the incredible people here. Everyone at Alys Beach—from the folks in the rental office, to the baristas at Fonville Press, to the Alys Shoppe team, to the staff at Caliza pool—everyone is always kind. Always smiling. Always taking the time to show they care,” says Lindy. “I often joke and ask if it’s part of the application process to show outgoing and gregarious kindness, because every person at Alys Beach is exceptional in character.”
It is the warm congeniality and absolute attention to detail found at Alys Beach that drew her to stay and what now fosters such wonderful family experiences for Lindy, her children, and her grandchildren.
It is the warm congeniality and absolute attention to detail found at Alys Beach that drew her to stay and what now fosters such wonderful family experiences for Lindy, her children, and her grandchildren. The fact that Lindy feels so cherished by Alys Beach inspires her to use her time here to show her own family how loved and cared for they are.
Here, Lindy is able to be the ultimate hostess and maker of joy. Her three children, their spouses, and her seven grandchildren, who the rest of the year are scattered across the country, gather around the fire pit, the children roast marshmallows as the adults enjoy a glass of wine under the warm glow of twinkling stars and firelight.
“Alys Beach has given me the chance to foster relationships, and it has given us the chance to make incredible memories,” she says.
How beautiful it will be for her grandchildren to think upon these beach days fondly, as they recall tiptoeing out of the house together at sunup, as quietly as toddlers can creep, their parents still in bed, and walking hand-in-hand with their grandmother down to Charlie’s Donut Truck for a morning treat.
There’s never been a doubt in Lindy’s mind that Alys Beach was her special place. “The first night my family joined me at Alys Beach, we walked down to the ocean, and I turned to my son- in-law and said, ‘If I died tonight, I would die happy, because this is what I want for my family.” A space to let the cares of the world melt away, where memories are made freely and bonds are knit together even more closely