Santa Rosa Beach, FL (July 23, 2008) - The WaterColor Inn and Resort was choosed by the readers of Travel + Leisure as one of the "Top 100 Hotels in the Continental U.S. and Canada" in the magazine's 2008 World's Best Awards survey.This is the third successive year the 60-room, luxury beachfront hotel on Northwest Florida's Gulf Coast has been named to this high - status list.

To meet the criteria for the World's Best Awards, readers of Travel + Leisure and TravelandLeisure.com judged hotels on five criteria:

• rooms/facilities
• location
• services
• restaurants/food and
• value

They were also asked to rate the hotel's appeal for business travelers and families. Beyond 100 points, WaterColor Inn and Resort earned 84.75, ranking higher than other memorable hotels such as the famed Greenbrier and several Ritz-Carltons.

This peculiarity adds to WaterColor's mounting collection of awards and accolades.Forbes.com freshly listed the belongings as one of its 2008 "Ultimate U.S. Vacation Spots," and the Inn was named to Condé Nast Traveler's popular 2008 Gold List, which exposed its reader's choices for "The World's Best Places to Stay."

As Northwest Florida's only AAA Four Diamond hotel, WaterColor has again and again maintained the maximum values of service, providing an matchless number of facilities for guests of all ages and tastes. The 499-acre resort's white sand beach, coastal dune lake, lush parks and woodland trails are a attractive playground for all sorts of vacation activities, from biking, kayaking and canoeing to body boarding and fishing.

WaterColor also boasts a state-of-the-art fitness center, full-service spa, gourmet dining at its much-admired Fish Out of Water restaurant, and a host of kid-gracious activities at its popular Camp WaterColor. In addition, guests enjoy fortunate access to three fashionable golf courses - Camp Creek Golf Club (by Tom Fazio), Shark's Tooth Golf Club (by Greg Norman) and Origins (by Davis Love III).

The resort also offers several pragmatic programs that highlight the natural beauty of Northwest Florida, as well as eco-tours and unique culinary programs like the Foraging the Forgotten Coast Tour, where guests escort a chef to learn how food gets from the farm and sea to their plate by meeting local purveyors and working alongside them to forage for their own meals.

WaterColor also holds special demand for art enthusiasts thanks to the July 2008 opportunity of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art @ WaterColor in the resort's Town Center. This first satellite branch of the famed Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans showcases altering exhibitions of noted Southern and local artists' works.