Santee Inn & Suites recently became independent after being affiliated with Country Inn & Suites. Until new signage is in place, it will be difficult to locate, but is beside both a Holiday Inn and a Fairway Inn, a long block south of SC 6 on the west side of I-95 in Santee.

The room was impeccably clean and everything it in worked, which puts it above plenty of interstate motels. There was a spacious desk with adequate lighting, a wall-mounted hair dryer, and plenty of very hot water. Wi-fi worked just fine and the TV functioned although it was not a flat-screen model. The room had no microwave or refrigerator, so the ice machine at the rear of the lobby came in handy.

Service at the front desk was informative and friendly. A request for a walking route elicited directions to a 2 1/4 mile traffic-free stretch of bridge and abandoned road at nearby Lake Marion. That was an excellent recommendation!

A notebook in the lobby reproduces local restaurant menus, but that gives short shrift to the Lone Star BBQ & Mercantile, a must-see which has received excellent reviews on this website.

The breakfast area was spacious. Food offerings included mini-bagels and full-fat cream cheese, the common spiraled sweet muffins, bread for toast, packets of instant oatmeal and instant grits, canned peaches, raisin bran and generic Cheerios (c), and strawberry and blueberry.low-fat yogurt. The one waffle iron would have been woefully insufficient had the motel had much occupancy. (Late at night, I counted just eight vehicles in the parking lot.) There were no hardboiled eggs, no fresh fruit of any kind, and inexplicably, the only milk was 2% fat content. A machine dispensed three cold beverages, and there was coffee and a selection of tea bags.

A coupon from one of the rest stop motel books allowed allowed a total price of fifty bucks and change. At that cost, the clean and well-maintained Santee Inn is a good value for travelers wanting safe, moderately priced lodging.