In the Press
Press coverage for our Chincoteague, Virginia hotel
We don't chase headlines and you won't see us on a billboard — we just keep doing what we've done since Don and Martha Leonard opened these doors in 1973: casual, comfortable rooms, a pasture of resident Chincoteague ponies, and the kind of hospitality that makes people plan next year's trip before they've checked out. Every so often, someone writes it down. Below is a running record of where we've been mentioned in print and online, from national travel glossies to the local paper that covers our town council meetings.
“The Refuge Motor Inn … offers tasteful rooms with porches overlooking a small herd of the storied shaggy Chincoteague ponies that have roamed this corner of the Atlantic shore for more than three centuries.”
The New York Times — April 15, 1984
Recent Coverage
Condé Nast Traveler
“To birdwatch from your balcony: Refuge Inn.”
from “These East Coast Beach Towns Are Even Better in the Fall” — published August 15, 2025.
Garden & Gun
“We chose the family-owned Refuge Inn because of its view of the iconic red-and-white lighthouse across the Assateague Channel…”
from “Six Reasons Chincoteague Island Might Be Your New Favorite Getaway” — February 2024
Southern Living
Cynthia Leonard quoted throughout on the centennial Pony Swim — 2025, updated 2026.
4 Beautiful U.S. Barrier Islands You Don’t Need a Boat to Visit — Mental Floss, by Nitya Rao, July 2026
“The pine-shaded Refuge Inn overlooks the Assateague Channel and offers views of the iconic red-and-white lighthouse…”
7 Gorgeous East Coast Beach Towns That Are Even Better in the Fall — AFAR, September 2024
"Refuge Inn has 70 rooms and suites and includes a beach reads lending library. Each of its rooms has a private patio or balcony…"
Awards & Recognition
Independent Lodging Leader of the Year — Association of Lodging Professionals, March 2026
Cynthia Leonard was named the association’s 2026 Independent Lodging Leader of the Year at its awards ceremony in Cleveland. From the announcement: “Cynthia’s leadership has played a key role in strengthening operations, enhancing the guest experience, and supporting the continued success of Refuge Inn.” ALP lists past recipients on its awards page.
Top 200 Best Hotels for Sleep in the U.S. — Sleep Junkie, July 2025
The Refuge Inn placed 23rd in the country and second in Virginia, in a ranking built from sleep-related mentions in Tripadvisor reviews. We finished ahead of many better-known luxury properties, including Wynn Las Vegas, The Broadmoor, the Ritz-Carlton at Lake Tahoe, the Grand Hyatt Kauai, the Four Seasons in St. Louis and the Hotel Hershey.
Chincoteague Chamber of Commerce Beacon Award — recognized for 52 years in business alongside Island Creamery and Don's Seafood Restaurant. June 2025
Virginia General Assembly, House Joint Resolution 590 — celebrating the life of Refuge Inn founder Donald J. Leonard. Agreed to by the House of Delegates on January 14, 2011 and by the Senate on January 20, 2011. The Commonwealth’s resolution calls him “a visionary man and practical entrepreneur” and credits his commitment to Chincoteague with helping the town “become a popular destination for visitors who wish to enjoy unspoiled scenery and island charm.” January 2011
Business Person of the Year — Chincoteague Chamber of Commerce, 1995
The Chamber honored Don Leonard for building the Refuge Motor Inn and for a working life on the island that also included Island Cruises, a sea clam fleet, fifty years in the volunteer fire company and the campaign that built the island’s convention center. He spent most of his acceptance speech on other people — his wife Martha, who worked the desk beside him from seven in the morning until eleven at night for seventeen years, and the staff, whom he asked to stand: “they are the secret to our success.”
From the Archive
The oldest mentions we have found so far, all from long before any of this was online.
Chincoteague Roundup — Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, NBC
Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler rode the July roundup for NBC’s wildlife series, filming the drive, the swim and the auction. Don Leonard — then the Fire Company’s pony committee chairman, later the founder of this inn — appears on camera as roundup foreman, opening the sale. The episode aired on December 4, 1966.
Forget About the Ponies — The Washington Post, July 1980
“For lodging, we like the Refuge Motor Inn ($34 double in season), on Maddox overlooking the refuge. It’s a rustic retreat of weathered wood, where the snack machine sells food for the bird feeders found on each balcony. The pony family that lives next door will eat right out of your hand.” The Post also noted that ocean fishing charters could be arranged through the front desk — and, listing the alternatives, began: “If the Refuge is booked…”
Assateague: The Silence of the Dunes in a Place Away — The New York Times, by David Shribman, April 15, 1984
One of sixteen Times correspondents writing up their own regions for a Special Spring Survey. Shribman took Assateague, reached through Chincoteague, which he calls “far the more pleasant” of the island’s two approaches. On the Inn: “The Refuge Motor Inn (804-336-5511; double rooms at $44.72 in the spring months), on the beach road, offers tasteful rooms with porches overlooking a small herd of the storied shaggy Chincoteague ponies that have roamed this corner of the Atlantic shore for more than three centuries.” Shribman won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting, at the Boston Globe, and later edited the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Leonards typical island business family — Eastern Shore News, by Nancy Namoski, October 28, 1987
A full profile of the family and the business, fourteen years in. It records the Inn opening in May 1973 with three employees and forty rooms, Wyle Maddox’s $250,000 loan nearly repaid, and the Baltimore architect Van Fossen Schwab, for whom the Refuge Motor Inn was a first. Don on the guests: “We’ve seen the same people coming here continuously for 14 years. They call it a second home, and 70 to 80 percent of our business is repeat business.”
Footloose: Virginia’s East Shore — Los Angeles Times
A Southern California readership’s introduction to the Eastern Shore, running down Route 13 from Chincoteague to Cape Charles. The Inn appears in the Guidebook box at the foot of the column — one of a handful of places the paper thought a reader flying east ought to know about. Our clipping is a continuation page with no dateline; we are still chasing the date.
Roundups a Way of Life for Island Men — The Daily Times, Salisbury, Maryland, by Nancy Namoski, July 1991
A profile of Don Leonard as a roundup rider. He was about twelve at his first, in the 1930s, when the Assateague herds still belonged to Joe Pruitt of Greenbackville and a boy got a horse because the crew was short a man: “They didn’t care if I didn’t have all that much experience… ’Twas another hand, another rider.” He rode nearly every year into the 1960s, missing the years he was away in the war.
Also Written Up In
We have also been written up by World Atlas seven times over, and in The Everygirl, Yahoo, the Baltimore Sun, Washingtonian, Coastal Virginia Magazine, the Carroll County Times and 13News Now.
Writing about Chincoteague?
If you are a journalist, editor or travel writer working on a story about Chincoteague Island, Assateague or the Eastern Shore, we are happy to help with information, photography, or a place to stay while you are here.
Cynthia Leonard, Director of Systems & Strategy
Refuge Inn · 7058 Maddox Blvd, Chincoteague Island, VA 23336 · 757-336-5511 · cynthia@refugeinn.com
Family-owned and operated since 1973.
Curious about the family behind the Inn? Read Our Family Legacy — three generations on Chincoteague Island.