La Manga Club Resort still Cartagena’s jewel in the crown.
After a pretty hellish couple of weeks at work trying to sort out a whole manner of silly problems, a trip away from it all was just what I needed. Luckily for me, the nice chaps at YourGolfTravel.com and La Manga Club offered to whisk me away for a couple of days with a few other golf journalists to check out the place.
I’d heard of La Manga Club before and I’d checked it out on the internet a few times so I was intrigued to see if it was worth the trip. A 9.30 flight from Gatwick to Alicante went without hitch. I slept nearly all the way there which was great as flying is boring as hell. Bags all arrived ok, so it was all aboard the La Manga bus for a two hour journey to the resort.
It’s funny, you hear about ‘resorts’ all the time and I’ve stayed in quite a few but La Manga is totally different. The sheer size of the place is astounding. In fact it’s three times the size of the principality of Monaco which is quite a shock when you’re expecting a couple of nice hotels, a few apartments and a golf course. As one of the lads in our group pointed it out, it should really be called ‘La Manga World’.
Here’s some info for you:
Golf - 54 holes of championship golf spanning over 18 kilometres, 20 lakes, 200 bunkers, tuition, academies, training ground, putting green golf shop and clubhouse.
Tennis – 28 clay courts, 4 hard courts, 4 artificial grass courts, tuition, academies etc.
Football - 8 full size grass pitches in stunning natural surroundings that can also be used for rugby, training academies and tuition.
Cricket – Two regulation ClubTurf pitches, four full length practice nets
Fitness - 25m indoor pool, huge fitness centre, daily classes, personal trainers, pilates 140km of walking, running and cycling routes.
Spa – 13 luxury treatment rooms, 50 spa treatments, saunas, steam rooms and whirlpool baths. Massages and facials, body treatments, hair, make-up and beauty.
Accomodation – 5 star Hotel La Manga Club Principe Felipe – 192 rooms overlooking the golf courses or the 4 star Las Lomas Village – stunning apartments, indoor and outdoor pools.
Other bits – 170km2 of calm shallow saltwater lagoon. 2450 hectares of unspoilt natural park. Sandy beaches, water sports, scuba diving, snorkeling, go-karting and horse riding are all available.
The list goes on and on as you can see and is quite astounding when you think about it. Like I said – La Manga is massive, but what it is really like?
After our long journey from Gatwick, we arrived at the hotel, checked in and found our rooms. The rooms were nice and very clean, each with a balcony overlooking the golf courses. They have everything you’d expect including tea and coffee making facilities, mini-bar etc and marble bathrooms with power showers, so powerful you could wash yourself away…
Quick change and down to the pool bar for lunch which was perfect. We ate a selection of tapas dishes, all of which were delicious and filled us up ready for our golf marathon.
Our clubs had already been delivered to the caddy master which was great as I didn’t fancy lugging them down there myself, it’s quite a way from reception. We jumped into the buggies and away we went.
The South Course is a Par 73, 6499 metre adventure. It was designed by Robert Putman and Arnold Palmer and is quite a wide course with water hazards on 15 out of the 18 holes.
The course definitely requires a bit of thinking about which I like. There’s no use smashing a driver off every -tee although it does help if you can get away with it as some of the holes are very long. Some of the surrounding views are absolutely stunning and for the course to be so luscious in such an arid area is quite stunning to see against the mountainous back-drop.
The course has a network of cart paths which you have to stick to all the way around which I find a complete pain in the arse. I know they have to protect the courses from being flattened by carts but it’s a nightmare. You have to take up to 5 clubs with you for every shot which really slows things down and becomes exhausting. Sometimes, you stand up to your ball knowing you’ve got the wrong club in your hand and decide to hit the ball anyway because you can’t be bothered to walk 60 yards back to your cart again. That affects your game in a negative way and I don’t like it.
The greens were very soft and luscious and looked a peach but they weren’t very fast. I think that’s what you want on holiday though. If you have Augusta speed greens, you’d just get depressed and who wants that on holiday? Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t slow either, probably a 10 on the stimp meter.
I really enjoyed our first day even though I only had 26 points which was a bit of a bummer as I felt I played better than that. Anyway never mind, back to the hotel room for a quick shower and dress for dinner, then off to the Restaurant Asia. I was early and managed to get there half an hour before everyone else. I sunk a couple of San Miguels and took in the atmosphere while I waited.
It’s a great little restaurant and we all enjoyed our meal which was the perfect end to a very long day. There’s loads of restaurants and bars in La Manga and I would have loved to stay another week to try them all out. We ended our evening in the hotel’s Piano Bar which was nice enough except there was no outdoor area to sit and relax at. It was open until 2.30am though which we took full advantage of. A quick sneaky dip in the pool at 3am and it was off to bed for me, slightly worse for wear.
I had set my alarm according to the English time on my phone so I awoke with a phone call from Sean Noble from Azalea PR who was ‘just checking’ I was up… It was a good job he did actually and I just had enough time to grab a sausage sarnie before heading out to the North Course for another round in the blistering heat.
The North Course is a par 71, 5753 metre undulating course which was definitely easier than the South Course. There’s less water which is great but lots of gullies and ditches to get you into trouble. I caught a few of them but still came off with 30 points which I was pretty chuffed with. It took us about four hours as opposed to the five hour epic from the day before which was welcome as I was exhausted.
Another couple of beers followed along with some more lovely food before a quick tour around the resort and back on the bus to Murcia Airport.
The trip to Murcia only took about 40 minutes which was much better than Alicante. We travelled with Monarch who offer low cost flights from Gatwick, Luton, Manchester and Birmingham for around £77 return. Check out www.monarch.co.uk for more information, it’s a good deal.
All in all, La Manga is an excellent place that truly has something for everyone. It offers different levels of accommodation to suit different budgets and ideals which is essential in the current market. The sporting facilities there are superb and if you’re into golf, tennis or football, it’s the place to go. There’s enough there to keep you and the family entertained the whole time.
There are some amazing deals for top class holidays to La Manga available through YourGolfTravel.com at the moment. If you’re not familiar with them, they’re a respected company with a projected turnover of £14m this year carrying 81,000 golfers to their chosen golf heaven.
The company now has contracts with over 1300 golf clubs, hotels and resorts across the world and continues to grow, despite the current economic downturn. Their website www.yourgolftravel.com offers thousands of excellent golf deals including last minute deals and discounted holidays.
Whatever you go to La Manga for, you’re sure to have a great time. I’ve not been to a better golf destination abroad. Big thanks to everyone who made my stay so enjoyable and all my team mates.
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