James Travel

There are golf courses and then there are those golf course resorts that have the drawn, appeal and reputation of providing the finest vacation experinces for the golfer and non-golfer.

The Arizona Biltmore & Resort & Spa

Since it opened in 1929, practically every celebrity on the continent has passed through the doors of this Frank Lloyd Wright-designed hotel.  The ever-popular Arizona Biltmore entertains with 730 guest rooms and villas, seven heated swimming pools, a lavish new spa, a 92-foot water slide, seven lighted tennis courts, and a championship putting course.  Two PGA 18-hole golf courses await nearby.  The older of the two courses, the Abode proudly points outs that its elegance hails from an era when “graphite was for pencil lead and golf balls came in only one color”.

The Gleneagles Hotel- Scotland

To duffers the world over, the name Gleneagles means golf.  It is here, in the wildly beautiful Scottish Highlands, that James Braid designed the King and Queen’s 18-hole courses nearly a century ago.  They are well matched by the 18-hole Monarch’s course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, who deemed it no less than “the finest natural parcel of land in the world I have been given to work with.”  The 229-room property, established in 1924, was the honeymoon haven of King Hussein and Queen Noor.

Grand Bay Hotel – Isla Navidad, Mexico

Hole by hole, shot by shot, the setting never repeats itself on Isla Navidad’s three nine-hole courses: Ocean, Mountains and Lagoon.  Located in Manzanillo on Mexico’s Pacific coast, between Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta, the 27- hole course has been likened to a work of art; niches housing handmade folk art surprise golfers at every turn.  The golf course and palm-studded 192-room hotel are part of the exclusive 1,200-acre peninsula community of Isla Navidad.  Guestrooms have bay views and balconies.

The Greenbrier – West Virginia

Presidents and members of Congress have vacationed here for as long as anyone can remember.  Located on 6,500 acres in the Allegheny Mountains, the 650-room Greenbrier, a National Historic Landmark offers three championship golf courses designed by Charles Blair Macdonald, Jack Nicklaus, and Bob Cupp respectively.  The property set new standards for resort golf with the opening of it’s Sam Snead golf Academy.  It has a 65,000 square-foot tee area, a 165-foot long practice bunker, a practice fairway bunker, and four different putting, chipping, and pitching greens.  If you would like to inquire more about these and other resort golf properties, please contact James TravelPOINTS at 1-800-538-7461,  www.travelpoints.com.

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