A tennis weekend in La Manga Club

This year for Easter bank holiday weekend we thought we would travel to Spain, enjoy the sun, the tapas and play tennis. Welcome to La Manga Club

La Manga is situated on the Murcia coast not far from the historic town of Cartagena. It was set up by an American entrepreneur who was keen to bring the American resort concept to Europe, Spain in this occasion. It’s a fantastic sports and leisure resort where you have everything within reach.

Dan is a big fan of tennis and plays at a decent intermediate to advanced level. I am a real beginner, I didn’t play young so this is completely new to me. We signed up to the 8-hour Weekend Warriors Academy, which runs from Friday late afternoon until Sunday lunchtime. As we both have different level we knew we would be split into different groups.

Dan loves playing tennis and has played for several years now.

Sadly the sun was not too much on the menu during our stay… and the worst part was that it was 25 degrees and sunny back at home. Eek! But being positive as we are, we would not let the rain spoil our tennis weekend. The hardest part was to organise our tennis sessions around the weather forecast and rain. We were impressed with the staff at the Tennis Centre who did all they can to accommodate our sessions.

We were split in 2 groups and luckily for me since I was the only beginner I got given private lessons by Adriano. Dan was in an intermediate-advanced group with 2 other ladies. For me that was ideal as I could really learn the basic and focus on my technique. I thought the coaching and drills were absolutely awesome and I left La Manga knowing how to play tennis: forehand, backhand, serve… This gave me the perfect start to carry on my progression back at home. The main goal being to be able to play games against Dan in the near future. Dan also had a great time polishing his technique with some great drills.

La Manga is also home of three superbly maintained, championship golf courses, brand new golf academy and pitch and putt facilities. There is also cricket, football and plenty other sports available.

Obviously, the experience might have been even better with the sun and not having to reschedule our lessons so many times. When it was raining, we went to the gym and the Spa and enjoyed reading our books. As soon as the sun was out however we would rush outside either to play tennis or to get some rays on the terrace of restaurant 37 Spike & Sports Bar in the Golf Club.

View from the terrace of 37 Spike & Sports Bar

View of the Hotel Principe Filipe at La Manga

We stayed at the only hotel of the resort called Principe Filipe in a terrace room. The hotel is surrounded by the superbly well maintained golf courses. It’s very calm environment and gives you a real sense of space and freedom. We felt the room was spacious, clean and of a good standard. We both slept super well as there was no noise and some great blackout curtains! The staff were all amazing. We enjoyed staying at the hotel. It was the best option for us as a couple staying only for a weekend. We would look at a villa if we were coming for a week or with a group.

Restaurant wise, to be completely honest we feel it is lacking some better options within the resort especially for lunch. Maybe it was also due to the weather and some restaurants might have been closed… We ended up going to 37 sports bar most lunch. For dinner we went to a restaurant called La Finca which is a bit of a hit and miss reading the reviews. The room and atmosphere is actually nice and it was not too bad the night we went but it definitely lacked something. We had a dinner at the main restaurant in the hotel Amapola, we ordered the steak and can only recommend the wine we ordered called Herederos del Marqués de Riscal 2014 (Rioja). The last evening we went to Luigi the pizzeria which was a total disappointment from my point of view, the pizza was really average and the tiramisu was not edible. Obviously we didn’t try the other restaurants but looking at the various reviews I really think there is a market for better restaurants in the resort! Weirdly enough the breakfast buffet at the hotel (Amapola) was pretty good!

We feel we have only seen a little of La Manga Club and we will definitely be back for more tennis and sun hopefully this time.

Tips:

Staying at the Hotel Principe Felipe is a good idea if you come for a weekend, renting a villa might be better if you come with kids and for a week. There is a supermarket in the resort near the tennis centre. (La Plaza – open 7 days a week Mon-Sat 9-8pm and Sunday 10-4pm)
If you come for a weekend and your focus is tennis or golf, you will barely need your car as there is 24h shuttle service in the resort to take you from the hotel to the spa or the restaurants…
Book yourself a treatment at the spa!
Make sure you bring your gym kit and swimsuit. There is gym and a pool at the wellness centre.
Try to avoid April as it is the changing season and it is more prone to rain then as we learnt!
Restaurants - I don’t have any tips you need to try for yourself but my only advice is don’t expect too much. Also book in advance as it gets busy.
We don’t have kids but saw a lot of parents coming to play tennis or golf and putting their children to tennis or cricket academy and we thought that was a brilliant idea. They also have a Junior Club with plenty activities for kids. We feel this resort would work quite well for families.
If you are vegan or vegetarian, I would chose to stay in a villa and cook your own meal. I didn’t see many vegetarian or vegan options.