There are few holiday resorts or complexes in the world like La Manga Club. Its amenities extend over 560 hectares: a five-star hotel, La Manga Club Principe Felipe; the Las Lomas Village luxury apartment complex; and one of its main attractions, 450 hectares of sports amenities including three 18-hole golf courses, 28 tennis courts (including 20 clay courts, four fast courts and four of artificial grass, as well as two paddle tennis courts and one squash court) and eight football pitches, where cricket and rugby can also be played.
There is also an extensive range of leisure amenities, such as the La Manga Club Spa, with jacuzzis, saunas, steam rooms, therapeutic showers and a relaxation area, as well as a large gymnasium, fitness room and 25-metre indoor pool. In 13 treatment rooms and luxury suites clients can receive a great variety of treatments for relaxation, rejuvenation and beauty, some very exclusive – for example, Natura Bissé – which use the most advanced and effective techniques.
La Manga Club has more than 20 restaurants and bars, some within the two hotels and others located in various parts of the complex. Without leaving La Manga Club, you can enjoy traditional cuisine from around the world, from sophisticated Asian gastronomy and traditional Italian pasta to colourful Mexican food and species-rich Indian cuisine.
These amenities and services have meant that both the La Manga Principe Feliè hotel and the resort itself have received some of the most prestigious awards in the tourism and hotel industry, including the Q Plus 2007, which recognises golf course excellence, the prize as best golf complex in Spain in 2006, and the prizes as best golf complex in Europe in 2001, 2003 and 2005, all part of the World Travel Awards.
In 2003, this same organisation named the five-star La Manga Principe Felipe as the best conference hotel in Europe. The hotel has also received the Q for Quality award since 2002.
One key aspect that enables La Manga Club to stand out from other holiday complexes in Spain is the extent and range of its sporting amenities, especially the golf courses. In fact, it has been a finalist in the best sporting resort category in the World Travel Awards.
Three golf courses
The complex has three 18-hole courses, two of them designed by Robert Dean Putman (a Californian professional of great international prestige); an illuminated practice course; and a golf academy, one of the best in Europe, offering group or individual classes at all levels, from beginners to experienced players. The academy also offers latest technological advances to help students improve their game, including the Explanar, a revolutionary instrument for swing training (available in few other places in Spain) and the V1 video analysis system, which enables teachers to identify any failings in a golfer’s swing movement.
More than 40 years of history
It all began in 1972 when a California golfer named Gregory Peters, owner of several footwear businesses in Elche, discovered an area between Cartagena and La Manga in the Murcia region, and didn’t need to think twice. He bought a plot of land on that barren plain known as Atamaría – named after the unassuming farm people who at the time ploughed the land – and set to work developing what today is one of the finest sports and leisure complexes on the Levante coastline.
Peters’ idea was to build a golf course… A golf course? And what’s that? The local people – and we’re talking about 1972 – had never heard about a sport played on grass where you had to hit a ball into a hole using different clubs… but they began work and within 11 months the course was seeded, with completely defined fairways and more than 3,000 well-established palm trees.
That was just the start, because 43 years have now passed since that October month.
This great visionary, the founder of La Manga Club and with many renowned names on his list of personal friends, hired the legendary Gary Player as his first golf director, succeeded by Manuel Ballesteros (brother of Seve) and Victor García (father of Sergio). The rest was a piece of cake.
Other amenities were added to the golf courses: a hotel, apartments, a football centre, 28 tennis courts – and once again Peters could call on a leading sports star to run the tennis centre, Manolo Santana.
La Manga Club grew in size and reputation in the 1980s and 1990s thanks to major golf, tennis and later football tournaments held at the complex.
Interesting Facts
Some of the interesting facts related to this prestigious resort include the following:
• The inaugural golf tournament held on 22 October 1972 offered two million pesetas in prizemoney.
• Teeing up in the International Maritime Cup (aka the Celebrity Pro-Am) in 1972 were famous names including Sean Connery, Manuel Santana and the son of Charles Chaplin, numerous multi-millionaires, Tony Jacklin and the creator of Dennis the Menace.
• The La Manga Club tennis centre has hosted such major tournaments as the Davis Cup and Fed Cup.
• Part of the Dracula movie where Christopher Lee appears was filmed at the Los Miradores residential complex at La Manga Club, with hotel staff acting as extras.
• Several top teams have played on La Manga Club’s eight football pitches, including Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dormund, Galatasaray SK, Ajax Amsterdam, Liverpool FC, the Spanish and English national teams, Chelsea FC, Newcastle United, RSC Anderlecht, 1899 Hoffenheim, VfB Stuttgart, Lokomotiv Moscow, Rubin Cazan, FC Zenit, New York Red Bulls, Seattle Sounders, the South Korean national team, etc.
• The many international celebrities who have enjoyed La Manga Club’s facilities include John Malkovich, Salma Hayeck, Matt Damon, Gloria Stefan, Alejandro Sanz, Sir Cliff Richard, Robbie Williams, Simple Minds, Jamiroquai, Oliver Khan, Emilio, Javier and Arancha Sánchez Vicario, Alex Corretja, Albert Costa, Feliciano López, Sergi Bruguera, Carlos Moya, José María Olazábal, Jack Nicklaus, the Spanish monarchs, the King of Malaysia…
• La Manga Club holds two Guinness records, for feats achieved on the golf courses.
• Celebrities including Formula 1 champion Nigel Mansell and football coaches Gordon Strachan and Kenny Dalglish have villas at La Manga Club.
Forty years later, La Manga Club extends over 560 hectares – nearly six square kilometres – and remains a distinguished tourism model and one of the most imitated resorts when it comes to sports complexes.
