The first thing that strikes you on the approach to La Manga Club Resort in Spain’s Murcia region is its sheer size – this is more like a small town than a resort. I’ve come to stay at the iconic Grand Hyatt La Manga Golf Club & Spa, a 192-key property including seven signature suites which forms the focal point of this huge sports and leisure complex spanning six square kilometres.
The hotel is joined by more than 2,000 private residences plus rented villas and apartments that benefit from an incredible range of outdoor facilities including three 18-hole golf courses, a tennis centre with 28 regular and seven padel courts, eight football pitches and a cricket centre featuring two artificial pitches and seven net areas.
Situated just a 30-minute drive from Murcia International airport and around an hour from Alicante, the Grand Hyatt La Manga Golf Club & Spa is the brand’s debut property in Spain and only its fourth in Europe. It reopened in May this year following an extensive refurbishment that has transformed a tired-looking, but well-known, hotel into a sophisticated venue with enviable views over the hills of Calblanque Regional Park. I’m here to get a first-hand look at the improvements to the hotel and find out how it’s aiming to attract a new kind of visitor in addition to its mainstay clientele of golfers and sports enthusiasts.
Refreshing changes
All rooms and suites have been fully refurbished, and the decor in the twin room I share with my guest is typical of the earthy colour palette created for the property by interior design firm Room 1804, which has also collaborated on projects with the likes of Nobu and Fairmont. Although modest in size, the room does boast an impressive bathroom with a marble double sink (one of the few remaining features of the original rooms) plus a large walk-in shower with toiletries by Balmain Paris in eco-friendly refillable containers.
All the usual amenities – robes, slippers, mini-bar, coffee machine – are present and correct, while a huge 65-inch TV hangs from the wall (perhaps for the hotel’s many sports-obsessed guests to get their fix of HD football and golf). The real added extra, though, is the outdoor balcony, a perfect place to enjoy an early-morning coffee in the sun or to see the beautiful pinkish-orange hues cast onto the distant hills as daytime turns to dusk.
Quality cuisine
However successful the aesthetic improvements, it’s culinary quality the Grand Hyatt is pinning its hopes on to attract a wider client base. The previous disparate collection of dining venues has been reorganised and refurbished into a more cohesive – albeit still large – range of options. Of the 11 indoor and outdoor eateries, the undoubted star is high-end restaurant Amapola, where we were lucky enough to dine on the first night of our stay.
We enjoy an eight-course tasting menu (€90pp) that celebrates fresh produce, including local artichokes and a gazpacho with peppers and prawns topped with frozen tomato pulp, a delicious first for me. As the evening progresses there’s a sense of theatre as a "cauldron" bubbling in dry ice reveals the delicate oyster in piquant sauce within, while further courses of turbot in onion sauce and suckling pig add to the gourmet experience. By the time the Grand Marnier souffle arrives, my guest and I are fit to burst, with barely enough room to accommodate the post-meal espresso.
Key driver
To offset some of the calories gained at Amapola, the next day we take to the fairways. There’s no escaping the importance of golf to Grand Hyatt and the wider La Manga Resort – it’s mid-November when we visit, and the tail end of Storm Ciaran may be bringing wind and rain to the UK, but here in Murcia it’s a sunny 23 degrees and the golfers are out in force.
During our stay, we play the original North and South Courses (the newer West Course is a 10-minute shuttle ride away) and, as you’d expect, it’s a seamless experience, from arrival at the pro shop to collecting the keys to the buggy and being escorted by the marshal to the first tee. My favourite course? The South, a venue for many elite championships down the years and where in 1985, I discovered from a plaque at the tee box, 99-year-old Otto Bucher became the (then) oldest player in the world to make a hole in one at the par three 12th. For the record, I scored a 4.
Although the Grand Hyatt doesn’t have to try too hard to attract golfers, other additions and improvements at the hotel have been created to entice different demographics. The existing family pool with its dedicated children’s section has now been joined by a new adults-only infinity pool which looks out over the 18th green of the South Course, while the original spa has been relocated, expanded and reimagined as Alma’, a 1,700 square-metre wellness centre that features six treatment rooms, a hydrotherapy pool area, plunge pool, sauna, steam room and state-of-the-art gym.
Due to the region’s pleasant year-round climate, there’s also an opportunity to send clients to enjoy some festive-season sun, with Christmas packages available plus a New Year’s Eve getaway including a gala dinner, fireworks show and live music performance. And for those wishing to explore off-resort, guests have access to Grand Hyatt’s La Cala Beach Club and Restaurant, just a short drive from the hotel.
There’s definitely a family feel to proceedings on my final evening at The Last Green, the stunning circular bar that all roads seem to lead to for hotel guests at Grand Hyatt La Manga Golf Club & Spa.
Parents with children ranging from toddlers to teenagers stop by for a quick early-evening drink before they’re replaced by the men and women of the golf societies discussing the shots that got away on their rounds that day. Soon they’re joined by locals who have come to eat at the restaurants and who stay to sing along to the music of the live pianist and his repertoire of pop classics.
It’s not a scene you’d find at some, rather stuffier, high-end hotels, and for me that’s the allure of this place – whether you’re here for the sports, cuisine, spa therapy or simply some R&R by the pool, you can do it all feeling super-comfortable with both your surroundings and your fellow guests.
