by The iPad housing grabbed when our Ryanair -Jet decreased on Murcia’s Landesbahn.
Would this be the last time that during our five days in La Manga the thin tones of fantasy football and Peppa Pig can be heard? I was hoping.
We found so much on this sporty playground on the healthy corner of the South Heaster Spain so that the whole family could do together.
During a half with golf, tennis, swimming, walks and long, talkative meals, we remembered why we like ourselves if we don’t argue about homework and were wearing coats and were too late.
Admittedly, it did not start according to plan: La Manga enjoys 320 sunny days every year (although the green golf courses would not suggest this) – but we ended up in a downpour and stepped through mini ponds on the airport car park. The entire half -hour trip rained from Murcia Airport to check in the Grand Hyatt La Manga Club Golf & Spa, a huge hotel that was built in 1993 and was dramatically and expanity in 2023. It plays in 1,400 breathtaking morning.
The sun just came out when we set off to explore this hectare: three pools, a comprehensive spa and the nearby Racquets Club with 41 seats – mainly Clay for tennis as well as a patch and pickleball – and three championship golf courses in which families are really welcome.
La Manga sits in a remarkable geography that is embedded in a valley between robust hills. From the sunny breakfast veranda we looked over a spit – so narrow that it rose from the sea – and separated the Mediterranean from the Mar -Menor.
Near the Calblanque Regional Park is perfect for hiking. It had to be the draw to leave us to leave the boundaries of the well -kept La Manga resort.
After this wet start, the sun seemed strong during our half -time stay in May, the temperature around 25 degrees Celsius: perfect for the sunny pool time and pleasantly sweaty for ball games.
The days fell into a rhythm: a family run in the beautiful golf courses (before the later risk of being hit over the ball)). A leisurely breakfast buffet – this was really noticeable under the huge food offer of the Hyatt: scaly croissants, a series of local cheese and meat; Carafes of just frozen orange juice; Smoothies, churros, eggstation and freshly cut melons, kiwis and oranges that were so cute that they did not seem to seem with their London supermarket equivalents in London that lay with the same name.
Next a flop on the pool. The options included a chilled infinity one for adults and a huge family pool in which lifeguards offered inflatable swans and flamingos, and the 3m depth ended adults and children alike all day and water bombs. It was unheated, but in contrast to other resorts, in which this led to tantrums (me) about the refusal of my children to swim, when I felt what felt like £ 3.2 billion for swimming lessons, the sun was slightly warmed up here to a temperature in which they were easy to overtake.
It was difficult to pull the children away, but La Manga’s sports facilities could do it.
In the first place was a family golf lesson with the former Scottish PGA professional Craig Donnelly. He heads the La Manga golf academy and, as the father of two years, understood the children’s psyche to the extent to which my three quickly enjoyed the fun of a driving range, although our collective experiences were a few rounds of crazy golf.
Craig had our need for a five-year-old to understand the basics of beating with drivers and iron. Gamification, where her green-strict balls had appeared on the nearby screen on exploding cars, she all made them addicted. Craig even secretly gave our youngest booster and had her older brothers watched with awe when she seemed to smash her scores.
It was just as much fun for adults, with tips about our drive, striking geek, no jargon and a lot of fun as well as Trackman tech, where we with Mcilroy et al. We decided to book again in the family golf period when we were back home.
We also found the Racquets Club, a ten -minute walk from the front door of the Grand Hyatt. The British couple Nick and Sally Munns bought the club in 2021, raised the neglected one-time tennis palace (La Manga was the winter training base of the British LTA) and brought it back into a flawless, untouched community club.
The local young Carlos Alcaraz beat here the week before our arrival. My youngest son and I took a lesson from qualified trainer Gregorio, who followed backhand on Hummer-Red Clay dishes.
The entire family was involved the next afternoon: English trainer Trudie had our children giggling and stringing through games like Zombie Tennis at the same time. At the court next door my husband and I had our backhand. A children’s club near the tennis courts allows parents to play solo, while Easter, half term and summer vacation organizes the one-week tennis and paddle camps for children (and adults). However, the dishes were reasonable and easy to book, which made the ideal chance to do sports as a family, a break from the busy individual schedules for home life.
And between all the activities? We ate ourselves in the resort: The Grand Hyatt Hotel organizes 11 restaurants and we tried most of them. When I entered Don Luigi Trattoria from the chic marble lobby, we felt like we were in a Disney version of Puglia: We played UN under the wooden shops of a fairytale Italian Italian pads and enjoyed Burrata-Startter, which of charismatic waiters and cotta-tortell-sorbeta-sorbeta-theater and Panna-side side for dessert and Panna variety, and Creamy Tortellini, plus excellent Sorbet and Panna-Cotta variety, and Cotta variety for dessert.
A highlight was a trip to the La Cala Beach restaurant, which rose from a cliff in front of the glorious backdrop of the Mediterranean. In this packed jewel of a restaurant, we ate fresh seaside bars, the grill vegetables, crispy chicken salad and very Garlicky saucen to the soundtrack of a roaring sea, then combed rock pools and play in the beach caves before they catch a short (free) shuttle back to the hotel.
Evenings included a trip to Asia, a restaurant that served Gyoza, Beijing Duck and Pad Thai and the Grand Terras Grill, in which every cut was meat, butter-button tenders with grilled vegetables, and an old-fashioned dessert trolley held, played, and swimming until they fall from one day, from one day, from one day, from one day And swimming, and they destroyed.
Rooms – there are 192 – are spacious and modern, with a white and wooden palette that makes a welcome recognition of heat and sport. So also the Alma Spa, whose bubbling hydrotherapy pool was opened for the whole family for two hours every afternoon.
The children loved to get into a normal room only in adults, to swim in shoulder-containing nozzles-and I slipped for a “vitamin facial treatment” and fell asleep after peeling, sprays and a mask with a Spanish brand Natura bitter frozen days of solar herb and shine.
The La Manga Resort has something pleasant old. The hotel has its breathtaking modern decor, emerald -fasting and artistic details that make you the style of your own home. However, there are also friendly, lively employees who have been doing the place for years, in horticulture, which has been enjoyed by decades of vacationers, and the feeling that everything has been set up for family enjoyment.
There is a room full of creative toys, puzzles and a mini playground next to the pool in which you can pull yourself out of the sun with your children for some time. The closest to the next there is a few golf buggies in a row, so the children like to play hiding places and football on the site.
We made a single trip from La Manga to explore an evening that discovered Cabo de Palos, strolling this extremely walk -in city with a lighthouse and eating on tunfischburgers and John Dory Oceanside near Bocana de Palos.
Most of the time we stayed very happy in La Manga, where it feels like a real family holiday.
Oh and affect the devices? They stayed in the suitcases from day one. Mission fulfilled.
Two adults and two children in a family room in the Grand Hyatt La Manga cost from £ 556 per night for a three-night stay in July, only for rooms. Discounts and resort credit for longer stays. Book it here
