Alcaidesa Links
Alcaidesa is located (as the above photo suggests) right on the Mediterranean overlooking the Rock of Gibraltar. More on that later. Played here in 2012 on a family trip. I promised both my girls that if they graduated high school with straight A’s, I would take them and a friend on a dream vacation of their choice. The younger chose Australia and New Zealand, the older one, a two-week driving trek through Morocco. Okay that wasn’t going to happen but convinced her to fly to Lisbon, drive to the Algarve, then Seville then to the Costa Del Sol then a ferry to Tangiers for a day trip and back. If a spouse or offspring ever asks you for a two-week expedition through Morocco, I highly recommend this alternative routing.
Once I changed my daughter’s gears on the itinerary, I thought about where to play. The course to play in the Costa del Sol area of southern Spain is Valderrama. World 100 rated. Ryder Cup. I always suggest if you’re in an area with a top 100 course and you don’t play it, you’ll regret it. I had a chance to play Olympic in SF and Whistling Straits in Wisconsin but was with peeps that didn’t want to fork over the coin to play those and we played lesser courses. I regret that. Here, it was just me and I ended up booking a condo at Alcaidesa and thought that, since it was on the Mediterranean where Valderrama was not, I decided to play here. No regrets!
Keep in mind, Costa del Sol is like the Myrtle Beach of Spain. Except no Hooters. And no strip clubs. And no hokey restaurants or cheesy beach shops. OK it’s nothing like Myrtle Beach, it’s more like 17-mile Drive. There is one great course after another here, but none in the area affords the views that Alcaidesa does. When it comes to memorable holes and courses, I rank Alcaidesa near the top.
From the first tee, you are up at the top of the hill and looking out onto the first and last few holes and the Mediterranean beyond. It’s a great first hole, in fact it’s one of my faves. The fifth is one of the most beautiful and difficult holes. It’s probably a bit unfair and for a few holes I guess the eye candy is given precedence over architectural integrity, but again, if you’re here, you’re probably on vacation and the wow factor of this course more than makes up for any design shortcomings. There are no less than a dozen holes that hug the shoreline here.
The clubhouse is no design shortcoming, it’s a phenomenal modern affair and fits in perfectly to the environment. There was construction going on here when I came and I see the same on Google Street View now. Once all that is done with, this will rank up even higher. I want to come back.
I played with a younger couple from Germany and though he was a decent golfer, he really struggled here. I played really well for me. We enjoyed lunch and drinks afterward and I brought the family up for a lunch after they spent the morning at the beach.
Here’s a hint on squeezing a round in on family vacation. You figure you’re easily allowed one round, no questions asked. The second needs some massaging. If it’s Europe and you’re likely taking a red-eye, play once you land and get settled. The family will be washed out and you get a round in with zero grief if you’re the type that doesn’t need much sleep to function. Alcaidesa was my one free round on this vacation and having a beach that was within walking distance where the family could spend the morning helped me get away with this one in absolute grief freedom. Also, early morning rounds are free time as long as you can get back before ten AM. Since I only played two rounds on this trip, I didn’t need the crack of Christ round here.
I do want to come back to this area and will play Valderrama though we did stop there for the pro shop and I wasn’t blown away. I bought some shirts for everyone from there. Beware of European fit shirts. Even XL is snug. You need the “made for America taco fit” shirts or an XXL in Europe.
Seville was one of the most pleasant surprises I’ve enjoyed in all of Europe, although don’t trust the GPS. I literally had a European Vacation experience where our rental van wouldn’t fit through an alley where the GPS was taking me. Since it was one way, it took all of my Polish engineering skills to get the van to fit through. I did, but scraped up the bumper pushing a car out of our way. I talked my way out of the dent and scratch at the rental car return. We walked the area after finally parking and found the squeeze zone. Photo is below.
The restaurant at Alcaidesa and Antigua Verta Toledo were the highlights of the Costa del Sol dining scene. Stay in Seville too and Casa Robles was one of many great restaurants there. As for Morocco, well let’s say I liked the Disney version much better. I hate pushy crowds and beggars and that summed up Tangiers. There were also no bars here so it was excruciatingly hard to get a beer. Got a few for lunch (for Rolling Rock fans you’ll enjoy the beer name here – take a look at the photo below) and I bribed our tour guide to have a walker or two for the bazaar tour (he said don’t get caught and was dead serious). By the way, don’t do the bazaar tour nor any tour here, it’s a scam to get you to buy spices, carpets or other crap.
Golf Scrapbook 