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TREASURE ISLANDS | |
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According to wise men, the island of Rhodes was more beautiful than the sun and was thus devoted to Hélios… For Homer, “the island of the sun” was Sicily, the island with the three points bathed by three seas: the Tyrrhenian sea, the Ionian sea and the Mediterranean sea. For Incas, the island of the sun is in the middle of the Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and for the Japanese, it is in the extreme south of their archipelago, in Okinawa. Each one sees midday at its door because it is the hour when, once, the mural sundial left only one straight shadow traced by the sun at its zenith. It is the same for the islands. There are thousands of them throughout the world. Philippines on her own counts more than seven thousand islands, as much as in the immense Pacific Ocean from Easter Island to the coral reef of Australia. We selected some of them throughout the sunny seas. To make you dream! | |
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BARBADOS: Best Resort of the world 2007 This heavenly place in the Caribbean had already conquered a solid reputation under the banner of Sir Forte, an Italian golf fanatic who became Baron of Ripley for creating the English luxury hotel chain Trust House Forte. The day before yesterday, it was Tiger Woods who went there in 2004 to marry his fiancée Elin Nordegreen and yesterday, from December 5 to 10, the best golf players competed in the 53rd edition of the World Championship. It should be said that Sandy Lane changed hands and looks. The hotel kept its earlier and original architecture, on the other hand Tom Fazio, one of the best architects, completely reorganized the golf course. Now three courses are available, the Old Course still runs through the old property but has now only nine holes, the nine other holes are now part of the 18 holes of the Country Club course. The last born opened for the championship and bears the name of the country green monkey, the Green Monkey, designed in an old quarry with spectacular viewpoints on the sea.
Sandy Lane Hotel and Golf Resort Barbados Golf Club Royal Westmoreland
From march-april until may-june (Tropical rains) temperatures between 24 and 28°C /year with trade winds.
CYPRUS: The beautiful Aphrodite From the green of the 8th hole of Aphrodite Hills course in Cyprus, you dominate Petra tou Romiou, the cove that saw the birth of Aphrodite, born from the foam of the water in all its natural splendor. All the island is devoted to the goddess of love and beauty and you can follow her steps and history: in the sites where she lived, the baths of Aphrodite in a rock indentation on the Akamas coast of splendid Chrisochou bay; in the palates where she lived in the center of the city of Paphos, close to the Odeon amphitheater, where very beautiful mosaics recall mythological scenes; in the Nicosia museum where the statue of Aphrodite sits enthroned with the famous Leda and swan mosaic... The new visitors come by charters... for the sea, the sun and hot sand. And the latest ones now come with a golf bag to play in Secret Valley or Tsada, but especially Aphrodite Hills, very beautiful championship course with splendid views on the sea. If the summit of the Trodos mounts at 2000 m high is sometimes white, it is rare because Cyprus can be visited in summer and winter alike, the first enjoying the fresh sea breezes and the second on the contrary the lukewarmness of the sea.
InterContinental Aphrodite Hills Hotel Tsada Golf Club, Secret Valley Golf Club
From November until April - Temperature maxi between 16 and 20°C
FIJI: Vijay Singh's golden sand beaches "We could not afford buying golf balls and we played with small coconuts". It is the great Vijay Singh, native of Fiji, who became the best world player ahead of Tiger Woods for 32 weeks in 2004 and 2005, who confessed to a journalist. He added that his father told him that if he wanted to make golf his career, he was to go elsewhere than Fiji where "golf balls do not fall from coconut trees". This is how the future champion ended up in Malaysia, in Borneo, where he got his first title, the Malaysian Championship at 21 years old. He has just been elected this year to the famous "Hall of Fame" of the best world golf players at 53 years old. The Fiji islands are located in the south Pacific Ocean, between Ecuador and tropic of Capricorn, to the west of Tonga, the east of the old New Hebrides, which became Vanuatu - and features the only known par2 hole in the world! The golf holds a privileged status with a dozen golf courses in half a dozen resorts whose "huts" are disseminated under the coconut trees, at the edge of golden sand beaches bathed by the Pacific Ocean, under the tropic of Capricorn sun. What a dream! Let's mention the Denarau Golf & Racquet Club, at the edge of the Pacific in Viti Levu Island, the larget of 332 Fiji islands, whose 15 fairways and greens were designed around arms of the sea. View on the Pacific and the coconut trees, the perfume of the hibiscus create with "the island of smiles" a Fiji atmosphere of paradise.
Denarau Golf and Racquet Club Golf resorts www.fiji-islands.com/golf.html
High season from May to December - Muggy climate with trade winds - Average temperature between 24 and 28°C whole year.
Delta Airlines www.delta.com Air Fiji www.airfiji.net Air Pacific www.airpacific.com Sun Air Fiji www.fiji.to Sunflower Airlines www.fijiguide.com/Sunflower/sunad.html
HAWAII The archipelago of Hawaiian Polynesia in the northern hemisphere will soon count one hundred golf courses among which are twenty of the most beautiful in the world. On the eight main islands of the archipelago, Kauai is the oldest, but also the preferred one among Hollywood filmmakers: each time paradise is evoked, it is here that they come to film. Let's follow them, even more so as there are already sixteen courses, several among beautiful world designs on "the garden island" of tropical forests lined with cliffs. It is there that the famous Poipu Bay Golf Course can be found where is played the annual PGA Grand Slam designed in links by Robert Trent Jones Jr, facing the ocean around four lakes and 80 bunkers. Still better, located on a cliff plateau above the never ending Pacific with the mountains of tropical forests in the background, the Prince Course also designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr in 1990 in Princeville Resort in the north of the island is quoted as the best in the list. A problem in Kauai! An American journalist wrote: "the most difficult thing in Kauai (apart from finding return plane ticket) is knowing where to start among all the activities offered by this island of paradise".
Prince Course et Princeville Hotel Poipu Bay Golf Club et Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa Kuai Vacation Visitors Bureau
Tropical climate - Winter October until April - Average temperature 22° C
Hawaiian Airlines www.hawaiianairlines.com Pacific Wings http://www.pacificwings.com Hawaiian Airlines http://www.hawaiianair.com Aloha Airlines http://www.alohaair.com
HONG KONG: Chinese Albion With New York, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney or Vancouver, Hong Kong is one of the natural sites among the most attractive in the world. The long English presence left some influences like practicing golf which gave place to the development of these circular driving ranges on several floors and the creation of new courses. Without question, the most beautiful, the most spectacular is the splendid Clear Water Bay Golf and Country Club, designed by golf fanatics of the Hong Kong Golf Club and located away from the big city along the Saikung Peninsula. Clearwater bay enjoys an exceptional environment far from the noise and fury of the cosmopolitan Hong Kong city. The course is akin to Pebble Beach or Cypress Point. In fact, its 18 holes take advantage of a tormented natural landscape which offers mind blowing views on the mountains and the sea. The 9 ocean holes have the reputation of being, perhaps, the most beautiful in the world. Let's say that they are exciting and stimulating. The last 9 holes called Highland require skill with each stoke to achieve an honourable score. But winds are a major element with every stroke. Hole 14 is the signature hole and was classified among the 500 most beautiful in the world and 24th in Asia. In the elegant club-house, the Horizons restaurant dominates the course and the landscape. Visitors are welcome during the week, but must be invited by a member on weekends.
Holiday Inn "Golden Mile" www.goldenmile-hk.holiday-inn.com Clear Water Bay Golf and Country club Hong Kong Golf Club
Continuous destination from September until February - Temperature colder between 15 and 25° C
Cathay Pacific www.cathaypacific-air.comDragonair
LANGKAWI: Legendary Malaysia In the North-East of Malaysia, on Andaman Sea, Langkawi is the largest of an archipelago of 99 islands, all more attractive than the other. And legendary, starting from its name which comes from a giant eagle whose gigantic stone statue of the flying bird rises up at the end of Kuah pier: lang, the eagle and kawi, the stone: Langkawi. The island is an enchanting place with its mountain peaks covered by a thick equatorial forest which pushes to the edge of the sea while sparing immense white sand beaches. Navigators come make port here in its coves resembling Halong bay and the golf players come to play on one of the most beautiful courses in the world, Dataï at the foot of the peak which gave it its name. It was designed within the virgin forest which lines its fairways with all its flowery trees and its shady trees and straddles the various brooks which eroded it before ending in the bay. Incidentally, the most colourful escapes are found here, which, by their beauty, distracts even the most blasé golf player. Just for shear pleasure a 19th hole, par 3 185 m long was drawn on the beach strand to allow admiring a panorama of exception. You can also meet there some monitors which are rather familiar of small monkeys, very mischievous and much... thieves.
Golf Club Dataï Bay Other courses: www.malaysia.sawadee.com/kedah/golf.html
Out of monsoon from november until February - Average temperature between 26 and 30°C.
Malaysian Airline www.malaysiaairlines.com Air Asia www.airasia.com Berjaya www.berjaya-air.com Tune Air www.tuneair.com
MADEIRA: Sun in winter Today the tourists come from the north in winter to find the sun, from the south in summer to flee the hot summer days and their own surges of tourists. The golf players also found their place here with three golf courses. The first golf course, the Palheiro Golf Club goes back to 1801 in Quinta de Palheiro which surmounts the island just above Funchal. It was redesigned by Cabell Robinson and the view points are akin with its geographical situation allowing the view on the Desert islands. The second golf course, Santo da Serra Golf Club is a 27 holes course designed by Robert Trent Jones in 1991 on the mountainous escarpments behind the airport. It is a true championship course which accommodated the Portugal Open. Here too, you can find some very beautiful points of view and see Porto Santo Island, the "golden" island 20 minutes by plane or 2 hours by boat. The third course, Porto Santo Golf, designed by Severiano Ballesteros, just opened on this island where Christopher Columbus stopped at the Baleira Villa during one of his peregrinations towards the "West Indies". A festival takes place each year in September to commemorate the time of the great discoveries under the impulse of Henri the Navigator, king of Portugal.
Reids Palace (Orient Express Hotels) Palheiro Golf Club Santo da Serra Golf Club Porto Santo Golf
Whole year - High season (winter) - Average temperature 20°C
TAP Portugal www.flytap.com SATA www.sata.pt Air Luxor www.airluxor.com Portugalia www.pga.pt
www.portugalinsite.com - www.madeiratourism.org What about other islands? Azores, Bahamas, Bahrain, Balearic Islands, Bali, Bermuda, Canary islands, Cocos Islands, Corsica, Jerba, Virgin Islands, Itaparica, Mauritius, New Caledonia, Phukket, Solomon, Samoa, Sardinia, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Victoria... For information, of the 32.000 golf courses existing in the world, nearly 600 insular courses can be counted (except Australia, Scotland, Ireland, Malaysia and New Zealand) which are distributed as follows: Africa: 22 / North America and the Caribbean: 155 / South America: 10 / Asia: 185 (except Malaysia) / Australasia Pacific: 135 (except Australia and New Zealand) / Europe: 76 (except Scotland and Ireland). A whole golfer' life would probably not be enough to visit all these islands with varied attractions and various charms and with prestigious or spectacular golf courses. You always have to make a choice! We simply wanted to make you dream on this New Year. And, who knows, maybe give you some idea for a forthcoming trip? We suggest some destinations. However, we recommend going on the Diplomacy web site of your country. This site will inform you daily about questions in practical terms or safety. French Diplomacy web site: http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/conseils-aux%20voyageurs_909/index.html
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--- Leading money winners on the 2008 European Tour --- Padraig Harrington will be make a short film... --- Eagle and birdies at Royal Mougins Golf&Resort |
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