Espana-Golf

Michael Godfrey

2007-11-30T14:42:00.000+01:00

Hi Laura.

Thanks for making contact.

Thanks for your help in booking the courses we played. Everything was spot on and I would have no hesitation in recommending your service. All the four tee times were honored and the courses at Rhoda, La Finca and Alamo were superb.

I was however going to email you about the state of Villamartin. To say we were disappointed with the state of the course is an understatement. The course itself was in a dreadful condition. there were contractors vehicles on the course, the walks between tee and green and parts of the course were dangerous, all the tee markers were grouped together at the very front of all the tees and in some cases on the ladies. To negotiate the course in it's present condition was a health hazard.

I have played at Villamartin many times and was looking forward to showing it to the friends I took with me but unfortunately it turned into a bit of an anticlimax to say the least.

When we came off the course I expressed my disappointment to the lady in the booking kiosk and asked if I could speak to the manager. I wished to express to him.

a) My disappointment that I hadn't been advised that we would be playing a short course.

b) That we were not advised prior to play that there was so much work going on and the course was in such a poor and dangerous condition.

In addition I was going to ask if he thought some kind of consideration was in order. i.e. a voucher for a courtesy round at a future date when the course could be considered 'fit to play'.

She said she would contact him and I advised her that we would be having a drink in the 'pool' area. She said she would send him to me. After he hadn't had the courtesy to show up after three quarters of an hour I spoke to her again and got the impression from her that he had been advised that I wished to see him but didn't seam interested. I advised her that I would contact my booking agent and recommend to them that they don't book clients onto Villamartin until they had dramatically improved the course. She didn't seem bothered. I know it had rained a lot and that work has to be done on golf courses, it's just that we should have been made aware before we played.

Anyway, that's my moaning done. Please don't take any of the above as personal criticism. You did your part superbly and and as I said I wouldn't hesitate to recommend your services. Just don't lose your reputation by recommending Villamartin to your clients until you are sure all the work is finished and it is back to its former condition.

By the way. You were right about Campamore. I took my friends to see it and the course was actually closed !

Regards.

Michael Godfrey.

Paul

2007-11-27T14:43:00.000+01:00

Laura,

on a scale of 1-10 id mark our experience at the Oliva Nova course as a 5...The good things were the fact that the course wasn't busy, it was of a standard suited to us (15 handicaps), it was nice to walk the course for once without the need for a buggy or even a trolley, the club house was good and staff friendly....the not so goods were; the course was clearly still in bad shape after the floods, the price did not represent good value and i would have expected some form of discount or offer whilst in the condition it was, there were plenty of tee-times available so we could have been offered greater choice, it was difficult to find, the first 9 holes were extremely slow and there were no marshalls making sure players were not lagging behind or not letting others play through...

would i play it again...prob not as La Sella is much better for similar price

thanks for your service - i would recommend you for bookings

regards

Paul

Dale Smith

2007-11-26T14:44:00.000+01:00

Hi Laura

Thanks for the email. We had an absolutely awesome time! All the boys said it was the best organized and exclusive golf break they had been on. We would be very keen to receive any deals that you have going on for around the same time next year and if anything was extremely interesting between now and then we may consider another holiday? So thank you very much for all your help and advice and just mention to Andy sorry for phoning him at night to get the hotel details and restaurant details as I forgot to take them?

Once again thanks for all your help in making it a really special trip and keep us in the loop with the deals you have going on? Also if you are booking stuff over there regularly we would be interested in any Car hire deals that may be exclusive to you? We do go out to Spain quite often so let me know about that? Next year we are talking about maybe staying exclusively in a hotel for the duration and playing some different courses? We would consider another area of Spain if the price was right?
Cheers.

Dale.

2007-11-19T14:49:00.000+01:00

Hi Laura,

Very good thanks.

The North course at La Cala was in very poor condition though.

I know that was my choice but perhaps you could pass on my comments.

Thanks.

John Horlock

Phil Rickards

2007-11-06T15:50:00.000+01:00

Hi Laura,
Trip was a great success and all went according to plan. Thought your service was first class and will use you again for sure.

Golf courses were in good condition which is more than I can say for the standard of golf - too much San Miguel Im afraid!

Regards

Phil

Daren O'hara

2007-11-05T14:53:00.000+01:00

great time,alenda golf course in fine condition great clubhouse only downfall time it takes to play round. las ramblas beautiful looking course, very tough but worth the experience
la marquesa is a no no badly run hundreds of people you should think of removing this course off your list, we spoke to other players there and all agreed. alltoreal is a course you shouls add to your list as it is well run and the course is in good condition and not full of brits. vilamartin is not somewhere i would rush to go back to, the round took nearly 6 hours and playin in the dark is very tough (lol),to many people and badly run,course not to bad
still it was a great time and i will be re booking in the new year and try some other courses ie la finca, la romero and others

i would like to thank all the staff at espana golf,(cheers andy for taking all my calls )hope the buisness keeps going forward and i will see u in the new year
all the best

daren o'hara

Andrew Stills

2007-10-29T14:57:00.000+01:00

hi laura

yes we arrived back safe and the golf was good apart from the rain at las ramblas which was a shame as the course is very good.

by far the best we played was la finca (if a little difficult to find following the directions on their web site), villa martin was slightly rough in comparison as andy did warn me but on the whole it was ok.

we are hoping to go back early next year as my nephew was unable to travel this time due to him having had an operation so i will definately be booking with you again hopefully in march 2008 and possibly later in the year

regrads

andy

Clare

2007-10-23T14:59:00.000+02:00

Hi Laura

We are now safely back home and glad to be in a comfortable bed!! We found Villamartin and Las Ramblas, particularly Las Ramblas very challenging, great to play. Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us and we had some freaky weather, rain and thunder one day and then sunny the next. The rainy days were at Las Ramblas so we never saw the course at its best and both matches had to be abandoned. We managed to change one day at Villamartin and so played in beautiful sunshine Monday our last day. I did not play that well on the last day but the times before we all played to our handicaps.

Thanks for your help and for keeping in touch.

Best wishes Clare

Andy

2007-10-16T16:01:00.000+02:00

Dear Laura/Andy,

Many thanks for making our golfing weekend a success. All my party agreed that the quality of your service and the standard of course you recommended and booked for us was outstanding. The golf we played may not have reached the same high standards but that didn't detract from our enjoyment of the weekend.

Many thanks once again.

Kind regards

Andy

Stevie Wood

2007-10-12T16:08:00.000+02:00

Hi Laura, Yes I can confirm we arrived back safely and all had a great time, the courses we played were of a mixed standard but all in all very good. The rio real course was by far the best we played closely followed by los olivios, I don’t think we would play miraflores again neiher of us wee very impressed with this course.
The tee off times were great and much appreciated.

We intend doing another two trips next year and would certainly use your company to book the courses again.

Once again many thanks

Regards

Ian Perry

2007-10-12T16:07:00.000+02:00

Hi Laura,

We had a great trip thanks. All our bookings worked well with no issues. My only comment was at a couple of courses Hacienda and Roda we had to pay insurance for Spanish golf federation. Not an issue as it was only a few euros’ each but could you offer a registration upfront?

In terms of the courses…

Hacienda – fantastic! Long and a tough challenge. Two of us played off 12, one of us off 16. He struggled a bit with it so you may want to give it a realistic indication to people. It was also a long walk. The course was 7000 meters, plus walking between tees which was a long way. Course set up for buggies really, we walked!! Great course and will appeal to lower handicap golfers as you have to drive the all really well.

Roda – ok, good course, not great. Will feel very claustrophobic when more apartments built.

La Finca, excellent and for one of our party his favourite course. Busiest of the courses. However we were delayed by storms, we stayed and went out first, so again enjoyed it without being held up. Most people would love this course.

Desert Springs, I loved it!! Really tight course, but not overly long like Hacienda. Fantastic greens and course in excellent condition. Best presented of the courses we played all week including La Manga. A two hour drive from La Manga/Murcia but worth the journey.

Hope this helps.

Ian

Norman Colclough

2007-10-12T16:04:00.000+02:00

Hi Laura,

The service you provided was excellent, the times reserved were entirely in keeping with the requests that I made. The only panic that I had related to the first tee time at Bonalba being shown on the voucher as 11-04 when we were landing at Alicante at 10-15. This had been sorted by you though with a rearranged time of 12-32. It was correctly shown on the summary.

This is our 12th successive year of going to the Alicante area in October and, as usual, we had a great time. Real de Faula - Levante was the only new addition to the courses that we choose to play due to a price reduction from last year. This offered better value and more than lived up to expectations. Our first visit, on Thursday 4th October, was called off due to thunderstorms closing the course but luckily we sat it out in the luxury of the 5* accommodation. Andy has said that he will refund the cost by cheque.

Alicante is a well designed course that is always in good condition but suffers from the close proximity of properties. We arrived at this course again for an 11-04 start shown on the voucher but as 12-48 (the correct time) on the summary. They did manage to squeeze us in at about 10-50 to save hanging around and for which we were grateful.

Alenda is testing and was previously the cheapest of the courses and was generally in the worst condition. The price had increased for this year following the completion of the new clubhouse but the course was in much better condition overall.

Bonalba has consistently been one of our favourites and proved to be so again.

La Sella is the toughest of the courses golfwise and has improved in condition since last year. The time was a little later than ideal but priority would be given to Marriot hotel guests.

All of the courses had carried out some light maintenance work on the greens in late September and we probably played them a little too soon afterwards. It did not, though, spoil our overall enjoyment and had to be balanced with the reduction in available light had we chosen to go later in October.

Hope this is useful feedback.

Regards,

Norman Colclough

Andy Craig

2007-05-29T16:09:00.000+02:00

Hi Laura,

we had a great time. the apartment was comfortable, although I would say it is more than a 10 min walk to the port! Well I suppose Linford Christie might be able to do it.

The golf courses were great although the last one we played looked tired & we would probably not go back. The first course included buggies & I think it would be useful to point this out & offer a buggy booking service for courses that have buggies but are not included in the price.

Overall very good.

we are planning to do this again next year as it will be 30 yrs since we became friends so feel free to get in touch with me after the summer mayhem!

Regards

Andy

Bryan Seddon

2007-05-25T16:19:00.000+02:00

Hi Laura

Yeah great holiday, weather could have been better only 2 sunny days but no one can control that!!
Golf courses were amazing you picked 5 great ones, we also booked La Quinta again for the Sunday but had to cancel cause of the rain!! We all played really well on all days and have rated the courses best first:
Almenara :10 out of 10 It was so wet that day only problem La Quinta : 9.5 out of 10 Great course a bit short though GPS on buggies was

really good
Monte Mayor : 9 out of 10 Don't know how they built this course amazing!!!
Some great views and
great holes totally different to anything i have ever seen, also GPS on buggies Los Arqueros : 8.5 out of 10 Good front 9, back 9 was a little poor El Paraiso : 8.5 out of 10 Quite short but in great condition, we walked this course and it was fine!!

We had a problem at Los Arqueros on Fri morning got there handed voucher over and were told we didn't have a tee time it had been booked and then cancelled, but guy at the shop was really helpful made a few phone calls and

then said it wasn't our problem and let us play so not really that sure who paid for it, just as well cause left your contact details in the apartment that day!!!
We found the courses with no problem except Monte Mayor which looked on our map 10 min away but was really about 40 mins and over 2 mountains, we got a costa del golf book at the first course which also helped.
Had no problems with car hire very smoothly done had to report a small scratch on a door which they had missed before we took it out but apart from

that the car had enough space and was fine.
The apartment was brilliant so big and everything we needed, clean and tidy good garden sky and great pool little cold though basically everything that was said in the pack, we had a bbq 2 nights and went out the rest, the restaurants and bars were in good walking distance although not 2 busy but didn't expect that at this time of year. If we were to go back to the same area next year we would want to stay in that apartment again if possible but

maybe sample some of the other courses in the area but will get back to you on that later in the year.
Your service has been great and the price you got us was the best after speaking 2 alot of other golfers at the courses we seemed to get the best deal and i name dropped espana golf in to our conversations so maybe some extra business for you!!!!, if we decide to do it again next year we will use espana golf again and have your email address saved in my contacts list so could be in touch later in the year.

Thanks for a great holiday
Bryan

Michael Mee

2007-05-24T16:11:00.000+02:00

Hi Laura,

We arrived back safe and well thank you.

We were met at the airport by Celia from the hotel who was very nice and had great English. We found here very pleasant and helpful. The hotel, while close to Valencia, seems quite remote probably because it is surrounded by the beach on one side and the natural park on the other. The main problem was that there were no shops in the local area other than what the hotel had to offer. The hotel itself is lovely and service at all levels was excellent. The shuttle bus service to Valencia is very good also and quite frequent with very pleasant and helpful drivers always willing to assist. The big let down was El Saler golf club. The was no clubhouse, no facilities and the entire place is a building site with the construction of the new hotel and club house. The course, although excellent, was in poor condition especially the greens which they were continually working on for the 3 days we played it. We felt that we should have been informed from the beginning that all this work was going on which probably would have steered us away from that course on this visit. We played the place 3 days and had to put up with allot of inconvenience which annoyed many within my group. We then went to play El Bosque and found that we were not booked in to play at all. We were being turned away by club officials saying they could not fit us in because the course was busy that day and nobody had informed them that we were coming. I contacted the hotel who asked if we would consider playing El Saler or Escorpion later in the day. In the meantime the club manager from El Bosque came out and told us to get ready to play. Imp not sure where the blame is on this one but its certainly would point to a serious lack of communications between the hotel and El Bosque golf club. Escorpion was excellent, well presented and the service provided was courteous and efficient. We were all very impressed by Escorpion.

Hope this is helpful

Many thanks for your service Laura to us which was excellent and very efficient from start to finish

Kind regards
Michael

Neil Halliday

2007-05-14T16:12:00.000+02:00

Hi Laura

Everything went really well – especially the weather. The courses were in great condition. I will give you a shout when I am organizing our next trip.

Kind regards

Neil

Darren Tickle

2007-05-09T16:15:00.000+02:00

Hi Laura

It was a fantastic holiday overall thank you. The hotel was fantastic, good location, good staff. The golf courses couldnt fault them both very different but would recommend both to anyone, two great rounds of golf with breath taking views especially on the D'aro course!!!

Service received from yourselves was excellent as well, would definitley use you again, so again thank you!

Darren

Paul Eyre

2007-05-03T16:14:00.000+02:00

hacienda fantastic, mosa trajectum very expensive not in very good condition not worth 80 euro but bar made up for it

all the best

Paul Eyre

Sameer Ahmed

2007-04-30T16:16:00.000+02:00

Laura

We have all had a great time. Baviera is a world class course. Annoreta was good. Granada is good but is expensive. Would be nice to be able to get buggies booked (and paid) in advance.

Happy with your services. Forgot to take vouchers, but Andy was at hand to fax them directly and save us. We will book again with you guys. Thanks a lot.

Sameer Ahmed

Laurence Abney

2007-04-26T16:17:00.000+02:00

Laura

We were all very happy with the package, the car had a few knocks and dents when we picked it up, but functioned well. The hotel was good - friendly staff, good service, nice rooms. The golf cources were very good, we ranked them
1. Los Arqueros, 2. La Quinta, 3. Monte Mayor, but all were first class.

We did have some delays with our flights back, so next year we will fly to a location direct from Stavanger Norway (Probably Alicante), but we did all enjoy the break and would not hesitate to use espana-golf again next year and indeed I am activly telling people I know how good the break was and about Espania-Golf.

Thanks for your help and I will be in contact next year.

Regards
Laurence

Seddon Party - Costa del Sol

2007-04-15T21:30:00.000+02:00

Hi Laura

Yeah, great holiday, weather could have been better only 2 sunny days but no one can control that!!

Golf courses were amazing you picked 5 great ones, we also booked La Quinta again for the Sunday but had to cancel cause of the rain!!

We all played really well on all days and have rated the courses best first: Almenara :10 out of 10 It was so wet that day only problem La Quinta : 9.5 out of 10 Great course a bit short though GPS on buggies was really good Monte Mayor : 9 out of 10 Don't know how they built this course amazing!!! Some great views and great holes totally different to anything i have ever seen, also GPS on buggies Los Arqueros : 8.5 out of 10 Good front 9, back 9 was a little poor El Paraiso : 8.5 out of 10 Quite short but in great condition, we walked this course and it was fine!!

We found the courses with no problem, except Monte Mayor which looked on our map 10 min away but was really about 40 mins and over 2 mountains so we got a Costa del Golf Book at the first course which also helped.

Had no problems with car hire very smoothly done had to report a small scratch on a door which they had missed before we took it out but apart from that the car had enough space and was fine.

The apartment was brilliant, so big and had everything we needed, clean and tidy good garden sky and great pool little cold though basically everything that was said in the pack, we had a bbq 2 nights and went out the rest, the restaurants and bars were in good walking distance although not 2 busy but didn't expect that at this time of year.

If we were to go back to the same area next year we would want to stay in that apartment again, if possible, but maybe sample some of the other courses in the area. We will get back to you on that later in the year.

Your service has been great and the price you got us was the best, we found this after speaking 2 alot of other golfers at the courses we seemed to get the best deal. I name dropped espana golf in to our conversations so maybe some extra business for you!!!!, if we decide to do it again next year we will use espana golf again and have your email address saved in my contacts list so could be in touch later in the year.

Thanks for a great holiday

Bryan

Batty Party - Costa Blanca

2007-03-30T21:30:00.000+02:00

Hi there,

We arrived back last night and had a really good time.

Our experiences were on the whole very good. When we arrived at Roda we found first of all the staff were extremely nice and helpful and really made you feel welcome. The golf course was fantastic, scenery wonderful, the greens excellent and to end our day the bar staff and pro-shop staff were the best.

La Finca, I had played about 12 months ago and it was under going a lot of transformations. I could not believe the changes that had taken place. The course was challenging and kept you thinking all the time. Probably my favourite course.

La Marquesa was slightly difficult to find, but once there what an eye opener, an extremely challenging course in front of us. Again with a little bit of money spent it could be even better.

I will come back to you in the future and was very happy with your service.

Once again, thanks for everything

Graham Batty

Davidson Party - Costa Blanca

2007-03-29T21:30:00.000+02:00

Hi all, the trip went well - thank you - we had played La Sella before and it is a fair test of golf for all handicaps from single figures to 24.

Thanks for all your help

Tony

Stefansson Party - Costa del Sol

2007-03-28T21:30:00.000+02:00

Hi - Everything went well and we are happy with our trip to Spain. Hotel was good, both the rooms and food. The staff at the hotel was wery nice and helpful and the transport to and from the golfcourses was excellent, always on time. Most of our time was spent on the golf courses and we liked it a lot - especially the Atalaya old course (for us with high handicap it was somewhat easier).

Thank you for your arrangement and we will for sure look at your website for our trip next autum.

Best regards

Arnar og Heida from Iceland

Tony

2007-03-28T16:24:00.000+02:00

Dear Laura

All worked well, thank you, and we very much enjoyed our golf. Many of the courses in the area are having problems with their greens and La Marquesa was no exception. Whilst our reception from the caddy master was a little disdainful, we were made very welcome in all other “departments”.

Thank you for your part in the lead up to our trip to Spain.

With many thanks

Best wishes
Tony