Hilton Cancun

Part 1: Tequila and Golf?
Your Mexican
Dream Vacation in
Cancun and Cozumel

By Diana Rowe Martinez,
Regional Contributor

For a moment, you're concerned. Sure, beaches are nice, but.Then you see it. The manicured, undulating fairways, peek out of the jungle, offering a verdant lushness not at all like home and the views of crystal clear ocean and lagoons that city purification plants can only dream of. You've arrived in Mexico at the tropical paradise of Cancun in the Quintana Roo, the easternmost state of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Twenty-five years ago, Cancun was a tourist's dream concocted by the Mexican government. These visionaries carved a paradise out of a thick, low, jungle-smothered fourteen-mile islet off the East Coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.

This flawless world offers temperatures averaging 80, with summer and autumn more humid, giving us the most opportune season to visit--winter. How perfect is that? A time of year when many of us look out on our own golf courses and only see snow covered bunkers.

Cancun and Cozumel on the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula present a most intriguing and cultural history.

The international airport is a short bus ride to the Hotel Zone, featuring over 26,000 hotel rooms that lure almost 3 million visitors each year. No Espanol? No problemo. Although Spanish is the primary language, with Cancun's primary industry being tourism, you'll be hard-pressed to find someone that doesn't know English. French and German are also heard due to the international tourist trade.

Okay, so now you're here. What's next?

For those serious golfers without much time to waste, a stay at the award-winning Hilton Cancun Hotel & Golf Club (www.hiltoncancun.com) is highly recommended. A 15-minute ride from the airport, the Hilton Cancun's architectural design of a Mayan pyramid will render you speechless.

Surrounded by sparkling Caribbean water, this beachside resort features 426 guestrooms, with panoramic ocean views. Not only is there a Caribbean view, but in the courtyard are seven heated cascading pools and two Jacuzzis. A few steps more and you're on the beach. A service bar hut under a thatched roof sits in the middle of the pools, for those thirsty beach bums.

The Hilton is a perfect choice for entertaining family vacations. A health club with a sauna massage, a fully equipped gym, sailing, windsurfing, water-skiing, diving, fishing and two lighted tennis courts will keep even the most energetic family active. Perhaps your children are younger? No problemo. Hilton offers a supervised Kids Club and Red Cross certified babysitting services.

You'll never go hungry at the Hilton with Executive Chef Hans Gruber and his mouth-watering menus. How about dinner at the beachside La Sirenita for seafood and oriental specialties? The ocean provides the background music to your romantic dinner. Inside the hotel, Spices Restaurant offers buffet or a la cart breakfast and three kitchens serving menus for dinner: Mexican, Italian and fine meat cuts.

But wait! That's not why you're here, is it? Designed around the Nichupte Lagoon, Hilton Cancun Golf Club (www.hiltoncancun.com/golf.htm) is an 18-hole, par 72 course, 6,767-yard encounter. With brochure captions reading "A Resort Without Golf Isn't Up To Par," and "At Hilton, golf is a way of life," the golfer is in for special treatment.

For those intent on making the most of their golfing vacation, Hilton Cancun offers high season (January-April) 18-hole rates of only $110, but you can do one better by purchasing "Golf in Paradise" packages. Packages include an ocean view room, breakfast, welcome cocktail, and unlimited green fees, starting as low as $988 for 4 days/3 nights.

Pok-ta-Pok Hole 12

Manicured fairways and greens, spectacular scenery, and exotic wildlife awaits you at the Hilton's course, with the special service of Mexican hospitality. All skills of golfers will fair well here with three tee options. Lush Bermuda fairways and greens are designed and constructed with challenges of 78 sand traps, water hazards on each hole and water channels coursing through the grounds.

Your first hole starts off fairly sedate with a 381-yard slightly left, but dry par 4, with bunkers tormenting you along the fairway and surrounding the green. After you've eased into the game, challenges and distractions will await you at every turn. Iguanas, peacocks and all manner of bird life are seen at every picturesque hole. Huge fish swim beside hole #3.

Lagoon sailboats tease you alongside hole #12. Pelicans, geese and three kinds of herons taunt you along Hole #13. If the water doesn't soak up your golf balls, the back nine hosts a mangrove jungle to test your accuracy. Exhausted, you'll drive up to the 562-yard 18th hole only to be rendered speechless by a peek at the El Rey Mayan Ruin, the closest ruin to the Hotel Zone.

Hilton Cancun

But as with any golf game, there's always that 19th hole. When in Mexico, well, it's a golfing tradition to kick back with a cerveza and tequila and why not start here at the Hilton?

Now that you've golfed the Hilton Cancun once or twice, you're ready for another challenge. Lucky for you Cancun has more golf choices.

Golf addicts will drool over Pok-ta-Pok Club De Golf, with championship yardage of 6,602 on a par 72 and hundreds of meters of dramatic shoreline and hosting ancient Mayan ruins.

Designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., it is the oldest course in Cancun. Snuggled between the Nichupte Lagoon and the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea, Pok-ta-Pok is only 20 minutes from the airport with easy access from the Hotel Zone via bus or taxi. Special golf rates are offered to some of the Cancun hotels.

• Part 2: More Tequila and Golf? • Shop, Dine, Dance, and be Merry in Mexico • Sightseeing Adventures in Cancun and Cozumel • From Scuba Diving to Sunbathing... • Past course reviews by Diana Rowe Martinez • TravelGolf.com travel reviews

Hole 1 starts off with a straight and open 354 yard, par 4. At the 3rd hole, beware the Mayan ruins, uncovered during construction. These ruins roost left of the green and only presents trouble for those with a slice. Tall bush-like flowers called txoras and tulipanes are scattered throughout the course in celebration of the bright Mexican colors of red, yellow and pink.

Hole 12's par 4, and 14's par 3 have spectacular, shimmering ocean vistas, with sailboats and parasails drifting on the horizon just beyond the green. The par 5's at Pok-ta-Pok range from 556 to 527 yards, straight shots with trouble in the bunkers. Bunkers are generally wide and long. Sloping greens give you plenty of room but demand a strong putter.

Advance tee times may be made by email at poktapok@sybcom.com. A round of golf at Pok-ta-Pok is very reasonable: low season :$70, high season $105. Mobile cart service is available to those thirsty golfers.

Pok-ta-Pok

A well-stocked Pro Shop and a restaurant and bar await you at Hole 19. While you sip your drink, choose from authentic and tasty Mexican cuisine, or for those less adventurous palates, order a hamburger. As you relax, you'll look out over the Nichupte Lagoon and Hotel Zone and reminisce over your successful golf vacation adventure.

For those history buffs, the phrase "Pok-ta-Pok" refers to the ancient Mayan sport where the victors were actually put to death. But you can rest easy here. Although your golf game could easily "hurt" you, it won't be the death of you here.unless you spend too much time nursing tequila on Hole 19.

Other quick golf fixes in Cancun can be found on the 18-hole par 3 at the Melia Cancun Hotel, and the 9-hole, par 3 at the Gran Oasis Hotel.

No matter your golfing pleasure, you'll find it here in Cancun and Cozumel. And then there is the tequila.

Hilton Cancun Golf Club

Pok-ta-Pok Club De Golf Cancun

Playacar Club de Golf

Cozumel Country Club

Images courtesy of the author and the Cancun Convention & Visitor's Bureau.