Riva dei Tessali

Riva dei Tessali treated my friend and I like kings while we were there recently. Granted, it is the off-season, but we were amazed at the spacious, immaculate accomodations, the low price and the level of service. We stayed in the "Golf Residence," not the Golf Hotel. The residence is a two-story, 2BR, 2BTH townhouse overlooking the 10th and 11th holes of the old Riva course. It came with dinner (with wine) and breakfast for only 90 Euro per person. Golf was also outstanding, as Riva features a daily green fee which lets you play both courses, the old Riva and the new Metapunto for the same 38 Euro (carts are 20E, trolleys 2E, range balls 2E per bucket). Again, very reasonable. And the hotel shuttled us between the courses and even let us play Metapunto on the day it was closed -- so we had it all to ourselves! Of the two courses, Metapunto is by far in the better condition, with marvelous smooth, consistent fairways and decent greens (they were being seeded, so we had to make allowance for that). It is very LONG if you play it from the tips, which we did NOT. :-) It is a links style course, very open, and a lot of wind. The Riva course is in less fabulous shape, again allowances for the off season, but it was still a tough test and a scenic track. It is more of a resort course, with lots of trees, water in play on a handful of holes, and also fairly long, with some very sharp doglegs. Like most European courses, it is unforgiving for the inaccurate. The entire experience was fabulous. The service was the nicest I've had in southern Italy, the value for the money was exceptional. In fact, the only thing that wasn't outright cheap was the pro shop... bring your own golf balls, they want 15E for a sleeve of three Top Flights (we're talking US$8 for 30 balls at Walmart) and you WILL lose a few, like I said the course is unforgiving. I would also say, plan your trip for the off season. The weather in early February was short-sleeve mild and the courses were virtually empty (the closed Montepunto WAS empty) and I'm sure the service and prices were better due to the lack of guests.