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Travel Mexico: Vámonos!
Mexico is home to some of the most stunning golf holes you will ever see.
Punta Mita
No room for error
There are island greens and then there are island greens. This rocky land mass -- a true island -- is the 194-yard third hole at Punta Mita Golf Club. At high tide, players ride out to the green in an amphibious shuttle.
The Jack Nicklaus-designed course is part of the luxurious Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita (fourseasons.com/puntamita) in Riviera Nayarit, an easy 45-minute drive up the coast from Puerto Vallarta. Opened in 1999, the course features nine holes along either the Pacific Ocean or Banderas Bay. Golf Digest's Planet Golf ranking lists it as the country's sixth-best course.
Rooms at the resort start at $535 a night. The green fee: $195. A second course by Nicklaus is under construction onsite.
• View more photos of Punta Mita Golf Club• Places To Play Directory: Read more about this course
El Tamarindo
Play misty for me
Carved out of a mountainous jungle, El Tamarindo Golf Club has spectacular vistas on nearly every hole, often bathed in a gentle haze. Shown here is the 157-yard 12th, with the Pacific Ocean in the background.
The 11-year-old course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. and David Fleming, sits on a 2,044-acre nature preserve near Melaque, about 45 minutes from the airport in Manzanilla. It's not unusual to spot wild boars or tejónes (tay-HO-nays), the latter an indigenous creature that looks like a cross between a raccoon and an anteater. The green fee is $210.
Guests at El Tamarindo Beach & Golf Resort (eltamarindoresort.com) stay in elegant thatch-roof villas that open completely to the elements. A number of these villas are within yards of the beach. Each comes with a pool and hot tub. For most of the year, room rates start at $625.
• View more photos of El Tamarindo Golf Club
Vista Vallarta
Flower power
Playing at Vista Vallarta, it's tempting to focus on the remarkable views of Puerto Vallarta and the Bay of Banderas six miles in the distance. But don't underestimate the natural beauty of the courses. This is the ninth hole at the Nicklaus course -- a 182-yarder that's framed by colorful bougainvillea on one side and the Sierra Madre Mountains on the other.
The course, which opened in 2001, was the site for the World Golf Championships the next year. It's Mexico's No. 4 course, according to Golf Digest's Planet Golf ranking. An excellent, somewhat more jungle-y course by Tom Weiskopf -- No. 8 in Mexico -- is part of the complex as well. Green fees are $183 at both. Several hotels in Puerto Vallarta offer stay-and-play packages (vistavallartagolf.com). At the Velas Vallarta Suite Resort & Convention Center from late March through mid-December, two people can stay for three nights and play unlimited golf for $1,200, plus $42 a round for a cart.
• View more photos of Vista Vallarta• Places To Play Directory: Read more about this course
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