Great Tennis Destinations
On a Shoestring Budget

Looking to save money on your next tennis vacation? Tennis Resorts Online wants to help. What follows is a half dozen tips to help make the most of your tennis-vacation dollar.

With a little research (our search form can help) you can track down resorts with the most economically priced rooms. For example:

• Litchfield Beach & Golf Resort, Pawleys Island (near Myrtle Beach), SC. Even during high season from late June to mid August, the modest rooms at its Seaside Inn can cost as little as $109/night and drop to below $100 in spring and fall and to as little as $59 in winter. Although the inn is physically just outside the resort proper, it does have private beach access and its own river pool, and guests can take advantage of all the resort's recreation, including golf and the park-like 17-court tennis complex.

• Stratton Mountain Resort, Vermont rates at the Inn at Stratton Mountain run $69/night midweek and $79/night weekends. Staying there give you full access to all of the mountain's extensive recreation, including its 15-court sports center and the Gunterman Tennis School and its adult and junior programs. Alternatively, like many resorts, Stratton also offers the option of renting a condominium with a fully-equipped kitchen. For families, couples traveling together, or groups of women willing to share beds, these can be even better deals than hotel rooms, and give you the option of not having to eat every meal out in a restaurant.
• Homestead Resort, Glen Arbor, MI. Its five clay courts, one of them a small stadium, begin along Lake Michigan and wrap around the beach club. That scenic location aside, the complex lures an avid clientele with its clinics, mixers, children's tennis camps, and Saturday exhibitions. Rooms there start at $92/night.

• Taos Tennis at the Quail Ridge Inn, Taos, NM. Kurt Edelbrock has been a fixture on these 10 hard courts since 1980. From May into October, he runs a variety of weekly adult and junior programs as well as four sanctioned tournaments, all designed to lure his 200 local members to the courts but benefiting those who stay in the adjacent condos, where a courtside room with a kitchenette starts at $85.
• Tremblant, Quebec, Canada. Not the bargain it was when the US dollar was stronger but rooms in the Pedestrian Village started at $119 Canadian this past summer and you could save 20 percent—and get unlimited free access to the beach and lakefront tennis club and to the panoramic gondola—by booking 21 days in advance.
• Whistler Racquet Club, Whistler, BC, Canada. You'll find deals similar to Tremblant's as the bonus of programs run by former Top 50 player Marjorie Blackwood and Canadian National Masters Doubles Champion Peter Schelling. They offer themed camps on selected weekends (warning: these sell out early), junior camps during the week in July and August, and social, leagues, and game-matching the rest of the time at the 11-court club.

Although you often get a price break by booking a hotel-and-tennis package, you may be able to save more by staying outside the resort and opting for only the tennis program. Among the programs offering that option are:

• Van der Meer Tennis, at both its Shipyard and Tennis Center locations, on Hilton Head Island.
• Stan Smith Tennis Academy, Sea Pines Resort, Hilton Head Island, SC.
• Reed Anderson Tennis School at Westin Mission Hills Resort, Rancho Mirage, CA
• Desert Tennis Academy at Shadow Mountain Resort & Club in Palm Desert, CA
• Vic Braden Tennis College, Green Valley Spa, St. George, UT

When it comes to tennis camps, the most economical options are generally the programs that take place on college campuses during the summer, where lodging is most likely to be a dormitory and dining the school cafeteria. For example:

• Nike Amherst Tennis College, Amherst, MA
• Swarthmore Tennis Camps, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
• Brady Tennis Camps, University of California at Santa Barbara, CA
• Ed Collins Tennis Academy, family/adult camps on two campuses in San Diego, CA

Alternatively, look at dedicated facilities that bundles tennis with lodging and meals. For instance:

• John Newcombe Tennis Ranch, New Braunfels, TX
• Total Tennis, Saugerties, NY
• Ramey Tennis Schools, Owensboro, KY

High season at a tennis resort or camp commands the highest tariffs, so if your schedule allows it, look to the weeks and months on either side of high season for a break on rates. For example:

• The Buccaneer, St. Croix, U.S.V.I. The deluxe oceanfront room that goes for $660/night in January is $420/night in November.
• Palm Springs, CA. conditions for tennis during the fall can be delightful and yet room rates are typically 15 percent lower than they are in winter.
• Hilton Head Island, SC. A one-bedroom condo in Sea Pines Resort that goes for $165 from early June to mid August, drops to $135/night from mid August to late October and then to just $110 from late October to the end of February.
• Many tennis camps also price their shoulder seasons at a discount, including New England Tennis Holidays, which consistently ranks as the No. 1 camp in our annual reader poll.

Broadly speaking, if you're headed for a hotel that caters to large convention groups, like the Desert Springs, A JW Marriott Resort & Spa, in Rancho Mirage, CA, then you're likely to get a better rate on weekends than during the week. By contrast, resorts and camps that whose clientele are primarily vacationers may have better rates midweek than on weekends. If your plans are flexible, check both to see what you can save.

Ask, too, whether the hotel or resort offers discounts to members of AAA, AARP, government employees, military, or any other affiliation that applies. And finally check to see whether you have to be a guest of the hotel at all to take advantage of the tennis services. You don't at the Desert Springs Marriott—except during the major holidays—it has hard, clay, and grass courts and a lengthy roster of clinics and drill sessions. Nor must you stay at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, AZ, to use its grass and Rebound Ace courts.

If you do plan to stay at the resort, look into their tennis packages, which usually bundle in a discounted room rate. Be skeptical, however, of any package that does not include unlimited free court time—or at least as many hours a day as you hope to play. Court fees of $25 or more an hour are not unusual and can add significantly to the cost of your vacation.

Assessing the real value of a tennis package unfortunately involves a certain amount of drudge work with a calculator. Some come padded with meaningless fluff like a one-hour daily clinic—which may turn out to be free whether or not you're on a package—and a visor or T-shirt you may not want. To sort out a package's value, list its cost and extras and compare that with the room-only rate for the same period. Then phone the pro shop and find out what those extras would cost à la carte as well as the cost of court time (which can be hourly or daily) and any clinics or drill sessions you hope to take. That should give you all the information you need determine whether the package is truly a good deal for you.

If it isn’t, see whether the pro shop staff can do better. If you’re a family or group of four or more, you may be able to negotiate a tailor-made package better than any generic tennis package the resort offers.