Grand Slam Tennis Tours
Great seat & vacation pkgs to the 2009 French Open
grandslamtennistours.com
TOPS'L Resort
Top 10 U.S. Tennis Resort Tennis pkgs: 888-248-4964
www.topsl.com
Here's what others have had to say about Longboat Key Club & Resort.
"Longboat Key Club & Resort is a beautiful resort on a lovely relaxing island. The new Tennis Gardens center is outstanding. The courts are great and the staff is very helpful, friendly and knowledgable. Instruction is excellent with daily clinics that are affordable. The staff arranged matches for my son that were very challenging and enjoyable for him. Fabulous facility and can't wait to go back."—L.K., Low Int., July 2009
"Excellent tennis resort, great staff, and coaches. Randy was our clinic instructor--had a lot of patience and helped me tremendously!"—S.F., Beg., June 2009
"The staff at Longboat Key Club and Resort are the best. I want to give special thanks to Jackie, Sandy, Sue and of course the pro Randy. You are the best and I can't want to come back next year."—H.P., Int., June 2009
"The club provide players 4.5 and above during by stay. Ask for Sue, she is the best at scheduling matches. Will return next summer."—P.J., Adv., June 2009
"We had a wonderful trip to Longboat Key. The resort is beautiful! Our accommodations were perfect…a beautifully decorated suite overlooking the Gulf. The service at the resort was understated elegance. We called ahead and asked Sue to arrange tennis matches everyday and she was able to do this without exception. We also took a clinic each day and while the instructors were excellent, the level of students varied wildly. My husband and I are 3.5/4.0 players and twice we drilled with players taking their first lesson ever. Talking around, this seems to be a common problem.
There are many wonderful restaurants within an easy drive of the resort. The on campus dining was excellent as well. It is our understanding that in March, the tennis program will be moving to the Harborside campus (3 miles away) where there are no rental accommodations available. For us this would be a real negative."—K.B., Adv. Int., March 2009
"Lovely resort, well-maintained courts, excellent food in the resort restaurants. We had a gorgeous view from our beachside 10th floor suite. Friendly and helpful tennis staff who help set up matches during your stay. Sue was extremely nice and helpful.
We took semi-private lessons with 3 different pros (we arranged the lessons rather late and probably could have stayed with the same pro during the stay if we had planned it ahead of time). All 3 were very good and responded to our requests for what we wanted to cover in the lessons. We particularly liked Jackie Bohannon, a young pro who stills plays competitively.
Downside, the tennis club members are an older crowd, which gives the feel of a retirement resort. However, there are juniors taking lessons and junior clinics. And, we were matched up with some of the younger members and guests, but average age was still well above 50.
Overall, one of our best tennis resort experiences due to the quality of the resort and the excellent tennis pros. We'd definitely return to this resort."—J.M., Adv. Int., December 2008
"Excellent facilities and staff. Would recommend to anyone. The tennis clinics were awesome."—N.H., Int., November 2008
"Anyone looking for solid tennis instruction and play, along with the ideal location for a resort experience, you cannot beat Longboat Key Club. The instruction was dead-on regarding the most important elements to a successful game. Additionally, the clubhouse has a great selection of tennis goodies. I don't even want to tell you how much I dropped at that place.
The food is great. There is a wonderful breakfast buffet that will put back on all of those calories burned off on court. If you're in the mood for dining off resort, you are a stone's through away from St Armand's Circle where you can get any variety of sustenance.
All things considered, one of my favorite things about the resort is the room itself. It was gorgeous, very modern and sleek. The room was incredibly spacious with a full kitchen and dining table. The bathroom is down a long corridor from the rest of the room, which really give privacy. A real standout of a room.
Ultimately, it's about the tennis. I'm still running the instruction through my mind, each time I'm on the court in a set. That's good stuff!"—V.W., Int., September 2008
"A Wonderful experience I would recommend to anyone. A very attentive and friendly staff. John Langer is an exceptional tennis instructor who in a short period of time had my wife and myself playing at a level higher than we thought we were immediately capable of. Dining at Portofino and Sands Pointe were just great."—T.H., Beg., September 2008
""—D.W., Low Int., July 2008
Rate Longboat Key Club & Resort
The 1,000-acre Longboat Key Club & Resort straddles the southern tip of a long, narrow barrier island opposite Sarasota. 
It consists of two developments: Harbourside, which is primarily residential and faces Sarasota Bay, and Islandside, which caters to both residents and vacationing guests, along the southern end of a 14-mile-long beach fronting the Gulf of Mexico.
In March of 2009, opened the $4.5 million Tennis Gardens at Harbourside. The new facility has 20 Har-Tru courts, one of which is a stadium court with seating for 500 spectators, where they expect to host celebrity events and professional tournaments. The adjacent clubhouse has a restaurant and lounge serving California and Asian-inspired cuisine at breakfast and lunch. It promises to be a great place to hang out and play tennis, with a tennis concierge to arrange matches and programs and a calendar of weekly events during the busy November-to-April high season.
Pro Shop: 941-387-1634
With the opening of the Tennis Gardens, most guests staying at the beach at Islandside, whose tennis facility has been scaled back to four courts, will not doubt be lured across the road 
as Harbourside becomes the focal point of the resort's tennis activity.
Tennis Staff. John Woods, the resort's personable tennis director, came to the Longboat Key Club in 1976. He played for Texas Tech and then traveled with the Laver-Emerson camps for three years between stints at the Houston Racquet Club and the Country Club of Sarasota, among other venues.
Tennis Programs. "We find people come and play their hour and a half or two and then go off and do other things," says Woods by way of explaining why there isn't more variety on the typical weekly tennis calendar. During a typical week, the Islandside facility stages a daily stroke and strategy clinic for adults, Cardio Tennis, and private lessons, supplementing those programs with studious game matching. It adds clinics for juniors during the summer and holiday seasons. Like Palm Beach, Sarasota has a social season from November to April when seasonal residents return and activity on the courts intensifies. Some of those member activities, like the daily men's and women's doubles round robins, which draw large numbers of local members (there are 400 altogether), may be available to guests. "If our tennis concierge finds out a guest wants to play doubles, we'll get them involved with that," Woods continues.
Courts & Fees. There are 20 Har-Tru courts at Harbourside Tennis Gardens, another four at Islandside, and one at the Mmarina. Court fees: None for hotel guests.
Beach. The resort lies near the southern end of the 14-mile-long white-sand beach that lines the Gulf of Mexico coast of the island of Longboat Key. The dunes remain intact at this end, so to reach the beach you use any of several walkways. Once there you'll find lounge chairs and a volleyball net.
Golf Courses. The resort has 45 holes of golf and a golf school.
Islandside Course: Water hazards come into play on all 18 holes of this 6,792-yard, Par 72 course laid out along the Gulf of Mexico. Pink and white oleander and more than 5,000 palm trees and line the fairways, which trail through a bird sanctuary. Harbourside Course: Willard Byrd of Atlanta designed the three nine-hole courses—Red Hawk at 3,426 yards, White at 3,426 yards, and the Blue Heron at 3,376 yards—that make up Harbourside; however, in 2005 and 2006, designer Ron Garl followed up by remaking the Red and the Blue, adding more contour and elevation and improving the putting surfaces. Situated on the Sarasota Bay side of the island, these 27 holes trail through stands of live oak, sabal palms, palmetto, and southern pine. Playing here is a different experience from Islandside, at once more open and more trap riddled.
Spa & Fitness Center. The 4,000-square-foot Fitness Centre stands just a short stroll from the Islandside lodging at one end of the building containing the golf pro shop and the cafe Spike & Tees. The fitness center consists of an aerobics room with windows on three sides and a mirror on other and views of the golf course. There are two adjoining rooms, one with about a dozen pieces of cardio equipment, the other with freeweights. Personal trainers are available, so are a variety of daily classes. It adjoins the Island House Spa, a 9,000-square-foot building containing 12 treatment rooms. There is also a 2,900-square-foot studio in the Charthouse restaurant building at the entrance to the resort with a greatly expanded roster of classes and training, including Pilates Reformer sessions.
And ... There is a beachfront swimming pool at the Resort Center. This is the official venue for the Sarasota Film Festival so they occasionally screen movies outdoors at the golf driving range (a drive-in for golf carts) and in summer at the swimming pool at the Resort Center, dubbing the latter "Movies 'n Tubies."
During the summer and over major holidays the rest of the year, the resort runs a Monday-Saturday 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Kids Klub. It offers a variety of educational activities including nature walks, field trips to an aquarium or the Gulf Coast World of Science, and trips to a zoo as well as on-property recreation, arts, crafts, and water sports.
The resort lodging consists of a cluster of seven rather stark white concrete monoliths rising from four to 10 stories and constructed in a halo around the Resort Center just behind the dunes lining the Gulf of Mexico beach. Their unprepossessing appearance is deceptive: The rooms themselves turn out to be very spacious—none smaller than a suite—with broad deep balconies or terraces and handsome Florida-tropical interiors (slated for complete makeovers in 2007). The best have views of the beach; the rest overlook the lagoon or golf course. All have full kitchens, washer-dryers, and wired and wireless Internet access.
The two main dining options are Sands Pointe, which merges Florida, Mediterranean, and European culinary traditions (e.g., pan-seared black grouper, veal chop with mushroom sauce, Kansas City strip loin) from its perch in the Resort Center overlooking the beach, and the Grille at Harbourside, a steakhouse with an outdoor kitchen. Breakfast and lunch are now both available at the Cafe 21 Café 21 and Lounge at the Tennis Gardens. There is also poolside dining at Barefoots in the Resort Center and Spike 'n Tees, for breakfast, lunch, and a weekly evening barbecue in the golf clubhouse.
If you like the sound of the Resort at Longboat Key, also check out:
Lodging ranges from guest rooms to suites, some as large as two bedrooms.
Travel Instructions. The nearest airport is Sarasota Bradenton International (SRQ), which is 9 miles away and accessible on several national and commuter airlines as well as Canadian Airlines. The alternative is to fly into Tampa International, 72 miles to the north. Rental cars and shuttles are available at both airports.
General Tourist Information. Visit the Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau web site or contact them at 655 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236; (941) 957-1877 or (800) 522-9799, or the Bradenton Area Convention & Visitors Bureau web site or contact them at P.O. Box 1000, Bradenton, FL 34206-1000; phone (941) 729-9177.