Hello everyone,

I asked one of the tennis getaways participants a while back to write some paragraphs about her experience at one of our Tennis Trips to Costa Rica at Paradisus Playa Conchal that she participated in. This is what I kindly received from her last week:

My experience in your tennis camp in Costa Rica in December of 2009 was amazing. I had never been to Costa Rica before but had heard great things about the country and found it all myself to be very true! The weather was wonderful and the resort was incredible. Our group consisted of 7 players total, 4 of us from New York City and 3 players from the Washington, DC area. Everyone in the group had a similar playing level and ages, so we all got along great and even became friends.

Every day we would wake up, have a delicious breakfast with lots of different fruits and then hit the courts. Jorge Morera and Juan Salis, our instructors, were very energetic and would keep us busy hitting ball after ball for a solid hour. We would then play points with the other players and the instructors would play in as well. We played both singles and doubles; and by the end of practice we would be drenched and ready to relax and enjoy everything that Costa Rica and Paradisus Playa Conchal offered.

The first few days I went to the beach a lot and worked on getting a good tan. The beach is beautiful, perfect white sand and crystal clear waters, just how you see it in commercials on TV! A few of us did snorkeling and rode a jet ski, which was an adventure to say the least!

I also took a tour to Arenal Volcano, now that was a blast. We were able to see the volcano and hear it as well. It was amazing. We also went to Tabacon Resort and tried out the hot springs, definitely one of the best experiences of my life. The other tour we did was a bird watching tour to a nearby nature park close to the town of Liberia. We enjoyed that very much and got to even have a typical Costa Rican lunch in the middle of the rainforest while listening to birds sing, not bad!

The last few days we were there we all went to the beach as much as possible (because we knew that up north it was snowing and we would not see a beach again until summer!). Throughout the week, we all ate like royalty too. Paradisus Playa Conchal has at least 8 different restaurants, each one has a different theme and they are all a la carte. And since the package is all inclusive, well we would sample everything in the menu, especially the giant sized shrimp with a special sauce served at Club Gabi, my favorite restaurant of all of them. Other restaurants also served Asian, Mexican, Italian and Mediterranean food. We went to all of them, all very good and the service was outstanding, we were definitely pampered.

We played lots of tennis everyday we were there except for one, which was set aside for a full-day tour somewhere in Costa Rica. All the tennis drills were incredible and both instructors paid close attention to detail and had an upbeat personality that we all loved. Even though everything else was above and beyond what we expected, tennis was definitely the highest point of this incredible trip. I felt like my tennis game definitely improved and had fun while doing so.

The day that I did not play tennis, I actually played golf. The resort has a very nice golf course on the premises and I enjoyed playing with a couple from Los Angeles that was on vacation there as well. I was the only one from the group that played golf, everyone else that day went on hotel arranged tours around Guanacaste.

In general, I would say that this is one of the best vacations I have ever taken in my life. Had a wonderful experience and would not hesitate to go on another tennis trip with the Sports for Nature Team in the future. The 3 friends that went with me were very pleased as well, we all had a blast!

We wish to thank Jorge Morera and Juan Salis for a wonderful job, for keeping us busy through the trip and motivating us to run every ball down out on the tennis courts. We would also like to thank the Sports for Nature Team for putting together this exceptional trip. No detail was overlooked and the experience will be unforgettable!

Best wishes,

Kathryn, avid tennis player from New York City

Thank you Kathryn for the very kind words! I am personally delighted that you had a nice experience and I look forward to seeing you out on the tennis courts again in the near future!

I’ll be in touch soon regarding other Sports for Nature updates. As I had mentioned previously, we have big plans ahead and hope that everything goes well. Oh, and by the way, please don’t forget to watch the tennis US Open, it starts today and will be played over the next 2 weeks (can you tell that I am a tennis fanatic?!)!

Kind regards,

Jorge

Sports for Nature = Reinventing sports to save the planet

Healthier people in a healthier world!

www.sportsfornature.com