Apes Hill Golf Resort, Barbados
Barbados may be famous for its green monkeys, but its newest resort—Apes Hill—is named for primates that are not native to the island and is designed to attract two-legged members of the order: the golfers who will arrive to play its new course with sweeping views of both the Caribbean and Atlantic.
The all-villa resort, with its new layout reserved for members, homeowners and overnight guests, is the only place you can stay and play all the marquee golf courses of Barbados, an island that now trails only the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico in the number of standout Caribbean golf designs.
Replacing an existing course, the new course is the last design by the late Ron Kirby, best known for Ireland’s Old Head links. Apes Hill combines a dramatic rolling site with major elevation changes, exposed limestone and coral rock at every turn. It finishes in front of the clubhouse with an extra (19th) hole, a re-creation of the famous island-green, par-3 at TPC Sawgrass. The Little Ape, a nine-hole par-3 course with holes from 95-145 yards, adds another venue.
Everything here is new and shiny, including the clubhouse with the resort’s main restaurant, an open-air bar and more casual eatery and tennis center with lighted courts in various surfaces. The state-of-the-art golf performance center debuts as one of the best in the Caribbean and has multiple indoor/outdoor bays equipped with Catalyst swing analysis, pressure plates and a PutView indoor putting center.
Opened just before the Christmas holiday season, it currently has 10 three-bedroom Fairway Villas along the 18th fairway, close to the center of the club facilities. Each has a full kitchen, indoor and outdoor living areas, plunge pools and a golf cart. At under $1,000 a night most of the year and sleeping eight, these are relative bargains. Even more luxurious four-bedroom Hilltop Villas will be added this year, to be followed by a 30-room beach resort, spa and beach club in Hole Town, the epicenter of Barbados dining, shopping and nightlife, just five minutes away. Until then, Apes Hill guests have beach club privileges at the nearby luxury Fairmont Royal Pavilion hotel, including a full range of water-sports equipment. You can also roam Apes Hill’s vast property, interlaced with miles of walking and mountain biking paths through the jungle.
