Holiday time can bring out the groans or the glee, depending on what geographic part of the world you plan to be in. Most golfers would agree that certain places bring out the Yuletide festivities better than others. A Christmas spent away can also be sweet taste of how others enjoy the season. Make your own list, "checking it twice", and see if it matches up with mine. But beware of usually outrageous room rates for the 2-week period between Dec. 22 and New Year’s.

River Festival
You may wish to consider a few days at the fabulous Westin La Cantera in San Antonio. This resort is Texas’ superstar of golf. Alamo City calls to mind romantic images of Colonial Spain with its charming Paseo Del Rio, RiverWalk. In December, no other southern U.S. city sparkles with holiday spirit more than here. Cool nights, the river’s edge is lined with thousands of candles announcing the yuletide assemblage that is Fiesta Navidena. The joy of Christmas along SA’s placid river is matched only by the abundance of the city’s terrific public golf that includes The Quarry, Hill Country, La Cantera and Silverthorn.

The Westin, San Antonio
Lucky golfers to play last New Year’s Day found amazingly mild "sweater weather" hovering in the mid-sixties. The Westin, true to its tempting advertising brochure, displays two remarkable sun-drenched eighteens. Some of the typical features of La Cantera and the Palmer courses are the area’s limestone outcroppings and wide-open vistas of the arid Texas Hill Country. More so, the immaculate condition of both courses, kept in tip-top shape, will delight the most ambitious traveler.

Booking into the Westin expect spacious rooms and all the services of a first class hotel, but you will also pay San Antonio’s stiff lodging tax of 16% that will be added to your bill. As one resort guest exclaimed at checkout, "I’ll play and pay here anytime for the chance to hit over the dramatic 1,200-foot cliff on La Cantera’s par-4 sixth hole. I get more thrills for my money!" A Westin golf package, including one night in a deluxe room, unlimited play and breakfast for two, is $329 plus tax. To book: www.westinlacantera.com.

Putter-up to Phoenix
An hour after sunrise, the usual hot gold glare of the Arizona sun is cooled to a soft peach glow near Camelback Mountain in Scottsdale. In mid-December the temperature is mild and there are clusters of spiny ocotillos and flaming orange poppies at the 1st tee box. Twenty-seven holes are spread across 250 acres that wrap the sumptuous Phoenician Resort. The three different nines offer a week’s worth of golf…for those who enjoy deep pockets, what with a per night rate of $495 for the hotel’s Taste of Luxury golf package, but it will provide a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

My favorite is the lush Oasis Course filled with palms, towering saguaro and compelling desert views. I recall seven water holes including a devilish par 3 that requires a tee shot to carry a lake fronting the green. A second nine, the far tougher Desert Course, offers less elbow room as a majority of holes are bordered by sand, rock, squirrelly brush and cacti. Expect a few ricochets but also a number of pleasing bounces back into the fairway.

The Phoenician is a superbly designed property not lacking in amenities or service. It is also deceptively easy to get to from the Phoenix airport. We flew Continental for this trip and played three other top Valley of the Sun courses, Troon North, The Raven and the glorious Talking Stick designed by the Coore-Crenshaw team. The resort offers several winter getaway packages starting at $245 per night Dec 10-24, 2004. Access www.thephoenician.com.

Monkeys & Mulligans
Further afield, Caribbean clubs have tons to offer besides golf: romantic vistas, delicious curries, exotic rum drinks and beautiful arrays of tropical fruits for breakfast. Not to mention the sand, sea and sun that surrounds. I was fortunate to tour the West Indies island of Barbados the week prior to Christmas and experienced white sands, turquoise waters and greens greener than dreams.

Words cannot describe the enchantment you feel when sizing up the 1st tee at the quite notorious Westmoreland Golf Club. From its sun-bathed perch on Barbados’ west coast, afternoon rainbows wash across the horizon and a tangle of lush fairways. British designed and planned, the lavish Westmoreland is not your everyday lawn derby, but a beautiful spread of 18 holes that causes merriment one minute, frustration the next. On the 17 and 18th holes a family of monkeys swing in the trees and No. 6, the Hermit Hole, is a serious dogleg-left assignment. The Robert Trent Jones, Jr. layout is a superb 6,870- yards of unrivalled beauty, and almost every hole has a view of the shimmering ocean.

Holiday peak season prices to rent a 2-bedroom villa with maid are $9,500 per week but early May brings the rate down to $2,150. Renting a course-side villa also means the green fee will be discounted to $75 vs. $175 a round. Access www.royal-westmoreland.com. Nearby is the exquisite Sandy Lane resort and golf club. For 3 rounds of golf on a 5 night stay, unlimited non-motorised water sports and full English breakfast daily is US $1,575pp sharing a room. See www.sandylane.com.

Pat Pugh is a Houston-based travel writer. Her golf and outdoor features are published in Golf Houston magazine and Houston Sports News. She has received travel writing awards from Delta Airlines and the British Tourist Office.