Banyan Tree Tamouda Bay – Exotic Sanctuary for the Senses.

My Moroccan wanderings are often plotted, always a long list of new hotel properties to visit, souk shopping, photographing locals and exploring UNESCO village sites.

My many stopovers usually include a few beach visits – growing up near the ocean, a sunny beach beckons: Sun, sand, and me – beach therapy: endless miles of sand and lapping waves.

Banyan Tree Tamouda Bay, Morocco

The north coast of Morocco is not the first stop for many tourists vacationing in the country, and neither had it been mine on my previous Camel Caravans. Traversing a new path taking less traveled roads North of Tangier, Banyan Tree at Tamouda Bay is the picture-perfect beach resort. An extraordinary blend of romance with exotic Moroccan charm. It’s the Hamptons of Morocco, who knew?

Just an hour from Tangier, on the northwestern coast of Morocco, perched in the middle of two interesting cultural sites. Ten miles from the city of Tetouan, known as the white dove and younger sister of “Granada”, a city with Hispano-Moorish footmarks. the medina is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Banyan Tree is a world away from the wall-to-wall medinas of Marrakech or Fez. A luxurious five-star, 92 individual suite property facing a vast, flat white sandy beach, and sapphire seas, encompassing 60 acres. The property combines the Andalusian-Moorish legacy of the region with breathtaking views of the Mediterranean Sea. The extravagant arrival area, calling it reception isn’t refined enough, is crisscrossed with long white corridors intersected by glistening blue pools, tall arched doorways laced with hand-cut mosaic tiles and typical ironwork. While the exteriors are a Moorish austere white, the interiors are extravagant, elegantly decorated with traditional elaborate Moroccan panels, and bordered in rich bronze and moody blues.

The Villa accommodation is a highlight of the resort, tempting to never leave, except to pop out to my private pool. Beach clients who sunbathe au natural, this is home for you! My bike allowed me to explore the fields surrounding the Villas. Miles of sunset shore walks are my therapy, kids, fishermen and birds dot the sand.

Banyan Tree honors local Arabesque traditions and channels Moroccan charm and history; comfortable and spacious Villas, the main living area with ultra-high ceilings open to an expansive bedroom, private bathroom, pool and small garden.

The Beach Club is an oasis and a vision of brilliant white and spectacular blue water on the edge of the sand. From the resort, it’s almost a mirage, glistening in the distance.

Banyan Tree Tamouda Bay, Morocco

The spa is well known for its signature Rainforest Experience. The experience includes a hydrothermal path inviting a guest from one watery sensation to another, splashing rain drops to gentle sprays of warm mist. A sublime sanctuary for the senses!

Sultry long lunches at at Azura are a must, adjacent to a pond teeming with migrating ducks, croaking frogs, and iridescent dancing dragon flies.

Loved the Thai themed Saffron restaurant, with sunken dining area, savory menu and fun staff.

Banyan Tree Tamouda Bay, Morocco

Highly Recommend Banyan Tree Tamouda Bay. A sanctuary for the senses – a hidden gem set amidst the rugged Rif Mountains and the golden sands of Morocco’s northern coast.

Rules of the Game: Love-Love

A novice tennis fan wouldn’t be blamed for being confused about who’s winning a match—an understanding of the language of tennis scoring is required to appreciate the game! At the beginning of the set, when both sides have no score, the game is love-love because in tennis, love means having a score of zero or nil.

The term has been used as such since the late 1800s. It’s not perfectly clear how this usage of love came to be, but the most accepted theory is that those with zero points were still playing for the “love of the game” despite their losing score.

Jonny

My love of tennis goes back decades, growing up in the burb of Ojai, then population of 5000, summer recreation consisted of horseback riding, beach days or tennis. The Ojai Tennis Tournament, often shortened to The Ojai, is an annual tennis tournament that traces its beginnings to 1887, when Sherman Day Thacher arrived in the Ojai Valley to pursue citrus farming. With the later arrival of his brother William Thacher, a collegiate tennis champion at Yale, the ranch became home to the valley’s first tennis court in 1892 and hosted Ojai’s first tennis tournament the following year. William Thacher established the Ojai Valley Tennis Club in 1895.

Notable participants in the Ojai Tennis Tournament include Charlie Pasarell, Bill Tilden, Tony Trabert, Bobby Riggs, Jack Kramer, Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Jimmy Connors, Tracy Austin, Lindsay Davenport, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang, and the Bryan twins.

Our small Catholic school allowed students to miss class on Thursday & Friday if you volunteered to squeeze and serve local orange juice to the Tournament guests. You might imagine many of us raised our hands to volunteer. I’ve played with passion for years, and then might not pick up a racket for a few years, I love it, but life or bicycling or at one point, sculling on the bay sometimes gets in the way. Despite my knee replacement, I’m playing twice a week, which renders me slightly crippled for a day, but I love the game!

My recent visit to the Four Seasons Resort Los Cabos inspired me to take my racket and engage with the hotel tennis pro’s, a truly outstanding experience! Slightly concerned with virus variants if I left property and mingled in cities, my morning tennis lessons were the perfect solution to staying on property! My first morning, in 70-degree heat, I met with Jonathan who owns a local tennis firm. He’s gathered a stable of young professionals who rotate around the various clubs and hotels. AND now, we can offer exclusive private lessons at Villas anywhere in the world with his professionals. We’ve found with some of our private Villa rentals, a superb pro may not reside in the area, having Jonathan and his team available to us, is, to use a tennis term, an advantage. His firm is a premier tennis company focused on incredible service, high quality instruction and genuine interaction. With a combined 20 years experience in top hotel properties around the world such as Rosewood, Auberge, Four Seasons, One and Only and Raffles, they provide Top 10 Service. If you stay at one of our preferred hotels, we will advise our pro preferences and request exclusive service. Outside of these hotels we can provide a stay with you for on property instruction.

My second day of instruction, Bruno informed me that Jon suffered an injury after playing with me – yes, I was that powerful! No, it happened following my lesson, but it was beneficial, as I also met Fernando, another player on Jon’s tennis team. Bruno is a hard hitter from Argentina with a fast patter as well! As the sparring partner of Grand Slam Champion and former world number one, Guillermo Vilas, he traveled performing in exhibitions, giving workshops and tennis events.  As a high-performance trainer Bruno traveled to Wimbledon and Roland Garros as the head coach of a player in 2016.  

Each coach teaches and plays at tour level with hard drills and fun games, I absolutely adored my tennis time and look forward to returning to the courts at the Four Seasons Resort Los Cabos.

When we reserve your private Villa anywhere in the world, we can contract with Jon and his team to hang with your family and bring you to tournament level!

Tennis might have ended up with a different name altogether. Major Walter Wingfield, who laid down the rules for modern tennis, had another name for tennis. He called it sphairistike, based on the Greek phrase “skill in playing at ball.” The word tennis most likely comes from the French word tenetz — meaning “hold!” 

Gracias, Four Seasons Resort Los Cabos. – Rules of the Game: Love-Love