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For inclement weather there's an indoor leisure centre with swimming pool, solarium, sauna and the usual accoutrements of a health club. For the less energetic, snooker is a popular après dinner pastime.
Apropos of dinner: the menu is table d'hote with three choices of each course and there is an extensive wine list. Dinner is silver service and included in the tariff and, in keeping with the relaxed atmosphere, you may reserve your table for a specific time each evening. There's no rush. At weekends you may find there's a dinner-dance in progress.
And then there's the golf course. A mix of parkland and woodland, it opened in May 1994 to a design by Ireland's Tom MacAuley and it lay dormant for two years after completion, to allow settling.
Not that MacAuley did much excavating. He used the terrain to commendable effect in creating a charming holiday course with several outstanding holes, most edged by a variety of specimen trees. It's as pretty as can be, and easy walking, although golf carts are available. The greens are superb; medium to small in size and quick as a flash in summer, and the course condition generally is exemplary. A bonus: it is exclusive to guests who also have access to nearby courses at reduced rates.
Initially of 5,706 yards, par-70, the course was recently lengthened by 350 yards and now has a par of 71 with a homeward loop (3,110 yards from the tiger tees to a par of 36) that in terms of variety, tempo and challenge is the equal of many more famous courses.
Four short par fours are balanced by some testing long holes, not least a brace of man-sized par fives and a par three that for most demands a wooden club. The 13th and the 15th are true three shotters, both requiring an approach over water. The 13th, indeed, has a new green, set 90 yards or so beyond the old one, that was two years in the building.
They don’t rush things at Cally and there’s no change for the sake of it. The end result is that this jewel of a course has been enhanced. Par the final six holes and you’ll dine a contented man.
A mark of its appeal is that you could play the course every day for a week and not tire of it, not least because you’ll get around in less than four hours. A round at sunset would be memorable.
That’s part of the X factor. That’s Cally Palace.
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