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HERE'S a trip for the adventurous, or those who think they've got all the T shirts. How about a golfing jaunt to the place they call the Golden Triangle of the US?
Bemused? Give in? OK. We're talking about what's known as the Tri-Cities Tour, calling in at Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Diego. It's a holiday that offers the best of all worlds: glorious coastline, deserts, mountains and three remarkable cities.
It's a trip to set your nerves tingling and your eyeballs spinning -- and that's discounting the inspirational golf.
It's not a cheap trip (this is five star country) but it will be worth every cent and you'll have memories to savour on those cold winter nights to come. The only problem: where to go next year? How do you top it? Watch this space...
If you take the fly-drive option you could see part of the California coastline, a large chunk of the desert and the mountains of both Arizona and Nevada, and maybe take a peek at the Grand Canyon en passant.
The driving is easy, mainly on freeways, and the longest leg on the triangular route is the one from Phoenix to San Diego, which would take perhaps six hours.
There's no need to drive this leg, though, because your best bet, spending three or more nights in each city, is to drive from Phoenix, the arrival point, to Las Vegas and on to San Diego, from where you take the flight home.
In fact you could fly each leg if you wished, using a rental car once in situ. It's part of a nine day, good value package that's on offer.
There are two ways of looking at a holiday in America's south west desert country. You could escape the (northern) winter for a few days and go when the temperature is in the mid-70s and rates are near their high season peak. Or you could bite the bullet in May and June when the temperature rises but prices are at their off-season lowest.
Don't flinch! I was there in June when the thermometer touched 100 -- and I played golf! There was virtually no humidity: it was a dry heat, so it felt more like 75F but with little or no perspiration and no insects. Wear shorts and a hat, take plenty of water to combat dehydration-- the carts come equipped with ice buckets, water and towels -- and you'll have an experience you'll never forget.
The desert courses will be at their peak, a stunning canvas of ochre peppered with flowering shrubbery; fairways and greens punctuating the parchment of the wilderness, emerald exclamation marks against a backdrop of giant rocks and the ubiquitous mountains. It's an awesome setting for golf of the highest order. Your average parkland course will never seem the same again...
You'll soon get into the groove in Phoenix, the fastest growing city in the US and a place of startling architectural innovation. The city centre is a tourist attraction in its own right with tinted glass sky scrapers and surrealistic, pastel-hued office blocks. It could be a movie set. Frequently it is.
A must-see is the new baseball stadium, home of the major league Arizona Diamondbacks. It's an incredible edifice with a sliding domed roof and it seats 48,000 in air conditioned comfort.
There's a museum, countless bars and six restaurants, open daily. Corporate types love it for lunches and dinners; tourists go ga-ga at the guided tour, particularly when a big game is scheduled and the place is buzzing.
The city also has a natural history museum that is a model for all others and shopping and dining to die for; there's horse riding in the desert only minutes away, and a half hour drive will take you to the wild west town of Rawhide.
It's the genuine article, perfectly preserved from a century ago and still inhabited. Here you can shop for souvenirs down the dusty main street, drink a beer in a real life saloon, have a steak big enough to ride in the nearby diner and see the sheriff break up staged cowboy fights and foil bank robberies with all guns blazing. Great fun.
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