Sainte-Maxime is a small town sitting on the gulf of Saint-Tropez, and it’s also home to the Sainte-Maxime Golf Club.
We stayed there a couple of times between 2000 and 2007, in part as a stop-over when driving back and forth to Nice, and in part just to try different 18-hole golf courses along the coast.
The first good point was the hotel sitting on the golf course. It now belongs to JJW Hotels & Resorts, but I’ve no idea what it was called in 2004 (when I took this series of photographs). I must say as the Hôtel Amarante Golf Plaza today it looks very impressive, but I remember being distinctly underwhelmed with the on-site hotel in 2004.
The second good point was that the course was not that difficult (wide fairways and easy greens), and some of the views were truly impressive.
On the down side, if I remember rightly, the course was difficult to walk (you needed a buggy), was not that well maintained, was a bit “overcrowded” with housing, and there was some damage from a recent fire in the local garrigue.
In simple terms, it did not compare positively with Saint Endréol, which was just a 30 minute drive inland, and just as accessible when driving along the coast.
