DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE AT NAPLES RITZ-CARLTON

by Annette Bignami

He golf's. She "spas." They both like the Ritz's posh pleasures. What to do? Simple, double your pleasures at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort or the five diamond Ritz-Carlton Beach Resort only three miles away in Naples. Both share facilities and the ambiance of Florida's Platinum Coast. So these are the kinds of spots that you say you "go to" rather than say you've "been too." You can laze, golf, fish, spa, pool, beach, airboat, sail, paraglide, swim, dive, shell or join the alligators in the Everglades, it's up to you.

What can you say about Ritz hotels that have been wonderful ever since Charles Ritz started in Paris and gave us the word "ritzy". As is the case with all Ritz holtels "Posh" suits these two resorts with their Florida ambiance and wonderful public spaces that run to marble floors, colorful furniture and tropical fans and lush greenery. Big rooms, lovely views and a sense of place make you feel at home, but it's the professional staff that seemingly can handle any request with a ?certainly? and a smile that brings visitors back.

You definitely feel pampered at the Ritz. I know I can't wait to return with my husband, Louis and spend more time under the palms at the pool or enjoying the less casual Lemonia's Restaurant with Tuscan food or eating snow crab at Gumbo Limbo to catch a golden sunset.

Last visit I got to concentrate on the spa, restaurants, sun and service. Louis said he had to work on a book. I tried to tell him about the high-speed Internet access and the safes big enough to hold a laptop and the great Cigar Bar and Billiards Rooms.

I probably should mentioned the two 18-hole Tiburon Golf Club Courses that Greg Norman designed in British links style but without rough and with forgiving half-inch grass in the fairways -- Louis spends a lot of time in the rough.

It was my fault on this short trip that I didn't save more time for the massage tables given the nice selection of spa treatments that the Ritz-Carlton Beach resort offers. There were simply too many things to do and see ? an airboat and Alligator tour, the Caribbean Garden's Zoo in Naples, the birding at Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, catamaran sails and shelling on the beach.

Then, of course, there's shopping with in-house boutiques and free shuttles to Fifth Avenue South, Third Street, Venetian Village and Waterside. More shuttles run to the beach resort too. Next time we will spend more time and plan a visit to Rick Smith Golf Academy, playing tennis and perhaps a fishing for jacks, tarpon or bonefish in the bay or cobia, barracuda, snapper, grouper and shark offshore in the Gulf.

With so many pleasures, and posh pampering the hardest thing to do is to plan a trip long enough to sample everything.

For more information on Naples Florida call 1-800-688-3600.