So much has been written over the past few years about our marvelous food, our rejuvenating spa, and our beautiful setting that that it's easy to lose sight of the fact that tennis is... and always has been... our first love (excuse the pun).

In the past few years the Inn at Manitou has developed into a luxury resort with stunning food, a world-class spa, and an acclaimed golf program. But the Inn has never forgotten its roots as a tennis resort. First developed in the mid-seventies by the Inn's founder, Ben Wise, and Canada's most renowned tennis figure, Peter Burwash, the program has been in a constant state of development for over 35 years now. Over the course of those decades, the Inn's tennis program has been universally applauded with TENNIS magazine rating us, several times, among the top five tennis resorts in North America and Roger Cox, one of America's foremost tennis journalists, describing us as “the finest luxury tennis resort on the planet.”

And we do have a truly excellent tennis facility. Eleven courts in total – four soft clay courts, six outdoor hard and one indoor hard – a fully stocked tennis pro shop with the latest racquets, shoes and string, five (or more) international tennis professionals, and a long history of teaching the great game of tennis.

Over the past three decades, the Inn has developed a unique strategy for helping our guests become better tennis players — we reinforce the fundamentals while allowing for individuality; we combine theory, drills and competition to give you a chance to test what we've taught; and, most importantly, we take the skills you arrived with and build on them, ensuring you'll always leave the Inn a better tennis player.

Another thing we've learned over the years is how to take a guest from 'total beginner' to a level where they feel comfortable walking onto the court and playing the game for fun and fitness. And don't worry; it's a gentle, enjoyable process. So if you've ever wanted to become a player, sign up for one of the Inn's tennis packages and we'll get you there.

Advanced players, too, feel very comfortable at the Inn – our tennis professionals, drawn from all over the world, have played this game at very high levels and love delivering advanced instruction and serious challenges to our stronger guests.

There are many ways to have your tennis at the Inn. We offer everything from private and semi-private lessons, game matching, Pro-Am doubles every afternoon, simple court time, hitting sessions, or a ball machine. But the best way to play tennis at the Inn is to sign up for the Tennis Clinic. We offer both three and four day clinic packages. The three day package has you arriving on Thursday afternoon and taking the clinic on Friday, Saturday and departing on Sunday after a full morning of tennis. The four day package arrives on Sunday and runs until Thursday.

The tennis clinic includes three hours of instruction in the morning – from 9:00 until 12:00, with a juice and fruit break at 10:30 – and another session in the afternoon – Pro-Am doubles – that runs from 2:15 to 3:30.

On your first morning in the clinic, we'll take you out to the courts and conduct a short 'silent hit.' During this period, our tennis director will evaluate your level of play in order to determine a rough NTRP rating. Then you'll be sent to a court with other players of your approximate skill level. At the Inn, we never group players who differ by more than one NTRP level.

Officially, the guest-instructor ratio is 4:1, so we can guarantee you'll never have more than three other players on your court. However, if you get a chance to speak to a former Inn guest, you'll learn that the ratio is more often 2:1 or 3:1, rarely ever reaching 4:1.

There are other perks to the clinic as well. On one or more of the mornings, an instructor will videotape your play and then, over the juice break, offer a frame-by-frame analysis of exactly what it is you're doing. This can be extremely helpful, and also funny. The Pro-Am doubles in the afternoon, where you and the other guests are teamed up with instructors, is a thoroughly enjoyable way to test your skills and get to know your fellow clinic members a little better.

And this is really a big advantage of the clinic. Our clinic guests arrive here in ones and twos, but over the course of three or four days of play, competition, and bantering with the instructors, everyone becomes great friends. After watching one of our spectacular exhibition matches, where our pros battle for supremacy while a commentator explains the finer points of their strategy and a bartender serves you cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, our clinic guests can often be found sitting together at dinner, or lounging together at the bar.

On the final day of your clinic, we hold an exciting round robin tournament, giving your skills one final test. Afterwards, at the closing ceremonies, we present various awards and distribute a graduation present – an official Inn at Manitou tennis hat.