More than just TPC golf, the new JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country is tech savvy

San Antonio’s big new golf resort is finally here, and it’s quite sight to see, the 1,002-room JW Marriott Hill Country San Antonio and TPC San Antonio.

The resort is so all-encompassing, you could eliminate any element of it, whether it’s the golf club, spa, six-acre water park, seven restaurants or conference center, and you wouldn’t even notice. It’s a mighty tribute to the Texas Hill Country, complete with limestone architecture, local wines and food, flowing water features and in Texas style, plenty of space to spread out on 600 acres and numerous of secluded nooks in public areas.

But it’s also as technologically-advanced as i’ve seen in a resort. Throughout public areas, there are touch-screen interactive wall displays that let you view flight arrival/departure information, view/book tee times at the TPC in seconds, make dinner reservations at one of seven restaurants, get directions to the Alamo or other landmarks downtown and more. Also in the lobby, there are two Microsoft Surface Tables, high tech touch screen tables that allow a variety of functions, from photo sharing to playing games versus the person sitting across from you. The resort may have to buy more, because there were people huddled around them every time we walked by.

The sports bar, High Velocity is a marvel. We took in the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics on the bar’s 120-foot wide, curvy projection screen. You can watch anywhere from one to 24 channels on it, and if you’re not a big screen TV guy, the bar’s booths have their own LCD TVs in them. The bar could replace one of Las Vegas’ sports books and guests would probably prefer it, since it has food and two dozen beers on tap, plus a variety of different seating arrangements. This would make for as fine of a March Madness hangout as there is in a resort.

And for connectivity junkies, you’ll be fine. Though sometimes larger resorts can’t offer WiFi in rooms, only wired lines, the guest rooms here have strong signals. Also, the resort invested in having strong cell phone service on the courses and throughout the resort. My AT&T phone had full bars all weekend.

I’ve barely even mentioned there are two brand new championship golf courses here, including the new host of the Valero Texas Open this spring, so stay tuned for plenty more on the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and TPC San Antonio.