Top Golf Holiday Locations

Golf holidays are an increasingly popular way of taking in the sun and experiencing new places and cultures while playing some of the most exciting golf courses on Earth. Engaging in a golf travel tour can be the greatest adventure travel of your lifetime – and if you chose the right tour operator the whole experience can be totally hassle free with flights, food, accomodation and even the course fees included in the price and arranged for you in advance.

It’s not only seasoned golfers that can enjoy a golf holiday - many golf resorts offer instruction to their guests at an onsite golf school, with Professional golfers giving lessons in groups or even one-on-one instruction. Some resorts even offer golf instruction for children.

When not working with a golf instructor, the driving range is always available for you to practice your newly learned or refreshed skills, whether that be pitching, flopping, drawing, fading or just plain driving. Most resorts also have an onsite golf shop which sell or rent equipment and apparel, so if you forget your golf clubs or prefer not to carry them from home you’ll still be able to while away the sun filled hours on the course.

So, with everything else taken care of, the only decision you need to make is where you want to take your golf holiday. Most popular travel destinations also have golf courses but if you’re looking for a dedicated golf holiday there are some locations that really score under par. Here in no particular order are five of the best for your consideration.

Florida

The year round sunny mild climate of Florida makes it an ideal location for golf holidays. Florida is also a fantastic holiday destination in it’s own right, with popular holiday activities such as relaxing at a spa resort, Disney World, exploring the everglades or even just lounging on the beach also being an option if you should tire of the imacculate greens and fairways.

But there is another reason to chose Florida, namely the chance to play on the most famous and most photographed golf hole in the world. That’s right, some golf vacation operators have holiday packages enabling you to play at the Sawgrass TPC stadium course.

This amazing course is home to the Players Championship and the island green at the 17th is sure to both frustrate and delight in equal measure.

As mentioned earlier, most golfing tour operators include flights to Florida in the price but if you do need to get a separate flight –perhaps so a friend or family member can join you later - this company offers a very good value cheap flight to orlando.

Spain

Of course, given it’s huge popularity among golfers, particularly in the UK, no run down of top golf holiday locations woud be complete without a mention of Spain. This country offers it’s own share of famous golf courses like Valderama and plenty of good value golf holidays in Catalonia and the Costa Brava.

The top vote for Spain though has to go to the Costa del Sol, known by many as the “Costa del Golf”. This stretch of sun drenched mediterranean coast in the south of Spain has the biggest concentration of golf courses in Europe - take a look at this list of golf courses in the Costa del Sol - and of course as a traditional holiday destination as well offers plenty of options for good eating and plentiful drinking and has an exciting nightlife.

Bulgaria

While not a famous golfing destination like some of the other locations on this list, Bulgaria deserves a mention if only for one reason – the extremely cheap living costs. And, with Bulgaria’s recent inclusion in the EU and increasing interest in property from foreign investors, we expect more and more investment in top quality golf resorts. These days many people are choosing to buy Bulgaria property near to or in golf resorts but if this isn’t your thing you should certainly consider taking a golf holiday there instead.

Barbados

For the ultimate in relaxing surroundings it’s simply impossible to beat the Carribbean. Nowadays it’s possible to book package golf holidays with direct flights to most of the Carribbean islands including Jamaica, St Lucia and the Bahamas, but Barbados is the top destination.

While all of the islands have the white sandy beaches and turqoise seas that the Caribbean is famous for, only Barbados has rightly famous courses such as Royal Westmoreland and The Green Monkey, named after the islands native primates and the most expensive golf course ever built. The course, which is blasted out of a quarry and is part of the Sandy Lane country club, also has the most expensive green fee’s in the world – but of course you won’t need to worry about that as it’ll all be included in the cost.

United Arab Emirates

Golfing in the UAE is all about Dubai – the jewell in the crown of the middle east. Dubai holidays have had somewhat of a surge in popularity recently and for good reason. Dubai is the most westernised of the Arab Emirates and enjoys an outstanding quality of life, situated on the beautiful red sea and bathed in perpetual sunshine. The countries wealth has also enabled it to build some of the best resorts and golf courses in the world, including the Emirates Golf Club consisting of two championship courses that inspire awe in all who play them and are rightly known as “the desert miracles”.