Lads golf holiday

boban z

Howdy,

Every year 8 lads head abroad for 4 days of golf and 4 night on the beer.

Have done the Algarve to death at this stage and done costa del sol.

Anyone got any other destination suggestions:

Must have the following:
* Decent golf courses (and affordable)
* Easily assessable from Dublin
* good night life
* Decent affordable accommodation

cheers

Jawgap

boban z wrote: »

Howdy,

Every year 8 lads head abroad for 4 days of golf and 4 night on the beer.

Have done the Algarve to death at this stage and done costa del sol.

Anyone got any other destination suggestions:

Must have the following:
* Decent golf courses (and affordable)
* Easily assessable from Dublin
* good night life
* Decent affordable accommodation

cheers

Just back from the NE of England - bear with me......

.....easily accessible via Newcastle.

....plenty of excellent courses both North and South of the Toon (Closehouse, Slaley Hall, Brancepeth, Bamburgh, Seahouses, Alnmouth)

....opportunity to take in a football match

....but the beer and weather can be unpredictable and of variable quality!

Another option would be Edinburgh and head into Fife - some exceptional courses within easy striking distance of the city, but it can be pricey.

Running Balance

As someone who lives in Liverpool - I d say liverpool..

A couple of Open courses to pick from along with other brilliant courses. Southport (s&a) hillside grange park.
20 mins on the plane and then play the day you land.

First Up

Running Balance wrote:

A couple of Open courses to pick from along with other brilliant courses. Southport (s&a) hillside grange park. 20 mins on the plane and then play the day you land.

Better still, take the car ferry and widen the choice even more. South Wales another option but Liverpool area is a great option. And getting cheaper as sterling drops.

Running Balance

First Up wrote:

Better still, take the car ferry and widen the choice even more. South Wales another option but Liverpool area is a great option. And getting cheaper as sterling drops.

Yeah some lovely places in North Wales on the way here too- Denbigh - pennant park (amazing views and would stretch the legs!!) and around Chester too

mike12

We looked into going to Liverpool but the cost of the open courses was crazy. Would have a week in Spain for the cost of playing the 2 of them.

First Up

mike12 wrote:

We looked into going to Liverpool but the cost of the open courses was crazy. Would have a week in Spain for the cost of playing the 2 of them.

Who said anything about Open courses? Have you looked at what it costs to play Valderrama or other top courses in Spain?

There's plenty of good, reasonably priced courses in easy driving distance of Liverpool.

Running Balance

With the weak pound it will be 30% cheaper than 18 months ago!!

Maybe play one open course as a treat and then play B courses.. some good municipals as well if you want a real cheap £15 course.

Think of the day you ll save by the short flights / ferry hop..

dan_ep82

First Up wrote: »

Who said anything about Open courses? Have you looked at what it costs to play Valderrama or other top courses in Spain?

There's plenty of good, reasonably priced courses in easy driving distance of Liverpool.

On a side note, I'm going to Spain next week and staying with family. Can see the Valderrama from the balcony, looks fantastic but at €350 off season its a bit much.

All the same its not cheap no matter where you play around there, usually €80 for a decent course.

Kingswood Rover

A crew of us are going to Kerry at the end of September, Fri and Sat nights, playing Castlegregory on the way down at 2 ish, over the Conor pass, check into Benners for 2 nights B and B, night on the sauce in Dingle, play Ceann Sibheal at 1 on the Sat, repeat the sauce thingy in Dingle... one seventy all in.

FixdePitchmark

Kingswood Rover wrote: »

A crew of us are going to Kerry at the end of September, Fri and Sat nights, playing Castlegregory on the way down at 2 ish, over the Conor pass, check into Benners for 2 nights B and B, night on the sauce in Dingle, play Ceann Sibheal at 1 on the Sat, repeat the sauce thingy in Dingle... one seventy all in.

Lovely place - great deal - just, it is full of Kerry people. :P

bren2002

Is Dubai too far?

Greybottle

Hamburg would be a left field option. Some excellent courses. From having lived there, you'll do well to beat it in terms of nightlife and price.

First Up

bren2002 wrote:

Is Dubai too far?

Not sure it ticks all the OP's boxes.

bren2002

First Up wrote: »

Not sure it ticks all the OP's boxes.

Must have the following:
* Decent golf courses (and affordable)
* Easily assessable from Dublin
* good night life
* Decent affordable accommodation

Ticks all these as far as i can see, right time of year too.

First Up

bren2002 wrote:

Ticks all these as far as i can see, right time of year too.

Eight hour flight, expensive golf, expensive hotels, limited night life, beer only available in hotels......

bren2002

First Up wrote: »

Eight hour flight, expensive golf, expensive hotels, limited night life, beer only available in hotels......

Easily accessible from Dublin is the requirement, not short haul.

I'll pass on commenting on golf prices.

There's a range of hotels there. Of course there are 7* and 5* options. But lots of other choices.

Disagree on the nightlife comment. In my experience its pretty good, unless titty bars are a requirement.

Beers available outside hotels. But the hotels are good. Friday brunch, google it.

First Up

bren2002 wrote:

Easily accessible from Dublin is the requirement, not short haul.

Yep, eight hours in Coach on an overnight flight is ideal preparation for golf.

bren2002 wrote:

I'll pass on commenting on golf prices.

Eh? Did you notice that its a golf trip?

bren2002 wrote:

Beers available outside hotels. But the hotels are good. Friday brunch, google it.

Booze restricted and very expensive. I don't think Friday brunch will swing it for the lads.

padser

First Up wrote: »

Eight hour flight, expensive golf, expensive hotels, limited night life, beer only available in hotels......

Emirates regularly have 400e return flights, great quality and honestly far preferable to spending 3 hours on a budget airline.

Hotels are not expensive (or at least there are really good quality non expensive options available)

Unsure about golf prices there but I'd be surprised if there are not good value affordable options as there is for almost everything else

Night life is not particularly limited at all and it's definitely not the case that beer is only available in hotels. Beer / Food are both cheaper than Europe. Booze is not restricted in any practical way, unless you want to walk around outside drinking. You can drink in bars, nightclubs, hotels and restaurants. So....pretty much same as in Ireland.

For some reason everyone always things Dubai is expensive when my experience has always been it's cheaper than European destinations for comparable products (although it does also offer a range of options that are higher quality than available in Europe)


Edit - a quick search revealed a €24 / player option here https://golfscape.com/united-arab-emirates/dubai/ja-jebel-ali-golf-resort

So value golf is definitely available at what I'm sure are fairly amazing courses

thewobbler

To be honest, based on the OP's criteria, I reckon anywhere else but The Algarve will be a let down.

A lads weekend becomes a 5-dayer once you add in long flights or transfers. Which will immediately see drop outs.

Head to an emerging resort like those in Turkey and at nighttime you'll immediately recognise why Vilamoura is king; and it's all about volume. There are 15 courses within 15 minutes, which means there's 3,000 people in the area playing golf that day and looking for something to do that night. So bars and restaurants have some life about them.

Head to Costa Del Sol and you'll probably get better courses than Algarve but it's all a bit more disjointed there; the hotels etc offer golf rather than were built for golf. So everyone is more spread out. Plus it's 10-15% more expensive.

Head anywhere else in Europe out of season and you might as well take your chances with Ayr, St Andrews or Southport.

First Up

thewobbler wrote:

Head to an emerging resort like those in Turkey and at nighttime you'll immediately recognise why Vilamoura is king; and it's all about volume. There are 15 courses within 15 minutes, which means there's 3,000 people in the area playing golf that day and looking for something to do that night. So bars and restaurants have some life about them.

True, although it can be nice to get away from it for a bit too. Belek in Turkey has some excellent golf and prices are competitive. Its not a rave-up off the course but very nice.

Turkish Airlines bring your clubs for free as well.

Lambay island

We went to a place called Montecastillo in Jerez in June. You can get a flight to Seville from Dub which is approx an hour to this resort. It can be expensive but you can negotiate deals for certain numbers which can include free drink and food all day up to 11pm. You are limited to the one course but the resort itself is of a high calibre and the course is top notch and challenging. Jerez town centre is bout 10 mins away in taxi where there's Irish bars and nightclubs that run through the night albeit mainly locals in nightclubs when we were there. We would have been fairly tanked up by 11pm on the free bar so only made into the town on one of our nights.

First Up

padser wrote: »

Edit - a quick search revealed a €24 / player option here https://golfscape.com/united-arab-emirates/dubai/ja-jebel-ali-golf-resort

So value golf is definitely available at what I'm sure are fairly amazing courses

Jebel Ali is a 9 hole track 50 kilometers from Dubai. Any decent course within striking distance of Deira is €100+ even in the off season and some are a lot more. Add in your €10 pint and you can do the sums yourself.

8 hours down the back with Emirates is like 8 hours down the back with anyone else. The novelty wears off after the first four.

jonev

Try around the Lisbon area in Portugal. Good courses, though not as many as the Algarve, good food and you have the choice of staying in Lisbon itself where the nightlife is good, or around Estoril/Cascais where it's a bit quieter at night but still ok.

wally1990

Have you checked Alicante ?
You will need a car rental as taxis as a pain in the hole but there is great golf courses there

Villa Martin golf resort springs to mind and so does la finca golf resort

Russman

jonev wrote: »

Try around the Lisbon area in Portugal. Good courses, though not as many as the Algarve, good food and you have the choice of staying in Lisbon itself where the nightlife is good, or around Estoril/Cascais where it's a bit quieter at night but still ok.

This ^^

There's some very decent golf within an easy hour's drive of Lisbon. I actually thought purely the golf was arguably better than in Vilamoura, albeit the courses are more spread out and not all within 10/15 mins of a resort centre.
Even if you didn't head out to Estoril and went slightly south, you have Aroeira 1 & 2 which are both fantastic tracks, and Quinta do Peru which is also really good (and very friendly, which also a plus over some in Vilamoura !). There's also a decent course just east of Setubal called Montado, its set in vinyards IIRC and is pretty good.
As regards nightlife, you'd have Lisbon itself if you based yourself there, or maybe somewhere like Sesimbra, a lot quieter but a beautiful little fishing village with nice restaurants and a few good bars.

WacoKid

I golfed in Majorca this year (Aug) and there are some great courses. You can stay in Santa Ponsa and then just taxi out to the courses. I would recommend it, I have golfed in both Portugal and Spain previously.

First Up

Russman wrote: »

This ^^

There's some very decent golf within an easy hour's drive of Lisbon. I actually thought purely the golf was arguably better than in Vilamoura, albeit the courses are more spread out and not all within 10/15 mins of a resort centre.
Even if you didn't head out to Estoril and went slightly south, you have Aroeira 1 & 2 which are both fantastic tracks, and Quinta do Peru which is also really good (and very friendly, which also a plus over some in Vilamoura !). There's also a decent course just east of Setubal called Montado, its set in vinyards IIRC and is pretty good.
As regards nightlife, you'd have Lisbon itself if you based yourself there, or maybe somewhere like Sesimbra, a lot quieter but a beautiful little fishing village with nice restaurants and a few good bars.

I'd add Penha Longa to that, plus Oitavos and maybe Quinta da Marinha. Estoril GC itself is a nice old school venue. We usually stay in Estoril or Cascais and its an easy taxi to any of these. Plus its a short hop into Lisbon by train.

Dayor Knight

Kingswood Rover wrote: »

A crew of us are going to Kerry at the end of September, Fri and Sat nights, playing Castlegregory on the way down at 2 ish, over the Conor pass, check into Benners for 2 nights B and B, night on the sauce in Dingle, play Ceann Sibheal at 1 on the Sat, repeat the sauce thingy in Dingle... one seventy all in.

That I just love. Enjoy.

Dayor Knight

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Lovely place - great deal - just, it is full of Kerry people. :P

Ah Fix, you'll have to stop that! Lovely people.

Henry Ford III

Fort Lauderdale Florida is good. No end of choices for golf, hotels, entertainment etc. Flights are ok too.

You can even play the day you depart.

ThunderCat

As someone else already said, South Wales is an option. You could spread your stay over three places to cover the nightlife aspect - Tenby, Swansea and Cardiff. While in Tenby you could play Tenby Golf Club, in the Swansea area you have Ashburnham, Machynys and Pennard and in the Cardiff area you have Southerndown and Celtic Manor with two cracking courses in Royal Porthcawl and Pyle&Kenfig half way between Swansea and Cardiff. The rail line covers all the South Coast also although I'd imagine you'd be hiring a car. Plenty of variety in those courses listed too. I adore Ashburnham and find it very underrated. In fact you could base yourself just in Swansea and Ashburnham, Machynys, Pennard, Royal Porthcawl and Pyle&Kenfig would all be within touching distance.

First Up

ThunderCat wrote: »

As someone else already said, South Wales is an option. You could spread your stay over three places to cover the nightlife aspect - Tenby, Swansea and Cardiff. While in Tenby you could play Tenby Golf Club, in the Swansea area you have Ashburnham, Machynys and Pennard and in the Cardiff area you have Southerndown and Celtic Manor with two cracking courses in Royal Porthcawl and Pyle&Kenfig half way between Swansea and Cardiff. The rail line covers all the South Coast also although I'd imagine you'd be hiring a car. Plenty of variety in those courses listed too. I adore Ashburnham and find it very underrated. In fact you could base yourself just in Swansea and Ashburnham, Machynys, Pennard, Royal Porthcawl and Pyle&Kenfig would all be within touching distance.

If going to the UK, bringing your own transport is a no brainer.