portugal

Our featured regions in Portugal, include the renowned Algarve, which has seen such a huge investment over the last 10 years, with some incredibly impresssive new golf courses opening recently, the last 3 have all been of the highest quality and designed as Signature courses, by the famous Nick Faldo, Jack Nicklaus and Christy O’Connor, who makes his design debut in Europe.

The Algarve is on the Atlantic Ocean and boasts some great beaches and resorts, the red sand cliff backdrops, protect superb golden sand beaches, if beaches are as important as the golf, then the Algarve wins every time. Just 5 miles inland, the Algarve has beautiful wild rolling hills, which stretch about 20 miles into the country’s interior and it is here you will find a lot of the newer quality golfing venues. Eg Monte Rei and the Oceanico Faldo courses.

A small mention for what is known as the Spanish Algarve, Huelva, which is 1 hour’s drive from Faro airport, across the border. It is a stunning piece of scenery when you arrive at El Rompido, located on a spectacular estuary, which on its eastern side has some secluded and wonderful beaches. El Rompido has two great golf courses and a fine 5 star resort, with remarkable views and just a short drive to a stylish yachting marina.

Moving up the Atlantic coast and just a 3 hours drive from the mid Algarve, is the Lisbon region, which is really split into two parts. The Estoril Coast where you have a wonderful, but busy coastline, is just 40 minutes from Lisbon airport, which boasts two fine resorts on the coast at Estoril and Cascais. Here you will find a super grouping of golf courses, including the amazing Oitavos Dunes, Penha Longa and Quinta da Marinha. Close by is the marvellous Sintra Hills which look down over the coast, an ancient region of mountain and forest, with some ancient eucalyptus plantations and it is here you will find the best golf hotel in Portugal, Penha Longa’s Ritz Carlton. In the northern region of Lisbon – let’s say no more than 1 hour from the airport, you will find some golfing jewels and resort hotels to match. The great courses of Campo Real, Praia del Rey and Golden Eagle stand out with the new addition of Bom Successo just 5 minutes south of Praia del Rey. You will not find a more exhilarating coastline than at Praia del Rey and Peniche and there are some lovely beaches and places to discover on this unspoilt coastline. The walled town of Obidos, near Golden Eagle, is one of Portugal’s most famous and talked about places to visit, just 30 minutes from the Marriott Praia del Rey. Golf designers as famous as Arthur Hills, Donald Steele and Rocky Roquemore have made their mark here.

Unlike the Algarve, it can get a bit cold in December and January here, so these are the only months when we recommend a bit of caution.

Finally, the lovely idyllic island of Madeira situated in the middle of the Atlantic deserves a mention, because it can boast year round sunshine and our featured resort of Casa do Velha is a Relais de Chateau property, situated on the beautiful Palheiro Golf, looking down to Funchal 2,000 feet below.

Portugal is not as cheap as it was 10 years ago, but has real quality these days in all aspects and a lot of our featured golf resorts offer superb value for money deals, whether it be as far north as the Marriott Praia del Rey, or as far south as the Le Meridien Penina Golf Resort.