iStockphoto
Link to This Travel Idea
CloseShare This Travel Idea
Close
Few sports meld as well as golf with the diehard traveler's globe-trotting itinerary.
After all, what other sport offers the possibility of play all over the planet -- in myriad climates, landscapes and cultures, and across language barriers, too? Golf parlance, like the language of love, is universal.
And whether you're green to the sport or working your way toward the tour, chances are you've dreamt of teeing up in a luxe locale. Rest assured that everywhere from a windswept course on the sublimely beautiful isle of Kauai to the rugged Australian Outback, there's a tee-time with your name all over it.
We've sourced some of the world's most indulgent golf experiences -- from far-flung locales to domestic beauties -- where unparalleled surrounds and serious pampering are par for the course.
DESTINATION: Kauai, Hawaii
Hawaii may have become a honeymoon cliché. But for challenging golf play in a landscape straight out of a fairy tale, few greens' scenes can steal your heart like the lineup of courses in Kauai. Start your tour of the Garden Island with a round at Kauai Lagoons, a short cart ride from the indulgent Marriott Kauai Beach Club resort in Lihue (Marriott recently bought the course, which will eventually be incorporated into a Ritz-Carlton property). The Kiele Course here, designed by Jack Nicklaus, combines with the Mokihana Course for 18 holes of play that take in ocean and mountain views. Nine of Kiele's original holes are currently being revamped and will reopen in early 2009, when the course will offer what's being touted as some of the best oceanfront golf terrain in the Aloha State.
The Puakea course, a few miles away, gets off to an uninspired start, with views of Home Depot from the first hole. But the reward follows swiftly, as your game leads you along winding paths through patches of jungle to holes where the mountains loom so close you'll be tempted to reach out and snatch a piece of the "Jurassic Park" scenery.
Head to Kauai's rugged North Shore next, where Hawaii's most challenging course -- a Robert Trent Jones, Jr. doozy -- awaits. Before tee time, check in to the super-posh Princeville Resort, dominating a precipice of near-sheer cliffs hung over Hanalei Bay. The rooms are beyond decadent -- tub-to-ceiling windows in the bathroom mean you can shower while watching surfers ride the ocean swells. And breakfast on the terrace, surrounded by lush mountains and peeling waves, feels straight out of Bali Hai. When you're ready to golf, hit the 27-hole Makai Course, where you'll likely spot Hawaii's state bird -- the endangered Nene, or Hawaiian Goose -- near the course's lake circuit. Plan to visit during the winter months for the best shot at seeing humpback whales breaching just offshore from the course's ocean holes. The biggest golf challenge in Hawaii awaits a few miles down the road at the Prince Course, wrought from some of the island's most wildly undulating and sensual terrain. Giant albatross soar over the course and whales blow water spouts offshore, but you'll need all your focus on the greens to get anywhere remotely close to par here.
DESTINATION: Florida
Private golf privileges in a pristine Panhandle setting are the lure at WaterColor Inn, a golf-friendly resort with boutique-hotel appeal set in an anti-Spring Break stretch of Northwest Florida. The spa facilities are world-class and all of the hotel's rooms have oceanfront views of the sapphire-hued Gulf of Mexico. But if your color preferences tend more toward green, you'll love how the resort addresses the luxury golf experience. The hook here is exclusivity --- guests have access to the private Tom Fazio-designed Camp Creek Golf Course and Greg Norman's Shark's Tooth Golf Club, two of Florida's top-ranked courses. Both courses are big on natural beauty, with Camp Creek bathed in rolling dunescapes and Shark's Tooth set along the shores of Lake Powell, an Outstanding Florida Waterway.
DESTINATION: China
Got China on your radar in 2008? You needn't be Olympic caliber to tee off at the massively impressive Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen and Dongguan, China. This golf Mecca sits in lake-studded rolling countryside, with a whopping 216 holes designed by 12 legendary golfers and golf-course architects -- Nicklaus, Faldo and Dye are just a sampling of who's had a hand in the Mission Hills mix. Indeed, there's a course to challenge every golfer. And the frills go far beyond the fairways, too. The $625 million resort complex features a luxury hotel, five spas and two high-end resort communities, along with top-notch restaurants that span the international spectrum. Count on kicking back in the classy clubhouse with everyone from Hong Kong businessmen and women to international creatures of leisure who've journeyed to China for the sole purpose of adding Missions Hills to their life's list of must-dos.
DESTINATION: Portugal
Bypass Spain's played-out Costa del Sol for fewer crowds and the equally enticing natural beauty of a golf adventure in Portugal. Before making tracks to the Algarve -- Portugal's prime golf region, with some 35 courses and counting -- sneak in a round or two near the fishing village-turned-chi-chi seaside escape of Cascais. Oitavos Dunes is located in Sintra-Cascais National Park in the posh resort area of Quinta da Marinha, just 30 minutes from Lisbon's hip restaurant scene, moody fado clubs and big-city cultural offerings. Set in undulating dunes within eyeshot of the Atlantic, Oitavos Dunes was the first golf course in Europe to be awarded Audubon's gold status as a certified signature sanctuary -- don't even think about retrieving your ball if it lands in a protected area, where wildflowers and exotic sand-dune plants and birds make for plenty of viewing pleasure. The clubhouse at Oitavos Dunes is a work of art wrought from weathered wood, aluminum and glass, where you can relax with a beer and ocean views after a day on the fairways. The most enticing place to stay is VivaMarinha Hotel Apartamento. Newly opened in August 2007, it's a grand complex of poppy-hued buildings set in beautiful grounds dotted with umbrella pine trees and eucalyptus forests. The infinity pool attracts a beautiful-people crowd of international golfers during the summer months.
And you can't golf in Portugal without partaking in the Algarve, the country's ridiculously scenic Southern region, where cliff-clad beaches surround whitewashed villages. Make the marina city of Vilamoura your base camp, and check in to the newly opened Hilton As Cascatas Golf Resort & Spa. Portugal's first Hilton property is a world of its own, home to the biggest and most decadent spa in the country, 7 Spa, as well as Portugal's first golf simulator, a tricked-out facility where you can play the planet's most famous golf courses and improve your handicap in air-conditioned comfort. Of Vilamoura's six championship golf courses, the Old Course, lost in a lush forest, is the most scenic, while the recently opened Victoria Golf Course offers inimitably plush greens and perfectly groomed fairways with a wide-open American golf aesthetic.
