Golfing packages
Longmere: seven nights in Victory Village, Vilamoura (based on four sharing a two-bedroom apartment) with hire car, plus five pre-booked rounds of golf, from £525 per person in April (excluding Easter).
Longshot: seven nights’ bed and breakfast at the five-star Le Meridien Penina with hire car, plus five pre-booked rounds on the famous Penina championship course, from £619 in May.
3D Golf: seven nights at the five-star Quinta do Lago on a bed and breakfast basis, including five rounds at a choice of 10 courses and hire car, from £729 in February.
Cresta Spain and Portugal: five nights at the four-star Ampalius in Vilamoura on a bed-and-breakfast basis, including hire car, from £470 in September. Discounted pre-booked golf at Vilamoura.
The Algarve remains Britain’s favourite overseas golf holiday destination, despite the emergence of new golfing venues within Europe and further afield.
Golf specialists British Airways Holidays, Longshot and Longmere all rate it their strongest seller – 30,000 Britons buying an Algarve package each year. It easily out performs the Costa del Sol, its closest rival. Longshot product manager Sean Noble said: “The Algarve is still out in front, but the gap is closing and that’s good for the golf holiday market generally.
“Nevertheless, there continues to be a lot of repeat business for the Algarve and our sales are currently 42% up on this time last year.”
The Algarve’s 19 courses stretch from spectacular Parque de Floresta in the west, eight miles beyond Lagos, to San Lorenzo – rated number two in continental Europe – near Faro Airport.
In between are other classic Algarve courses – they include Penina, Vilamoura Old Course, Vilasol, Vale do Lobo and Quinta do Lago – that attract thousands of repeat visitors each year.
The newest course in the Algarve is the 6,081 metre Salgados, a links-style course running alongside the beach west of Albufeira and laced with many water hazards.
Two courses are currently under construction and there are long-term plans to build a further 15 courses.
Portuguese Trade and Tourism Office head of tourism Mario Ferreira said: “Golf is very important to the Algarve and gives us much higher winter hotel occupancies. The Algarve’s good weather and natural conditions have encouraged investment and the courses have been systematically developed along with hotels and real estate.
“We are now creating a structure, through the national and local tourist offices, hotels and courses, to promote golf in our top markets of the UK and Germany,” said Ferreira.
Such is the pressure on the Algarve courses that the Costa de la Luz, across the Spanish border and 45mins by road from Faro, is now being sold by 3D Golf as an Algarve extension.
3D Golf sales and contracts manager David Sledmere sings the Algarve’s praises. “Serious golfers should head there,” he said. “The courses are high quality and worth the slightly higher green fee.
“There’s an excellent choice of five-star hotels in all the resorts. And though the nightlife isn’t quite as lively as in Spain, it’s getting better.”
For Longmere Golf Holidays, the Vilamoura area is the focus of Algarve business – in particular San Lorenzo. “People like to stick close to Faro,” said marketing manager Colin Burton.
Longshot’s Noble added: “Algarve hoteliers are commercially minded and aware of a golfer’s holiday requirements. They know the UK golf market well and there’s a genuine welcome for golfing visitors.”