Golf Holidays Portugal – 5 Great Golf Clubs Worth A Visit

When considering golf holidays Portugal has a spectrum of course types to play, all with the added benefit of a mile climate and some fantastic scenery. For those seeking the perfect golf holiday Algarve, Estoril and the Oeste regions have the best selection of courses. This article delves into 5 of the best clubs to play.

Palheiro: There are only three courses on Madeira so may not suit those in search of variety. However, the Palheiro is unique in that its fairway have some of the most scenic vistas as they traverse the volcanic hillsides and tropical valleys.

photo credit: danperry.com

Vilamoura Old Course: The town of Vilamoura has the greatest proliferation of courses in the country with Oceanico sporting over 10 resorts here. Their best course is the Old Course for its mature tree-lined fairways and greens with a good range of holes.

Estoril Golf Club: This is the perfect club for those mixing a city break to nearby Lisbon with some golfing. This compact course (6,000 yards only) is ideal for short-hitters who appreciate using course management skills to navigate 18 holes. The mix of par 4s and par 5s make this an course that becomes more enjoyable with repeated visits.

Oitavos: This is perhaps one of the lesser known courses internationally but fans of the Portuguese Open will remember that Oitavos is a former host of the Open. The course design favors anyone long off the tee but amateurs will still enjoy the quality of the Bermuda grass fairways and the fast running greens.

Oceanico Faldo: Set in the south-west of the Algarve, Nick Faldo designed this course with a desert-style design. The presence of the changeable Atlantic Ocean breezes influences how the course, and individual holes play depending on the wind direction. The neighboring Christy O’Connor parkland course is an ideal complement to Faldo’s making an enjoyable pair of courses that you could conceivable both play in a single day.

As you can see, there are many great golf holidays in Portugal ready and waiting for your enjoyment.

Reading Travel Books

Have you ever browsed the travel books section at your local Borders or Barnes and Noble? I’m ashamed to admit that my first foray digging through those not so dusty tomes at Borders was no more than just a couple days ago. What struck me wasn’t the shear number of travel books out there but rather how many different TYPES of travel books there are laying about those shelves. Sure there are the typical guide books, the Lonely Planets and the Frommers, that purport to tell you where all the interesting stuff to look at is but there are books on general planning, books on travel by bike, by car, by train, by plane, by rv. It’s staggering how much information is just sitting there on those shelves waiting to help show you the world. Then there are my personal favorites: the travel narratives. Sometimes dramatic, but more often than not, these are the lighthearted looks at culture clashes the world over and nearly always constitute an enjoyable read…if only to laugh at someone else’s misery.

Late September in Seaside Heights

The Seaside Heights Boardwalk in September

The month of September is a beautiful time to be in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. The large summer crowds are gone and the weather, at least on a nice day, is pretty enjoyable. The beach is pleasant but it may be a bit cool to swim in the ocean.

Seaside has also worked hard over the past decade or so to create a full slate of September weekend events. All of these beach parties involve a daylong or multi-day slate of parades, contests and other festival related things-to-do. The real purpose of these events is to keep people coming to the beach well past what used to be the normal summer season. Labor Day was traditionally the end of the ten week summer tourism season. Now there is the seafood festival, Mardi Gras weekend and a clown festival to draw people to town. All of this makes it nice to visit Seaside Heights during what I think is a great time of the year.

Sports Bags

photo credit: Marcin Wichary

Instead of the cat in the hat, I have the cat in the sports bag. I like to take my calico named Jasper with me when I travel instead of leaving him at the vet or other boarding facility. I just couldn’t do that to poor Jasper.

On my last vacation I went on a road trip with a couple of friends and we went camping at the beach. The trip was a ton of fun but the travel time needed to get to the coast was just over three hours. This was a little hard on Jasper and he didn’t want to be left in the car when we stopped for lunch. I didn’t bring a leash or other carry bag so I came up with a cool idea. I emptied one of my sports bags and used it to bring Jasper into the restaurant with me. I don’t think anyone at the dinner knew except for the kids at the table next to us. It worked for Jasper and it worked for me.