Last year, a record number of Americans visited Turkey (or Türkiye, the country’s new official name). This is no coincidence.
At a time when travel to many popular destinations in Europe has become much more expensive, in some cases prohibitively expensive, Türkiye is still a price proposition. Although the costs are very affordable, the country is rich in culture, history, and sights, with delicious Mediterranean cuisine and even perfect wines.
It’s also much less difficult to get to Turkey than many people think, and now even less difficult, with more non-sensitive flights from more US cities than ever before. The most sensible thing about that is that last month (January 2024), they dropped the Electronic Visa Requirement for Americans, saving an extra step and fifty dollars.
In a recent travel section feature titled, “Why this is the year to holiday in Turkey,” London’s Telegraph wrote, “With the country set to become Europe’s second most-popular destination this year, there’s never been a better time to visit.” They predicted 2024 will see Türkiye surpass France, behind only Spain in tourist volume. But that’s for an entire country. The Washington Post just reported that Istanbul was the world’s most visited city last year with 20 million international tourists (though the math seems fuzzy given that Las Vegas drew over 40 million, including domestic travelers). Why? The Telegraph said, “It’s easy to see why Turkey’s popularity is soaring. Not only does it have more than 4,000 miles of sun blessed Aegean and Mediterranean coastline—ideal for everything from fun-filled family beach holidays to relaxing gulet cruises—but it’s also home to a substantial number of stunning UNESCO World Heritage Sites such as Troy, Ephesus and Gobekli Tepe, as well as countless other dramatically set ancient sites. Turkey’s allure becomes even more apparent when you throw into the mix one of the world’s truly great cities, the continent-bestriding mega-city of Istanbul.”
It is also a very easy position to plan a golf vacation. While most countries have golf destinations or regions, the Turkish scene is notably condensed and mostly completely confined around Belek, in the Antalya region, the “Turkish Riviera”, a rich region on the Mediterranean. coasts, resorts and luxury hotels, dozens of them, many of them all-inclusive. It’s hot in July and August, but most people come to the beach, leaving the course empty, and you can play here all year round. There are 14 golf courses, many of which were built by wonderful European architects such as Colin Montgomerie and Nick Faldo.
After several fun visits to Turkey over the years, I recently visited this domain for a week of golf and was very inspired by the quality of the courses, food, accommodation and value for money. The Telegraph, aimed at a British audience, reported that London Golf Specialists were offering week-long stays with accommodation, all meals, adult beverages and four rounds of golf at several quality hotels to choose from, starting at $1,452 per son. That’s about $200 a day all-inclusive, and you wouldn’t even pay green fees on courses of this caliber at most Florida golf resorts during the winter.
According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a record-breaking 1,334,337 Americans visited in 2023, a whopping 32% increase over 2022 and a staggering 131% increase over pre-Covid 2019.
Because just about everyone arrives through Istanbul, it is very easy to combine a stay exploring Europe’s largest city with golf, a short flight away. Istanbul in turn is one of the world’s most exotic cities, full of great hotels, food and a laundry list of “must see’ attractions such as the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace. If you have more time you can tack on additional great regions, such as Cappadocia, famous for its otherworldly landscape, cave hotels and as the number one place in the world to go for a hot air balloon ride. The ruins of Ephesus are another major attraction, and Bodrum is one of Europe’s hottest beach resorts, at a fraction of the price of Ibiza or Cannes. But you could also go just for golf.
Cornelia Golf Club is a 27-hole course designed by legendary player-turned-designer Sir NickArray. [ ] Skirt.
Here there are no routes of the hundred best in the world, nor known pilgrimage patterns. Here you will find many high-quality golf resorts on well-maintained courses, two of which are lit for night games, which is incredibly rare anywhere in the world. There are a few 3-light courses in the United States, but here you can play eighteen holes on a life-size course after dinner and you can see it remarkably well. In Turkey, playing golf at night is better than skiing at night. But this is very nice. During the summer months, when it’s very hot, and the rest of the year, you probably need to enjoy the pleasant hours of sunshine in the Mediterranean climate.
It doesn’t compete with dream golf destinations with up to a hundred practical courses like Scotland, Ireland, Bandon Dunes or Pinehurst, but I would compare the quality of golf in Turkey to other warm climate golf destinations like Palm Springs, Myrtle Beach, Texas, Tucson or most of Florida (actually better on average than most hotel categories in Florida, which tend to be very mediocre and expensive), but with better food, accommodations and better beaches for your money. You also get two holidays in one, a full-fledged game of golf and a colorful holiday abroad, with a big dose of exotic culture and cuisine.
Colin Montgomerie is a professional star-turned-architect, and his Montgomerie course at the MAXX Royal complex is one of the most productive in the area.
There are about four dozen hotels in the area rated five stars nationally, most of them very large, but I would only consider those with approved courses attached, less than ten and some with more than one route. he will most likely move to other properties. You definitely don’t need to go all-inclusive, but I would, this is a place where they do it very well (even the mini bars are included) and the food was pretty good compared to most all-inclusive packages. I have noticed it in Mexico and the Caribbean. Top luxury brands that aren’t usually all-inclusive, like Turkish-owned Kempinski and Kaya Palazzo, are all-inclusive here, and in wonderful style. This simplifies the entire process, provides everyone in your organization with plenty of dining options, and there are no hassles or surprises with subsequent travel stickers. Most of the top-performing hotels are Las Vegas-style megaresorts (minus the casino) with giant pool complexes, beach clubs, luxurious fitness centers, spas, tennis and other sports, and even a shopping center and lounge. cinema in some. Many will offer luxury villas with personal pools in addition to rooms and suites.
Notable homes include the MAXX Royal, an exclusive all-inclusive, all-suite hotel and villos angeles with spacious and very well-appointed rooms, a very los angelesgoon-style pool complex, a spa, extensive amenities and several excellent restaurantsArray adding a buffet, a a la carte restaurant, Turkish, Italian, Asian, etc. The MAXX has one of the most productive courses, the Montgomerie, with the back nine completely lit. Tiger Woods’ first time competing in Turkey was at this course, where he finished third at the 2013 Turkish Airlines Open.
Kaya Palazzo Belek is a luxury all-inclusive hotel with its own 18-hole course.
Perhaps the most sumptuous all-inclusive is the Kaya Palazzo Golf Resort Belek, part of a small Turkish luxury hotel organization. In the past I stayed at their property in Bodrum, Turkey’s most elegant seaside city, and was amazed that it was on par with the biggest foreign luxury brands and that the company even operates one of the few ski hotels in Turkey. Belek assets recently added luxurious Lagoon Suites where you enter a pool. There are a multitude of room categories, adding pool suites, pool villas, golf villas, and, of course, 4- and five-bedroom “mansions. “Beach lovers can rent Maldivian-style stilt huts. The hotel also boasts one of the most productive eighteen-hole courses in the area, the Kaya Palazzo Golf Club. It was designed by David Jones of Northern Ireland, who played on the European and Senior Tour before becoming one of Europe’s most prolific designers, and has remade one of my favourite Scots of all time, Ardglass, to great acclaim.
For natural golf, it is difficult to beat Gloria, the only 45-hole club in Turkey, with two highly forged eighteen holes, the old and the new, as well as the 9-hole Verde and a diversity of driving equipped with a Trackman stand . There are 3 all-inclusive Gloria hotels, the most elegant of which is the Gloria Serenity, which consists exclusively of suites and villas.
Over-water cabanas in the Mediterranean are the latest upgrade to the vast facilities at the luxury … [+] Kaya Palazzo Golf Resort.
Other hotels that offer courses include Antalya Golf Club (AGC), Cornelia, Regnum Carya, and Cullinan Links. AGC is home to Pasha Course and PGA Sultan Course, Turkey’s premier championship venue, where Tiger Woods lost the Turkish Airlines World Golf Finals semifinal to winner Justin Rose in 2012. Both courses are through European Golf Design, a leading architecture firm. He has completed high-profile projects such as the Ryder Cup courses at Celtic Mannor and, most recently, the Marco Simone Golf Club in Rome. They have had three courses in Europe named “Best New” and two designs ranked in the world’s Top 100. AGC also has a full golf academy, but it’s not part of a hotel as shown. There’s a Kempinski luxury hotel, the Dome, on-site, one of the few all-inclusives from this global luxury brand, which also coincides with the most prominent and iconic hotel in all of Turkey, the mythical Ciragan Palace d’ Istanbul.
Cornelia Golf Club is a 27-hole course designed by Nick Faldo and one of the most productive in Turkey. You can play it all on a longer outing or in 3 other combinations of eighteen. It also has an academy of the famous instructor David Leadbetter. and several all-inclusive hotels in Cornelia from.
The exclusive Regnum Carya hotel is home to two stunning courses, the National Golf Club, the former designed by David Jones (see above), and the Carya Golf Course, designed by Thomson Perrett.
Cullinan Links is the latest multi-course resort here, but as it has grown from 27 to 36 holes, it has been shortened and both courses are a bit short by fashionable standards. The same can’t be said for a huge, adjacent all-inclusive resort. On the plus side, Cullinan is the most important coastal facility in the area, with amazing perspectives of the Mediterranean.
Many of Belek’s resorts offer accommodations with pools, such as the sumptuous new LagoonArray. [ ] Villas at Kaya Palazzo Golf Resort.
Montgomerie, Kaya Palazzo Golf Club, Gloria Old and New, Pasha, PGA Sultan, Cornelia Golf Club (27 holes), National and Carya are all above-average hotel courses. Most of us would be satisfied to play anywhere in the world. And it’s a solid foundation of over nine designs, more than enough for a long week of play. The only one I’d recommend skipping would be Lykia Links, which aims to bring the taste of the British Isles to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. But it doesn’t. It’s more productive to leave the Links golf course at Links destinations.
Because so many area resorts are all-inclusive and tourists are used to “free” meals at their hotels and don’t want to spend offsite, most of the better courses here include lunch or dinner and, in some cases, even drinks from the beverage cart in the greens fees to woo golfers to leave their resorts. This is a nice touch you won’t find in many other places, and yet another part of the area’s great value proposition. While a la carte greens fees are priced for international visitors and don’t look as low as you might expect at first glance, most golfers come on greatly discounted packages combining golf with lodging.
As far as I know, none of the top U.S. golf travel specialists have focused on this market, but Golfbreaks by the PGA Tour, launched in the UK, has a U.S. presence and covers the globe, including Türkiye. Some others to check out include Kaden Golf, which won Türkiye’s Best Inbound Tour Operator at the World Golf Awards, Belek’s Golf Mad Travel, Visit Antalya, and Golf Turkey, all of which have modern, English websites, but none of which I can personally vouch for. The individual resorts also offer stay and play packages.
As a long-time sponsor of a European Tour event and, more recently, a primary amateur tournament, Turkish Airlines is a rarity in the industry: it allows you to take your golf clubs on flights for free.
Another merit of a golf holiday in Turkey is that it is a reasonable and easily accessible place. Turkish Airlines, a member of Star Alliance (United, Air Canada, Swiss, Lufthansa, etc. ), is a multi-award winning airline. airline and widely regarded as one of the most productive in the world and, in my experience, amazing for any major U. S. airline. However, despite the proven quality, they offer the lowest fares to Europe of any full-service airline. , airline with no budget. They also fly nonstop to a new, state-of-the-art multibillion-dollar Istanbul airport, one of the most productive in the world, from thirteen U. S. cities. I’m a big fan of Turkey travel, even when I don’t go to Turkey (they fly to more destinations than any airline in the world) and I recently wrote about all the places they fly from, all the awards, and what makes them so smart here at Forbes.
Turkish also offers a huge variety of Istanbul stopover packages with free hotels and tours, described in my article. In keeping with the theme of more golfing holidays for less money, they allow all overseas travelers to try out a set of golf clubs for a more relaxed holiday. , which, as I understand it, no one else does. In fact, American Airlines just made headlines for raising its checked baggage fees, and its competition is expected to follow suit, so save even more.
Hit them directly!