Golf Travel’s Hidden Gem—For A Great Golf Trip Consider Turkey

Last year a record number of Americans visited Turkey (or Türkiye, the new official national name). This was no coincidence.

At a time when travel to many popular destinations in Europe has become much more expensive, in some cases prohibitively so, Türkiye remains a fantastic value proposition. While prices are very affordable, the country is rich in culture, history and touristic sites, with delicious Mediterranean cuisine, and even great wines.

Türkiye is also much easier to get to than many people realize, and now even easier, with more non-stop flights from more U.S. cities than ever before. On top of that, last month (January 2024) they dropped the E-Visa requirement for North Americans, saving a step and another fifty bucks.

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’s also a very easy place to plan a golf vacation. While most countries have multiple golf destinations or regions, Turkey’s scene is remarkably condensed and almost entirely contained around Belek, in the Antalya region, the so called “Turkish Riviera,” an area rich in Mediterranean coastline, beach resorts and luxury hotels, dozens of them, many all-inclusive. It gets hot in July and August, but most people come then for the beach leaving the course empty, and you can play here all year-round. There are 14 golf courses, many by top European architects such as Colin Montgomerie and Nick Faldo.

After multiple enjoyable visits to Turkey over the years, I recently visited this region for a week of golf, and was quite impressed with the quality of the courses, food, lodging—and value. The Telegraph, aimed at a UK audience, reported London golf travel specialists offering weeklong stays with room, all meals, adult beverages and four rounds of golf at choice of multiple quality hotels from $1,452 per person. That’s around $200 a day all in, and that wouldn’t even pay for the greens fees at courses of this caliber at most Florida golf resorts in 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.

There is no World Top 100 course here, no famous pilgrimage designs. What you will find is a lot of high-quality resort golf on well-maintained courses, two of which are lit for night play, extremely rare on the entire planet. There are some lighted par-3 courses in the U.S., but here you can play eighteen holes on a full-size course after dinner, and you can see remarkably well. Türkiye’s night golf is better golf than night skiing is skiing. But that is most attractive in the summer months when it gets very hot, and the rest of the year you’ll more likely want to enjoy the gorgeous daytime Mediterranean climate.

It doesn’t compete with pure golf dream destinations full of Top 100 Courses such as Scotland, Ireland, Bandon Dunes or Pinehurst, but I’d compare the quality of golf in Türkiye to that of other warm weather resort golf destinations like Palm Springs, Myrtle Beach, Texas, Tucson or most of Florida (it’s actually better on average than most Florida resort courses, which tend to be very mediocre and overpriced) but with better food, better lodging and better beaches for your dollar. You also get two vacations in one, a full-blown golf trip plus a colorful international vacation, with a heavy does of exotic culture and cuisine.

There are about four dozen hotels in the region rated 5-Stars on the national scale, many of them very large, but I’d only consider the ones with golf courses attached, less than ten, and several with more than one course, though you will likely bop around to other properties. You certainly do not have to go all-inclusive, but I would, it’s a place where they do it very well (even the mini-bars are often included) and the food was quite good compared to many of the all-inclusive I’ve seen in Mexico and the Caribbean. Top luxury brands that usually are not all-inclusive, such as Kempinski and Turkey’s homegrown Kaya Palazzo are inclusive here, and in high style. It makes the whole process simpler, gives everyone in your group lots of dining choices, and there’s no travel sticker shock or surprises afterwards. Many of the best hotels are Vegas-style mega-resorts (minus the casino) with large pool complexes, beach clubs, lavish fitness centers, spa, tennis and other sports, even a shopping mall and movie theater in some. Many offer luxury villas with private pools in addition to the rooms and suites.

Standout properties include the MAXX Royal, an upscale all-inclusive, all-suite and villa resort with large and very well-appointed rooms, very large lagoon-style pool complex, spa, extensive facilities and multiple good restaurants, including buffet, a la carte, Turkish, Italian, Asian etc. The MAXX has one of the top courses, the Montgomerie, with the back nine fully lit. The last time Tiger Woods competed in Turkey was on this course, where he finished third in the 2013 Turkish Airlines Open.

The most luxurious all-inclusive may be the Kaya Palazzo Belek Golf Resort, part of small Turkish high-end resort group. I previously stayed at their fantastic property in Bodrum, Turkey’s poshest beach town, and was stunned, as it was on par with top international luxury brands, and the group even operates one of Turkey’s few ski resorts. The Belek property recently added luxury Lagoon Suites where you walk out into a pool. There are a slew of room categories including Swim Up Suites, Swim Up Villas, Golf Villas and of course, four and five bedroom “Mansions.” Beach lovers can rent Maldives-style over the water stilted cabanas. The resort also has one of the better eighteen-hole courses in the area, the Kaya Palazzo Golf Club. It was designed by Northern Ireland’s David Jones, who played on the European Tour and Senior Tour before becoming one of Europe’s more prolific designers, and he redid one of my all-time Scottish favorites, Ardglass, with great success.

For sheer golf, it’s hard to beat the Gloria, Turkey’s only 45-hole club, with two very solid eighteens, the Old and New, plus the 9-hole Verde and practice facility with Trackman equipped range. There are three all-inclusive Gloria hotels, the fanciest of which is the all-suite and villa Gloria Serenity.

Other resorts with multiple courses include the Antalya Golf Club (AGC), Cornelia, Regnum Carya and Cullinan Links. AGC is home to both the Pasha and the PGA Sultan course, Türkiye’s premier championship venue, where Tiger Woods lost the Turkish Airlines World Golf Final in the semi-final round to winner Justin Rose in 2012. Both courses are by European Golf Design, a leading architecture firm that has done high profile projects including the Ryder Cup courses at Celtic Mannor and most recently Rome’s Marco Simone golf club. They have had three courses in Europe named “Best New” and two World Top 100 designs. AGC also has a full golf academy, but they are not part of a resort per se. There is a luxury Kempinski hotel, the Dome, on site, one of the few all-inclusive for this global luxury brand, which also operates the most famous and iconic hotel in all of Türkiye, Istanbul’s legendary Ciragan Palace.

The Cornelia Golf Club is a 27-hole Nick Faldo design and one of Türkiye’s best. You can play it all in one longer outing, or in three different combinations of eighteen. It also has an outpost of famed instructor David Leadbetter’s academy, and multiple all-inclusive Cornelia hotels to choose from.

The upscale Regnum Carya resort is home to two impressive layouts, the National Golf Club, the first in the region by David Jones (see above), and the Carya Golf Course, designed by Thomson Perrett & Lobb, the firm of five-time British Open winner Peter Thomson, known for his high-profile Australian designs. This was the first fully-lit 18-hole course in Europe and has hosted the Turkish Airlines Open, the nation’s highest profile event, three times. It is well worth playing day or night. The resort has also hosted everything from a Jennifer Lopez concert to the G20 Summit, recently added lavish lagoon pool swim-up villas, and the even more over the top Crown Villa. It lives up to its regal billing, a single unit spanning more than 37,000 square feet, with six ornate en-suite master bedrooms, more bedrooms for staff, steam room, sauna, massage room, private gym, outdoor living spaces and gardens, 3,600 square foot heated pool—with swim-up bar— and hot tub, DJ facilities, several whirlpool baths, cinema room with another whirlpool bath, “Maxi-bar” instead of mini-bar, and one amenity you very rarely see described in hotel brochures, bulletproof windows.

Cullinan Links is the final multiple course resort here, but as it was expanded from 27-36 holes it got shortened and both courses are a bit short by modern standards. The same cannot be said for an enormous all-inclusive hotel attached, which was previously and fittingly named Titanic. On the plus side, Cullinan is the most coastal facility in the region, with sweeping Mediterannean views.

The Montgomerie, Kaya Palazzo Golf Club, Gloria Old and New, Pasha, PGA Sultan, Cornelia Golf Club (27-holes), National and Carya are all above-average resort courses most of us would be happy to play anywhere in the world, and this is a solid base of nine-plus layouts, more than enough for a long week of play. The only one I’d advise skipping would be Lykia Links, which aspires to bring a taste of the British Isles to Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast, but comes up short. Links golf is best left to 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.

Another plus about a Türkiye golf trip is that it’s a cheap and easy place to get to. Star Alliance (United, Air Canada, Swiss, Lufthansa, etc.) member Turkish Airlines is a multiple major award-winning carrier widely considered one of the world’s best, and in my experience superior to any major U.S. or European carrier. Yet despite its proven quality, they often have the lowest prices to Europe of any full service, non-budget airline. They also fly non-stop to a new state of the art multi-billion dollar Istanbul airport, one of the best in the world, from 13 U.S. cities, having most recently added Detroit. I’m a big fan of flying Turkish even when not going to Turkey—they serve 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 good here at Forbes.

Turkish also also offers an extensive slate of stopover packages in Istanbul with free hotels and tours, described in my article. In keeping with the theme of more golf vacation for less money, they allow all international travelers to check a set of golf clubs for free, something no one else I know of does. In fact, American Airlines just made headlines by raising its checked baggage fees, and competitors are expected to follow suit, so you’ll save even more.

Hit ‘em straight!