As one year turns into another, it’s only natural to reminisce about the great courses you played during the past golf season—and to look ahead with wonder at those that await you in the year to come. Local courses, U.S. courses, international destinations—they all beckon like sirens hoping to attract wayward sailors to their shores. Few dates on the calendar hold more allure than scheduled golf trips, especially if they involve travel to exotic overseas locations. If you haven’t already been pondering your next golf junket, you probably will be soon.
In an era where impulse buying and overnight delivery have conspired to elevate instant gratification to unprecedented levels, it’s important to remember that no matter how many frequent flyer miles you may have, international golf trips take some planning. Tee times at the world’s trophy courses and the hotel rooms around them book up many months in advance—to the point that you’ll be hard-pressed to get high-season 2026 tee times on many top courses even now. But it’s not too late to plan your trip to many destinations. And the world has a lot of great ones to choose from.
Once you’ve picked your preferred destination, the next step is to contact a good golf tour operator. Yes, you could try to handle all the bookings yourself, but you’ll never know as much as the professional tour ops do. And if anything goes wrong when you’re traveling, trust me, it’s a great feeling to know you’ve got a pro in your corner to shift tee times, alter a hotel booking, or just to recommend a great restaurant or off-course excursion. You’ll pay a premium, but it’ll be worth every penny.
Here’s a list of 10 outstanding golf destinations to consider for your 2026 golf getaway. Will your passport get stamped at one of them this year?
Southport, England
This area, known as “England’s Golf Coast,” offers no fewer than a dozen superb courses within an hour’s drive of its epicenter—most of them true links giants that are all a thrill to play. Three of them are well-known “Royals”—Royal Liverpool (a.k.a. Hoylake), Royal Lytham & St. Annes, and Royal Birkdale. They alone would constitute a great trip. But add to them Formby, an Open-qualifying venue that stretches to 7,024 yards from the championship tees and has a quartet of par threes that are among the best anywhere. Then another Open qualifying venue, Hesketh, which offers a mix of links and parkland holes that wind through sand dunes bordering the Ribble Estuary. Next there’s Hillside; Greg Norman called the back nine here “the best in Britain,” and others competing here in Open qualifying have likewise noted its timeless beauty and difficulty. Old Tom Morris created the initial design at the traditional links at Wallasey, which overlooks Liverpool Bay and the Irish Sea. Another Open qualifying course, it was here that Bobby Jones qualified to play in the 1930 Open, which he famously won en route to his Grand Slam. Last but certainly not least, there’s Southport & Ainsdale, which has hosted the Ryder Cup twice and serves as an Open qualifying venue. This 1925 gem is a James Braid design that has been lovingly but minimally tweaked through the years. You can travel to this area by train from London in about two hours, or fly into Manchester (about an hour away) or directly into Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport. This is Beatles country, so make sure you leave time for visits to The Beatles Story Museum, The Cavern Club, and other Fab Four haunts.
Egypt
Egypt has a lot more to offer than pyramids and cruises on the Nile. It’s an excellent golf destination, too, with top-flight courses set amidst desert landscapes and dramatic Red Sea vistas. There are more than 30 courses in the country, some of the luxury resort variety and others that earn hidden gem titles in ways all on their own. The Gary Player-designed course at the Cascades Resort offers captivating sea views and is considered one of Egypt’s best. It’s a must-play. Nearby, Madinat Makadi Golf Resort has both an 18-hole layout and an additional short course, along with a golf academy. In El Gouna, the El Gouna Golf Club blends lagoon-side holes and desert features into an engaging 18-hole thrill ride. Around Cairo, the Katameya Dunes course at The Westin Cairo Golf Resort & Spa is a must-play for its desert-style routing and first-class hospitality. Just outside the city, Allegria Golf Club is ranked among the country’s best, with lush parkland fairways and scenic lakes that offer a striking contrast to the surrounding landscape. In central Cairo, the Gezira Sporting Club is a classic, throwback course. And finally, the New Giza Golf Club offers challenging, modern designs with incredible views of the famous pyramids of Giza. It’s considered one of the Middle East’s premier courses, and sits right at the doorstep of some of Egypt’s most awe-inspiring attractions. While you’re in-country, don’t miss the chance to visit Egypt’s one-of-a-kind museums filled to the rafters with ancient artifacts, the Valley of Kings near Luxor, and to take a camel ride!
Thailand
In Thailand, summer temperatures can climb past 100 degrees and sudden monsoon downpours are part of daily life. But visit between November and February and you can enjoy cooler, drier weather that’s ideal for exploring the Land of Smiles and enjoying some of Asia’s finest golf. Begin in bustling Bangkok, where tuk-tuks weave past historic temples and sidewalk cafes serve an enormous range of delicious delicacies daily. After visiting the Grand Palace, home to the Emerald Buddha, and Wat Pho, where a 147-foot Reclining Buddha glows in gold, head for the courses, which are characterized by water hazards galore and meticulous conditioning. Thai Country Club, site of Tiger Woods’s 1997 Asian Honda Classic win, sets a high standard, aided by attentive caddies who guide players through lush fairways. North of the city, Alpine Golf Club features heavily contoured greens and omnipresent water. West of Bangkok, Nikanti Golf Club stands out with its six par threes, fours, and fives inspired by Buddhist philosophy. For those lucky enough to secure an invitation, the private Amata Spring Country Club impresses with its striking floating 17th green. Beyond Bangkok, Chiang Mai offers ancient culture and mountain scenery alongside championship golf at Chiangmai Highlands. Near Pattaya, the Jack Nicklaus-designed Laem Chabang Golf Club and nearby Siam Country Club both offer high drama and scenic locales. The coastal Hua Hin district boasts two strong courses: Pineapple Valley and Black Mountain, while Phuket’s Red Mountain and Blue Canyon courses deliver some of Thailand’s most scenic and demanding golf, with elevation changes at every turn. Great beach towns nearby offer luxurious oceanfront accommodations and the opportunity for lively nights out.
Barbados
Barbados may be famous for its white-sand beaches, rum shops, and relaxed sophistication, but it has also earned a well-deserved reputation as one of the Caribbean’s premier golf destinations. With dramatic landscapes, warm and welcoming people, and equally warm weather year-round, the small and easy to navigate island offers a world-class lineup of courses that consistently delight traveling golfers. Leading the charge is Apes Hill, a revitalized resort course set nearly 1,000 feet above sea level in the island’s lush interior. Rolling fairways wind through tropical jungle, framed by sea grape, frangipani, and flamboyant trees, while elevated tees reveal sweeping views stretching to the Atlantic. Not far away, Sandy Lane’s Green Monkey course is the most coveted tee time in Barbados. (Tiger Woods rented out this entire resort when he got married there.) Carved from an old limestone quarry, its back nine plays through towering coral walls that create a look unlike anything else in the Caribbean. Access is very limited, but the experience is unforgettable. Sandy Lane’s more accessible Country Club course offers another excellent option, with immaculate conditioning. Rounding out Barbados’s elite trio is Royal Westmoreland, a Robert Trent Jones II design defined by rolling terrain, white-sand bunkers, water features, and slick, grainy greens that demand a confident putting stroke. With easy access from North America and a culture that blends British tradition with Caribbean sunshine, Barbados delivers a golf experience that feels both refined and refreshingly relaxed. For golfers chasing warm weather, scenery, and compelling golf, this island’s many treasures are hiding in plain sight.
Iceland
Playing golf in Iceland is less about chasing a score and more about surrendering to the landscape. With steep mountains, volcanic landforms, and scenery that feels borrowed from myth, every round is a heady, unforgettable experience. Nowhere is that more evident than on Iceland’s north coast, where golf unfolds under conditions found nowhere else on Earth. Akureyri Golf Club has long been the country’s flagship course. Known internationally as the host of the Arctic Open, it offers competitors the surreal thrill of teeing off beneath the midnight sun, with daylight stretching deep into the night. A moorland-style layout, Akureyri twists and climbs through rock-strewn rough and rolling terrain, earning its reputation as the northernmost national championship course in the world. Over the span of more than a decade, Icelandic architect Edwin Roald refined the course—rerouting holes, adding and relocating tees, and building a modern practice facility. The result is a golf experience that checks every box. Off the course, the nearby city of Akureyri delivers cultural life, cuisine, and close access to Iceland’s dramatic natural wonders. Travel farther north and the story becomes even more intimate. Near the historic fishing village of Siglufjörður lies Sigló, a 9-hole gem carved into a deep valley just inland from the sea. Also designed by Roald, Sigló asks players to negotiate glacial streams, face an island green, and navigate tilted fairways edged by rock outcroppings and alpine glades. Scoring well is a challenge—but it hardly matters. Far from city lights, with mountains rising on all sides, Sigló offers the chance to watch the Aurora dance overhead as you play. Near Reykjavik, tee it up at Brautarholt, a 12-hole course where every hole is a postcard waiting to happen, and Keilir, where the coastal links-style holes occupy dramatic settings fringed by volcanic features. Lastly, don’t pass up the opportunity to play the Hildavollur course at Mosfellsbaer Golf Club, where the Esja Mountains serve as the backdrop, and you’ll be joined for your day along the bay by the Arctic Terns who nest along the shoreline.
British Columbia
Golf in British Columbia isn’t just a sport—it’s a nature expedition with a scorecard. Canada’s third-largest province is so vast it could swallow California in one gulp, and its golf offerings are just as expansive. With more than 300 courses spread from the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountain foothills, B.C. delivers a feast of landscapes, climates, and cultures that few North American destinations can match. Most journeys begin in Vancouver, one of the continent’s most photogenic cities. Ocean shoreline, Stanley Park’s iconic Indigenous totem poles, and lively neighborhoods like Gastown and Granville Island set the tone for a one-of-a-kind golf excursion. While Stanley Thompson’s private Capilano G&CC in Vancouver remains out of reach for most, a short ferry ride opens up Vancouver Island, home to 40 courses and the refined capital city of Victoria. At the island’s Bear Mountain Resort, dramatic elevation changes, Douglas firs, and rock-faced slopes provide a thrilling introduction to B.C. golf. Just up the road, Olympic View Golf Club ups the ante with waterfalls, roaming deer, and vistas of the Olympic Mountains, while historic Royal Colwood offers visiting golfers a chance to play an elegant 1913 parkland layout. Back on the mainland, travel north along the Sea-to-Sky Highway to Whistler, where golf and skiing famously coexist. Fairmont Chateau Whistler tumbles down mountain slopes shared with bears, while nearby Nicklaus North reflects the jagged profiles of Whistler and Blackcomb in its glassy lakes. Just beyond, Big Sky Golf Club in Pemberton features the unforgettable 14th hole, “Hang Time,” where tee shots seem to float forever beneath Mount Currie. Inland, the terrain shifts again. Sagebrush near Merritt delivers a links-like experience overlooking Nicola Lake. The golf at Tobiano near Kamloops is treeless, bold, and relentlessly strategic. Nearby Talking Rock Golf Club, created by the Little Shuswap Lake Band, pairs lakeside golf with Indigenous cuisine at Quaaout Lodge. B.C.’s Okanagan Valley blends golf with wine country indulgence at Predator Ridge, before the drama ramps up even further at Greywolf in the Purcell Mountains. Its cliff-edge par-three “Cliffhanger” provides a finale worthy of B.C.’s epic scale. From sea to sky, every round in Canada’s westernmost province tells a different—and unforgettable—story.
Ayrshire, Scotland
Stand on the 12th green at Dundonald Links and you understand Ayrshire’s magic at a glance. From this subtly sloping putting surface, the view stretches across several holes of Dundonald itself and out toward two neighbors—Kilmarnock (Barassie) and Western Gailes—so close they feel part of the same grand tapestry of linksland. From above, the courses almost merge into one vast golf resort, separated only by fences and the railway line where trains rumble past. Few places in the world concentrate so much authentic links golf into such a compact strip of coastline, and that proximity is what makes Ayrshire one of Scotland’s premier golf destinations. Easily reached from Glasgow Airport, Ayrshire rewards golfers with immediate immersion. Step off the plane in the morning and you can be on a tee by lunchtime, breathing salt air and gauging the winds that help define links golf at its purest. Here, history and modern excellence coexist effortlessly. Dundonald Links represents the modern face of Ayrshire golf, yet it feels entirely at home on this ancient ground. Designed by Kyle Phillips, the course weaves through low dunes with imagination and restraint, its generous fairways tightening dramatically near elevated, sharply contoured greens. It’s a course that challenges without exhausting, delights without gimmickry, and welcomes players not just to a world-class golf course but to all the comforts of a premier clubhouse with modern lodging right on site. Moments away, Prestwick, birthplace of the Open Championship, offers a gloriously eccentric journey through blind shots, fearsome bunkers, and holes that transport you to another century. Royal Troon, by contrast, delivers full-on championship gravitas. Home of the renowned Postage Stamp and Railway holes, it’s a perennial Open venue where legends are made. Western Gailes, often overshadowed by its more famous neighbors, may be the region’s most satisfying test. When the wind blows off the Firth of Clyde, its seaside stretch becomes a battle with the elements, demanding creativity, patience, and nerve. Farther south, the mighty Ailsa course at Trump Turnberry elevates the experience to the spectacular, with holes carved along the rocky shoreline beneath the watchful presence of the lighthouse and Ailsa Craig beyond. What binds all of Ayrshire golf together is its authenticity. These are not weak imitations of links courses—they are the real thing, set on some of the finest golfing ground in the world. Add rich local history, welcoming clubhouses, and memorable après-golf moments, and Ayrshire becomes more than a destination. It becomes a pilgrimage every golfer should make.
Costa Rica
The Central American country of Costa Rica attracts more than a million U.S. visitors annually, lured by its beaches, rainforests, colorful places to eat and drink, and its commitment to ecotourism. On Costa Rica’s golf courses, nature becomes your gallery in the form of macaws soaring overhead, monkeys clapping from the trees, and coatis casually crossing the fairways mid-round. The heart of Costa Rican golf lies in Guanacaste, the sun-drenched northwest region known for its dry climate and ideal playing conditions. The standout courses there are all within easy reach of the international airport in the capital, San José. The northernmost of these is the Arnold Palmer-designed Ocean Course at the Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo. Carved into a lush hillside on an ancient lava flow, it offers dramatic elevation changes, constant Pacific views, and a postcard-perfect par-three 17th that’s even more brilliant at sunset. Just south is Reserva Conchal, a Robert Trent Jones II design that rewards both power and precision. Rolling terrain, banyan-lined fairways, and water-guarded greens keep players engaged, while mountain vistas and the occasional flock of flamingos remind you that this is anything but an ordinary round. Nearby in Tamarindo, Hacienda Pinilla Golf Club provides a longer, more open test, highlighted by a par-three green perched on the edge of the ocean amid black volcanic rock. Farther down the coast, La Iguana at the Los Sueños Marriott immerses golfers in dense rainforest before finishing beside the beach. Inland near San José, Cariari Country Club and Parque Valle del Sol showcase a more traditional parkland style, with tight tree-lined holes, strategic water hazards, and sweeping views of mountain ranges and volcanoes. Whether you’re playing until you drop or mixing golf with ziplining, hot springs, and sunset catamaran cruises, Costa Rica delivers the game with a generous dose of pura vida, the relaxed national spirit of Costa Rica representing peace, happiness, and harmony with nature.
Dominican Republic
When Christopher Columbus first set foot on Hispaniola in December of 1492, he could hardly have imagined that this lush Caribbean island would one day become one of the world’s premier golf destinations. Today, the Dominican Republic offers a collection of courses as compelling as any on the planet, one where world-class design meets turquoise water, steady trade winds, and an unmistakable sense of history and hospitality. If you needed another reason to travel there, the acclaimed Casa de Campo Resort & Villas recently provided it. Its renowned Teeth of the Dog course, ranked No. 1 in the Caribbean, reopened recently after its first full upgrade, led by Jerry Pate, since 1971—work that included sand-capping all the fairways, seeding them with a new strain of paspalum, giving all the bunkers new sand, and more. Seven of its Pete Dye-designed holes sit right on the Caribbean, and there’s not a boring hole to be found. Devotees of this course will surely be flocking to it in 2026 to enjoy its new presentation. While there, they’re sure to enjoy the expansive resort’s Dye Fore course, too, with its three nines each offering different but equally challenging experiences. Casa de Campo and the wide world of diversions it offers are reason enough alone to travel to the Dominican with your sticks in tow, but there’s more. In Punta Cana, the beaches and nightlife may lure non-golf visitors, but there’s excellent golf to be found there, too. At the Puntacana Resort, the La Cana and Corales courses deliver two very different but equally memorable experiences. La Cana’s P.B. Dye design weaves across three nines, with no fewer than 14 holes offering water views. Corales, Tom Fazio’s clifftop creation, stretches past 7,600 yards and has proven its pedigree as host of the PGA Tour’s Corales Puntacana Championship. Just to the south in Cap Cana, Jack Nicklaus’s Punta Espada course is one of the most photogenic in the country. Nine holes play directly along the sea, including a procession of finishing holes that demand both nerve and precision. And there’s a brand-new course coming online in the area. The Jack Nicklaus Signature design course, Las Iguanas, opened nine holes in November, and when it fully opens in 2026 it’s sure to dazzle visitors with its dramatic use of the site’s natural, coastal terrain, 10 sculpted lakes, elevated bluff that figures into several key holes, and cliff-edge golf on several others. Put it all together, and the Dominican Republic becomes the Caribbean’s top spot for golf in both quantity and quality. And with the kind of luxe accommodations and off-course experiences offered at places like Casa de Campo and the brand-new St. Regis Cap Cana Resort, your trip will be just as memorable for its après-golf moments.
Tuscany, Italy
Tuscany is rightly famous for its world-class wines, stunning scenery, charming medieval towns, and spectacular cuisine. But this historic region offers golf that’s just as good. Begin your journey in Florence, Tuscany’s capital, where you can view Michaelangelo’s David, tour the Cathedral de Santa Maria del Fiore, walk the famous Ponte Vecchio, and enjoy what’s likely to be the best dining you’ve ever imagined. Then it’s off to golf in the Mugello Hills at Poggio dei Medici, an open parkland course with ridges, valleys, and water to negotiate, along with captivating scenery and a historic clubhouse that’s set in a 16th Century hunting lodge. Next, head to the gently rolling hills south of Sienna to the Robert Trent Jones II design at Royal Golf La Bagnaia, where the links-like course winds through five lakes and the rustic setting transports you back centuries to the days of the Medicis. Finally, head to the 800-year-old estate at Castiglion del Bosco, one of Italy’s premier wine estates and home to the nation’s only private members’ club. The estate comprises the old castle’s ruins, a small village which has been transformed into a luxury five-star Rosewood hotel, vineyards, and a spectacular Tom Weiskopf-designed course that sits on the Tuscan landscape as perfectly as the area’s Brunello di Montalcinos sit on one’s palate. The course even has what it calls a “Brunello” hole, a 19th hole where wagers can be played out. You’ll need to stay in one of the estate’s tranquil villas or suites to access tee times at this course, but it will be eminently worth it to avail yourself of all that this estate, and Tuscany, have to offer its fortunate guests.
