Planning a Golf Trip to Ireland

For a golfer, Ireland is about as good as it gets. Wild links laid through towering dunes, courses perched above the Atlantic, parkland beauties in old estates, and a nineteenth hole in every village. Plenty of people dream about a golf trip to Ireland for years before they finally book it.

We drive golfers between Ireland’s courses all season long. Here’s how to plan a trip that’s as good off the course as on it.

Where to play

Most trips focus on one or two regions, so you spend your days playing rather than driving.

• The south-west. Ballybunion’s Old Course, Tralee and Waterville in Kerry, with Old Head Golf Links on its headland in Cork.
• Clare and Limerick. Lahinch, with its famous dunes, and the championship course at Adare Manor.
• Dublin and Kildare. Portmarnock, a classic links just outside the city, and the K Club, host of the 2006 Ryder Cup.
• The north. Royal County Down, beneath the Mountains of Mourne, regularly ranked among the best courses in the world.

Which airport should you fly into?

For the south-west and Clare, Shannon is the closest airport. For Dublin, Kildare and the north, fly into Dublin, or Belfast for Royal County Down. We collect from all of them, as well as Cork and Knock, so you can fly into one and home from another.

How many rounds?

Most groups play one round a day and travel in the afternoon or evening, with a rest day somewhere in the middle. Links golf in an Atlantic breeze is tiring, and the best trips leave time for a long lunch, a pint and the odd extra night in a town you’ve fallen for.

Getting around

This is where a golf trip can unravel. After eighteen holes in the wind, nobody wants to navigate narrow country roads on the left, in a hire car loaded with clubs, looking for a hotel in the dark.

With a private driver, your chauffeur meets the group at the airport, loads the clubs, gets you to the first tee in good time and is waiting when you walk off the 18th. Then it’s on to the hotel, the next course or the bar.

• One to three golfers travel in the Mercedes E-Class, with room for their clubs.
• Four to seven golfers stay together in our Business MPV, with space for the bags.

Tee times and planning

You book your tee times and hotels, and we plan the driving around them. Send us the courses and hotels in order, with the dates and the number of golfers, and we’ll put together a quote for the whole trip.

Take a look at our golf tours with a private driver, or tell us about your trip.