Travel Designers It’s that time of year again when I take a group of golfers off to the sunshine to try out some new golf courses. This year we are off for a golf holiday Turkey to Belek in the South of Turkey for the second time but staying in the new Voyage Belek hotel which has been getting some great reviews.
Last year our group of 12 golfers stayed at the Cornelia Diamond Hotel which was a fantastic 5-star resort with wonderful rooms and excellent food. We would have returned there in an instance however after playing the Faldo courses last year (which are part of this hotel) we wanted to try some of the different ones on offer and the strange restaurant booking policy at the Cornelia Diamond didn’t make us rush back.
If you have booked to go to Cornelia Diamond as a group, just watch out for the policy on booking the themed restaurants which require you to phone from your room at a specified time each day! Not a great policy for a golfing group especially when the automated system didn’t allow group bookings.
However, the Voyage Belek looks to offer some great choice of restaurants and here is hoping they will be as good as last year. We have chosen to play 5 rounds of golf at the Pasha, Montgomerie, National, Cayra and the Tat. I will let you know the standard of each golf course whilst I am there next week. I have played the National and the Cayra before last year, and both were in fantastic condition so here is hoping the same goes for this year.
Getting to Turkey for a golf holiday between the months of November and March is a little restricted with the airline carrier as you have the choice of a charter from Gatwick with Thomas cook or indirect with Turkish airlines. The rest of the year low-cost airlines such as Easyjet and Thomsonfly operate but their last flights tend to be the last weekend of October.
When we flew last year we had a long delay of 5 hours which was not a good start to the holiday, also the seat pitch is very tight so if you are a large guy you might want to pay for extra room. One tip is to book the inflight meals as if like our group you are delayed you will appreciate having a meal as they don’t overstock for those that do not pre-book meals. Another tip is to prebook your golf clubs online with Thomas cook extras and you will pay much less than at the airport on the day of check-in.
If you want more information on golfing in Turkey then check out next weeks blogs from Turkey or visit our website. goeasytravel golf