Few golfers will ever experience anything closer to heaven than a vacation spent on the links of the many Bermuda golf courses. This British colonial outpost, still a territory of the UK, offers no less than ten courses, many designed by top-flight course architects, all in the pristine setting of Bermuda’s archipelago in the Atlantic, a short flight from North Carolina’s Outer Bank.
This sub-tropical territory, barely more than 20 square miles in area, contains ten golf courses – more courses per square mile than any other place on Earth. Of the ten Bermuda golf courses, no less than three are government-owned and supported 18-hole public courses accessible for comparatively modest fees (as low as $60 per round at St. George’s) with reduced fees for non-prime hours.
The Port Royal course hosted the 2009 PGA Grand Slam, and the majority of the courses are worthy of world class competition, offering challenging shots along with glorious scenery, all in a climate that begs for tourists.
Bermuda golf offers everything a serious golfer could dream of, from the complex challenge offered by the best designs from such architects as Robert Trent Jones to the difficulty nature itself offers. Bermuda’s off-shore winds can present golfers with their own riddles to be solved by logic, guile and skill.
In Bermuda golf is taken seriously, and golfers can expect to be offered only the best in a land where the game is both sport and serious business. Vacationers can expect access to the various public courses, and are also likely to have an opportunity to play private greens through the auspices of many of the hotels on the islands.
Beyond Bermuda golf, the islands offer a rich and lush array of entertainments for the pleasure of golfers and their families. Even those who prefer to avoid the links will have no complaints about a vacation spent on Bermuda’s miles of beaches, or in museums, historical sites, and shops.
From the Bermuda Botanical Garden to the Crystal Caves – some of Bermuda’s many caves and a great place to take your kids – there is plenty of family-friendly activity. Swimming, sailing, snorkeling, SCUBA-diving, and more water-centered sports are a constant possibility along the 26+ miles of coastline.
For those with more sophisticated tastes Bermuda offers spas, clubs, fine restaurants, superb craftsmen and artisans, and a brilliant nightlife with music and live performances that can be found from dusk till dawn. When the golf fan returns from blissful self-indulgence on the Bermuda golf courses more indulgence remains to be experienced.
Fine dining, dancing, hot jazz and cool clubs await, and a vacationer can step out and experience the best on offer to a community whose economy is based on high finance and tourism. Bermuda combines accessibility with jet-set fantasy.
Perhaps best of all, Bermuda’s optimal season for the golfing tourist is in winter, when so often a golfer’s life closes down in much of the US. When your own local links are nothing more than snowbanks and iced-over ponds Bermuda is reaching its most glorious weather: temperatures in winter average in the high 60s, summer storms have passed, and the warm Gulf Stream keeps the islands and their surrounding waters comfortable but not sweltering.
So if a few weeks of Bermuda golf as an escape from the cabin-fever of winter sounds alluring, give serious thought to Bermuda as a destination for your next winter vacation getaway.