Portugal golf holidays

Monte Rei Rebuilt: The Algarve’s Number One Returns on 14 September

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Five months closed. Every green rebuilt. What comes back is not quite the course that shut in April.

The Monte Rei North Golf Course, the eastern Algarve’s flagship, has been off the map since 13 April. It reopens on 14 September. Five months is a long absence for a top ranked Jack Nicklaus Signature design, and the work carried out in that window, goes considerably beyond seasonal maintenance.

Monte Rei main resort

What Actually Changed

This was not a cosmetic tidy-up. The greens have been reconstructed, along with their collars and surrounds. Bunkers have been renovated. Cart paths and access roads have been refurbished. That list covers the surfaces a golfer interacts with on every hole of the round, which is why the closure ran to five months rather than five weeks.

Monte Rei main resort

The Work You Will Not See

Monte Rei framed the project carefully when it announced the closure in February, describing improvements designed to enhance the course while “remaining true to the character, values and playing experience envisioned by Jack Nicklaus.” The intention is restoration of quality, not redesign. Golfers returning in September should expect the same course, playing better.

The more consequential part of the project sits underground. The irrigation system and pumping station have both been modernised, and water efficiency was named as a central focus of the intervention from the outset.

The timing is not accidental. Algarve golf courses collectively use around 15 cubic hectometres of water a year, and the region has spent the past eighteen months building the infrastructure to supply a growing share of that from treated reused water rather than boreholes and dams. A five-month closure is the only realistic opportunity a course of this standing gets to rebuild its irrigation from the ground up. Monte Rei took it.

Eighteen Signature Holes

The North Course opened in 2007 and remains the only Jack Nicklaus Signature course in Portugal. It runs to 7,181 yards from the tournament tees, plays to a par of 72, and brings water into play on eleven holes. The setting does much of the work — the foothills of the Serra do Caldeirão behind, the Atlantic visible to the south, cork oak and pine throughout.

Monte Rei course map

Nicklaus himself visited in 2019 and put the design philosophy more plainly than any brochure has managed since: “You didn’t hire me to design a signature hole, you wanted me to design 18 signature holes, and that’s what we tried to do.”

Reopening Into the Best Month of the Year

September is a shrewd date to come back. October is the single busiest month for golf in the Algarve — 179,000 rounds played across the region, ahead of April on 162,000 and March on 153,000, from a record annual total of 1.46 million. The North Course reopens with a fortnight to settle before that window opens.

Dining to match the elite golfing experience

The rest of the resort never closed. The villas, the spa, the pool and the restaurants have operated throughout, including Vistas Rui Silvestre, which first took a Michelin star in 2019. Guests who booked Monte Rei this summer for everything except the golf have not been short of reasons to stay.

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Autumn in the eastern Algarve is quieter than the Golden Triangle, warmer than most people expect, and — from mid-September — back to full strength. Browse our Algarve golf holidays and see what the eastern end of the coast is holding.


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Vilamoura Summer Tournaments 2026: Four Courses, Four Weeks

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One Course a Week, Right Through August

The Vilamoura Summer Tournaments return this August with four Individual Stableford Net competitions, one per course, spread across the month. Entry includes lunch, warm-up balls and a shared buggy for each round — a straightforward package for anyone who fancies pairing a summer stay with some competitive golf.

4 Golf Tournments in August in Vilamoura

The Schedule

Three of the four rounds fall on a Tuesday, with the closing event shifting to the Monday before month’s end. The Old Course opens on 4 August, priced at €195. Pinhal follows on 11 August, then Millennium on 18 August, with Laguna closing things out on 24 August — the latter three each priced at €125.

The Four Courses

The Old Course was laid out by Frank Pennink in 1969 and reworked by Martin Hawtree in 1996. Doglegs and well-guarded greens ask for precision over power, and a recently rebuilt clubhouse and TrackMan-equipped driving range give the round a modern edge either side of it.

Pinhal is Vilamoura’s second course, dating to 1976 and remodelled by Robert Trent Jones in 1985. Pine trees line most fairways, which makes for a shaded round in August and a genuinely tricky one — the 18th, a blind uphill approach guarded by three bunkers, has a reputation for wrecking scorecards.

Vilamoura Old Course
Pinhal Gold Course, Vilamoura

Millennium has been open since 2000 and is the most played course at the resort. The front nine winds through pine trees; the back nine opens into flatter, more forgiving terrain. A fair test for most handicaps, and a sensible one to start a golfing week on.

Laguna is the outlier of the four — low-lying, largely treeless, and built around a series of lakes that come into play on eleven holes. Wind off the coast is the real defence here, along with 79 bunkers for anyone who finds dry land.

Millenium Golf Course
Laguna Golf Course
Format and Prizes

Each tournament runs as a standalone Individual Stableford Net event. Prizes go to the top three overall finishers, with Nearest the Pin and Longest Drive awards presented separately for men and ladies at every round.

What’s Included

Lunch, warm-up balls and a shared buggy come with every entry, whichever course is on the card that week. The Old Course carries the higher fee of the four, reflecting its status as Vilamoura’s original layout; the other three rounds are priced identically.

Four courses, four Stableford rounds, one August circuit — golfers can enter a single tournament or take on the full set. Sign up for the Vilamoura Summer Tournaments 2026 and pick your course.


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Should You Bring Your Own Clubs on a Golf Holiday? The Case For and Against

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What frequent flyer perks, damage statistics, and one snapped driver shaft can teach you about packing for a Golfing Getaway.

Every serious golfer has had the debate at some point before a trip: pack the clubs, or hire on arrival. It sounds like a small decision. It rarely is. Get it wrong and it can mean an extra hour at the baggage carousel, a damaged driver, or simply irons that never quite feel like yours. Here is what actually weighs on each side of the argument.

The Case for Bringing Your Own Set

There is no substitute for clubs you know. Your own irons carry the exact lie angle, shaft flex and grip wear that your swing has adapted to over years, and no rental set — however well maintained — replicates that. For golfers with a single-digit handicap, or anyone who has recently been fitted, the performance gap between “mine” and “borrowed” is not trivial. It shows up in distance control and, more than anywhere, around the greens.


Golfer checking in a golf travel bag at airport departures before a golf holiday

What It Actually Costs to Fly With Them

The honest answer is: more than most golfers expect, and not just in euros. TAP Air Portugal treats golf bags as special sports baggage, with fees typically running from around €45 to over €100 depending on route and season, and registration required at least 24 hours before departure . Budget carriers popular for short Algarve or Costa del Sol hops are no kinder — easyJet charges roughly £15 per 3kg increment above a 20kg allowance, on top of its own booking fee for the bag itself . Add the return leg, and a couple travelling with two sets can be looking at well over €200 in fees alone before a single green fee is paid. (Baggage Policies) ; (Greencard Golf)

The Risk Nobody Budgets For

Then there is the handling itself. Industry travel-insurance data puts golf club damage at around 1.2% of checked-bag journeys — a figure that drops below 0.1% with a proper hard case, which says a great deal about how soft-sided bags fare in an aircraft hold . Delayed or misrouted bags are a separate headache entirely: airlines classify a bag as officially lost only after searching for it, sometimes for up to 21 days on international routes, which is considerably longer than most golf trips last. A set that does not arrive on day one rarely arrives in time to matter.(Travel Arbitrage)


Golf clubs packed in a hard travel case with foam padding

Making the Call

For a golfer who plays one set of clubs, knows every millimetre of it, and is flying direct with a generous baggage allowance, bringing your own remains the better option — the performance benefit outweighs the fee and the modest risk. For anyone connecting through multiple airports, flying a budget carrier with tight weight limits, or simply travelling light, the arithmetic tips the other way. Hiring removes the fee, the risk, and the queue at oversized baggage — the trade-off is playing an unfamiliar set for the week.


Rental golf clubs ready for collection at a golf course pro shop in Portugal

Tee Times Golf Holidays offers golf club rental across its portfolio of courses in Portugal and Spain, from major brands delivered directly to the hotel or first tee — a straightforward way to sidestep the whole debate for a shorter trip.


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