Spain Golf holidays

Camiral: The Course Booked for Golf’s Next Ryder Cup

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Catalonia’s two championship layouts, six years before the crowds arrive.

Camiral, in the Girona countryside an hour north of Barcelona, has just been named host of the 2031 Ryder Cup. It is only the second Spanish venue in the competition’s history, following Valderrama in 1997, and the decision changes what a round here means. The two championship courses have always been serious golf. Now they come with a deadline attached.

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

A Second Ryder Cup for Spain

Ryder Cup Europe’s selection of Camiral makes Spain the first country on the continent to host the event twice, a decision framed by chief executive Guy Kinnings as recognition of Spanish golf’s long-standing contribution to the competition. Sergio García remains the Ryder Cup’s all-time points leader, and Jon Rahm has been one of Europe’s defining players across the last three editions. Camiral now carries that history forward. (ESPN)

Stadium and Tour — Two Different Tests

Camiral operates two courses, and they reward different games. The Camiral Stadium is the tougher of the pair, having hosted a DP World Tour event three times, most recently in 2022, and the European Tour’s Qualifying School Final Stage on seven occasions since 2008.

Camiral Stadium course fairway with the Girona countryside behind, Costa Brava
Next door, the Camiral Tour was built to the same standard but wider, with larger greens that give a broader range of handicaps a fair shot at scoring well. Both share ground that was originally earmarked for a Grand Prix circuit before Formula 1 relocated to Montmeló — golf got the better draw. Between now and 2031, the resort will also host the Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship each year from 2028 to 2030, so the countdown is already on the calendar. (ESPN)

Camiral Tour course, the kinder option

Girona and the Costa Brava Table

The resort itself, now trading as Camiral after years as PGA Catalunya, sits a five-minute transfer from Girona airport. Girona itself is worth the detour on a rest day — a walled old town of stone stairways and a cathedral that climbs straight up from the Onyar river, with a market culture built on Catalan cooking rather than tourist menus. Barcelona is an hour away if the trip stretches to a long weekend either side of the golf. (The Independent)

Historic Old tow Girona

Play It Before 2031

Ryder Cup venues rarely get quieter as the event approaches. Valderrama’s profile only grew after 1997, and Camiral will follow the same curve — more attention, fuller tee sheets, and eventually a course that plays host to the loudest week in golf. Six years is not a long runway. The Stadium and Tour courses are booking-ready now, at a stage where a serious golfer can play the same fairways the world’s best will contest without the surrounding circus.

Camiral joins a shortlist of courses that will only get harder to book quietly. Browse Costa Brava golf holidays and get there ahead of 2031.

Real Novo Sancti Petri’s Summer Card Fills Up Fast

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Fourteen Tournaments, Two Courses, One Very Busy Cádiz Clubhouse.

There is a particular kind of energy at a Spanish golf club in high summer, when the heat sits heavy over the fairways by mid-morning and the clubhouse fills anyway. Chiclana de la Frontera does not slow down for it. Real Novo Sancti Petri’s 2026 tournament calendar runs fourteen fixtures across July and August, a mix of national circuits, charity fundraisers and corporate golf days that keeps both courses busy well past the point most clubs start thinking about siesta.

Clubhouse terrace at Real Novo Sancti Petri during the summer tournament season

Fourteen Fixtures, Two Courses

Three events open the run in July, with eleven more following through August, split across the club’s two Seve Ballesteros-designed layouts, Pines & Sea and Centre. It is a demanding schedule for any club to host back to back through the hottest months of the year, and a fair indication of how central golf remains to summer life on this stretch of the Costa de la Luz. There is something rather satisfying about a fixture list this dense — proof that a club’s popularity holds even when the mercury does not cooperate. (Real Novo Sancti Petri)

Aerial Shot of Real Novo Sancti Petri

Corporate Names on the Card

Several of the August dates carry a brand’s name rather than a sponsor’s logo tucked in the corner — Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Ferrer Wines and Royal Bliss all host days, alongside hospitality fixtures for Coco Novo Beach Club, Le Club and Golf Divino. It is a reminder that in Spain, a golf day often doubles as a client lunch with rather better scenery — introductions made on the first tee, deals half-settled by the turn, the real business conducted somewhere around the eighteenth green with a cold drink in hand. (Real Novo Sancti Petri)

Real Novo Sancti Petri Drone Shot

Charity Fixtures and National Circuits

Unicaja and the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) both run fundraising tournaments within the calendar, sitting alongside stops on established national amateur circuits. For a club of this size, hosting both charity golf and competitive circuit events in the same eight-week window says as much about its course conditioning as its popularity — greens and fairways do not survive that kind of traffic on reputation alone.

Real Novo Sancti Petri Gol and Waves

Chiclana as a Base

The town itself rewards anyone building a trip around the calendar rather than just a tee time. La Barrosa beach sits a short drive from the clubhouse, its stretch of pale sand backed by pine forest rather than concrete, and the seafood along the seafront is the kind that makes an evening feel earned after eighteen holes in the heat. Chiclana has long operated in the shadow of its more famous Cádiz neighbours — Sancti Petri’s tournament calendar this summer is a definite argument for giving it rather more attention.

La Barrosa beach near Chiclana de la Frontera, close to Real Novo Sancti Petri

Booking a Round Around It

Registration for each fixture runs through TeeOne, with places allocated by order of booking rather than by invitation. Anyone travelling to the Costa de la Luz this summer who fancies a competitive round rather than a quiet one would do well to check the calendar before finalising dates — a packed tournament sheet also means a genuinely busy, sociable clubhouse most evenings.

A summer this full says everything about where Cádiz golf currently stands. Browse our Cádiz golf holidays and build a trip around it.

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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