Golf News Editor Nick Bayly bypasses the busy streets of Lisbon in favour of more sedate but equally enjoyable trip to Cascais, a charming seaside town located just 30 minutes west of Portugal’s capital, where a collection of excellent golf resorts gently mingle between sandy coves and stunning seafood restaurants
While Portugal has been a popular holiday destination for British golfers for almost 60 years, most club-toting travellers head for the country’s southern Algarve coast, where dozens of golf courses cling tightly to the cliff tops that look out towards North Africa.
While there’s much to admire about this region, with its wonderful climate, great range of courses and luxury resorts, the same can very much be said of Portugal’s western coastline, which is fast catching up in terms of top-class tracks and five-star hospitality.
And with the culturally rich capital of Lisbon right on your doorstep, there is an opportunity for golfers to get a more authentically Portuguese feel to their holiday by looking west and not south when you’re looking to book your next trip to this popular Iberian nation.
And while long weekend AirBnBers and American tourists ‘doing Europe’ will quite rightly make a beeline for the bright lights Lisbon, golfers in search of more genteel surroundings are increasingly heading west along the Estoril coast, where the pretty harbour town of Cascais is proving a holiday hotspot for a growing number of golfers looking to chill out at a collection of five-star resorts and residences.
Benefiting from cooling summer breezes from off the Atlantic Sea, Cascais provides a welcome escape from the heat of the city, with its charming yacht-filled marina, surrounded by buzzing restaurants and bars, providing a seaside holiday vibe that is reminiscent of the French Riviera.
Like St Tropez, Cascais was once a sleepy fishing village, which over the years, and in part thanks to royal patronage and Lisbon’s growth west, has steadily gained in popularity with Portugal’s monied classes. With the arrival of big wallets came serious investment, in property, hotels, marinas and other leisure facilities, including a Formula 1 circuit, and quite naturally, a handful of excellent golf courses.
CASCAIS GOLF PASSPORT – YOUR TICKET TO GREAT VALUE GOLF
While many golf clubs compete directly with their nearest rivals in order to gain customers, seven clubs located in the Cascais region have taken the far more sensible decision to join forces and launch the Cascais Golf Passport, a digital platform which enables golfers to benefit from significant savings on the cost of green fees, as well as allowing all their tee times to be booked in a one-stop online shop.
As an indication of cost, when booking through the platform, five rounds during low season (Nov-Feb and Jul-Aug) can be booked for €320, while five rounds during high season (Mar-June and Sept-Oct) can be had for €370. These rates amount to a significant reduction over the standard green fees.
During my trip we had the pleasure of playing four of the seven courses that are involved with the Cascais Golf Passport – Quinta da Marinha, Oitavos Dunes, Penha Longa and Belas – but there are also rounds to be played at Estoril, Pestana and Lisbon Sports Club as part of the money-saving scheme.
The base for my stay was Onyria Quinta da Marinha, a five-star luxury hotel which overlooks the Robert Trent Jones-designed 18-hole course of the same name – although you will need to use the free shuttle to get to the clubhouse. Located close to Cascais, and a 35-minute drive from Lisbon, Quinta da Marinha has featured prominently on golfing itineraries to the region ever since it first opened in the mid-1980s, thanks to its first-class accommodation and quality golf.
Refurbished in 2020, this modern hotel offers all the facilities you could wish for, including spacious rooms with balconies, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a spa and three excellent restaurants. The breakfast buffet, always a key ingredient of any golf trip, was also very decent, with the automatic pancake-making machine a big hit with our group!
QUINTA DA MARINHA
Originally designed by Robert Trent Jones, and opened in 1984, the course at Quinta da Marinha hosted numerous professional tournaments in its early life, including Senior, LET and Challenge Tour events, although it is eminently playable for the holiday golfer, with generous fairways and receptive greens mixed in with the odd water hazard and some wonderful views over the seas.
Re-routed in 2016 to ensure the most spectacular hole, originally the 10th, is now the finish, the course features cleverly located bunkering, raised greens with tight, sloping shoulders, and several fiendish doglegs.
The card of the course offers hole names which aim to describe each of the 18 individual challenges, with hole one ‘Gone With The Wind’ accurately alluding to the breezy conditions you will often encounter on this exposed part of the Portuguese coastline.
The dogleg par-five 3rd is named ‘Atlantic Ocean’ for good reason – it’s one of the prettiest holes on the course with great views to boot. ‘Iron-y’ describes the short par-four 5th hole perfectly. Do you lay up with a mid-iron or risk a driver? The choice, as ever, is yours.
The first half finishes with a nice par-five featuring an extremely wide fairway, yet well framed by the pines, tightening towards the hole as the green is approached. The par-three 10th features water to the left, bunkers and scrubland to the other side, hence its moniker ‘Good Luck’ and is one of a number of very good par threes, the most notable being the 13th, which plays over water to a green beautifully framed by a number of greenside bunkers.
The course continues in pleasant fashion until your reach the par-five 18th – a great finishing hole that features lakes that interfere with the tee shot and the approach to the green and is certain to create plenty of stories in the bar afterwards.
OITAVOS DUNES
Our second round saw us make the short journey to Oitavos Dunes, a course which is also part of a much larger hotel and resort complex.
Providing a hybrid experience of both links and woodland golf, Oitavos Dunes enjoys one of the most dramatic settings on the Estoril Coast, with magnificent views of the Sintra Mountains, the Atlantic Ocean and Cabo da Roca.
Kicking off with six tree-lined holes, the courses then opens up dramatically into the dunes for 10 holes, before returning to the woods for the final two. On paper it sounds like it shouldn’t work, but in reality it most certainly does.
True to the classic links philosophy, it’s an out-and-back design, with the northerly wind giving and taking away in equal measure.
Precision rather than power is the order of the day over the opening holes, as anything hit mildly offline will almost certainly require a chip out sideways. Once safely negotiated, the course as you rise out of the woodland, with a real opportunity to open the shoulders on the back-to-back par fives at 7 and 8. Whilst not long, at just under 6,400 yards, this course presents a genuine challenge. It deceives from the tee, as the fairways are generous, but if your ball leaves the short stuff, wandering into the powdery sand, you can find yourself reaching into the bag for a reload.
Moving to the back nine, the pick of the holes are 14, 17 and 18. The 14th is a wonderful par three that plays much longer than its 165 yards suggests, with a storm ravine running along the right hand side swallowing anything under-hit. The final two holes are solid tests, both par fours measuring over 450 yards. The 17th is slightly easier, as it has a downhill approach, but the green is tricky, and the bunker front left must be avoided.
The 18th is a classic finishing hole – a long, dogleg left with a narrow fairway, and trees and dunes bordering the rough on both sides.
The course is largely flat, making walking a possibility, although many will opt for a buggy. Either way, 18 holes around here is an absolute delight, and will set you up nicely to enjoy the excellent food and hospitality on offer in the stylish clubhouse or the five-star on-site hotel, The Oitavos.
PENHA LONGA
Our third round of the trip was at Penha Longa (‘Long Rock’), which boasts 27 holes of championship golf set against a spectacular and ever-changing backdrop of beautiful countryside and stunning coastal views to Estoril and Cascais.
Home to a five-star Ritz-Carlton Resort, it’s a peaceful spot in which to test your skills on the famed Atlantic North Course.
With its requirement for bold drives, courageous approaches and artful putting on the fast greens, Robert Trent Jones Jr’s design is both an adrenaline rush and a soothing journey through one of Portugal’s most inspiring landscapes.
With half the holes framed by trees, and several lakes to contend with, straight hitting is required to score well, although there are plenty of birdie opportunities out there on an undulating course which is not long by modern standards.
The Atlantic South Course is a less challenging, but still entertaining option, with its nine holes winding through some of the most historical parts of the estate.
The Ritz-Carlton hotel boasts 194 guest rooms, six restaurants, indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts, a spa and fitness centre, jogging track and a children’s activity centre.
A special mention must also be given to the Michelin-starred LAB by Sergio Arola restaurant at Penha Longa, which is, without doubt one of the best golf club-based restaurants I’ve ever been to.
Our six-course tasting menu featured dishes that were bursting with Mediterranean flavours, with a delicate red prawn salad, creamy jamon croquettes, and a beautifully rendered sirloin steak being particular highlights, while the ganache-filled chocolate, designed to look like a golf ball, including dimples, was a great end to a memorable meal. Located in a stylish glass-fronted space overlooking the golf course, it’s a must-book for anyone who seriously likes their food.
BELAS
Our final round was at Belas, which is set in the beautiful Carregueira Mountains, a short drive from Cascais. The Rocky Roquemore-designed course is demanding 6,700-yard championship test that offers fantastic views of the surrounding hills and valleys beyond.
The layout features gently mounded fairways – several of them set in deep valleys – large, scalloped bunkers, plenty of significant rises and falls, and a liberal number of streams and lakes to avoid.
There is a great variety of holes on offer, including an attractive selection of par threes, including a couple of drop holes, while the closing stretch is both challenging and memorable, with the downhill par-5 15th, the par-4 17th, with water on both sides of the green, and the par-four 18th, which requires a carry over a U-shaped lake with your approach, all adding to the drama of an entertaining round.
THINGS TO DO
Cascais itself is a delightful seaside town that is eminently walkable, where you could spend hours just mooching along the narrow lanes and side streets stopping at cafés for strong coffee and a few Pasteis de Nata (one is never enough) or a chilled glass of white wine, doing a bit of light shopping, or admiring the yachts in the marina at any number of cool bars and restaurants.
History lovers should take a guided tour around the Palácio da Cidadela de Cascais, commissioned as a summer palace in 1870 by King Dom LuÃs I, this captivating museum remains the official residence of visiting heads of state in Portugal.
And if walking gets too much, why not hire one of 1,200 bikes offered through the BiCas free bike-hire scheme, which are available from 76 stations between Parede and Estoril, and hit the cycle path that runs the entire 9km stretch from Cascais to Guincho.
For a bit of nature in the raw, stop off at the Boca do Inferno to watch the Atlantic waves pummel the craggy ‘Mouth of Hell’, 2km west of Cascais.
Here you will find the marvellous Mar do Inferno, a family-run restaurant specialising in all the delicacies of the sea – from hake fillets served with cockle rice, Cascais crabs and monkfish to the seafood cataplana rich in flavour and freshness. If you can’t choose then a safe bet is the sea platter, with grilled sea bass and gilthead sea bream, prawns, mussels, potatoes, carrots, and broccoli drenched in good olive oil.
For more details on things to do, local events and bookings for the Cascais Golf Passport, go to www.visitcascais.com.
HOW TO GET THERE
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