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Photos courtesy of Barceló Costa Ballena, for exclusive use on this page.
Barceló Costa Ballena Golf & Spa 4★ · Rota, Cádiz
The long round finishes at midday, lunch is unhurried, and by four you're back on the tee. That, which almost nowhere lets you do, is included in the price here: alongside José María Olazábal's twenty-seven holes there's a nine-hole PAR 3 that serves as a second round on playing days. A week here gives you far more golf than it looks. The course opened in 1997: three nine-hole loops that combine with each other — and play differently depending on how they're paired — with lakes scattered across the whole layout and several holes running straight to the coast. The Swedish PGA rates its practice ground the best in Europe, and that's why national teams use it as a winter training base: if you spot familiar faces on the range in January, don't be surprised. The hotel sits between Rota and Chipiona, eight hundred metres from the beach — a ten-minute walk — with a 1,200m² spa and three outdoor pools. And dinner is included every night, which on a golf trip is appreciated more than you'd think.
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Photos courtesy of Barceló Costa Ballena, for exclusive use on this page.
from €430
The long weekend: arrive Thursday, play Friday and Saturday, head home Sunday. With dinner included all three nights, it's the lowest price we enter Cádiz at, and the cheapest way to find out if this suits you.
from €785
Four rounds give you time to play all three nine-hole combinations, each quite different. And the day left free goes entirely to Sanlúcar: the winery in the morning and, afterwards, the mouth of the Guadalquivir, Doñana across the water and the prawns. It's the stay that best splits the trip between golf and everything else.
from €925
Reserved for players under twenty-one. Six days with an 18-hole green fee and the PAR 3 as a second round: a week of high playing volume, built for those genuinely competing. It's the package the hotel sets up for team training camps, which is why it doesn't carry a winery.
from €1,105
Golf all seven days, with the PAR 3 at your disposal every afternoon. And there's still wine, because La Gitana's night visit is at seven, among candles, with the manzanilla drawn straight from the cask with a venencia: it doesn't cost anyone a single hole. Seven rounds for little more than five would cost.
Per person in a double room, half board included · winter window 1–14 November and 5–28 February · Sanlúcar winery on the stays that indicate it.
This house's winery isn't in Jerez: it's in Sanlúcar, fifteen minutes away, and it's called Hidalgo La Gitana. In the same family since 1792, with the manzanilla that bears its name and its own restaurant in one of its courtyards. You visit glass in hand — courtyards, an 18th-century office, the cathedral winery — and taste four wines. Included in the price of two of these four stays, and on the seven-round one it's a night visit, at seven, once you've already played.
These four stays are the skeleton, not the whole trip. On top of them we build whatever you want to experience, booked and quoted firm: Sanlúcar and its prawns, fifteen minutes away; Jerez and the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art, half an hour; Cádiz and Doñana, across the water; the hotel's own spa; and, at the winery, what doesn't fit into a normal visit — La Gitana's tasting of wines over sixty years old, a meal in its EntreBotas restaurant, or its Noche en Rama, with seven courses, seven paired wines and live music inside the cathedral winery. Tell us who's travelling and what they feel like. Designing your bespoke trip costs nothing: the initial proposal and one revision. From the third version onward, finalising the itinerary costs €100, fully deducted from your trip's price if you book it with us.
From €430 per person
Depending on the option chosen: from €430 (Rota), from €785 (Chipiona), from €925 (Elite Junior), or from €1,105 (Seven Rounds). Per person in a double room, half board, winter window.
Stays with green fees require a handicap certificate. Elite Junior is reserved for players under twenty-one, who must provide proof. The PAR 3 is booked on the course itself on the same day. Prices correspond to the winter window of 1–14 November and 5–28 February. Bodegas Tradición receives groups of up to ten or twelve people, never mixed with other visitors; from twelve players onward the group is split into two consecutive sessions. La Gitana's night visit is held Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 19:00, in English on Wednesdays; the day is fixed when tee times are confirmed. Both wineries close bookings in advance and are reserved together with the stay.
A 30% deposit is due on confirmation, non-refundable, with the rest due 45 days before arrival. Cancellation fees: 30% up to 45 days out, 50% from 45 to 31 days, and 100% from 30 days out, for no-shows or early departures. Cancelling within 14 days of booking, with more than 60 days still to go before arrival, refunds everything paid, deposit included. We recommend taking out cancellation insurance. Full conditions at ophirtravel.com/politicas_condiciones/condiciones.
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