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Photos courtesy of Vilamoura and Dona Filipa · JJW Hotels, for exclusive use on this page.
Dona Filipa Hotel 5★ · Vale do Lobo · Algarve
This is where the Algarve's modern golf began. The Old Course was designed by Frank Pennink in 1969 and remains the benchmark everything else is measured against: tame pines, narrow fairways, no concessions. They call it the grande dame, and you understand why by the third hole. Three more courses grew up around it, and none resembles it: the Pinhal, mature parkland that tightens first and opens toward the sea later; the Laguna, open fairways with a links feel, water woven into the round again and again; and the Millennium, among stone pines. Four courses are enough for a full week without repeating a single hole, which is exactly what this fiche sells. All are played out of the Dona Filipa, with the transfer to the course included and tee times locked in beforehand. And when you're done, the Vilamoura marina is fifteen minutes away: a thousand berths, terraces, and the best dinner in the eastern Algarve without having to drive back.
Gallery
Photos courtesy of Vilamoura and Dona Filipa · JJW Hotels, for exclusive use on this page.
from €840
The 1969 classic and its more wooded sibling, one per day. If you're only going to play two Vilamoura courses, these are the two. Plus an afternoon of wine: Morgado do Quintão, forty minutes inland, four estate wines and a thousand-year-old olive tree in the middle of the vineyard.
from €1,250
Laguna is added, more open and with more water, which completely changes the kind of shot you have to play. That leaves two days for the marina and the beach. And on the free day, the long table at Morgado do Quintão: three courses, three wines and the vines right in front of you. Vilamoura is marina and pine forest; this is the opposite, and that's exactly why it works.
from €1,690
All four courses, one per day: a week without repeating a single hole. Few golf weeks in Europe can say that without changing hotels even once. With both estate visits included: the afternoon tasting after a round, and lunch among the vines on the day without golf.
Per person in a Classic View double room, bed and breakfast · season 20 November to 7 January · green fees at the hotel-resident rate for December and January.
Forty minutes from here, between Silves and Lagoa, lies the other Algarve: Morgado do Quintão, an estate the same family has worked since 1810, where tastings happen beneath a thousand-year-old olive tree, with no tasting room or counter, right in the vineyard the wine comes from. From two thousand to twenty thousand bottles a year within four years, chasing a different idea of Algarve wine. It's included in the price of all three stays.
All three stays share the same hotel — the Dona Filipa, right on the beach in Vale do Lobo — so from the same hotel you can also play the courses from the other two central-Algarve fiches: mix and match as you like. On top of that, we book and quote everything else firm: Almancil's fine dining, ten minutes away; the hotel spa; the Ria Formosa boardwalks and a boat ride through the channels; Faro, Loulé and their markets; and, at the estate, whatever doesn't fit into one afternoon — the cooking class with the chef, which starts by choosing produce at Silves market, or oysters with sparkling wine at sunset. 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 €840 per person
Depending on the stay chosen: from €840 (Old and Pinhal, 3 nights), from €1,250 (Laguna, 5 nights), or from €1,690 (The Four Courses, 7 nights). Per person in a double room, low season.
Handicap certificate required at courses that ask for one. Hotel-to-course transfers are included and tee times are locked in before you travel. The winery experience is booked together with the stay, is conducted in English, and the estate is not fully adapted for reduced mobility: if anyone in your group needs this, let us know when booking and we'll check before confirming anything.
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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