Many golfers arrive at our corner of the internet asking a common question: How do I plan a golf trip to Ireland?
The first thing you should know is that planning a golf trip to Ireland requires the research and fulfillment of 40-50 separate reservations and other arrangements. But before you even get to that point in the planning process, you must first navigate a number of important decisions about your trip.
If you’re planning a golf trip to Ireland and aren’t sure where to begin, rest assured that you’re not alone.
How to Plan a Golf Trip to Ireland
To help get you started, we’ve compiled some of the most important decisions into this helpful infographic. The individual sections are covered in further detail below, along with links to guides and other resources on each decision.
Type of Trip
Your golf trip to Ireland probably started as just an idea. Maybe your regular foursome has tossed around planning a trip for years during your Saturday morning game. Perhaps you’ve considered a trip with other couples from the club. If so, here’s the best destinations for couples golf trips. Or maybe you’ve dreamed of seeing Ireland with your entire family. In that case, here’s our ultimate guide to family golf trips across the pond.
As you move the trip from the idea to the planning phase, it’s usually best to pick one style of trip and remain consistent. Mixing couples, family, and buddies doesn’t always work out so well.
Your Invite List
As any experienced golf traveler will attest, your invite list has the capacity to make or break your trip. So much so, that we’ve devoted an entire guide to helping you decide who to invite on your golf trip to Ireland. Choose your travel companions carefully. If one of your friends in golf has a tendency to bring down the whole group, it might be a good idea to misplace their invitation.
The Budget
We understand that discussing money is rarely fun among friends, but it’s crucial that everyone on the trip sees eye to eye when it comes to the budget. Handling the topic of money early on will help things to run smoothly during both the planning process and the trip itself.
Once the budget conversation is out of the way, you can begin to make some of the other important decisions that will influence the cost of your Ireland golf trip. To understand all of the factors that will impact your final price, we’d suggest reading How Much Does a Golf Trip to Ireland Cost?
Call an Expert or Go it Alone
As mentioned earlier, the average Ireland golf trip requires the research, planning, and execution of roughly 40-50 separate reservations. Add to that all of the other decisions you’ll make during the trip itself, like where to eat and what to see, and you start to get an idea of the complexity involved in these trips. Early in the planning process, it’s important to ask yourself whether you can afford the amount of valuable time that’s needed to successfully pull it all together on your own or if you should call in an expert.
Golf travel companies can provide some relief, but selecting the right one offers yet another decision to be made. That’s why we’ve shared our insight on identifying the best golf travel companies for your trip to Ireland.
Spoiler alert: It’s not always us.
Custom or Stock
If you decide to enlist the service of an expert, it’s important to understand that their approach to planning an Ireland golf trip can vary widely from company to company. Many companies offer a variety of pre-packaged itineraries designed for the masses. It’s possible such an itinerary will work for your group just fine.
But if you desire a trip that’s been custom tailored to your desires and expectations, a cookie-cutter itinerary will rarely fit the bill. To understand the key differences between these two options, we’d suggest reading about the benefits of custom Ireland golf packages before handing the reins over to a golf travel company.
Self-Drive or Driver-Host
If you’ve spent any amount of time researching Ireland golf tours on our website, you’ve likely encountered a mention or two of our Driver-Hosts. Most H&B travelers prefer to let a local handle the driving while they sit back and enjoy the camaraderie of their travel companions and the wonders of Ireland out the window.
Simply put, choosing between a self-drive trip and hiring a Driver-Host is likely to be the most important decision of the planning process. But, as explained in the benefits of hiring a Driver-Host, the impact on your overall experience simply can’t be measured.
Our free guide includes over 40 pages of valuable insight, plus links to nearly 50 additional resources, on Golf and the Good Life in Ireland.
When to Go
Although your family and work obligations will likely be the biggest factor when planning the dates of your trip, there are some important things to keep in mind when identifying the best time of year for an Ireland golf trip. Everything from The Open Championship to seasonal cost fluctuations may influence the dates of your trip.
Where to Go
There are so many bucket-list worthy golf courses in Ireland, the average traveler would need at least a month across the pond to see them all. As luck would have it, the best golf courses in Ireland are generally confined to a handful of regions on the island. When choosing where play golf in Ireland, pick one or two of those regions and leave the others for your next journey.
Narrowing Down the Courses
Once you’ve selected a region or two to explore in Ireland, deciding which courses to play is still no easy task. The Top 100 golf courses in Ireland are a natural attraction, but there’s also an abundance of underrated golf courses in Ireland (we avoid the phrase “hidden gem”) that are worthy of a place on your itinerary. Unless you plan to include a few 54-hole days, seeing them all will be tough to manage.
Our advice: Pick the courses which are most important to you, don’t be afraid to toss in a place that you’ve never heard of, and try not to overdo it.
How Much Golf
Should you take a day off to go sightseeing or mix in one of the best 36-hole days in Ireland? Although it’s fairly obvious that a golf trip will include plenty of, well, golf, it’s a good idea to test the pulse of your group before you fill the itinerary. You may even find that some members want to do their own thing one day. If so, you’ll want to revisit the benefits of a custom itinerary mentioned above.
What to Pack
When the planning phase for your Ireland golf trip is complete, that’s when the fun really begins. Especially once the suitcase finally comes out of the closet. But like selecting the courses, it’s easy to overdo it when it comes to filling that suitecase. To that end, we’ve put together this Ireland golf trip packing list, plus a guide for what you should leave at home.
If you’ve ever heard the old adage “pack half the clothes and twice the money,” rest assured that it applies here.
If all of this sounds like a lot to manage, that’s because it is.
Although this infographic covers the most important decisions for planning a golf trip to Ireland, there’s so many more factors to take into account along the way. These decisions are sure to follow you before, during, and even after the trip. Because as any experienced golf traveler will affirm, there’s one decision that will always linger…
Where to Next
Whether it’s your first or tenth trip to Ireland, the journey is sure to provide a both unforgettable memories and a strong desire to return.
Of course, as we covered above, the best way to take the stress out of planning your Ireland golf trip is to put these decisions into the hands of an expert.
All that it takes to get started is a little info in the form at the link below. We’ll take it from there.
For more insight on planning your golf trip to Ireland, visit the pages below, read our Ireland golf trip reviews, or have a look through our Yardage Book, where you’ll find answers to many of our most frequently asked questions.
If you’re ready to experience Golf at its Finest with Haversham & Baker…
Discover More of Golf at its Finest with H&B
