Golf Trips to Scotland and Ireland with Non-Golfers
And Why We Call Them Tourists
It's one of the most common questions we hear when a group starts planning a golf trip across the pond.
Some of us golf, some of us don't. How does that actually work?
Maybe it's a couples golf trip and the spouses are planning to explore while the golfers are on the course. Sometimes it's a multi-generation family trip with just a handful of golfers. Or maybe one member of a buddies trip wants to trade a day of golf for the spa and a distillery tour. The mix varies, but the question underneath is always the same: while the golfers are on the course, what happens to everyone else?
That answer depends entirely on who's doing the planning. Oftentimes, the travelers who don't play golf might get a hotel spa brochure, a list of sights from ChatGPT, and a shrug. At H&B, their plan carries just as much weight as the day's tee time.
About Non-Golfers
The industry has a word for travelers who don't play: non-golfers. It defines them by what they aren't, which tells you how much thought tends to go into their days.
We call them Tourists. And their plans off the course are the Good Life. Castles and distilleries, guided tours and afternoon strolls through town. For a golfer, the Good Life is what happens between rounds. For a Tourist, it's often the whole trip.
The naming is intentional. It reflects our decades-old belief that the time off the course is just as valuable to your travel experience as the time on it. It's also, as it turns out, where the rest of the industry is finally heading.
After the golfers played Royal Dublin, the Expedition led by Dr. Jeff Lawrence visits the Gravediggers pub on the Perfect Pint Tour.
The Industry Is Catching Up to the Good Life
For most of golf travel's history, the golf was the entire trip. Everything else that was arranged around it, if it got arranged at all, was mostly an afterthought. That's changing fast.
In research reported this year by the International Golf Travel Market, 78.9% of golfers said they'd be more likely to pick a destination that pairs great golf with strong dining, culture, and lifestyle, rather than great courses alone. Asked which single thing would most improve a golf trip, 83.6% pointed to local food and dining, far ahead of anything else.
We've planned Expeditions around the off-course hours for more than 35 years, long before polling confirmed the desire for it. The travel industry's answer to the shift has mostly been amenities. A bigger spa here, a coffee shop and restaurant renovation there. Our answers are people. The Good Life is introduced by a Planner, and dialed in by our Concierge team, from places they've actually been.
We're glad the rest of the business is arriving where we started decades ago. The difference, at least for our Members, is we've had 35 years to get good at it. Here's how it works in practice.
How a Day Comes Together for Golfers and Tourists
Every H&B Expedition runs on a shared plan. The golf schedule anchors the day, and the Tourist itinerary is built alongside it from the start.
A lot of it comes down to geography. If the golfers are at Kingsbarns near St. Andrews, we don't send the Tourists down to Edinburgh. They might enjoy the coastal villages of Fife or a guided walking tour of St. Andrews, so the group comes back together at the end of the day with adjacent, yet unique stories.
The rest comes down to people. The itinerary is built by one of our Planners: Chris McConn, our Director of Planning, Mike Walters, and Connor Evers, PGA. The dining reservations, guided touring, and other Good Life activities come from Whitney Hedrick, our Director of Member Services, and Jess Klus, our Concierge. In country, most groups have a Driver-Host who runs the day itself. Golfers to the course, Tourists on to the morning's destination, everyone back together for dinner. Two plans, both crafted with equal care, and a local who manages it all, often becoming like another member of the group in the process.
Most mixed group trips don't go sideways over the destinations. They go sideways in the unplanned hour when the Tourists are standing in a castle car park and no one knows who's collecting them. That hour is the whole job. Most companies leave it to chance.
One day, two experiences for the Expedition led by Gary Miller. While the golfers rubbed elbows with Gary Player at Gleneagles, the Tourists crafted custom tweed bags at the Islander Workshop in Edinburgh.
What Two Tourist Days Actually Look Like
The days described below aren't hypothetical. Both are drawn from Expeditions we've planned, and versions of them happen every week of the season. By the same token, these days weren't pre-scripted. Our Planning and Concierge teams started by gaining an understanding of the type of experiences the Tourists wanted to enjoy, then the day was crafted around the golf schedule in place.
A Tourist Day in the Scottish Highlands
Breakfast together, then the Driver-Host leads the group to Royal Dornoch. For some, it's a short walk from their accommodations at Dornoch Station or Links House. For others, it's a beautiful ride up from Inverness.
After the golfers are checked in, the Tourists carry on to Dunrobin Castle, where they enjoy the gardens and stay for the falconry display. Lunch, then a stroll through the town of Dornoch and its ancient cathedral. Then the Driver-Host loops back for the golfers and the group carries on together.
Over dinner, everyone compares stories and photographs of a day spent in the same corner of Scotland doing entirely different things.
A Tourist Day in Southwest Ireland
After breakfast, the group heads for Tralee, Arnold Palmer's masterpiece in Southwest Ireland. Meanwhile the Tourists carry on to the Dingle Peninsula. In Dingle town, an array of colorful shops and unique pubs awaits, along with some of the best seafood in Ireland. Of course, there's an obligatory scoop from Murphy's Ice Cream and, if time allows, a loop on the Slea Head drive caps it off.
Dinner in Killarney brings everyone back, and the argument over who had the better day runs its usual course without ever getting settled.
There's No Set Pattern
A mixed group golf trip doesn't mean that every day sees the Tourists going one way and the golfers going another.
Some of the best days, the clubs are given a rest and the group enjoys a guided tour of Edinburgh or the Ring of Kerry together.
Other groups intentionally leave some open time and let it unfold naturally. A Tourist might pick up an unplanned round of golf. Maybe they find a long lunch in a fishing village that only happens because the Driver-Host knew the place. Or a quick stop into a pub turns into the whole evening.
Over the years, we've learned that the traveler who could use some downtime is usually the last to ask for it. Part of the job is offering the permission before they have to. Algorithms and set packages can't recognize when an itinerary needs room to breathe. But people do.
The Expedition led by Robert Strack in The Highlands with H&B Personal Guide, Gavin.
For the Tourists Reading This
If you're the one being talked into this trip, a little skepticism is fair. Most of what you're reading probably talks about how great the golf is going to be, and not much else. Here's the part nobody's selling you.
Scotland, Ireland, and England are worth the trip on their own terms. Year after year, the moments our Members talk about most in their post-Expedition surveys have little to do with golf. It's the people, both the ones they're traveling with and the ones they meet along the way, who stick with them.
On an H&B Expedition, your days get the same attention as anyone's tee times. And it's made possible because of our people: the Concierge team who will set your days up for success, and the Driver-Host, plus scores of others across the pond, who spend their days ensuring yours are unforgettable.
One Question Worth Asking Any Golf Travel Company
If you're weighing a few companies for a mixed group, ask each one the same question: who, exactly, plans the days for the people who aren't playing golf?
You've read the names and titles of ours already. Listen for the same from everyone else. A good answer names a person and describes what they do. A vague one lists the hotel's amenities. You'll know the difference when you hear it.
“We had an absolutely perfect trip. The pre-trip assistance from Mike and Jess was the most exceptional I've experienced, even beyond the Four Seasons Private Jet journeys. Incredible professionals that not only do their assigned job, but do it as if they were Planning trips for family members or dear friends.”
Jamie Colby Richardson – La Jolla Country Club
If you're the one organizing everyone, our Captain's Guide walks through the rest of the planning, from the first conversation to the details that pile up right before departure.
When you're ready to build the trip that works for your whole group, Let's Talk.
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