Magazine
Luxury Stays
Five-star resorts, villas and boutique hotels for golfers.
Featured
Luxury Stays
Golf hotels in Liguria: four addresses between Sanremo and Rapallo
Two sisters, two works at Garlenda: one had the 18 holes built, the other designed La Meridiana beside them in 1978. In Liguria golf is played all year round, and the best hotels for playing are almost all by the sea.
9 min read
Luxury StaysGolf hotels in Sicily: Verdura and Il Picciolo at the foot of Etna
The last Duke of Verdura was a cousin of the author of The Leopard, and every room in the resort holds a copy of the book. On the other side of the island, at the foot of Etna, the tees of one hole are set into the lava. Two five-star golf hotels, on opposite sides of the island.
6 min read
Luxury StaysGolf hotels in Venice and the Veneto: four bases, from the Lido to the Asolo hills
An Austrian fort serves as the clubhouse at Alberoni, a villa once owned by Robert Browning looks over the Asolo hills, and in Jesolo a 70-metre pool runs along the beach. This is how golfers in the Veneto sleep, and play.
7 min read
Luxury StaysRocco Forte in Italy for golfers: Verdura and Torre Maizza
Two hotels, two golf courses, one chef: Fulvio Pierangelini signs the menu at Carosello in Torre Maizza and the Japanese-Sicilian cuisine of Nagori at Verdura. They are the Rocco Forte group's two golf addresses in Sicily and Apulia, and they could hardly be more different.
6 min read
Luxury StaysThe Leading Hotels of the World with golf in Italy: four addresses to play from
Among the founding members of The Leading Hotels of the World in 1928 was a hotel in Sanremo that had opened in 1872. Today four Italian hotels in the group have a course within easy reach, and only one has it in its own grounds.
6 min read
Luxury StaysGolf hotels on Lake Garda: three addresses and twelve courses
In 1934 the Bogliaco course was sown with wheat, during the war it served as an airstrip, and the Americans played baseball on it. Today, on the same shore of Garda, there are courses open twelve months a year and three hotels to start from.
7 min read
Luxury StaysCosta Smeralda for golfers: Cala di Volpe, Pitrizza and Romazzino
Three hotels, one course, three ways of getting there: Cala di Volpe sells a package with unlimited golf, Romazzino arranges Pevero as an experience with private lessons, Pitrizza merely mentions it. Who sleeps where, and why it matters.
6 min read
Luxury StaysHotels with a golf course on site in Italy: twelve addresses
At Verdura, motor cars are banned within the resort; at Terme di Saturnia the turf is tended with spring water; in the Passeier Valley the first tee sits beneath the windows. Twelve Italian hotels where the golf bag never sees the boot of a car.
8 min read
Luxury StaysDiscreet luxury: the 4-star superior hotels for golfers
Three hotels, two regions and a label that does not apply everywhere: “4-star superior” exists only where a regional law has provided for it. In Merano and in Pula, each hotel solves the golf question in its own way.
7 min read
Luxury StaysLuxury masserie in Apulia near golf: three towers and two alternatives
Three towers built to watch the sea, between the 15th and 16th centuries, are now luxury masserie in the Fasano area, and none was built for golfers. Yet today a nine-hole course among the olive trees and an 18-hole course by the sea lie right beside them.
7 min read
Luxury StaysThe best luxury hotels for golfers in Italy
In 1928 Henry Ford arrived at the Excelsior on the Lido with his golf bag and asked where he could play: Venice did not have a single course. Almost a century later, choosing a luxury hotel for golf in Italy is nearly the opposite exercise, because the options are many and very different.
14 min read
Luxury StaysThe golf concierge: what to ask before you arrive
In Stresa, according to the hotel, the concierge books green fees at nine affiliated clubs; in Rapallo the Excelsior states that it publishes no dedicated golf services. Before you leave, find out which of the two cases applies to you.
5 min read
Luxury StaysFamily golf hotels with kids clubs: ten addresses in Italy
Verdùland, the kids club at Verdura, was named Europe's best by The Times in 2023, according to the hotel. But among Italian golf resorts for travelling with children, the difference lies in the ages admitted, the seasons and the nearby courses.
8 min read
Luxury StaysLuxury hotels open in winter for golf
At Terme di Saturnia, three bays of the driving range are heated in winter, and the grass is tended with spring water. It is one of the few luxury addresses where golf from November to March is not a second choice.
8 min read
Luxury StaysHow to choose a hotel for a golf holiday: 10 questions
A hotel can be open while its course is not: at Verdura, in Sicily, the nine-hole Executive stays closed until spring 2027 and the West Shore is under works. Before booking a golf resort it pays to ask ten questions, and the answers are almost always on the hotel's website.
6 min read
Luxury StaysGolf hotels on Lake Como: Villa d'Este and the Lario clubs
In 2024 Villa d'Este bought back the Montorfano course, which had belonged to the hotel until the late 1970s: a century after Peter Gannon's design, golf on the Lario is once again played at home.
6 min read
Luxury StaysArriving by helicopter: hotels with a heliport for golfers
Behind the Quellenhof in Lazise there is a helicopter landing pad, and at Verdura the heliport sits inside the resort. Five luxury hotels say they can take a landing, and two offer indirect solutions: here is where, and what to ask.
6 min read
Luxury StaysRelais & Châteaux for golfers in Italy: three houses, three ways to play
A Provençal-style house in Garlenda, a late nineteenth-century villa in Franciacorta, a hunting lodge from 1624 above Merano: three Relais & Châteaux with golf on the horizon, and only one course within walking distance.
6 min read
Luxury StaysGolf hotels in Tuscany: Maremma, Argentario and Elba
Italy's only course licensed by PGA National sits in a resort above the Orbetello lagoon, and in 2025 it hosted the Italian Open. Several Tuscan hotels have a course on the doorstep, and one keeps it reserved for members.
6 min read
Luxury StaysCastles and medieval villages turned resorts
A fresco by Pietro Lorenzetti from 1345 stayed hidden under plaster until 1876, in a church a mile from a medieval village in Montalcino. Today the village is a hotel with a golf course: it is the first of eight historic residences for those who play.
9 min read
Luxury StaysWhere to stay near Milan for a golf trip
At the Golf Hotel in Lainate, a few kilometres from Milan, all 34 rooms are on the same floor: one side looks over the course, the other over the pool. It is one of the ways Milan's clubs solve the night, alongside lodges, residences and grand hotels on the lakes.
7 min read
Luxury StaysThe Riviera's Grand Hotels: Sanremo, Alassio, Rapallo
“I hate rectangular swimming pools. Are lakes and rivers rectangular?” With these words Gio Ponti presented the Royal's seawater pool in Sanremo in 1948. It is one of the Riviera's historic grand hotels, and like the other two, in Alassio and Rapallo, it has a golf course within driving distance.
7 min read
Luxury StaysHotels with a course shuttle and golf services
At the Excelsior on the Lido, tee times are booked through Guest Relations and the transfer to Alberoni can be by car, taxi or water taxi. Few luxury hotels genuinely organise your golf for you: here are the ones that do, and how far the service goes.
6 min read
Luxury StaysGolf hotels in South Tyrol: ten addresses between Merano and the Sciliar
Karl “Schaly” Pichler, an innkeepers’ son, opened nine holes in 1996 in the valley where he was born. Today the course has eighteen, and around Merano there are ten hotels that use it, or its neighbours, as their home course.
8 min read
Luxury StaysGolf resort or city hotel? Pros and cons
Walking from your bed to the first tee, or returning to a city after the round: at La Meridiana in Garlenda the course is a walk away, while from the Excelsior on the Lido it takes about 20 minutes by car, and a free shuttle runs to St Mark's.
5 min read