The Leading Hotels of the World with golf in Italy: four addresses to play from

The Leading Hotels of the World was founded in 1928 as a consortium of 38 European hotels, with the aim of attracting American travellers; today, according to Wikipedia, it brings together more than 450 independent hotels. For a golfer the question is more practical: where among these addresses can one sleep and play without driving for miles?

Four Italian hotels that describe themselves as members of The Leading Hotels of the World have a specific link with a golf course.

The four Leading hotels with golf at a glance

Terme di Saturnia: the only one with the course in the resort

The Terme di Saturnia Natural Spa & Golf Resort was founded in August 1919 by Gaspero Ciacci, whose family had bought the baths in 1865. Today it has 124 rooms and suites across 120 hectares. The spring emerges at 37.5 °C after an underground journey that, according to the resort, lasts about forty years from Monte Amiata.

The Terme di Saturnia Golf Club is an 18-hole par 72 of 6,316 metres on 70 hectares of Maremma hills, designed by the American Ronald Fream. The club earned GEO certification in 2014; once a week the greenkeepers spray the turf with thermal water, which, the resort explains, prevents fungal disease. The practice range has 43 bays, nine of them covered. The Golf Inclusive offer requires at least two nights and includes breakfast, one 18-hole green fee per player per day, 50% off the green fee for a second guest, the practice range and a couples' cryotherapy session. The green fee list is a PDF: prices and times should be requested from the club office.

Villa del Parco: the reception for the 27 holes of Is Molas

Forte Village, in Pula, is a small town of hospitality: eight hotels, 13 villas and 40 suites over roughly fifty hectares. Villa del Parco & Spa is one of its five-star properties and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. The resort has no course of its own, but the neighbouring Circolo di Is Molas can be booked through the reception, which also arranges transfers and the hire of clubs and golf carts. According to the resort, golf access is reserved for guests of the hotels and villas.

Is Molas has 27 holes: the championship course, a par 72 of 6,383 metres, opened in 1975 and has hosted four Italian Opens; the 14th green is shaped like Africa. The nine-hole Yellow course, reseeded with Bermuda grass, has been playable again since 31 December 2025. In the 2026 price list the weekday 18-hole green fee runs from 80 euros in low season to 135 in August. The club has a TrackMan academy and a summer camp for young players.

Royal Sanremo: a founding member, with an autumn tournament

The Royal Hotel Sanremo takes pride in having been among the consortium's founding members. It opened in 1872 in the olive grove of Lorenzo Bertolini from Turin, reopened on 25 December 1946 after the bombings, and since 2006 has been run by Edoardo Varese, the fifth generation. The seawater pool by Gio Ponti, dating from 1948, is heated to 27 °C and open from April to October.

The course is the Circolo Golf degli Ulivi, an 18-hole par 69 of 5,203 metres, opened in 1932. The hotel's golf package includes at least three nights, two green fees per person and a dinner; in the 2026 price list the green fee is 65 euros on weekdays and 80 on weekends and holidays, with a rate of 55 and 65 for partner hotels. The Royal Golf Challenge, a 36-hole stableford, is scheduled for 24 and 25 October 2026. The club is closed from 29 September to 9 October for aeration.

Grand Hotel Alassio: ten minutes from Garlenda

The Grand Hotel Alassio, a nineteenth-century palace hotel reopened in 2010, has as its reference course the Golf Club Garlenda, 18 holes par 72 in the Lerrone Valley, about ten minutes by car according to the concierge. There are no packages: green fees and tee times are booked with the club. The rooms were renovated in 2025, and the Thalassio Medical Spa is open from March to January, including to non-residents.

When to go

Terme di Saturnia plays all year round on its course and has an offer with a minimum of two nights; at Is Molas the unlimited golf packages are valid from April to October, excluding July and August. In Sanremo October is the tournament month, while the Royal's pool closes at the end of the month. For a trip combining sea and golf, the widest window runs from April to October.

Curiosities

• A course tended with spring water. At Saturnia the turf is sprayed with thermal water every week.
• A princess with 45 trunks. In July 2016 a Saudi princess arrived at the Grand Hotel Alassio for three weeks with 30 servants.
• A suite for Sissi. At the Royal in Sanremo the 82 m² Exclusive Suite Sissi recalls Empress Elisabeth of Austria, one of the hotel's guests.
• “I hate rectangular pools”. With these words, the hotel reports, Gio Ponti introduced the Royal's seawater pool in 1948.