The 5 Best Places to Do Your Golfing Retirement Right

Are you content to thread those same greens a few minutes from your house you’ve hit up for the last five years?

Or would you rather play the hallowed ground of some of the most esteemed courses on the planet?

If, like us, you’d prefer the latter, a new report from the editors at InternationalLiving.com explores five great retirement spots around the world where the golfing is top-notch.

Golfers who retire overseas to sunny, good-value locales can indulge their favorite hobby year-round and pay much less than they would in the States. In a new report, the editors at InternationalLiving.com explore five great retirement spots around the world where the golfing is top-notch.

“A much-cited advantage—and joy—of retirement is being able to spend your days as you see fit, indulging in your favorite passions, such as golf,” says International Living’s Executive Editor Jennifer Stevens. “That can prove to be a prohibitively expensive pastime in North America, but in the right places overseas, you can play a round for a fraction of the price back home.

“Why be satisfied walking the usual links in your neck of the woods, when there’s an entire universe of breathtakingly aesthetic, challenging golf courses in some of the world’s most beautiful, yet affordable destinations?

International Living’s report identifies five of the best locations to hit the links and forge your own dream golf-retirement.

Silver Coast, Portugal

Portugal’s esteemed Silver Coast is one of the last affordable holds in Western Europe. Old towns brim with traditional charm, and the heaving throngs of tourists you sometimes encounter in the Algarve are nowhere to be seen. This is a side of Portugal rarely seen in the limelight, and what’s more, it’s an underrated golf haven.

Here, a couple can live well on $2,200 per month.

IL’s Recommended Course: Camporeal Lisboa

Camporeal means “royal meadow” … and Camporeal Lisboa is an enchanting course providing a royal experience, no doubt about it. Designed by Donald Steel’s company, it’s easily one of the best golfing experiences in Europe.

Just 45 minutes from Lisbon and 20 minutes from the Silver Coast beaches, Camporeal was built on the grounds of what was once a hunting retreat for the Portuguese royal family, meaning the atmosphere is entirely different from the seaside courses, and it’s a world away from city life, too.

The course spreads over 135 acres along the protected area of the Socorro and Archeira mountains, and while playing, you’re surrounded by those mountains as you play through holes spanning across the hills and valley forests, and even moves through a quaint vineyard.

Hua Hin, Thailand

The golfing purists know that to really experience the best courses, you need to cast a wide net, and Hua Hin, Thailand is a great example of some of the gems you can find if you just expand your horizons.

This is Thailand’s original and best golf town—indeed, for our money at IL, the best in all of Asia, a continent that has rapidly risen on golfers’ radar in recent decades.

Many expat couples in Hua Hin live comfortably on $2,000 a month—some for a little less.

IL’s Recommended Course: Royal Hua Hin Golf Course

Created by a UK railway engineer from the UK so that British workers—laying the first Bangkok to Hua Hin railway line—could feel more at home, and so the Thai upper classes could sample true “British” golf.

Royal Hua Hin follows along a stretch of limestone cliffs, among verdant hills. The terrain undulates naturally. Old-growth trees stand guard at the edge of the fairways, accompanied with scenic views of Hua Hin city and the Gulf of Thailand.

The presence of the trees also narrows the fairways, and with doglegs on several holes and the greens are tight circles, sometimes elevated, you’re in for a great challenge.

The full report can be found here: The 5 Best Places To Do Your Golfing Retirement Right.