Rural Golf Retreats
“Are there alternatives to the traditional golf package holiday? How about a cosy little cottage in the country, a silky 7-iron away from the nearest fairway?”
The 13th at Palheiro is surrounded by oceans of Agapanthus which flower beautifully in the late spring.
Maderia was on my radar. I knew it had golf courses and a pleasant, year-round climate but for some reason, I hadn’t made the travel connections. Friends that had, had fallen in love with the place. Little did I know, the same fate awaited me!
A GARDEN OF EDEN!
Sumptuous Palheiro Nature Estate is surrounded by 18 magnificent holes of golf.
Madeira has been declared the “Best-Emerging Golf Destination in the World” by the ‘World Golf Awards’ and the island keeps on claiming the top spot as the "World's Leading Island Destination". Not bad for a disparate little group of extinct volcanoes in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!
RURAL RETREATS
If you want to escape to your own secluded slice of heaven, come and stay in one of a host of wonderful ‘Madeira Rural’ properties.
Funchal offers a wealth of hotels with activities, excursions, entertainment, restaurants and cafes. In recent years, however, accommodation alternatives such as cosy country cottages and even glamping have risen in popularity. Could this work for a golf holiday? There was only one way to find out! Clubs at the ready, off to the countryside, we went!
GOLF’S GENISIS
“This is where the game of golf first teed up on these islands!”
Behind me & the tree is where the original two holes of golf in Madeira were laid out.
The village of Santo da Serra is only half an hour from Funchal and 15 minutes from the island’s airport. This upland area is famous for cider production with apples & pears growing in abundance at these higher altitudes. This is also where the game of golf first took root on these islands!
Bio-Quinta Do Pântano is surrounded by organic fruit trees and vegetables not to mention a 27-hole golf course.
We were staying at ‘Bio-Quinta Do Pântano’, an organically certified ‘Quinta’ or farm estate complete with flowers, vegetables, fruits, sheep, chickens and their own lovely little white goat. Across the fence in 1928, a swathe of pasture was ‘repurposed’ into Madeira’s first rudimentary golf course. All two holes of it!
SANTO DA SERRA GOLF
The game has come on since then and Bio-Quinta Do Pântano now sits next door to the resplendent Santo da Serra 27-hole facility. Lounging on the Quinta’s spacious patio, I could hear golfers chatting a silky 7-iron away with the occasional cry of ‘Fore’. Apart from that, all is perfect peace! You’d be hard-pressed to find a more tranquil spot. I woke up during our first night and was dumbstruck by the silence. It sounds daft but I think it was the silence that woke me!
Pântano’s main house sleeps up to 8 people so it’s a great option for a group of golfers - with all the organic fruit you can handle.
Accommodation at the Bio-Quinta comes in the form of two self-contained studio apartments and another two spacious houses. The main house can sleep up to 8 people with self-catering facilities but on our first evening, the owner, Emanuel, prepared Espetadas, traditional Madeiran meat-on-the-skewer washed down with flagons of local cider. The alfresco dining table was, so he told us, “once the original golf clubhouse bar!” I thought I spotted a few spike marks! You can also dine in style at nearby ‘Restaurante A Quinta’, their ‘bacalhau’, (codfish in cream) particularly palatable!
Emanuel prepares ‘espatadas’ on the original golf clubhouse bar.
THE MADEIRA OPEN
Spectacular tee-off from the 1st on the Machico section at Santo da Serra.
Santo da Serra Golf Club has hosted the Madeira Open no less than 20 times with the likes of Seve Ballesteros, Padraig Harrington, Ian Poulter and Constantino Rocca gracing its fairways.
Santo’s three loops were designed by Robert Trent Jones Snr. (Valderamma, SpyGlass, etc) in 1991 making good use of the land’s diverse topography. Besides several challenging holes, the course offers amazing views of the Desertas Islands across the sparkling Atlantic Ocean along with the occasionally snow-crested ‘Pico do Arieiro’ mountains to the north.
The Ladies’ tees at Santo can be equally challenging.
CASAS VALLEPARAÍZO
To be closer to our next golfing venue, we picked up sticks and made camp near the village of Camacha. It’s perfectly feasible to mix lodgings like this while exploring ‘Rural Madeira’. Two or three nights in each place works well and lets you get a better feel for different parts of the island.
It doesn’t get more picturesque that the cottages of Casas Valleparaízo
“The countryside cottages of Casas Valleparaízo in Camacha are idyllic! Hansel & Gretel would be charmed with the place! ”
The Casa’s peacock keeps an eye on proceedings… along with his harem of peahens!
Our little ‘pastoral palace’ had two upstairs bedrooms, a fully equipped kitchen and a spacious lounge complete with a log-burning fireplace as it can get cold in the evening at these higher altitudes! Casas Valleparaízo’s cottages would be ideal for two golfing couples or four friends. If there are more of you, then hire the cottage next door. There’s even a neighbourhood peacock keeping an eye on proceedings.
The peacock decided to put on a display to wish us to “fare thee well on the fairways”.
PALHEIRO GOLF
The 1st tee at Palheiro Golf. This course and its clubhouse offer the most spectacular views of Funchal and its harbour.
Palheiro Golf is only a 10-minute drive from Casas Valleparaízo, an 18-hole track that winds and weaves through its own ‘Nature Estate’ with astonishing views of the Atlantic Ocean and the city of Funchal below, It’s like playing in the clouds. The clubhouse view is for sure one of the most striking anywhere!
My daughter and I enjoyed Palheiro’s clubhouse terrace along with the equally spectacular food and service!
SHOT-SHAPING JOY
The views of the city of Funchal from several parts of the golf course are simply stunning.
The golf course is equally inspiring! Palheiro's occasional patchy greenkeeping conditions are more than made up for with the course’s intricacy and sheer, shot-shaping joy. Playing Palheiro reminds me of the pinball machines of my youth where you look to bounce the ball off one of the many banks to gain more distance. It’s great fun!
The 13th is a beautiful par 3 surrounded by Agapanthus plants otherwise known as Lily of the Nile.
Each hole here has its unique shape & character. You could play this course forever with never a dull moment! Most definitely book lunch or dinner at the recently remodelled clubhouse. The food and service are superlative and the view, especially at sunset is a ‘Madeira Must’ for golfers and non-golfers alike.
THE ISLAND OF PORTO SANTO
The healing sands of Porto Santo!
From Funchal, you can sail to the neighbouring island of Porto Santo aboard the ‘Lobo Marhina’ leaving at 8am most mornings. Settle down in the peaceful dining room and enjoy a Full English breakfast then do the same for dinner on the way back - the ideal way to spend the 2.5-hour crossing!
“The island of Porto Santo is where Madeirans and mainland Portuguese take their summer holidays to enjoy one of the best golden beaches in the world”
The small island is where Madeirans and mainland Portuguese take their summer holidays to enjoy one of the best golden beaches in the world, the unique sand renowned for its health-giving properties.
Porto Santo was Christopher Columbus’s base before his trans-Atlantic voyages of discovery, marrying the daughter of the island’s first governor and building a house on the island. You can see what remains of it alongside a dedicated museum.
SEVE’S LASTING LEGACY
While Columbus might have established trans-Atlantic routes, Seve Ballesteros ‘discovered’ a golf course on the slopes surrounding Pico Ana Ferreira back in the early 2000s. It’s completely different from Madeira’s other two courses, more links-like with the wind being a decisive factor.
The 14th at Porto Santo stands in the middle of a set of stunning cliffside holes.
The front 9 has some strong tests, long and open with a couple of peevish par 3s thrown in. You might think you have the measure of the place until you arrive at the 13th where the ensuing holes cling to the cliff’s edge, absolutely stunning to play as well as behold and should take their place among Europe’s best.
Again, wind is a major factor in how you play them, especially on the two par 3s, the 13th and 15th. But it’s how much you bite off at the 14th, a dogleg right that will linger long in the memory. If you play it wisely, you’ll gain a good position to take on the green. Get greedy and it’s an awkward second shot from a devious waste area to reach the raised dance floor.
Porto Santo Golf Club also offers one of the best clubhouse restaurants, definitely worth booking for lunch or an evening meal. Chef Daniel Rodriguez Mendez, otherwise known as 'Gato' (which means 'cat' due to his unusually pale blue eyes) is from Uruguay and has a real passion for cooking, clearly evident in his excellent dishes.
Chef Daniel Rodriguez Mendez, otherwise known as 'Gato' makes Porto Santo’s clubhouse meals exceptional
LIFE’S A BEACH
You can sail to Porto Santo for the day, play a round of golf and get back to the main island in the evening. But I recommend spending at least two or three nights on the island. The beach alone is worth sampling! There are several beachside bars where you can spend the day soaking in the sun and sights with the occasional dip in the azure Atlantic Ocean. We stayed in Porto Santo House Rosário Coelho, ideal for golf groups and perfect for barbeque parties.
Patiently waiting on the ‘Boutique da Poncha’ to open.
The island is at its best during the summer months but it’s very busy from June to September. The golf course also tends to dry out during these warmer months as Porto Santo is an arid island. Course conditions are ideal for the rest of the year.
NEW HORIZONS
It doesn’t look like much now but in the next two years, this site will magically transform into Madeira’s 4th golf course.
The big news on Madeira is two new golf course projects are potentially in the pipeline! The first at Ponta do Pargo is already underway on a cliffside location at the island’s westerly tip. Sir Nick Faldo has visited the site four times to help create a ‘tour de force’ that should open in 2026.
The other project is purely conjectural at this point. In the northeast quadrant of the island, in the parish of Faial, there is a site tracing a river valley that is being considered for another golf enterprise. The site looks sheltered and meanders down from the slopes towards the sea. If this does materialise, five golf courses would make Madeira an even greater golf destination.
The cliffside location of Ponto do Pargo is sure to attract lots of visitors… and wind!
Casas da Levada in Ponta da Pargo complete with its own little Hobbit Bar!
Where to stay in Ponta da Pargo? We visited Casas da Levada for a two-night stay and I’ve got to say, it was one of the many delightful Madeira rural retreats. The cottages are fabulous with cute little bunnies hopping around. You can truly relax in the well-maintained grounds not to mention the ‘Hobbit Hole’ honesty bar where guests congregate in the early evening to enjoy the sunset with an aperitif!
Was Bilbo Baggins behind the bar?
RURAL ROUND-UP
My son & daughter took to canyoning like ducks to water
I think country cottage accommodation works particularly well for golfers and prices per head based on 4 or more sharing are extremely attractive with the added bonus of getting to know these islands in a far more intimate way.
If you want to mix it up, there is lots more to do on these islands such as levada walks, mountain biking, boat trips, canoeing, canyoning etc.
But if all you want to do is golf with some exceptional meals thrown in and to be able to ‘kick back’ in your own secluded ‘slice of heaven’, you’re pointing in the right direction!
