[Tom Culley]

As a youngster i feel that it's about time i get out there and travel without my parents.

InterRail appears to be the best way of seeing plenty of cities and countries, with relative ease and at a low cost. However, i would like to take my clubs with me and turn the holiday in to a golf tour. The idea would be to play golf during the day, then experience the cities in the evening, spending nights in hostels.

I am looking to put together a schedule of cities in Europe that combine great culture with reasonable golf not too far from the cities.

I need your help.

[Stephen Davis]

David Davis would be a great resource on putting together a list of courses you should play, especially in continental Europe.

[Will Lozier]

David Davis would be a great resource on putting together a list of courses you should play, especially in continental Europe.

...and David would probably tell you first to put Amsterdam on that list - Kennemer, R. Haagsche, Noordwijkse.  I can speak for the city and Kennemer in that you will not be disappointed.  Spend a day at the Van Gogh Museum and head out the Kennemer the next day for 27 excellent holes, a world class clubhouse, and great treatment. 

Cheers

[Tom Culley]

Stephen and Will,

I was planning on talking to David regarding Holland, and Europe in general.

Although it would be an amazing opportunity to play the many great classic private clubs, as a student the trip will be on a limited budget. I would love to find some of the hidden gems.

[Mark Chaplin]

Tom - nice idea, the problem will be getting to a lot of the clubs from the city centres without ringing up big cab fares, waiting hours for buses or tramping considerable distances to courses from bus stops.

I played reciprocal clubs in Australia whilst backpacking, I hired clubs and purchased cheap golf shoes out there. Getting to the clubs was pretty difficult/expensive other than Royal Sydney, because the clubs arranged games from me I always got a ride back into town afterwards.

[Tom Culley]

Mark,

That is certainly going to be the issue. I only had this idea in the last few hours so right now i'm just trying to figure out if it is possible or not. I'm not planning on travelling with a full set, just a half set in a sunday bag and a pair of freddie couples style shoes.

T.

[Tom_Doak]

Tom:

Have you done this much in the UK?  It's vastly easier to do there, and having the golf clubs at the youth hostel won't get you as many strange looks, either, based on my own experiences as a 22-year-old.

On the Continent, I think you'd be able to get to the courses in The Netherlands and in Madrid without too much trouble.  After that I'm hard pressed to think of any that would be very easy.  Your best bet would be to hope that a handful of members here would volunteer to meet you at the station and play golf with you somewhere.  But, you'll have to get to America before I can make the same offer [and, sadly, there is no rail service to Traverse City].

[Scott Warren]

Royal Zoute can be done on the train from Bruges in less than an hour. Royal Oostend also, from memory.

[Tom Culley]

Tom,

Being based in UK i would really like to travel outside of the homeland. I've always wanted to InterRail around Europe, but more recently have wanted to go on more golf based holidays, so i thought that i could possibly combine the two. It's only an idea right now, a dream.

[Mark Chaplin]

Tom go to Scotland it's like being on another continent let alone country!!

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

If you can do with playing some less well regarded courses, you could do a lot worse than head to Sweden. The Train system is very good and surprisingly reasonable when compared to the UK. I think you can get Stockholm-Copenhagen for less than £20 each way. Come up to Stockholm (one of the most beautiful cities in Europe) during June or July, and you find that many clubs have reduced green fees. Take the boat to Helsinki for next-to-nothing and sample some golf there.

Taxis are criminally expensive in Scandinavia, so I'd forget about them, but grabbing buses, city-trains, metro, trams is usually not so bad as they same ticket is valid on all modes of transport.

We have members of the GCA.com DG in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Norway. Let me know if you're heading this way.

[John Mayhugh]

I think it's a great idea.  You might ask Emil Weber about his experiences.  He did a Scotland trip somewhat like the one you are considering.  He may also have traveled similarly on the continent.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,45388.0.html

Depending on the area you visit, you might find GCA guys interested in joining you.  If, for example, you arrange a day at Morfontaine, I'll be happy to pick you up at the nearest train station and tag along for the day.

Seriously, if you figure out the courses you would like to play, I think you could build a great cultural trip around visiting them.  As long as you're ready for some travel difficulties, you should fare ok.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

RE: Scandinavia, I forgot to mention, just in case you didn't realise it, but the women and tall and blonde 

[Tom Culley]

John,

Thanks for the encouragement. Although i understand that there are some great courses in Europe that i should one day see, i was not planning on organising the trip around playing the greats. The idea is simply to see and experience some great cities, and hit some balls along the way. Although i do realise that there may not be any point in taking your clubs only to play a bunch of 'Doak 1s' in different countries.

Donal,

Scandinavia really hadn't crossed my mind when i started to think of destinations in Europe, but i'll certainly take the area in to consideration.

T.

[Paul Gray]

Tom,

I really just wanted to offer my support for your idea. Travelling across Europe by train is a great thing to do at your tender age (I'm assuming you're in your late teens or similar) and if you can play some golf on route then all the better.

If by any chance you happen to head off by ferry from Portsmouth I'd be happy to send you on your way with a game before leaving these shores. I'm sure we could find space for you to crash for a couple of nights if needs be.

[Tom Culley]

Guys,

This is the train pass that i am planning on purchasing:

http://www.interrail.eu/interrail-passes/interrail-global-pass

It seems a good value way to travel with the added convenience of not being tied to a certain place.

T.

[Chris Kane]

Tom, I travelled around Scotland with golf clubs and a backpack - its not a problem if you don't mind carrying the clubs (I had a travel bag with wheels for it, got a few strange looks in youth hostels!).

The Interrail ticket is terrific (I didn't have the golf clubs with me though), go for it! Bear in mind that almost all the trips you take will require you to pay a supplement and a booking fee, I probably averaged an extra 12 euros per journey in 2007. I also recommend the night trains, which will save you a night's accommodation and are really nice to sleep on!

[John Mayhugh]

Thanks for the encouragement. Although i understand that there are some great courses in Europe that i should one day see, i was not planning on organising the trip around playing the greats. The idea is simply to see and experience some great cities, and hit some balls along the way. Although i do realise that there may not be any point in taking your clubs only to play a bunch of 'Doak 1s' in different countries.

I was semi-joking with my mention of Morfontaine.  I don't think you have to try to play the top courses in a trip, but you might as well try to play good ones.  Maybe try listing the cities/areas you want to travel to, and ask the people on the site for some lesser known courses to try to have a look at?  I suspect you'll get the chance to meet people in a few of the places and pick up some good area advice as well.

[Connor Dougherty]

Tom C,
It's funny you mention this, I'm planning on doing something similar next winter/spring around some of the continental courses but many more of the UK/Irish tracks, and probably spending more time looking at courses than you are.

I would look through the threads on here and invest in the Confidential Guide. It will give you a general idea of where you can play and a good sense of what the place looks like. Also, if you're not as willing to pay for the top tracks, consider asking the club to just tour the course. That's what I'm planning on doing at a few places.

Let me know how your trip goes! Maybe we end up in a couple of the same areas.

[David Harshbarger]

Tom,

Click the link in my signature line and you'll fnd a map that links to courses profiled on this site.  The Continent, you will quickly see, is under-represented.  However, you'll get an idea of where GCA ers have felt it worthwhile to take pictures, and you may get some ideas of areas or regions where there are good golfing opportunities.  You'll also get a good idea of where GCA ers would like to meet you for a game ;-)

If you find it useful please let me know.

Dave

Ps, put the lie to the old saying "youth is wasted on the young!".

[Cliff Walston]

Tom,

I would like to encourage you to continue on with your trip.  My biggest regret is that I didn't spend more time traveling around Europe when I was younger.  I never really had a good understanding of how things worked across the pond and how easy it would have been to pull off.  Of course the expense was always a factor too getting there from Texas.  Now that I am 36 and have the resources, time is much more difficult to come by.  I long for the days of being 20 and student poor with time to doing such things.

Unfortunately in my European travels as an adult, I have never taken my clubs to the continent, so I am not much help in helping you select any courses.  However, I would like to make a donation to your adventure to help a little in making it a reality.  Do you have a Paypal account?  My only requirement is that you come back on here and share your tales when you return.  PM with your Paypal details, and I will be happy to assist in my own way.

Cheers,

Cliff    

[Martin Toal]

Ireland is worth considering too, with a decent rail service up the East Coast from Dublin, down to Cork, Kerry and Galway.

The only good golf area in the Republic not represented is Donegal, although you can get to Derry near the top and Sligo near the bottom.

http://www.irishrail.ie/

If I was a young man of adventure, I would look at North of France, Belgium, Netherlands then through the top of Germany to Denmark, and the Nordics. That would be a great holiday with lots of good linksy golf and people who mostly speak English, not to mention the tall blonde new friends to be made.

[Sean_A]

Tom

If you want to play the smaller courses use this site for ideas
http://www.top100golfcourses.co.uk/index.asp

Get the Peugeot Golf Guide
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=peugeot+golf+guide

I suggest laying out the few must see places and courses first, then work around that.  You could also do the old asking around once you are at a place - sort of leaving part of the trip up to the gods.  I travelled for over 3 years this way, it can be very interesting.  

Ciao

[Tom Culley]

Sean,

Thanks for the ideas, i've just ordered myself a cheap copy of the book.

T.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

InterRail is OK provided the trains you are meant to be using are on time. My wife and I were due to travel from Brussels to Cologne on a Thalys train which was delayed by several hours. Another delayed train to Cologne came in and the platform staff said we could travel on it. There were no seats left. We stood in the aisle. The ticket inspector said that as we had no seat reservation on this train he would fine us and charge us the full fare again. It came to over 100 Euros each. And make sure you fill in all the correct details on the various bits of the tickets. Breach the rules by a semi-colon and they do you for fines and fares.

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