Cruise Ports With a Golf Course Near the Pier

A golf bag on a cruise sounds ridiculous until you look at a map. A handful of ports put a real course inside twenty minutes of the gangway, and knowing which ports those are is the whole trick.

My quick take

Golf in port is one of the few shore activities where the math is genuinely tight. A round of eighteen takes four hours or more, and that is before the taxi, the check in, and the shower you are going to want afterward.

So I sort golf ports into two piles. Ports where the course is close enough that a slow round still gets you back with an hour to spare, and ports where you are betting your vacation on traffic behaving.

The quick facts

• Time needed: Budget five and a half hours door to door for eighteen holes, and about three for nine.
• Best ports: Bermuda, Nawiliwili on Kauai, Puerto Vallarta, Malaga and Bridgetown all put a course within a short ride.
• Clubs: Renting at the course is almost always the better call than flying your own set to the ship.
• Dress code: Collared shirt, no denim, soft spikes. Resort courses enforce it.
• Getting back: Only a ship sold excursion obligates the ship to wait. Booking direct puts the return on you.

Whether a round actually fits between the gangway and all aboard

Start with the number on your daily program, not the number in the brochure. A ship in port from 8am to 5pm gives you an all aboard around 4:30pm, which is eight and a half usable hours if the gangway opens on time.

Now subtract. Thirty minutes to clear the terminal, twenty each way in a taxi, thirty at the pro shop before your tee time, four and a half hours for eighteen holes with a cart, and fifteen minutes to change out of a soaked shirt.

That is roughly seven hours, which fits, barely. Anything shorter than an eight hour port call and I would play nine holes or skip it, and my rule on how much time to leave for getting back to the ship does not bend just because the round is going well.

Pace of play is the variable nobody budgets for. A busy Saturday morning on a resort course can turn a four hour round into five and a half, and you cannot leave after fourteen holes without a very awkward conversation with your cart partner.

Bermuda is the easiest golf port on the map

Bermuda is small, ships stay overnight on most sailings, and the island has more courses per square mile than almost anywhere. If you only ever play golf once on a cruise, this is the place to do it.

Big ships tie up at King’s Wharf and Heritage Wharf in the Royal Naval Dockyard on the West End. From there the public course at Port Royal in Southampton is a short taxi ride, usually around twenty minutes, and it sells a cruise package that bundles the cart and rental clubs.

The overnight is what makes Bermuda unusual. A morning tee time on day two means you are not racing an all aboard at all, which is the version of this I would actually book, and my Bermuda port guide covers the ferries and buses if someone in your group is skipping the round.

Nawiliwili is the one where the course is basically at the harbor

Kauai does something no other cruise port I know of does. Ships berth alongside at Nawiliwili Harbor, and the golf sits on the headland immediately above the bay you are looking at from your balcony.

The Jack Nicklaus course on the Hokuala property runs along the cliffs on the far side of Kalapaki Beach. The beach itself is roughly a fifteen minute walk from the port gate, though it is a road shoulder rather than a sidewalk, so most people still take a cab the last stretch.

Kauai port calls tend to be long, and some itineraries overnight. That combination makes this the lowest stress golf day in the Pacific, and the Nawiliwili port guide explains why you should not count on grabbing a rental car on the day.

Puerto Vallarta hides a course in the hotel zone

Puerto Vallarta gets written off as a beach and Malecon day, and that is fair for most people. But the maritime terminal sits inside the Marina Vallarta hotel zone, and there is an eighteen hole course in that same zone.

Marina Vallarta Club de Golf is a flat, mature, tree lined layout on Paseo de la Marina, minutes from the berth rather than a highway drive away. It is not the most dramatic course in the region, and I would not fly to Mexico for it, but for a cruise port day the proximity beats the drama.

Taxis here are unmetered, so agree the fare before you get in. Downtown is only three to four miles south if the rest of your group wants the old town instead, which the Puerto Vallarta port guide walks through.

Malaga lets you play a round and still see the old town

Malaga is a walk off port with the cathedral and the Alcazaba about twenty minutes from the ship on foot. What people miss is that there is serious golf about six miles (10 km) out toward the airport.

The state run hotel out at Malaga Golf has an eighteen hole Old Course plus a nine hole links, and it rents clubs, trolleys and buggies. The nine hole option is the smart play on a short call, because it leaves you the afternoon in the city.

Spanish courses run busiest in spring and fall, which is also when most Mediterranean itineraries call here. Book the tee time well before you sail, and read the Malaga port guide for how the walk into town works when you get back.

The Caribbean ports where the course is close enough

The Caribbean has plenty of golf and very little of it near a cruise berth. Three exceptions are worth planning around.

• Barbados: Barbados Golf Club sits on the south coast at Durants in Christ Church, a manageable ride from the Bridgetown port.
• St Kitts: Royal St Kitts Golf Club is over at Frigate Bay, close enough to Port Zante that the taxi fare is not the expensive part of the day.
• St Thomas: Mahogany Run is up in the hills above Charlotte Amalie, further out than the other two but still a normal taxi run.

Heat is the thing to plan for, not distance. A 1pm tee time in July in the islands is a genuinely bad idea, and an early morning slot is worth paying more for.

Caribbean port calls also tend to be short, often seven or eight hours. Check your Bridgetown or Port Zante arrival time before you book anything, because a 10am arrival kills eighteen holes outright.

Bar Harbor has an 1888 course and a tender problem

Maine is not the first place you think of for cruise golf, and yet the course at Kebo Valley is one of the oldest in the country, founded in 1888. It sits on Eagle Lake Road a couple of miles from downtown Bar Harbor, it is open to the public, and it rents clubs.

The catch is that Bar Harbor has no cruise berth. Everybody comes ashore by tender, which adds a line at both ends and hands the weather a veto over your afternoon.

I would treat the last tender as the real deadline and be back at the waterfront sixty to ninety minutes before it. If you want the full picture of how much that costs you, tendering changes the amount of time you actually have ashore more than most people expect.

Scotland is the dream and the hardest one to schedule

British Isles itineraries put you within reach of links golf that people plan entire trips around. They also put you within reach of tee sheets that were full eleven months ago.

The famous St Andrews courses use a ballot for a share of daily tee times, which is a lottery you enter in advance and may simply lose. That is a fine system for a golf vacation and a terrible one for a single port day, so if St Andrews is the goal, treat it as a bonus rather than the plan.

Highland calls are more workable. From Invergordon you are in genuine links country within an hour, and courses up there are used to visitors, though a Scottish port day also hands you wind and daylight to think about.

Rental clubs or your own set, and why I would rent

Flying with clubs to a cruise is a chain of small risks. Airlines charge oversize fees, bags go missing, and a lost set on the way to embarkation is not something the ship can fix for you.

Then there is the cabin. A standard balcony cabin has nowhere sensible to put a travel bag that size, and you will be tripping over it for a week to play one or two rounds.

Almost every course worth playing near a cruise port rents decent sets from the major brands, usually for a fraction of the green fee. The exception is the golfer who genuinely cannot play with unfamiliar clubs, and in that case bring your own putter and a glove in your carry on and rent the rest.

Dress codes are not a formality here

Resort and club courses in cruise destinations turn people away, and doing it in flip flops off a ship is a memorable way to waste a taxi fare. The published rules at the club at Durants in Barbados are a good template for the region: a collared polo, shorts or pants, no denim, and soft shoes.

Metal spikes are banned nearly everywhere now. Soft spike golf shoes are fine, and plenty of courses will let you play in athletic shoes if you ask first.

Pack the outfit in your port bag and change at the course if the ship is doing a formal night or you want to walk into town after. Wearing golf clothes through a terminal is fine, it just makes the shopping stop afterward a bit odd.

Ship excursion or booking direct, and who actually gets you back

This is the whole decision, and it is not really about money. If you book golf through the cruise line and the transfer runs late, the ship waits or the line gets you to the next port at their cost.

Book direct with the course and none of that applies. You are a private traveler with a taxi driver and a slow group ahead of you, and the gangway comes up on schedule.

Ship golf excursions usually cost more than the walk up rate, sometimes a lot more, and they bundle the transfer, cart and clubs. I think that premium is worth it on a short call in an unfamiliar port and a waste on an overnight in Bermuda, which is the same logic as choosing between a ship excursion, a local tour and doing it yourself anywhere else.

If you do book direct, get the course to arrange your return taxi when you check in rather than hoping one is sitting outside at the turn. And know what happens if it all goes wrong, because the port agent playbook is not a document you want to read for the first time on the eighteenth green.

The small stuff that ruins a golf port day

Ship time is the classic. Several ports run an hour off the local clock, and a tee time booked in local time against an all aboard in ship time is exactly the kind of error that puts people on a pier watching a stern light.

Cash matters too. Caddie tips, cart fees and the halfway house are often easier in small bills, and a card terminal that will not read a foreign card is a bad surprise at the turn.

Finally, book the earliest tee time the course offers. Morning slots dodge the heat, the afternoon thunderstorms and the pace of play problem all at once, and they give you a buffer if the round runs long.

Quick answers

Can you play a full 18 holes on a cruise port day?

Yes, if the port call is at least nine hours and the course is within about half an hour of the pier. Anything tighter and nine holes is the safer choice.

Can you bring golf clubs on a cruise ship?

Cruise lines generally allow clubs as regular luggage, and they go through the terminal scanner like any other bag. Storage in the cabin is the real problem, so a collapsible travel bag beats a hard case.

Do cruise ports have golf courses you can walk to?

Almost none, and the closest thing is Nawiliwili on Kauai, where the course sits on the headland above the harbor. Even there most people take a short cab rather than walk the road shoulder.

Is a cruise line golf excursion worth the extra cost?

On a short call in a port you do not know, yes, because the ship waits for its own excursions. On a long call or an overnight, book direct and keep the difference.

What should I wear to play golf in port?

A collared polo, shorts or pants that are not denim, and soft spike or athletic shoes. Confirm the specific course rules when you book, since resort clubs are stricter than municipal ones.

Final word

Golf is one of the few port day activities where the answer really is port specific. In Bermuda or on Kauai it is one of the best things you can do with the day, and in most other ports it is four hours of driving for two hours of golf.

Pick one or two ports on the itinerary where the course is close, book the first tee time available, and rent the clubs. Then spend the rest of the cruise not thinking about your handicap.

More on this topic: browse every guide on shore excursions and DIY port days.