Lisbon Coast

The golf around Lisbon runs in two directions, and the drive between them is under ninety minutes. South-west of the city, Cascais and Estoril sit on the coast with Oitavos Dunes and Penha Longa. North, an hour up the Silver Coast towards Óbidos, Praia D'El Rey and West Cliffs are built on the dunes above the Atlantic.

This is the part of Portugal that plays like links. The sand is real, the turf is tight, the wind arrives off the Atlantic rather than the Mediterranean, and the ball runs in a way it does not on the parkland further south. West Cliffs and Oitavos in particular ask you to play the ball along the ground — something most golfers arriving from a Belek or Algarve week have not done in a while.

And then there is Lisbon. This is the one destination where the golf finishes and a real capital city starts twenty minutes later: trams, a river, and restaurants that are not hotel restaurants. It suits a long weekend, a group where not everyone plays, and anyone who has done the Algarve enough times.

The honest part is the weather and the driving. The Atlantic here is cooler and windier than the south and the winter is properly wet, so this is a spring and autumn destination — April to June and September to October. It is also more spread out than the Algarve: the two clusters do not share a base, so pick one end and accept a day trip to the other.