The Best Golf Courses in South of France

If you want the South of France at full elegance, begin in the hills behind the Riviera. Terre Blanche Hotel Spa Golf Resort, above the village of Tourrettes, is the region’s grand statement: two championship courses laid through a protected estate of pine and granite, a serene five-star hotel and one of the finest spas in Provence. The golf rewards thought over muscle — generous from the tee, exacting around greens that fall away in every direction. It is the natural anchor for a Riviera golf journey, equally suited to a couple and a four-ball.

A short drive away, Domaine de Saint Endréol Golf & Spa Resort near Le Muy offers a more theatrical test: a valley course of dramatic elevation changes, water in play and a famous downhill par three that lingers in the memory. Closer to the coast, the Hotel Mercure Brignoles sits beside Golf de Barbaroux, a Pete and P.B. Dye design of sculpted bunkering and bold movement — a course that asks for commitment and gives a real sense of achievement to those who answer it.

Inland from Cannes and Antibes lies a softer, more pastoral golf country, perfect for pairing rounds with the perched villages of the arrière-pays. Château de la Bégude, near Valbonne, is a gem of this kind — a parkland course wrapped around a restored eighteenth-century farmhouse, walkable, characterful and never overlong, the sort of round you finish smiling. It is the ideal complement to a stay at Le Mas Candille in Mougins, the discreet hilltop retreat that has long drawn those who prefer their luxury quiet.

This is the part of the trip where golf and leisure interleave most naturally. A morning round, an afternoon in Mougins or Saint-Paul-de-Vence, dinner under the plane trees — our specialists pace it so the golf enhances the holiday rather than dictating it.

West towards the Alpilles, the mood changes again — drier, more aromatic, steeped in Roman history. Château de Servanes at Les Baux de Provence plays through silver olive groves beneath the limestone ridge crowned by the medieval citadel, a graceful and walkable course with one of the great views in French golf. Stay nearby at the exquisite Domaine de Manville, a restored estate with its own course at the foot of Les Baux, or at the elegant Moulin de Vernègues at Mallemort, a former mill turned spa hotel that makes a serene Provençal base.

For those who like their golf wrapped in gastronomy and history, this corner is unrivalled. The Hostellerie de l’Abbaye de la Celle at La Celle en Provence, a former abbey with a celebrated kitchen, and the boutique Hotel du Poète at Fontaine de Vaucluse give a tailor-made trip its long, lingering evenings — the reward for a morning well played.

For a final flourish, follow the coast west into the Languedoc, where the golf takes on a breezier, seaside character. Palmyra Golf at Cap d’Agde is the standout — a links-influenced layout threaded with maritime pines and sea views, where the wind adds a welcome edge to the test and the light off the Mediterranean is extraordinary at day’s end. It pairs beautifully with a stay at the storied Hotel Imperator in Nîmes, a grand address with a Roman city and its amphitheatre on the doorstep.

Bookending a Provençal itinerary with a coastal round like this gives the trip real shape — the hills, the villages, the Alpilles and finally the sea. Our specialists will sequence the courses, the hotels and the drives so the whole journey reads as one composed experience rather than a list of rounds.