Best golf courses in Turkey

Belek’s draw is the density of championship designers in a single 40 km belt. The Montgomerie Maxx Royal opened in September 2008 and carries an unusual symmetrical layout of six par-3s, six par-4s and six par-5s, stretching from around 5,382 to 7,134 yards across the tee sets. It hosted Turkey’s inaugural European Tour event, the Turkish Airlines Open, in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019, and has welcomed Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy.

Carya, the course at Regnum, is the one that surprises people. Thomson, Perrett & Lobb built it on undulating sand dunes and planted close to a million heather plants, so it plays like a slice of classic English heathland rather than anything you’d expect on a Mediterranean coast. It staged the Turkish Airlines Open from 2016 to 2018 and is often cited as Europe’s first floodlit course.

One point worth correcting, because it circulates online: Cornelia is a Faldo design only. There is no Jack Nicklaus course there. Faldo’s 27 holes split into the King (6,373 yards), Queen (6,411 yards) and Prince (6,324 yards) loops, all par 72, and the course is widely regarded as the toughest test in Turkey.

For practical purposes, golf in Turkey means Belek. The town sits about 33 km from Antalya Airport along the D400, home to more than thirty four- and five-star hotels alongside the golf complexes. The only meaningful exception is Lykia Links, the seaside course out near Manavgat, which you can play as a day trip from Belek if you want a links contrast.

Because the resorts and courses share the same 40 km strip, you can stay at one hotel and play a different designer’s course every day without a long drive. That clustering is the single biggest reason Belek works so well for a golf week.

Belek has a Mediterranean climate of hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters, receiving roughly 983 mm of rain a year. The sweet spots are spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November). Spring runs around 15-25C, autumn around 20-30C, and both keep the rain low and the turf in good order.

The honest caveat: many Belek courses close for overseeding and heavy maintenance in autumn, with the main window roughly 20 September to 20 November, so a course can be shut for up to two weeks during an otherwise ideal stretch. For 2026, Carya is scheduled to close 15-30 September, and Cullinan Links runs overseeding 1 September to 9 October while keeping one of its two courses open. Always confirm your chosen courses are open for your exact dates.

“Summer can be quite hot, particularly in July and August, making it less ideal for golf unless you play early in the morning or late in the evening.”

turkiye.golf, Best time to play golf in Turkey

Antalya (AYT) is the airport for the Belek golf belt. Direct flights from London take roughly 4 to 4.5 hours, with easyJet, Jet2, TUI, Wizz Air UK, SunExpress and Corendon all operating direct services, mostly from regional airports rather than Heathrow. From the airport, the run to Belek is short and predictable at about 30 to 40 minutes along the D400.

Golf Planet Holidays is ground-only and tailor-made, so your package covers the hotel, green fees and resort transfers. Flights are an optional ATOL-protected add-on if you’d like us to handle them, which means you can fly from your nearest airport or book your own seats and still keep everything else under one quote. Financial protection comes through Protected Trust Services, with ATOL cover where flights are included.

On the paperwork: UK citizens no longer need a visa for tourism and can stay up to 90 days in any 180-day period. Your passport must be valid for at least 150 days after arrival and have a blank page. Turkey isn’t in the EU or Schengen, so the EU Entry/Exit System doesn’t apply, and the country stays on UTC+3 all year, leaving it 2 hours ahead of the UK over the golf season.

Belek’s hotels are mostly five-star and all-inclusive, sitting right beside their courses. Maxx Royal Belek Golf Resort pairs the Montgomerie course with a polished resort, while Regnum Carya Golf and Spa Resort gives you the heathland Carya layout and floodlit evening rounds.

For the Faldo 27, look at Cornelia Diamond or Cornelia De Luxe Resort. The Gloria complex offers three Michel Gayon courses across Gloria Golf Resort, Gloria Serenity and Gloria Verde. Sueno Hotel Deluxe sits on the Dunes and Pines courses, and Titanic Deluxe Golf Resort, Voyage Belek Golf and Spa and Sirene Belek Hotel round out the choice for groups wanting a strong all-inclusive base.

Belek works best for golfers who want several championship courses in one trip without changing hotels, and who like the all-inclusive resort model where food, drink and a spa are part of the deal. Forbes highlighted Turkey as a rising golf destination for 2024, citing courses that are affordable, easy to reach and held to high standards, and Antalya’s 2025 tourism figures (over 2.2 million international visitors in October alone) show the region is firmly on the map.

Couples and groups both fare well here, and the short transfer plus four-hour flight makes a long weekend feasible. It suits players who value variety of design and good winter-sun value over the ocean drama of a links coast, though Lykia Links is there if you want a day of it.