SELF-DRIVE FROM THE TUNNEL, GROUND-ONLY SINCE 1981
Tom Simpson laid this out above the estuary in 1929.
Normandy Coastal golf holidays
Drive off the Shuttle and you are on the heights of Mont-Canisy in an afternoon, playing the Barrière course at Deauville that Tom Simpson cut in 1929 and Henry Cotton later reworked. Add the cliff-top holes at Étretat from Dormy House, the apple country at Saint Gatien, and dinner back at the Hotel du Golf, and you start to wonder why you ever flew anywhere.
★★★★★4.9 from real golfers
· 9 courses · from £375pp (≈ €435) (≈ $505) (≈ CA$695) (≈ AU$715) (≈ NZ$855) (≈ CHF 405) (≈ kr 4,795) (≈ kr 4,825) (≈ kr 3,275) · ATOL-protected where flights are added
Golf holidays in Normandy Coastal start from £375 (≈ €435) (≈ $505) (≈ CA$695) (≈ AU$715) (≈ NZ$855) (≈ CHF 405) (≈ kr 4,795) (≈ kr 4,825) (≈ kr 3,275) per person, across 9 courses we can book, 4 hotels and resorts we sell. Sold ground-only, hand-priced around your dates, and arranged by us since 1981.
A hand-priced quote, no obligation, and no call centre.
Deauville sits about three hours from Calais by car, which makes the Normandy coast one of the easier French golf trips for a UK player to reach. The golf is spread between the smart seaside towns and the rolling country just inland, with cliffs, apple orchards and the old wartime beaches never far from the fairways.
We are Golf Planet Holidays, and we have been putting together tailored golf trips since 1981. For Normandy that means we plan the hotel, book your tee times, sort the transfers and line up every round, so the only thing you decide on the day is which club to hit.
Why play golf in Normandy Coastal
The golf here has a calm, parkland feel rather than the drama of a links, and the standout is Omaha Beach Golf Club. At 36 holes it gives you genuine variety on a single site, and the setting above the famous landing beaches gives a round there a weight that other courses do not have.
Saint Gatien at Deauville is the other one worth building a trip around. It runs to 27 holes at par 72, so it is a proper test with the flexibility of three nine-hole loops, and it sits close enough to the town hotels to make an easy base.
The courses you’ll play
Three courses anchor a trip here, and between them they cover most tastes. The largest is Omaha Beach Golf Club with 36 holes near the wartime coast. Saint Gatien Golf Club at Deauville plays 27 holes at par 72, while Caen Golf Club, laid out by Fred Hawtree, also runs to 27 holes a little further inland.
Omaha Beach Golf Club, Normandy (36 holes)
Saint Gatien Golf Club, Deauville (27 holes, par 72)
Caen Golf Club, Normandy (27 holes, designed by Fred Hawtree)
The 27-hole layouts at Saint Gatien and Caen let us mix and match loops across a few days, so you can play three different nines without driving far between rounds.
Where you’ll stay
The choice ranges from a relaxed Honfleur base up to the grand hotels of Deauville, so we match the stay to the group.
Auberge de la Source, Honfleur, from £340 (≈ €395) (≈ $455) (≈ CA$635) (≈ AU$645) (≈ NZ$775) (≈ CHF 365) (≈ kr 4,345) (≈ kr 4,375) (≈ kr 2,965) pp for three nights. The easiest on the budget and a good fit if you want a quieter base near the harbour town.
Dormy House, Etretat, from £440 (≈ €505) (≈ $595) (≈ CA$825) (≈ AU$835) (≈ NZ$1,005) (≈ CHF 475) (≈ kr 5,625) (≈ kr 5,665) (≈ kr 3,845) pp for three nights. A mid-range option close to the cliffs, suited to golfers who want the coast on the doorstep.
Hotel du Golf Barriere, Deauville, from £725 (≈ €845) (≈ $975) (≈ CA$1,355) (≈ AU$1,385) (≈ NZ$1,665) (≈ CHF 795) (≈ kr 9,265) (≈ kr 9,335) (≈ kr 6,335) pp for four nights. The on-site Deauville choice for a longer stay where you want golf and hotel together.
Normandy Barriere, Deauville, from £845 (≈ €985) (≈ $1,135) (≈ CA$1,585) (≈ AU$1,615) (≈ NZ$1,935) (≈ CHF 925) (≈ kr 10,805) (≈ kr 10,885) (≈ kr 7,385) pp for three nights. The grand town-centre address for a group that wants the full Deauville experience.
If pushed to pick one, the Hotel du Golf Barriere gives the most golf-focused stay for the money over four nights.
Best time to play golf in Normandy Coastal
Late spring through early autumn is the sensible window, roughly May to September, when the days are long and the courses are at their best. June and September tend to be the sweet spot, with warmer ground and fewer holiday crowds in the coastal towns.
Normandy faces the Channel, so the weather behaves much like a good summer at home: pleasant when it settles, but capable of a wet, breezy day at any time of year. Pack a waterproof and you will rarely be caught out.
A sense of Normandy Coastal
History & heritage
Two histories sit on top of each other here. The older is Norman: William was Duke of Normandy before he was King of England, and the two great abbeys he and Matilda founded still stand in Caen. One practical note. The embroidered account of the conquest that normally hangs in Bayeux is in London at the British Museum from 10 September 2026 until 11 July 2027 while its museum is rebuilt, so do not plan a trip around seeing it. The other history is 1944, and it is everywhere. Bayeux War Cemetery holds 4,648 Commonwealth graves and is the largest British military cemetery in France. Above Omaha Beach at Colleville-sur-Mer the American cemetery holds 9,388. At Ver-sur-Mer the British Normandy Memorial, opened on 6 June 2021, carries the names of 22,442 people who died under British command. The German dead lie at La Cambe.
Food & wine
There is almost no wine here, and nobody minds. Normandy drinks apples. Calvados from the Pays d'Auge has held its appellation since 1942, goes twice through a copper still and sits in wood for at least two years before it can be sold; a good bottle is nearer a fine armagnac than the rough measure people expect. Pommeau, cider blended with apple spirit, is the aperitif. The Route du Cidre is a signposted forty-kilometre loop east of Caen through Beuvron-en-Auge, Cambremer and Bonnebosq, and the farms sell at the gate. Then the cheeses, all Norman: camembert, livarot, pont-l'eveque, neufchatel. Cream finds its way into nearly everything, the sole included, and Dieppe lands scallops worth crossing for. The trou normand, a measure of Calvados taken mid-meal to make room for what is coming, is entirely serious.
Beyond the fairways
Honfleur first. The Vieux Bassin is ringed with tall slate-fronted houses that Boudin and Monet both painted, and the town has kept its harbour working rather than turned it into a display. Deauville and Trouville face each other across the Touques, one formal and moneyed, the other a fishing town with better fish; the boardwalk at Deauville has carried the names of film stars on its bathing cabins since 1987, more than two hundred of them now. Further up the coast the chalk at Etretat rises into the Porte d'Aval arch and the needle called the Aiguille, the cliffs Monet came back to again and again through the 1880s. The clifftop path out of the town is short and steep and worth it. Inland, the Pays d'Auge is orchards, timber-framed farms and lanes that were never built for hurrying.
Getting around & exploring
This is drive-to golf, and the crossing is half the appeal. LeShuttle carries the car from Folkestone to Calais in 35 minutes platform to platform, though allow a couple of hours around it for check-in and border control. From Calais take the A16 south past Boulogne and Abbeville, then the A29 over the Pont de Normandie into Honfleur, roughly three hours; Deauville is a similar run at just under 300 kilometres. DFDS sails Newhaven to Dieppe in about four hours and lands you in Normandy without a long drive. Brittany Ferries crosses Portsmouth to Ouistreham, the port fifteen kilometres north of Caen, in around six hours by day and seven to eight overnight. Note that Portsmouth to Le Havre closes in October 2026. Once here nothing is far: Deauville to Omaha Beach is an hour and a quarter on the N13 through Bayeux.
Good to know before you book
Getting there
Plenty of UK golfers drive this one. From Calais it is roughly three hours to Deauville, so a ferry or the tunnel plus your own car is a genuine option, especially if you want clubs and a boot full of kit without the airline fuss.
If you would rather fly, we can book flights as an ATOL-protected add-on, and we never fold them into the headline price. However you arrive, we arrange the transfers between airport or port, your hotel and each course so you are not navigating French roads after a long day.
Good to know
One honest caveat: this is a compact region built around three courses, so it suits a focused three or four-night break more than a week of non-stop different layouts. The trade-off is that everything is close together, which keeps the driving short and the days easy. Tee times in Deauville can get busy in peak summer and during local events, so the earlier we book, the better the slots we can hold for you.
★ 4.9 from real golfers · ATOL & PTS protected · Arranging golf since 1981
Frequently asked questions
Golf holidays in Normandy Coastal. The questions our golfers ask most.
How long is LeShuttle crossing time to France
The Eurotunnel LeShuttle from Folkestone to Calais takes about 35 minutes, which makes a self-drive trip genuinely easy for the Northern France golf resorts. Le Touquet, Hardelot and the courses around the Somme are roughly two to three hours on from Calais, so you can load the clubs, drive on and be on the first tee the same day, and on those breaks we can include the crossing in the price. For the south and southwest, such as Biarritz, the Riviera and Provence, most golfers fly into Nice, Marseille, Biarritz or Bordeaux and we arrange transfers on the ground.
How much does a golf holiday in France cost?
Golf holidays in France start from £235 (≈ €265) (≈ $315) (≈ CA$435) (≈ AU$445) (≈ NZ$535) (≈ CHF 255) (≈ kr 3,005) (≈ kr 3,025) (≈ kr 2,055) pp with Golf Planet Holidays. That is a hand-built ground package, and the final price depends on your hotel, the courses you play and the season.
When is the best time to play golf in France?
May, June, September and October are the best months, with comfortable temperatures and courses in peak condition. The south of France stays playable into late autumn.
Where should I play golf in France?
There are more than 700 golf courses in France. As first steps we would recommend Northern France. There are ten great courses here. Chat with us about the various choices if you wish to venture further afield.
How many golf courses are there in France?
We feature 130 courses and 102 resorts across France including Saint Malo Golf Club and Sept Tours Golf Club. Your specialist matches the courses to your group's standard and budget.
Is it easy to get around in France?
Getting around France is straightforward. Self-driving is the most popular option — if you've come via Le Shuttle, you already have your car. Trains are excellent for city-to-city travel, particularly from Paris to Bordeaux (2 hours on the TGV). Within golf regions like the Algarve or Brittany, a hire car gives you the freedom to explore at your own pace. We include all airport or station transfers in our packages and can arrange inter-course transfers, so you're never left without options.
Still have a question? Ask our golf travel team A free quote, no obligation, and no call centre.
