Golf holidays in Normandy Inland start from £535 (≈ €615) (≈ $705) (≈ CA$995) (≈ AU$1,025) (≈ NZ$1,225) (≈ CHF 575) (≈ kr 6,865) (≈ kr 6,895) (≈ kr 4,655) per person, across 5 courses we can book, 1 hotel and resort 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.
Rouen is the point of this one. A half-timbered old city on the Seine with a Gothic cathedral Monet painted more than thirty times, a fourteenth-century astronomical clock spanning the main street, and the square where Joan of Arc was burned on 30 May 1431. The golf lies in a loose ring around it, through the Seine valley and the wooded country of the Eure, and one of the courses was cut into the park of a baroque chateau.
Golf Planet Holidays has sold golf breaks since 1981, ground-only, hand-priced around your dates. One hotel here and five courses, so treat this as a three or four night break with a proper city attached rather than a week's golf resort. Flights are a separate ATOL-protected add-on if you want them.
Why play golf in Normandy Inland
Four courses within about twenty kilometres of the hotel, plus a fifth club further out holding 36 holes on one site.
One course plays through part of a baroque chateau's park. Not a sentence you get to write about many golf trips.
Short driving from the Channel. Dieppe to Rouen is under an hour, Calais to Rouen about two and a half.
Rouen gives the non-playing half a real city rather than a resort with shops, and roughly 150 restaurants sit within a fifteen minute walk of the hotel.
Most of the courses are flat and easy on the legs, so 36 holes in a day is realistic.
Giverny is under an hour east, and the gardens at Champ de Bataille run to 45 hectares.
The courses you’ll play
[Rouen Mont St Aignan Golf Club](/product/rouen-mont-st-aignan-golf-club/) is the closest to the hotel, par 70 at 5,911 yards, with 170 metres of climb in it. Take a buggy. Six scoring holes to open, then it drops into a wooded valley and tightens all the way home. [Le Vaudreuil Golf Club](/product/le-vaudreuil-golf-club/) is the one people remember, widely rated among the prettiest courses in France, 6,767 yards over almost level ground, a seventeenth-century thatched Norman clubhouse at the gates and water waiting on ten holes. [Champ de Bataille Golf Club](/product/champ-de-bataille-golf-club/) was laid out in 1990 within part of the chateau's park, 6,542 yards through thick pine with water turning up hole after hole. [Rouen La Foret Verte Golf Club](/product/rouen-la-foret-verte-golf-club/) is the gentle one, modern parkland where nobody needs their best golf. And [Les Vaucouleurs Les Vallons & La Riviere Golf Clubs](/product/les-vaucouleurs-les-vallons-la-riviere-golf-clubs/) is 36 holes at one remote club, two genuinely different layouts sharing a farmhouse clubhouse.
Where you’ll stay
One hotel, and it is the right one for what this trip is. Mercure Champ de Mars sits just outside the old centre of Rouen, from £535pp (≈ €615) (≈ $705) (≈ CA$995) (≈ AU$1,025) (≈ NZ$1,225) (≈ CHF 575) (≈ kr 6,865) (≈ kr 6,895) (≈ kr 4,655), ten minutes on foot from the heart of it rather than on the doorstep, which is the trade you make for parking a car and getting out to the courses without threading the medieval streets. Mont St Aignan is five kilometres away, La Foret Verte twelve, Le Vaudreuil twenty-two. Within a quarter of an hour's walk there are something like 150 restaurants, 70 bars and 50 cafes, and the Aitre Saint-Maclou is 600 metres from reception. We will not pretend there is choice here. If you want a country house, or a golf resort with the first tee outside the window, this is not the hub for it and we would point you at Brittany or the Normandy coast instead.
Best time to play golf in Normandy Inland
May to early October, and May, June and September are the best of it. This is inland Normandy, greener and wetter than the south, and the courses drain at different rates: Le Vaudreuil is level river-valley ground, Mont St Aignan has a wooded valley through the middle of it. Spring suits anyone combining golf with Giverny, since the garden peaks before high summer thickens the crowds. September brings long light, quiet tee sheets and the cider apples coming in. August is the month to think twice about, not for weather but because France is on holiday and Rouen fills. Winter play happens, though the days are short enough that you will be off the tee at nine and finishing in the gloom.
A sense of Normandy Inland
History & heritage
Rouen wears its history at street level. The cathedral's Gothic front was finished in the sixteenth century, and one of its towers, the Tour de Beurre, was paid for by selling dispensations to eat butter during Lent, which tells you something about Normandy. Monet rented rooms across the street and painted that facade more than thirty times between 1892 and 1894, chasing the light through the day; the Musee des Beaux-Arts holds some of the results. Below, the Gros Horloge, a fourteenth-century astronomical clock, spans the street on an arch. Joan of Arc was burned at Place du Vieux Marche on 30 May 1431 and the church standing there now is shaped like an upturned boat. Then the Aitre Saint-Maclou, a former plague cemetery and the least cheerful courtyard in France.
Food & wine
No vines here. Normandy drinks apples: cider, Pommeau, and a Calvados at the end of the evening, and any decent Rouen restaurant will have all three without making a performance of it. The cheeseboard is worth your attention. Neufchatel comes from Neufchatel-en-Bray up the road, sold in a heart shape, and has held AOC status since 1969. Canard a la rouennaise is the city's own dish and it is not for the faint-hearted. There is cream in most things and butter in the rest. If you come in through Dieppe, stop for scallops before you drive up, and the marmite dieppoise is a whole lunch on its own. With 150 restaurants inside a fifteen minute walk, you can decide at six rather than at breakfast.
Beyond the fairways
Giverny is 69 kilometres from Rouen, under an hour, and Monet's water garden is the finest afternoon in the area. Go early. Chateau du Champ de Bataille is the other one: a baroque house built in the 1650s and 1660s for the Marechal de Crequi, bought in 1992 by the decorator Jacques Garcia, who has spent the thirty years since turning the park into 45 hectares of gardens, among the largest private gardens in Europe, with twenty separate gardens, twenty fountains and an orchid house holding 800 varieties. People call it the Versailles of Normandy and for once it is not a stretch. Downriver the Seine bends back on itself again and again, and the abbey ruins at Jumieges repay the detour: the twin west towers still stand, and a 500 year old yew grows in the cloister.
Getting around & exploring
A car is not optional here. The courses sit in a ring around Rouen and none has any useful public transport to it. The roads are kind, though. The A13 runs the Seine valley and is toll-free between junctions 21 and 24 south of Rouen, which covers most of the running to Le Vaudreuil, and the A28 north towards Abbeville is free as well. Rouen itself is the awkward part: a medieval street plan with a good deal of it pedestrianised, so leave the car at the hotel and walk in, which takes about ten minutes. Les Vaucouleurs is the outlier, a proper drive rather than a hop, so give it a whole day and play both eighteens while you are there.
Good to know before you book
Getting there
Newhaven to Dieppe is the one to book. DFDS runs it in around four hours with up to six sailings a day depending on season, and Dieppe to Rouen is 63 kilometres on the N27, under an hour, which leaves you the least French driving of any route in. LeShuttle from Folkestone to Calais takes thirty-five minutes in the tunnel and puts about two and a half hours on the A16 and A28 in front of you, with a toll section between Boulogne and Abbeville and the run down to Rouen free. Portsmouth to Caen is the third way, six hours by day or up to eight overnight, then the A13 east. We sell ground-only, so you choose and book the crossing while we build the golf and the hotel around your dates. Flights can be added as a separate ATOL-protected arrangement.
Good to know
Trading since 1981. Your money is protected through PTS 5087 and we hold IATA registration. ATOL applies to flights only, booked as a separate add-on.
One hotel and five courses. This is a short break with a city attached, not a week's golf.
Take a buggy at Mont St Aignan. A 170 metre climb over 18 holes is more than the scorecard lets on.
Les Vaucouleurs is 36 holes at a single club and the longest drive of the group. Plan it as a full day.
Weekend club competitions can squeeze visitor tee times at French clubs, so send your dates early and we will check the sheets before you commit.
Dates, handicaps and group size are all we need to hand-price it. Someone replies promptly.
★ 4.9 from real golfers · ATOL & PTS protected · Arranging golf since 1981
Frequently asked questions
Golf holidays in Normandy Inland. 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) (≈ $305) (≈ CA$435) (≈ AU$445) (≈ NZ$535) (≈ CHF 255) (≈ kr 3,015) (≈ kr 3,025) (≈ kr 2,045) 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.
