Golfers looking to combine top-quality golf with a holiday on one of the most popular of the Balearic Islands will have more opportunities next spring with the news that from March there will be daily flights from Heathrow to Palma Mallorca.
Spanish low-cost airline Vueling launches the new route on 23 March, 2013, the first service from Heathrow to Palma since 2009. And fares start from just £48.40 (€59.99) one way.
The news has been welcomed by two of Spain’s top golf courses, Son Gual and Alcanada, the only two Mallorcan courses to make it into the Leading Golf Courses of Spain organisation. Both courses also featured in the recent second edition of the Rolex World’s Top 1000 Golf Courses – again, the only courses on the island to make the cut.
Andreas Pamer, general manager at Son Gual, said: “The UK is a massive market for Mallorcan tourism as a whole, so anything that opens up further access has to be good news for the island. From our perspective at Son Gual, there is a lot of interest in the golf course from Britons and that is the largest market for golfers in Europe, so we are delighted to learn of the new route.”
His comments were echoed by Kristoff Both, director of golf at Club de Golf Alcanada. He added: “This is excellent news for golf on the island and for the Mallorcan tourism industry as a whole. More than six million tourists a year visit Mallorca and a significant proportion of that number will come from the UK, so it is good that another low-cost airline is offering affordable access to the golf course.”
Club de Golf Alcanada confirmed its position as one of the top venues on the continent after being named the best golf course in Europe for the fourth year in a row at the world’s leading travel trade show. The stunning layout finished top among readers of leading German magazine Golf Journal’s 2011 poll of most popular courses outside Germany and received its award at international exhibition event ITB Berlin.
Situated in the north region of Mallorca in a breathtaking location overlooking the Bay of Alcudia, Alcanada’s 18-hole championship course was designed by award-winning golf architect Robert Trent Jones Jnr and opened in 2003. Magnificent mountain and sea views and a mixture of pine and olive groves provide the splendid setting for a round at Alcanada and, despite its tender years, the course is already recognised by the golf industry as one of the finest venues in Spain and Europe and, with Son Gual, is a founder member of The Leading Golf Courses of Spain collection.
The €30m Son Gual golf course opened in 2007 and features large lakes, 66 bunkers, 800 olive trees – some over a thousand years old – wild flowers in the rough areas and vineyards in several areas around the course. Just four years after Golf Son Gual opened, it was recognised by Golf World magazine as the number one on the island and ninth best in Spain. In May 2009 it hosted the Mallorca Senior Open and received gushing praise from a number of the participants: former Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam even compared the greens to those at Augusta National.
The 1991 Masters winner said: “It’s a bit likeAugusta. There are a lot of slopes on the greens. You’ve got to get the ball on the right side of the hole – if you don’t you’ll be struggling. Miss it on the wrong side and you’re dead.”
Son Gual www.son-gual.com
Club de Golf Alcanada www.golf-alcanada.com
Leading Golf Courses of Spainwww.leading-golf-spain.com
Image Son Gual
Golf Club Al Canada