Bandon Dunes?

Looking for a Ballpark figure on a 4 day excursion to Bandon Dunes in the fall not counting air fare

Depends on your definition of fall. Rates are different for Oct and Nov.

All the pricing is on their website so it really depends on how many rounds you are going to play. Add $100/day for food and drinks plus caddie fees if you take them and you've got it.

$2700-$3200 for 4 days is probably reasonable if you want an estimate. If you do 36 every day then add another $1000. This assumes a caddie for all rounds. I haven’t been in a couple of years though so it may have gone up slightly but I generally assumed in the neighborhood of $1000/day when playing 36 all in. If you carry your own bag then you’ll obviously save a bit.

It also depends on lodging. Are you sharing rooms? And alcohol? Wine drinkers can go through a wad of cash every day.

We're going in August for a week (six rounds of golf). That's peak time, we don't share rooms and we all have caddies every round. So pretty much the maximum you would expect to pay and my estimate is just under $7000.

I have no idea what wine @Roadking2003 is drinking as I’m a bourbon or beer guy but it must be crazy expensive to get to $7k. In October the average room rate is $280/night for a single (that’s also what we do), $390 for two rounds/day, $300 for two caddie rounds + tip per day, $150 for food/alcohol (you’re playing golf all day, how much time are you going to spend drinking?) and 8% tax gets you $1210/day. That means $4840 over 4 days. I have no idea what I’ve actually spent there but that seems high for the 5 trips I’ve taken there. It might have been that much but if so I’m slightly surprised.

Did you notice that I said my trip was seven days? So my daiily rate is about the same as yours.

Peak season, July - Sept., you can go for about $750 a day all in except airfare. That is assuming you play 36 a day and spend about $75 a day on food

Keep in mind that go every Nov or Feb for 3 or 4 days for under $1k.

The only way to do it for $750 during peak times is to share bedrooms, not have caddies, and don't drink any alcohol. Otherwise, this is what you are looking at;

Room: $290 - 350

Green fee: $295

Replay fee: $150

Caddie fees: $240

Food: $75 - 100

Alcohol: $30 - 70 (one cocktail is $9 - 15 plus tax and tip)

Stay at the Bandon Inn in the town of Bandon...

lodging...$160 a night

round 1...$345

replay...$175

alcohol... bring a flask

food... bring snacks for in round play, breakfast $10-15, lunch $10-15, dinner $40

nothing says you have to take a caddie and I’m not saying your pricing is wrong. Also I’m a big believer in taking caddies but I don’t generally do it anymore. I’m just trying to show it can be done on the cheap if you forego a little of the Bandon experience for saving some money.

You’re looking around $1,000 to $1500 a day depending on food, drinks, and caddies. So around $4, 000 to $6,000 for 4 days. Honestly as much as I like Brandon, it’s cheaper for me to go to Scotland or Ireland. Flights are the same or maybe less to Scotland and about the same duration. I did a week in Scotland in 2018 for $3,000 all in, and am going to Ireland for a week in October for $3,200.

I go on the cheap. Right now, for March, it's an extra $45 if you play 36 and don't stay at the resort. You can get a resort bare bones room for $170 or in town you can get for about $90-100. I prefer the resort rooms only because I've been rained on a LOT and it's much easier to dry off and change clothes 1/4 mile from the course and not a 25 min drive away.

I go to golf. I'll eat the meatloaf once or twice but mostly take my own food in a chiller that plugs in to my room. Fresh, cold food. If it's freezing cold I'll heat some homemade soup on a hotplate, dump it in a hydroflask and take it in the bag.

That’s all I was trying to say. That yes you can spend as much as you want but if you want to frugal and just go there are ways to do it.

I much prefer to stay on property but it’s not the cheapest option.

Is anyone aware of any military pricing for greens fees...? I've been told it exists, but I've ever seen anything on their website or in writing... I guess I could always just call them.

You, like me, probably remember when Bandon was somewhat "affordable".....seems to have gotten rather expensive as of late, or am I just getting cheaper?

I could have sworn I spent a wknd there in the not so distant past. room, food, and 72 holes ~for $500

It was around 2014, off season. When November was considered off season. A single room @ the lodge was $100, green fees were $75 with $40 replays. Before that it was even cheaper.....

I have something to drink at times, but I usually bring my own. I've ran a bar and know what the markup is. ;).  Irish coffee in the morning is great to cut the wind, and a Drambuie on ice in the eventide relaxes the mind for another long 36 hole day at the bird chirp.

I don't really do the caddie thing. No disrespect intended.

The prices have skyrocketed in the last 5 years, especially the "off season" rates. Popularity.

For those that stay off property have you been able to book at proper times to get in a replay.

I always stay on property and last year it was getting really difficult to get tee times to enable a replay.

I would imagine it is only getting harder to find tee times.

I didn’t have any issues this year or last year. But I generally try and go slow off season weeks/ends and it seems that in Nov. Or Feb/Mar not a ton of people are trying to get 36 in. I imagine with Sheep Ranch opening up that should open up tee times on the other courses, so going forwarded it should be easier.

Something else I heard when down there in Nov was that they don’t plan on adding any lodging and are hoping Sheep Ranch will alleviate or spread out some of the play on other courses, which would be awesome.

Went solo this past November, 5 days/4 nights in the lodge, 7 rounds of golf( without caddies), dinner/drinks, ended up at about $2300.

Been 3 times and stayed off property each time. We have always been able to get the times we want and usually at the exact course we want for a given time slot. But that's as a twosome.

I just ballparked a 4-day trip (assuming October prices) with:

4 morning 18-hole rounds @ $260/round = $1040

3 afternoon 18-hole replays @ $130/round = $390

1 afternoon Preserve round @ $100/round = $100

7 rounds with a caddie @ $120/round including tip = $840

4 nights on property hotel, ballpark $300 but could be more or less depending on which rooms are available = $1200

4 daily food @ $50/day (I found $50 to be a reasonable but achievable floor for food costs at Bandon) = $200

Souvenirs = $250 (could totally vary)

Adding all this up would be $4020 or ~$1000/day if my math is correct. It's easy to shave off this with fewer caddie rounds and some off-site nights as well if you want to.

Just back from a 2/21-24 trip, 3 nights shared room in Chrome Lake Cottages, 18, 36, 18, group caddie all 4 rounds. About $1300 including food I'd say. Feb rates probably lower than "fall".

Rates are on the website are they not? Highly variable depending on the month ("Fall" covers three different rate windows) and the choice of accommodations. Add in caddie fees, food/beverage and transportation.

Hope this helps.

Since Bandon is so straight forward with their pricing, I'd agree with this, just sketch it out on their pricing page. It's not like places where you'll find packages or lodging stay and play, per se, but there's also not much in terms of hidden cost. One thing that surprised me is how quickly adding afternoon golf spikes the price. Previous trips, it always seemed that replays are almost a toss-in, but in reality, a second loop plus caddie will add up quickly. The food estimate is fair, but also highly variable. I found that on-course prices are more than fair--a brat or a bowl of soup/chili-- and McKees is very reasonable for dinner. I'd probably say $50-75 is right for a nice breakfast OR lunch, a snack along the way, and then McKees for dinner. Add a little if you choose some of the others, but they definitely won't hijack you on food prices.

I think if I go back in 2021 or 2022, I'll be aiming for off season again because you get so much bang for your buck (and of course 50% replays are even less when the original rate is lower). February-March is also great "spring training" for the season here in the Northeast.

What time of year are you going to get 36 in, within the offsite time window?

Two trips in April and one in May - call in three weeks prior to first day for tee times.

Again, this is as a twosome, so I suspect you'd run into more limitations as a foursome. But we've gotten almost exactly what we want each time (though not without some nervous hand-wringing leading up to the day we could reserve).

Thanks for the additional info :-)

Getting the otherside of the clocks moving forward definitely makes 36 way easier!

Duffer, do they not let people out at the crack of dawn before the clocks change? As we know, the amount of daylight is the similar the week before and after, so I'm guessing they must be curtailing the tee times for this to be true?

For sure. My reply was in regards to phoning up 21 days in advance and finding slots (twosome or not) for getting in 36, which is why I assumed Kernel was playing in the non-winter months. I didn't mean literally when the clocks move, I should have phrased otherwise.

We make reservations waaaay in advance for our Nov trips to get initial tee times between 7:30 and 8:10 to make genuine 18 hole replays realistic. Getting the courses in order, at the times you want, for both your first round and replays isn't happening in Nov or Feb otherwise :)

Exactly. After the clocks Spring forward, there might be 2 more minutes of daylight (so basically the same amount). That daylight just starts an hour later in the morning and lasts an hour longer in the evening.