Scotland

[bourbonandbirdies]

planning a trip for 8 guys August 2021. Any suggestions on companies/packages to book with?

[davep043]

Get Alan Ferguson's book and do it all yourself.

[scott_Donald]

might be hard to do 8 people by yourself but with research I am sure you can.

We often get big Perry golf buses at my club, seems to be popular. There also seems to be lots of smaller guys who even drive folk about by themselves.

Where you thinking of golfing?

[Back9]

We did an 8 man trip using Hidden Links this last June and it was seamless. Hotels, transportation, tee times, all well coordinated. I would use them again.

[Wbarksda]

Whoever gets you guaranteed tee times at the Old Course.

[davep043]

With all due respect to the other posters, you CAN do this all for yourself, for 8 people. If the Old Course is important, apply this year for reserved tee times for 2121. Once you hear back, you have plenty of time to arrange everything else. Even if you choose to use a booking agent, you'll be better able to get what YOU want if you do some research first. You can let them know what level of luxury you want in your lodgings, from a B&B to a full service luxury hotel. You can help choose courses, you don't have to play (and pay for) only the most famous ones. You can choose to drive yourself, or have someone else do all of that for you. You can stay at a different hotel every night, or stay in one or two locations and play nearby courses. So my first suggestion, 16 months out, is to buy the book here: Ferguson Golf Trips to Scotland - Travel Planning And read it.

If you read enough threads, you'll find 20 or more "must play" courses and a dozen "must stay" towns, and you can't do it all. With some research, you can figure out which ones are best for you and your buddies.

 

[LukeDonaldsTiger]

Rent a van and go to Airbnb and look for houses. It gets very affordable with this number of people and there’s plenty 9 bedroom cottages/houses to rent in Scotland.

Aside from the logistics, I keep saying: if you want to save money, go to Northern Scotland (Highlands). No Old Course, but lots and lots of authentic links golf for little money. Plus Royal Dornoch, Nairn, Castle Stuart if you want to spend a fortune for a „name“ course.

Inverness area is a great hub, Loch Ness is right there, easy to get around by car/van and loads of hidden gem courses.

[Bbo569]

I second this notion. I applied for a 2020 tee time at the Old Course and once I received notification of a tee time in October 2019 I booked everything else. Super easy with Ferguson's book, although we went with Airbnb's over some of the bed & breakfasts/hotels he recommends.

[Hawkeye77]

Used Ferguson's book, and a little consultation time with him and searched out places via the internet - planned a trip for 4 two summers ago. It was very easy to do. Planning a 2 person last summer was a breeze. Taking a year or two off, lol, before doing it again. Not that this applies to the Scotland companies, but had a friend headed to London for two weeks last summer and using a family friend/travel agent. After hearing his expected airfares and silly layover schedule and expected costs for some tours we jumped online and in a very few minutes found him substantially cheaper and shorter/more direct flights and convinced him to do a little research and book a couple tours on his own. He saved a bunch and the travel agent went back to being "friend" and got a little more motivated to do a better job for them. One of my sisters is planning a trip to Ireland in October for my dad and my sisters/spouses right now and using a friend/travel agent - all I'm saying is I'm staying completely out of it, lol, based on what I've heard so far. You can only lead those horses to water . . . @dcmidnight would be a source on travel if you are looking to have transportation provided, etc.
You are paying huge premium the way you are headed, but may be worth it to your group, I can't speak to that. Even if you end up finding a driver, you'll still save a bunch over using a service to plan yourself. But where you "must" play could influence that decision.
I'd at least wait and see if you get tee times in The Old Course section process, if The Old Course is on your list. If paying a large price to make sure you get on is worth it, then I'd at least contact the various services and see if they can give you an idea of whether you can book and guarantee The Old Course if you don't get on. They may not know their guaranteed times, etc. until after that process is complete, but you'd have to ask to make sure.
Edit: and re Allan Ferguson - awesome guy and the book is a must, but no longer doing individual trip planning or consultation for Scotland trips in case you were thinking of hiring him for planning, which is a shame, but the book is the thing.

[ousuxndallas]

This. Using a tour company adds 30, 40 maybe 50% to the cost. Plus, half the fun is doing the research and planning (in my opinion).

 

Major decision: do you want to play TOC or not. That affects all other decisions for the trip.

[dcmidnight]

Hit me up offline if you are interested or dont want to post specifics here - happy to answer any questions that you have.

The biggest piece of advice I can give is to design the trip YOU want. Where do YOU want to go, stay, play etc? How do you want to get there? How long do you want to spend in each place?

Decide all those things for yourself - and then invite people. Here's the trip, are you in or out. If you open up all these decision to a big group it is an absolute disaster. Trust me, if your guys want to go, they arent going to turn your trip down for some minor detail. The upside is that you will get the trip that you absolutely want.

As always I will say this - if the tour company you are using adds 50% to the cost of your trip - you are using the wrong tour company.

[hammergolf]

I've been to Scotland several times. My first trip (before internet) i was able to fax all of the courses I wanted to play and was able to get on all of them. The last couple trips, everything is available on their websites. My last trip was in October 2018. I was able to rent a house in St. Andrews on Airbnb for the 8 of us, and made tee times on all the courses we wanted to play. (Crail, Kingsbarns, Carnoustie, Muirfiled, Castle, and Jubilee). We did the ballot for The Old course and got on. Depending on how long you are going to be there, you have a pretty good chance at the lottery. We did not scrimp on the trip and were able to do it including flights and food for about $2,500 per head. If you book through a tour company it will be 2 to 3 times that much. I am comfortable driving over there on the wrong side of the road, so we just rent a 9 passenger van and drive. That being said, St. Andrews can be done without a vehicle. they have a 7 day advance ticket you can buy that gives you one tee time per day on all course except the Old. There are also several courses within 5-10 miles of St. Andrews that you can get an uber or cab to. I have also done trips to other parts of Scotland as well. I am actually doing another trip in October to Ireland in October, so I do a trip every two years and have experience making all the arrangements. If you have any questions, message me and I will help you.

[hammergolf]

ABSOLUTELY TRUE!!!!! I have done several trips myself and it is very easy. Just takes some organization.

[tiderider]

you can certainly do it yourself ... however, if you pay my way and let me play my own tee times, i'll do it for you ...

[bourbonandbirdies]

Thanks so much for the insight. Thanks so much for the insight. How do you pre-book a tee time at TOC?

[bourbonandbirdies]

To bad theirs not a don’t like option. Please remove yourself.

[davep043]

Booking the Old Course - St Andrews Links : The Home of GolfYou'll need to read all of the stuff about Private Advanced Tee Times. Sometime early this fall, you'll submit your application, and you'll be notified a few weeks later as to whether you have a time or not. Read the Reference Guide and Terms and Conditions for 2020 so you see what you'll need, the stuff for 2021 won't be available for a good while.

Edit to add:

When I planned the trips I've taken, the very first thing I did was to research some of the courses I wanted to play. I enjoyed the research and planning, but I know we're not all built the same way. If you're really considering planning something like this, and you haven't started looking at golf courses, its quite possible that using a company to do the planning is a good choice for you. I still recommend getting the Ferguson book, it will help you to deal with whatever company you choose.

[pendodave]

Scotland is a foreign country, but it's not entirely uncivilised... They even speak a strange type of English...

Obviously, do what makes you comfortable, but I can only reiterate some of the comments above. It's easy to book accommodation with either Airbnb or Booking.com. Every single golf course will have a website, email address and other contact details to allow you to easily set up your golf.

As for travel, I would avoid doing the 'all over scotland ticking boxes' tour. Too much travelling by far, which can become a grind whoever is driving. Just pick an area which you fancy (St Andrews, East Lothian, Ayrshire etc etc) and focus on that. This way you can drive only small distances yourself, or just book cabs or (in the case of St Andrews) walk or take the shuttle. Cab companies are easy to look up online and communicate with, are used to taking groups, and between 9 of you over short distances will not be expensive.

I guess if you're not used to sorting out your own vacations, then this would not be the time to start... but I would suggest that most English golfers who go to Scotland for golf wouldn't bother with a travel company, so why would an American?

[dcmidnight]

Important to remember that "doing all your own planning" and "using a travel company" are not mutually independent. I - and many others - love doing both. You're not emailing a travel company and saying "boo hoo I dont know how golf works, plan a whole trip for me I'm too dumb to think for myself"

It literally takes ten minutes to writeup what you want in your trip. Where, when, how long, what kind or exactly what hotel, what courses etc. Then fire that off to a handful of the big companies and see what comes back. I think you'll be surprised.

Some people here are very passionate that everyone should do their own planning. But we need to stop spreading the myth that using a travel company costs "2-3x" what it would otherwise cost. Thats just silly. Like I said email several and see what comes back. If someone is charging you 3x, pick another one.

[dcmidnight]

As for travel, I would avoid doing the 'all over scotland ticking boxes' tour. Too much travelling by far, which can become a grind whoever is driving. Just pick an area which you fancy (St Andrews, East Lothian, Ayrshire etc etc) and focus on that

This I absolutely agree with. We spend 8 days in St Andrews and it was not enough, could have spent two weeks and been very happy.

[scott_Donald]

@bourbonandbirdies One thing that still to be answered - where are you wanting to play?@dcmidnight the atmosphere is just amazing in the town, especially in the summer and the weather is good. I was lucky to have two trips last year and both were amazing. Turnberry was the best golf course I played though in Scotland last year. RA is still my fave but I am biased and lucky.
Back to the travel companies - they must be doing something right or they would not be in business! I hosted a German guy two years ago who does trips for Germans to Scotland to golf, he drives them about in a mini van himself, owns his own property in St Andrews and bases them out of there. He wanted to play RA as a possible location for him to use so I took him as a guest and now they offer there for the Germans.
Scotland is lucky there is so many very good golf courses that are accessible, relatively cheap compared to else where in the world.

[NixLix26]

This thread has my juices flowing

[TerrapinGolfer]

Just booked my own trip for 3 people. Staying at 4+ star hotels 5 rounds of golf 7 nights of hotels. All for 1400 a person plus airfare. I could have easily booked this for 5 more people no problem. oh and we have a driver with a van. I got the same quote from a company with lesser hotels for 3-3500. You could easily save a few hundred if youre ok with 3 star hotels which I was but the group was not.

Royal aberdeen

Murcar

Moray old

Brora

Royal Dornoch

[scott_Donald]

Where are you staying in Aberdeen? what dates at RA?

[hammergolf]

That is a steal to play those courses! Great job.

[Hawkeye77]

That's uncalled for - sense of humor check.

[Hawkeye77]

Still kills me that summer of '18 we had to cancel our trip down from Dornoch to play Moray Old one day, and as it turned out the weather would have been abominable so a bit of a silver lining, but was really looking forward to hooking up with a local wrxer and experiencing that particular course.

I agree with the idea of a base of operations instead of island hopping and lots of driving. We based in Dornoch/St. Andrews(Lower Largo) the first trip and Troon/North Berwick the second, both 15/16 day total trips including travel.

As easy as it is to plan and I always support that (because I like to do it and it is easy), I understand those that have different ways. Only way to know on cost is to put the feelers out there, as was suggested, and with 8 personalities involved it may be easier than having a few thinking they are more co-organizing some aspects than may be efficient, lol. I've planned trips for family -- one of the reasons it is so easy -- I know what everyone likes, we do lots of different things, and I know I neglect others' preferences at extreme personal peril! I don't know if I'd volunteer to plan a trip for 7 other friends - too many opportunities for recriminations. ;-)

 

[TerrapinGolfer]

central Aberdeen 6/27 are you going to be around?

[HuskerFlyer]

I was over there last August we used Graeme Dawson at St. Andrews Golf Travel. He is the best in the business. First class experience the entire trip.

https://www.standrewsgolftravel.com/