Late breaks
GREAT DEALS ON LAST-MINUTE HOLIDAYS
TURKISH DELIGHT
GET a taste of Turkey on a one-week holiday staying at the 4* Kervansaray Hotel, Marmaris.
Priced from £396, the break includes return flights from Manchester Airport on June 28 and seven nights’ staying on an all-inclusive basis.
Book online at onthebeach.co.uk or call the UK call centre on 0871 474 3000.
SET SAIL ACROSS THE ATLANTIC
SAIL to Canada and New England from Southampton from £1,999 per person.
Ports of call on this 24-night trip include St. John’s (Newfoundland), Sydney (Nova Scotia), Charlottetown, New York City (two-day call), Newport, Boston, Rockland, Saint John (for the Bay of Fundy) and Halifax (Nova Scotia).
Departing September 14, prices are based on two guests sharing an inside stateroom and include accommodation, all main meals and entertainment.
To book, visit princess.com or call 0344 338 8663.
AUSTRIAN ADVENTURE
INGHAMS is offering a sevennight holiday on a half-board basis at the five-star Hotel Elisabeth in Mayrhofen, Austria, from £799 per person based on two sharing. Price represents a saving of £440 per person and includes return flights from London Gatwick to Innsbruck and airport transfers. Departing on July 20, 2019. To book, visit inghams.co.uk/lakes-mountainsholidays or call 01483 494 826.
FLORIDA SUNSHINE
PURELY America is offering seven nights room-only staying, four nights at the three-star Sandcastle Resort at Lido Beach, Sarasota, Florida, followed by three nights at the three-star Plantation on Crystal River, Crystal River.
Price is from £999pp including flights from London Gatwick until September 2019 and car hire, based on two adults sharing.
For further information or to book, visit purelyamerica.co.uk or call 0844 804 4480.
challenging but engaging championship golf course has played host to The Irish Open and was designed by famed course architect Harry S. Colt, two years before he laid the plans for the Dunluce links at Royal Portrush.
We were lucky enough to also play Portrush, with the stands already taking shape for The Open on July 18 to 21. We got to sample the new sixth and seventh holes created by golf architect Martin Ebert to replace the old 17th and 18th, increasing the overall length of the course by almost 200 yards.
Colt’s signature White Rock hole is a classic risk and reward masterpiece par four with a superb scenic view, leading you down towards the cliffs and beaches of the dramatic Dunluce coast.
The par three 16th hole, aptly named Calamity, should be something to behold this summer, particularly if the wind blows as it normally does in this rugged natural wonderland. You need total precision to carry an enormous ravine to reach the green without your ball dropping 50 feet below the hole, probably never to be seen again. Two of my golf balls lie forever buried there.
Such has been the demand for tickets that the four days of the tournament have been a 200,000-plus sell out for months now, and of course getting to play the course as a visitor this summer will be next to impossible.
But the good news is that Royal Portrush is just one of a collection of magnificent golf links along The Causeway coast.
We also played The Strand course at nearby Portstewart, which hosted the 2017 Irish Open, and is another absolute gem every bit as challenging and beautiful as its illustrious neighbour.
Standing on the elevated first tee, your breath is taken away first by the stunning vistas, and then by the awful realisation that you have to try to steer a golf ball onto the tiny sliver of fairway that can just about be made out through the mountainous dunes.
Every shot on this course tests the skill and imagination, and playing it is a brilliant experience for any level of golfer, with sumptuous views everywhere. The front nine in particular is one of the prettiest and most demanding I have ever encountered.
In a golfing endurance equivalent of the battle for Winterfell in ‘The Long Night’ episode of GoT, we also played 18 holes on the championship parkland course of Galgorm Castle that same day.
Encirled by the River Maine, and with trees and hidden water hazards, the home of the Northern Ireland Open is a tough, uncompromising course, and managed to swallow up more of my errant golf balls than the other three rounds put together.
Following our 36-hole golf-fest day, we stayed at the Bushmills Inn in Bushmills, a stone’s throw from Dunluce, with its historic castle ruin which served as a GoT location, and sits just across the bay from Royal Portrush.
It is a truly charming inn with an intimate, cosy vibe that belies its size, and offered delicious food and a warm welcome to our exhausted little group of golfing warriors.
I slept so deeply that night that I doubt even the arrival of the Army of the Dead at my bedroom door would have stirred me.