The reason we bought on Gramacho wasn't the course itself — it was what sits around it. Within a thirty-minute drive of Carvoeiro there are eight golf clubs, and between them eleven full courses plus a floodlit academy. You can play a different eighteen every day for a week and never repeat yourself, without ever spending more than half an hour in the car.
The drive times below are our own, measured from the villa on Pestana Gramacho, not lifted from a brochure. They're realistic for a normal morning, not a 6am dash with empty roads.
1. Pestana Gramacho — on-site
The one you can walk to. Eighteen holes, par 72, a mature tree-lined resort course with generous fairways and large, undulating greens that do most of the defending. It rewards steady golf and punishes optimism around the putting surfaces.
Its real strength is value: the price-to-quality ratio is the reason it's one of the most-played courses in the region. It's the course you can justify playing twice in a week without wrecking the budget for the other five days. We've written a full guide to Gramacho separately.
2. Vale da Pinta — 3 minutes
Gramacho's sister course, and the better test of the two. Designed by Ron Fream and David Dale and opened in 1992, it plays to a par of 71 over roughly 6,127 yards, winding through carob, fig, almond and olive trees on gently rolling ground away from the coast.
Where Gramacho is forgiving off the tee, Vale da Pinta asks more precise questions. The routing twists constantly, so you rarely play two holes in the same direction — which means the wind is never doing quite what you expected. Most people who play both end up rating Pinta the stronger course and Gramacho the more enjoyable one. Both opinions are defensible.
If you only have time for one round beyond Gramacho, make it Vale da Pinta. It's three minutes away and it's a genuinely different golf course.
3. Vale de Milho — 10 minutes
Nine holes, par 27, about 926 yards in total — a proper par-3 course designed by Dave Thomas and opened in 1990, sitting on the cliffs with Atlantic views.
Don't dismiss it. It's the most useful course on this list for two situations: an evening nine when nobody can face another full round, and the group where not everyone plays seriously. Beginners, kids and reluctant spouses can get round it happily, and it will still expose a weak short game in about forty minutes. Every shot is a wedge or a short iron to a small target, which is exactly the part of your game the big courses keep punishing.
4. Silves Golf — 10 minutes
Designed by Fausto Nascimento and opened in 2007, laid out in the countryside below the old Moorish capital. It's the least famous name here and consequently the easiest to get on at short notice.
Worth combining with an afternoon in Silves itself — the castle and the cathedral are genuinely worth the detour, and it's one of the few inland towns in the Algarve that doesn't feel built for tourists.
5. Pestana Ferragudo — 15 minutes (new for 2026)
The newest course in the Algarve, and the one nobody has written a guide to yet. Pestana Ferragudo opened in 2026 as the group's most ambitious project — eighteen holes, par 73, laid out above the fishing village of Ferragudo on the banks of the Rio Arade, looking across the water to Portimão.
Pestana are positioning it as the new flagship of their portfolio, ahead of Gramacho, Vale da Pinta, Silves and Alto. It sits alongside a premium residential development, which is the usual pattern here, and it's open to visitor play with advance booking.
One detail worth knowing, because it's unusual: the course is maintained entirely on reclaimed water from a local wastewater treatment plant. In a region where water and golf is an increasingly pointed conversation, that's a genuinely meaningful design decision rather than a marketing line.
Pestana haven't published a designer or a scorecard yet, and there are no independent reviews — it's simply too new. We'll update this once we've played it properly rather than repeat the brochure at you.
6. Amendoeira Golf Resort — 15 minutes
The serious golf on this list, and the only venue here with two championship courses side by side.
- The Faldo Course — designed by Sir Nick Faldo, par 72, around 6,578 metres. Strategic rather than brutal: it asks you to think about position off every tee. The desert-style landscaping gives it a distinctly Arizona feel, which is either striking or incongruous depending on your taste.
- The O'Connor Jnr Course — par 72, around 6,708 metres from the back tees, designed by Christy O'Connor Jnr as a counterpoint. It runs through orange groves and a valley full of streams and water hazards, and demands accuracy more than length.
There's also a floodlit nine-hole par-3 academy course, which is the only place nearby you can hit balls properly after dark in winter.
If you're on a golf trip rather than a family holiday, this is the venue to build a day around — play one course, eat, play the other.
7. Morgado & Álamos — 20 minutes
Two courses sharing a single 980-hectare estate inland from Portimão, set among undulating small valleys.
Morgado was designed by European Golf Design and opened in 2003. It's a par 73 — five par 5s, nine par 4s, four par 3s — and one of the longest courses in the Algarve, with wide fairways and very large greens. It's the place to go if you want to hit driver hard for four hours without much fear of losing balls.
Álamos sits alongside it and plays tighter and more intimately. Playing both in a day is a long but rewarding way to spend it.
8. Alto Golf, Alvor — 20 minutes
The last course Sir Henry Cotton designed, which alone makes it worth a round. Eighteen holes, par 72, about 6,125 metres from the back tees, running across two gently sloping valleys with winding fairways and elevated greens.
Its signature is the 16th — "O Gigante", the Giant — a par 5 of around 570 metres, reputed to be the longest hole in Europe. It's the sort of hole you spend the previous fifteen thinking about and the following two recovering from. Whatever you score there, it's the one you'll talk about at dinner.
How to actually plan the week
Eight clubs in half an hour sounds like an invitation to play all of them. Resist it. A few things we've learned watching groups come and go:
Four rounds in seven days is the sweet spot
Five is ambitious, six turns the holiday into a job, and by the seventh nobody is enjoying themselves. Four rounds leaves room for the beach, a long lunch and one day where nobody touches a club.
Put Gramacho first and last
Play it on arrival day to shake off the flight — it's two minutes away, it's forgiving, and it doesn't matter if you play badly. Then play it again at the end, when you've got your eye in and can enjoy knowing where all the trouble is.
Book the big two ahead
Amendoeira and Morgado draw golf groups from across the region and fill up, and Ferragudo will be in demand simply for being new. Gramacho, Pinta, Silves and Vale de Milho are usually easier at shorter notice. If your trip is in spring, book everything earlier than feels necessary.
Play early in summer, late in winter
From June to August a 7–9am tee time is the difference between golf and endurance. From November to February the opposite: give the dew a couple of hours to burn off and play mid-morning.
Don't skip the nine-holer
The group that plays Vale de Milho on a spare evening always comes back talking about it. It costs an hour and it's usually the round people remember.
Green fees and booking
We've deliberately not quoted prices here, because they change by season and go out of date faster than we could keep up with — and a stale green fee is worse than no green fee at all. Book directly with each club, and check for multi-round passes: Pestana offers them across its courses and they usually beat booking individual rounds.
If you're staying with us, ask before you book. We're on the resort, we play these courses, and we'll tell you honestly which ones are worth your money in the week you're coming.
Where to stay
The practical advantage of basing a golf trip on Gramacho itself is that one of your rounds needs no car at all, and the rest are a short drive in almost every direction — you're not committing to the far east or far west of the Algarve.
Villa Casa Feliz is a private four-bedroom villa on the resort, a couple of minutes' walk from Gramacho's 1st tee. For a group of four it usually works out cheaper per head than four hotel rooms, with a private pool, a proper kitchen for early breakfasts before dawn tee times, private parking for the hire car, and somewhere to argue about the round over dinner without paying bar prices. Have a look at the villa.
Questions about any of these courses, or about putting a week together — get in touch. We're usually here.