Highlands Reserve Golf Club is perhaps one of the most aptly-named golf courses in Orlando or anywhere else. No pretensions, no assumptions, no hiding in poetic cloaks – pure, honest and exact. The golf course is in fact seated atop one of Florida’s highest points – on the edge of a long sand shelf, looking very much like a giant sand hill, called the Green Swamp Ridge. The beauty about this golf vacation destination, though,goes more than its very appropriate name. It is in fact one of the most beautiful, challenging, and unique golf courses on this side of the Sunshine State.

 Mike Dasher designed this course that opened in 1998. And it was since then that this course has been creating the most fantastic golf vacations for Orlando visitors. The Highlands Reserve Golf Club, because it is in an elevated area, offers a variation of undulation so unlike many others among Orlando golf courses. And the sand bunkers, it being in a gigantic sand hill, are just about everywhere, pretty much after every hole. Interesting? Yes. Unique? Definitely, and without a doubt. A true golf vacation favorite? Hands down, yes!

Because of this, Golf Digest has ranked the Highlands Reserve Golf Club amongst its Places to Play list, with a 3-star rating to match. Apart from fun and one-of-a-kind, golf outings here are even made more special and fun for all with its 3 sets of tees ranging from 6,673 the longest, and 5, 062 the shortest, playing for a par of 72. Not only is this course well-named, it is also best suited for every golfer looking for that golf trip unlike any other.

Tom Fazio did not become a household name overnight. He worked for it and earned it. What he is today is the result of years and years of building his name and building some of the best golf vacation destinations this generation has ever seen and played. He has long carved his legacy in his many creations. And for the one that he named to be where he gave the “most effort”, it is more than deserving to be called his Legacy – The Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes.

The Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes is undoubtedly one of the best anyone will ever see in the Sunshine State, and perhaps in the entire US. The course measures 7,160 yards from the longest tees, par 72. The course is said to be one that has wonderfully carried the best of man and nature – a cornucopia of lush forests, wildlife and native vegetation all worked well together under the careful, artful work of Fazio. He has so well worked on the natural environment that it earned the golf vacation favorite the only Audubon International Signature Certified Sanctuary in all of Central Florida.

 The developers and managers of the course have also not put in vain whatever hardwork Fazio has put in here. They have paired it with the best amenities and quality of services any golfer could ever ask for in a golf trip. That’s the Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes – a legacy not only to further immortalize Tom Fazio’s name in the history of golf but a model that up and coming course designers could look up to for inspiration: beauty need not come in the way of nature, and vice versa.

When a golf vacation destination carries the name of some legendary golf course designer, people almost instantly judge it as astounding and beautiful and remarkable. That, even without putting it on an actual test. And not a few times has this kind of ‘history advertising’ failed. But not on the Black Bear Golf Club is Eustis, Florida, just outside Orlando. The PB Dye creation may carry the Dye family name but it proves to be just as deserving to be in the list of Dye family portfolio but to be in the list of America’s best.

 The Black Bear Golf Club is all 7,000++ yards of the best there is when man shares and uses his genius in perfect collaboration with nature. This 18-hole, par-72 spectacle is a links-style layout that was tailored according to the natural contours of the land. The course is sprinkled with numerous shaped bunkers and large sand traps set on undulating terrain.  And the best part is, the golf vacation can be as beautiful and as serene as can be – this part of Florida happens to be very quiet and secluded. And with minimum development, there is real peace and quiet.

 Perhaps the only time this course isn’t quiet is when it hosts the USGA Public Links Qualifiers. Why, the Black Bear Golf Club has actually hosted the said tournament seven years in a row. As for most of the year, this is the best place for that golf trip straight out of paradise. Without so much as an exaggeration, this is indeed, one of America’s best. That should go down in history.  

There is nothing mystic or supernatural about the Mystic Dunes Golf Club in Orlando. Although, it would only be truthful to say there is nothing ordinary human about it. There is an air of divine-like beauty in its layout. It seems as if the gods themselves have set foot on earth to create a beautiful mash-up of some of the best courses the world in the Carolinas, the British Isles, and the world-renowned classic the Augusta National. This is one golf vacation destination where there is not a need to summon the good spirits.

The Mystic Dunes Golf Club, a Gary Koch design, does not hold a 4.5 star-rating from Golf Digest for no reason. It is a whooping 7,012-yards, par 71 layout. Four other sets of tees make the course playable for golfers of varied skill levels should the championship tees prove too overwhelming. And then there are very distinct nines – a glimpse of the Carolinas to open the game with – native wetlands and marsh areas, old growth cypresses and oaks – and travel to the British Isles – links-style, bunker-laden back nine – to close it with. If that is not enough a golf trip surprise delight, one need not wait long or think hard to find the Augusta National flavor to it.

Paired with the 80-feet elevation changes, the greens here which are of prime kind and perfect maintenance are almost exactly that of the famed Georgia golf course. That’s primera classe greens carpeting rolling terrain bordered by even more rolling sand dunes and natural vegetation. Nowhere else is there a golf vacation creation that brings together golf world’s bests. There is no need for good spirits at the Mystic Dunes Golf Club, the best are already here.