“Affordable, beautiful, and always a fun golf experience everytime.” This is probably the easiest description that would roll off of golfers’ tongues when asked about the Eastwood Golf Club in Orlando, Florida. The golf vacation destination is favored by guest and locals alike, loving the perfect balance of layout, play quality, scenery, and yes, budget savvy green fees hereabouts.

The Eastwood Golf Club is an 18-hole, par-72 layout that stretches to more than 7,100 yards from the longest tees. It enjoys its fair share of elevation changes in a rather flat Orlando terrain. This layout which sits on 190 acres of prime Central Florida land has approximately 66 bunkers gracing the game with their treacherous presence. The course is bordered by a lush helping of stunning lakes and other water features, making its way into 13 holes, 8 of which are in the front nine, the other 5 in the back nine. There are four sets of tees to choose from, making it a golf trip for everyone, skill-level regardless. It is challenging to the skilled without being so much as an intimidation to the learning golfer.

It is this quality of play that makes the Eastwood Golf Club an ultimate favorite for golf outings. Add to that the fact that it is reasonably priced, there are no questions as to whether a golf vacation hereabouts is underway or not. It will, without a doubt. Why, this course is in Golf Digest’s list of Top 100 Courses in the world! That is one plan that would roll off just as easily into action.

This has pretty much everything one would want to see in an Orlando golf vacation destination. The difference? It is a notch higher than most everybody else. The Stoneybrook West Golf Club has the usual Florida features – but in here, it is more beautiful, more challenging, and yes, definitely, more fun.

The Stoneybrook West Golf Club is all 7,100 yards of goodness from the back tees. Shorter tees are not any less better. The course is an Arthur Hills creation that has been making raves and earning respect and love from avid golfers in and out of Orlando for the past decade, since it opened in 2000. The whole course is dotted with palm trees that sums up to over 1500 in total. And they are not there as mere accessories. Along with the water features that play on most every hole of the course, and the many, many sand bunkers will play to be anybody’s biggest nemesis on the greens. But then, they will never still be as big as the brain that operates on any golfer. It has just the right amount of everything to make it a truly great and memorable Orlando golf vacation for anyone.

And for that, it has also reaped just the right kind of merits. Golf Digest, for one, has ranked this course one of the Best Places to Play. Golflink.com has ranked it too as Florida’s second best course – knowing just how many golf courses there are in the Sunshine State – and 27^th in the whole country. From looks to layout quality – and even to the feathers to its cap, the Stoneybrook West Golf Club, it is safe to say this has pretty much everything that makes a golf trip extra, extra special.

It would be speaking too highly to call one’s own creation ‘The Champion’ when there are easily a lot of others that could disprove that. It is ambitious and very risky. It would take a lot of guts to say so, and even more hard work to prove it over and over. But Mission Inn Resort’s El Campeon Course did this successfully. The famed golf vacation destination north of Orlando has consistently been among the top courses in the area even after countless others have mushroomed. And it has been this way since 1917.

El Campeon Course has had its share of renovations since its opening but its original beauty has graciously been retained and well-maintained. No wonder this has also remained to be a golf vacation favorite. What, with its 13 water holes, 85-foot elevation change throughout the course, and towering forests, it surely is a course to play and an even more glorious sight to behold. There are at seven sets of tees on the course to choose from, ranging from 4,811 yards the shortest, par 73, to 7003 yards the longest, par 72. That is a lot more than most other course in the country! With that many tee sets to choose from, golfers of all skill levels are sure to have a great time at this classic course, regardless of their skill level.

It must have been a great feat for designer Charles E Clarke to live up to the name he gave to the course but he achieved it. El Campeon Course is without a doubt a champion in scenery and layout quality. It would not have become a classic if it were not! And, it would not have been one of Florida’s golf trip favorites throughout the years!

This course is so dramatic it might as well win an acting award. It is so moving it could reduce any man to tears or leave him speechless, breathless, out of wits. If there was any exaggeration in that, it was kept at a minimal. The Legacy Course at the Reunion Resort has been created with so much love for risk-reward play and challenge that a round is a story in itself. Let the many elevation changes tell its tale, and let it describe the kind of golf vacation one is to expect here.

The Legacy Course is an Arnold Palmer signature and belongs to the same facility as Nicklaus’ Tradition Course and Watson’s Independence. The Palmer layout measures a 6916 yards from the longest tees, par 72. Apart from the really dramatic changes in elevation, this golf vacation destination also features a good helping of trees lining the greens that add variety to the already dynamic terrain. Water comes into play on seven of the course’s 18 holes, with forced carries on three of the seven. And just as the elevation is dramatic, the views of these trees and the stunning, sparkling lakes, ponds, and wetlands will leave one mesmerized and confused as to just how much of a hazard they are. No hazard can be too beautiful can it?

But it is, without a doubt. Beautiful and dangerous if one lets it slip, but beautiful all the same. This is the kind of course that one would pretty much imagine hearing movie themes all throughout. This is so dramatic a golf trip to the Legacy Course would feel as emotional and as rewarding as receiving an acting award albeit without the waterworks. It is so moving one might actually think about moving here.

With a maximum length of 7,205 yards, par 72, and five sets of tees to play that with, there is no reason any golfer would ever feel restricted. The scenery ain’t too shabby either. At the Independence Course of the Reunion Resort, a golfer is free to play to full content, and reunite with the inner golf champion in him – and with friends and family as well! This is that one golf vacation destination that has perfected both the ‘golf’ and ‘vacation’ parts.

The Independence Course is designer Tom Watson’s first signature course in Florida. It features a windswept, links-style layout design that fits perfectly with the Florida climate. There are numerous deep pot bunkers scattered all over the course that define how difficult the course can get, if one allows it to be. But course pros assure that it is challenging but it is fair. It has enough grit to keep the golfers thinking throughout their rounds, but has as much softness to keep them smiling while at it. The greens are large, and the fairways are wide and rolling. The greens are as fast as the weather permits, but are in pristine condition all year round. Regardless, any time of the year, a golf trip here will always always be an interesting one.

 And as interesting and beautiful as it is, it has managed to reap some hard earned awards. Amongst them is being Number 10 in America’s Best New Resort Course, one of Florida’s Best Public Access Courses, and America’s Best Resort Courses. With its offering of fun, challenging and stunning golf vacation experience, it is safe to say that the Independence Course sets each visiting golfer free to do and to be – just as every vacation should be.

Disney’s Osprey Ridge Course could easily be the setting of any of the Disney classics. It would not be hard to imagine Aurora or Cinderella running the course, barefoot, with Prince Charming tailing behind. The only Tom Fazio-design in the Disney golf courses in Orlando (and the only one not designed by Joe Lee) also brings together a very feminine feel. Not that it is shorter or easier to suit the lady golfers. The female touch of this golf vacation destination comes in the curves of the course, and its natural sense of caring and preservation – for nature that is.

Bordered mostly by forests of pines, cypresses, palmettos, and bay trees, Disney’s Osprey Ridge Course boasts of its well-preserved wetlands that serve as sanctuary for many wild birds. And this effort to preserve and maintain them at their natural state has been recognized with a Certification from the International Audubon Society as a Sanctuary – that is among the less than a thousand certifications from all courses around the world. And they offer really great golfing too. At 7,101 yards, par 72, with four sets of tees to choose from, this golf vacation favorite features nine holes on water, dramatically elevated greens and tees, and some 70 beautiful bunkers.

Those features are almost synonymous to saying this is one pretty course. But just as tough. Disney’s Osprey Ridge Course brings to life a femme fatale of a golf trip haven – as beautiful and dangerous and outright memorable. Not much of a Cinderella then, but more likely a Mulan. Either way, it is just as magical. This is Disney after all, how can it not be?

Disneyworld may be every child’s (and child-at-heart’s) fairy tale dream come true kind of place but the completely grown-up golf loving human beings may find their own fantasy-to-reality golf vacation paradise hereabouts. And that is at Disney’s Lake Buena Vista Course. It is not as pixie-dust glittery as the place for kids, but sure does have its own way of appealing to the golfers, albeit less glittery and flashy.

Disney’s Lake Buena Vista Course is a Joe Lee design that could easily be described as fun and exciting and challenging. And it is – all 6,819 yards of it. It plays for a par of 72, with four sets of tees to choose from, perfect to delight more golfers regardless of their handicap levels. As much as they are visual treats, the signature Florida features of palmettos and pines and sparkling lakes and straight-out-of-a-Disney-movie pastel-colored villas are playing the role of hazards. Bunkered greens here are well elevated and small – as is the whole golf course which is small and tight – but with surprisingly wide and huge fairways. This undeniable beauty and excellence in layout quality is the reason why golfers are not the only ones drawn to this course; even the stars have come down on this golf vacation destination.

Well, course star ratings that is. Disney’s Lake Buena Vista Course has 4 out of 5 stars from Golf Digest Magazine. And the services and amenities are those fitting even for the royals in all those well-loved Disney classics. That’s a promise of a happy-ending to every golf trip right there.

This is the closest anyone can get to the Old Course at St Andrew’s. Well, for the most part. What Jack Nicklaus has channeled successfully from the historic course was the feel of it, the 1^st and the last holes, and the necessity of playing excellently a la British Open. But whether or not the New Course at the Grand Cypress Golf Club is more Scotland or more Florida, there is no question as to its being excellent and exceptional. The golf vacation experience offered here is just like nowhere in Europe and in the US. Or anywhere for that matter.

The New Course plays 6,773 yards from the longest tees, par 72. It is among the true links-style courses in America. The 150 deep pot bunkers have made it so. And whilst it does not claim to be a St Andrew’s replica, it brings the feel of the Old Course through the stone walls, winding creeks and a stone bridge to complete the look. And all these features on very wide fairways, with truly fast greens add to the attitude of this golf course. And a golf course as excellent as this requires for each golfer to be as excellent and ready to take on its hazards and obstacles – many of which are hidden. Thus the golf vacation destination comes complete with practice facilities of similar caliber.

From the chipping greens to golf academy, learning and practicing is very much true to the idea of getting ready for a round at the New Course. And the stay options are as excellent. This is not exactly St Andrews, and this is very much a Florida golf trip in every sense. The experience here is as unique as playing the British Open right in the heart of Disney City.