Golf oasis Belk in Turkey has many advantages. One of them is Antalya GC with two first-rate courses, one a bit easier and one a lot more difficult. From the golf club, you are walking distance from the coast's most luxurious hotel.

I wake up with a feeling of not really knowing where I am. The sun is still high in the sky and it takes a few seconds before I can place myself. I must have dozed off awhile, out here under the cloth roof in one of the nice beach huts that are built next to the hotel pool.

A few days earlier we arrived in Antalya by plane from the autumn cold. For the second time in a short time we were back in the expansive Belk region, or as it is known, the Turkish Riviera. The last time we were here there was a visit to the Gloria Golf Resort, but this time we made our way a little further down the coast, to the Kempinski Hotel.

The Belk coast has experienced dramatic development and today it is established as Europe's new golf coast - something that not so long ago was only a dream.

Today you can easily describe the area as a long sandy beach where hotel after hotel stands side by side. Behind the hotels golf courses have sprung up like mushrooms and new ones are being projected. The mild winter weather makes the Belk area a good golf destination all year round, while it’s a bit too cold for the usual sun-bathers during winter.

The Kempinski Hotel, The Dome Belek, was designed by Turkish architect Kürsat Aybak and was completed in June 2005. In other words, it is one of the coast's newer hotels, and therefore chose to position itself as high up as possible in the food chain. Thus the price tag is also a bit higher than what we are used to in the area.

At first sight the hotel feels almost wastefully large and can probably be perceived as being on the verge of being gaudy. But to each his own, and I won’t disguise the fact that you feel very much at home in this highly polished and exclusive environment.

Directly next to the hotel is the Antalya Golf Club with its two full-fledged eighteen-hole courses - The Pasha and The Sultan. The designers were European Golf Design in collaboration with old Tour player David Jones, and they have really managed to create two similar yet completely different courses. Despite the advanced layout, they also blend well in the original nature.

If we start with the Pasha, so it is a nearly perfect and pretty laid-back resort course. It’s not very long and the holes are designed more to invite guests to a fun round than to ruin their self-confidence.

There is a difference with the Sultan. The relaxed golf holiday is definitely over. With its 6,411 metres, par 71, you understand that it’s a tough challenge. Full concentration is required to overcome this championship design with its long and tough holes. The water is a permanent feature and if you hit wrong, it will guaranteed be an expensive round. Most of the holes are memorable, and in retrospect, I can readily admit that the scoring was much worse than the Pasha.

Back at the hotel again, I just got my own Sol when we start talking about the difficulties of putting your finger on what it is that "makes" a hotel of this class. There are certainly cheaper options in the area, like the Sirene Golf Hotel, and what is it that gets those who can afford it to put the extra money on luxury accommodation? Is it the number of restaurants or the choice of material in the room? Or is it the whole thing? I don’t think we came up with anything more than that it’s a very special feeling of total relaxation and calm in the air.

Text: Mikael Andersson
Photo: Samir Soudah
Web Editor: Emma Lindén