The Pestana Group I the largest hotel group in Portugal. They own 38 hotels and 44 pousadas all over Portugal and along the Algarve coast, where they are expanding as we speak. They are also getting into dwelling and apartment projects in several areas. They have about 500villas and apartments, among others around the three golf courses they also have established in the area around the city Portimao in Algarve. This city has grown bigger than Faro, which lies further south on the coast, towards Spain. Faro has the largest airport in Algarve, and it is a 45minut drive from Portimao. Portimao has become a pulsating and lively city, impressed by locals and tourists, shopping, a nice bay and good restaurants and bars, for those who want something more than the small tourist traps like some of the small towns along the beach can be. From Portimao there is a few minutes drive to the three golf courses in the Pestanta group; Gramacho Golf Club is almost next to Vale da Pinta Golf Club, while Silves Golf Club lies a few minutes further away.

Gramacho – friendly golf

Gramacho is a stunning golf course. The clubhouse, which is very agreeable and elegant with a swimming pool, a good restaurant and a lovely terrace, lies on a height with a great view of the golf course and the beautiful houses along the fairways. The course is open and impressive and offers some of the most inviting golfholes. The American course architect Ronald Fream, in cooperation with Nick Price designed this course in 1991, and it has grown large and beautiful with lovely flower arrangements, small ponds with white swans, fig trees, oil palms and olive trees spread out around the course. Fream has done a great job including the course in the existing landscape. It is a rolling course, but it is still easy to walk. An agreeable, beautiful and friendly golf course where all the terracotta coloured Mediterranean dwellings, with their flower gardens and blue swimming pools, lies along the course.

Vale da Pinta – bigger challenges

Just a pitch from Gramacho lays Vale da Pinta, the second golf course in the Pestana group. Close, but yet so far. The same architect, to two very different courses. Gramacho is the nice course, while Vale da Pina is a bit meaner. It is built like a championship course, and it has been a host for the Europe tour’s qualification finale for seniors seven times in a row. A golf course with a lot more weight on challenges than ecstatic. Never the less, Vale da Pinta is also a beautiful course. It was built in 1992 and is a fully built and established course, with a new clubhouse which is modern, flat and functional and blends well with the terrain. A large open restaurant and bar, agreeable and well equipped club house, the terrace is a bit to narrow, but has a view of the first tee and second green. Many recons this course to be the best on the Algarve coast. It is good, but it is ruined by the buildings along some of the fairways which affects your play with high fences etc. there are also many other very good courses among the 32 in Algarve.

Silves – pretty indifferent

The third golf course in the Pestana group is the Silves Golf Course. It is a few minutes drive of the coast from Vale da Pinta, and it is a fresh and unfinished course. And it shows. For now it is not much compared to the other courses in Algarve, and it will probably never be one of the big courses. It opened in February this year, is designed by the Pestana group, and is a pretty flat and insignificant course. But the group has other plans for this area. They are building a resort consisting of a hotel, apartment complexes, swimming pools, restaurants and the golf course. Here you should get everything you wish for in this area, and not have to worry about full beaches, local restaurants and car queues in the high season. You can even have a game of golf – on an ok course.