Dealing with Currency Exchange Fluctuations in Planning Your Links Golf Trip

Planning for an overseas golf trip involves limiting the risk of currency fluctuations that can potentially turn the team planner’s budget into a nightmare. As the planner, you want to be able to tell your potential golf travelers exactly what the trip is going to cost them. Here are three steps for you to assure your trip members of no surprises.

Step 1. Open an account with a bank in the country to which you are traveling. Since 911 there are strict requirements for opening such accounts. You will be required to supply at least one, possibly two, forms of photo identification, such as a copy of your drivers license and passport. The bank will also require two to three verifications of your address such as copies of utility bills or bank statement page showing your name and address. In some countries, it will be required for you to have your banker act as a sponsor by giving written verification that he personally knows you and that he knows that you have maintained an account in good standing with his bank for a required length of time.

Step 2. Watch currency exchange rates in the newspaper or online. Develop a sense of what is a high and what is a low exchange rate for the given currency. You can determine a history by going to www.oanda.com and click on history. There you can research what a currency has done against the dollar in chart form for everyday for a number of years back.

Step 3. When you see the currency has gotten in a favorable relationship to the dollar, call your banker (you need to deal with an international currency exchange dept. such as Wachovia in Charlotte, N.C) that has the capability of purchasing currency, debiting your account, and then wire transferring the funds to your overseas account. (In 2008, I was able to fix our Euro cost at 1.50 dollars/euro by purchasing when rates were in a trough. By the time we left, rates were at 1.58). To do this you will need to get your travelers to make deposits on the trip to provide funds for the purchase.

If all this seems too complicated, you can go to the same international currency exchange bank and purchase an option to buy the currency you will need at a future date just before your trip date. This is a more expensive option and will not give you the best rate of exchange.

Making purchases and getting cash with an overseas account will be simpler while you are in the trip country because you are not charged an exorbitant exchange rate each time you need cash. Another advantage with an account overseas is that you can write checks and mail them with a 94 cent air mail stamp. Delivery will be less than one week on such inexpensive mailings. You can also get a debit card with the account that can be used and avoid all postage charges. Good luck and good travel.

The Secretary

Links Golf Travel – Tips to an Affordable and Fulfilling Trip - Part 3

This is the final installment of the three part series, Links Golf Travel – Tips to an Affordable and Fulfilling Trip. In the first two installments (Part 1 and Part 2), we discussed saving money by avoiding travel compaines and if you do use a travel company, opt for the self-drive option. Other tips centered around lodging and scheduling tee times. In this post, we discuss tips for airline reservations, travel between courses, and trip transportation.

7. For optimal savings, airline reservations should be made well in advance, preferably in December or January. Sometimes a window opens in the spring that can have the lower rates found in December and January. The availabilty of cheap rates in the spring is strictly a function of the percentage of seats sold in December and January. Get commitments early from those planning to travel. The best way to solidify your trip list is for a potential traveler to make the plunge and buy the ticket in December or January.

8. Do yourself a favor and plan your travel times between venues with a cushion for traffic delays, narrow roads, and rest stops.

9. The best way to travel with up to four golfers is an 8 passenger minivan. This vehicle will handle clubs, bags and up to four, possibly five golfers. For larger groups use an eight passenger minibus and a cargo van. The cargo van rents cheaper than the bus and will carry all luggage and gear. It will also carry three people. These are only available in Great Britain and Northern Ireland as the Republic of Ireland bars foreigners from renting cargo vans. For even larger groups a fifteen or seventeen passenger bus can be utilized.

10. Good luck! If you find this process exasperating, “The Secretary” will do your planning for you at a fraction of the cost of a golf travel company. With the above described process our group played 12 courses, 12 nights lodging, airline tickets, ground transportation including fuel for vehicles for less than $3,500 including airfare. Included were Connemara, Enniscrone, Carne, County Sligo, Donegal, Royal Portrush, Portstewart, and three rounds at Ballyliffin. Try doing that with a golf travel company. They will charge you that for three or four top courses and a couple of nags.

What are your tips or questions? I would love to read them; just leave a comment.

Links Golf Travel - Tips to an Affordable and Fulfilling Trip - Part 2

In the first part of this series, Links Golf Travel – Tips to an Affordable and Fulfilling Trip, I discussed the best way to save money is to self-plan your trip. The second tip was if you decide to use a travel company, save money by opting for the self-drive option. The third tip was to stay in Holiday Houses which are "self catered". Tips four and five expand on lodging options and tip six focuses on scheduling tee times.

4. If you prefer a bed and breakfast to the holiday house concept, expect to pay a little more for the privilege of having a full hot breakfast in the mornings. These are also found on the government sponsored travel websites. There is an atmosphere of charm in the interaction with locals that is found in bed and breakfast styled accommodations. I would recommend trying this option for a portion of your stay as visiting with your hosts and other guests can enrich your experience immensely.

5. If you prefer a hotel, choose clean highly recommended three star hotels rather than four and five star hotels. You will be using the hotel only for sleeping, so as long as they are clean and comfortable this is all that is important. Go to travel company websites and check the postings by people who have used these accommodations. For example, I had planned to use one particular hotel on our last trip but found it to have bad postings and as a result booked elsewhere.

6. Plan your golf around the “hardest to get” courses first. Once these tee times are secured you will go to the second hardest and on down to the easiest last. Look for early or late afternoon tee times for reduced rates. Look also for courses with all day rates anytime you plan to play two rounds in a day. Plan your lesser known courses for weekends as weekends go at a higher rate at big name venues.

In the last part of this series, I will provide tips on airline fares and transporation during your trip. If you have any tips you would like to share or any questions, please post them. I would enjoy reading them.

Links Golf Travel – Tips to an Affordable and Fulfilling Trip from “The Secretary”

Links Golf Travel – Tips to an affordable and fulfilling trip from “The Secretary”

Golf travel to the links courses of the British Isles and Ireland in the late eighties and early nineties was economical and there was little need to watch costs. Four and five star accommodations were affordable and green fees and ground transportation, even with a plush chauffeur driven coach, were inexpensive. All this came to a grinding halt with the arrival of the new millennium.

As the Euro currency got its legs and began its steady climb against the dollar, venues gradually became more and more expensive. During 2006-2007, the Euro exploded against the dollar and golf travel in “Links Land” suddenly became quite expensive, especially in the areas of the southwest of Ireland and in the regions of Scotland and England that contain host courses to the British Open (now known in Europe as simply “The Open”).

This post is the first in a three part series of our solution to keeping costs low on Links Golf Travel to the British Isles and Ireland:

1. Avoid golf travel companies. Plan your own itinerary securing your own reservations at all venues. Internet access has made this an inexpensive although time consuming process.

2. Auto, mini bus, and van rental provide self-drive savings over a chauffeur driven bus. With a chauffeur comes their lodging and meals expense as well.

3. Look for clean new holiday houses that are available on a weekly basis at reasonable prices. You must start early however, as these go quickly during the holiday travel time in Europe which runs from July through August. This is the best weather time period so competition for these houses is fierce. Such accommodations come as “self catering” which simply means you will be making your own bed, cooking your own breakfast and washing your own clothes.

This type of housing can be found by going to the government sponsored websites that have listings in all areas of the country you choose. Start your planning process in the fall of the year before the year that you plan to travel. Choose your holiday house in a central location to the courses you plan to play. Sometimes a weekly rental will give a savings even though you only use this for four or five nights.

Here are a couple of links to government sponsored websites. Keep in mind you could always do a simple Google search for this as well.

http://www.discoverireland.com/us/accommodation/
http://international.visitscotland.com/aboutscotland/a-zlisting (click on your region of interest)

In the next post, I'll cover tips number four through six which includes additional information on accommodations and golf course and tee time scheduling. As always, if you have any questions or tips you would like to share, please post a comment. I look forward to reading them!

Links Golf

There is a kind of magic that occurs when a golfer encounters a new links on which to test his craft. It is partly the mystery of what lurks beyond the looming sand hills. It is the anticipation and anxiety that one feels when determining where the destination lies and how best to reach it. It is the testing of the elements of nature that can rear up to impede the journey. It is the moment of triumph when topping a ridge and finding the target has been found. It is the cool clean seacoast air that clears the head and energizes the spirit. It is about choices made and the fruit of those choices. It is the soft buoyancy of the bent sod supported by past years crops that have given way to new green springing blades. It is in sharing the journey with an old friend and in making new friends. It is in learning new ways, and reliving old ones. The object is not in conquering this magnificent place, but rather in gaining a common harmony. There is a pounding in the breast from the opening volley until the final putt. There is the fellowship afterwards with a toasty and a pint. Yes links golf is all these things and more. There is a magnetism that exists in this emerald kingdom that is found nowhere else. And it draws us back from year to year, leaving us yearning for our next return. To our new companions,

“Cead Mile Failte”, one hundred thousand welcomes.

Welcome to the land of “The Links” !