It goes without saying that a vacation in Hawaii can be the ultimate in luxury. For golfers, the trick is finding the right balance between staying at a top resort and ensuring that the nearby golf courses are more than acceptable. Hawaii golf vacation packages aren't all the same, after all. It's hard to go wrong with a stay in Kauai.The Kauai golf co-operative, made up of several award-winning courses, saw several of its best courses named in GolfWeek's"America's Best Courses You Can Play."Literally thousands of golf courses across the United States were tested and ranked - it's a tough job, right? - by hundreds of golfers for this "Best Of" issue.
No surprise that the tiny state of Hawaii is overrepresented here, nor that the least developed of the 5 main vacation islands, Kauai, stakes its claim as home to several of America's best luxury golf course destinations. It's about more than the greens and fairways here; it's about the beauty of Hawaii, tempting even the most undistractible golfer to bogey a shot. Not to say the courses are easy in and of themselves; the Prince Course at Princeville ranks among the most challenging golf courses many will ever play.
Now, fifteen courses on the islands of Hawaii have ranked on GolfWeek's "Best Of" list. To make the list, golf courses must have superior greens, features, natural setting and variety of holes, as well as overall strength of routing, landscape management and other, more technical, criteria. These four on Kauai, however, are also part of a golf vacation co-operative wherein guests can sample each course. The Kauai Golf Challenge and Kauai Ultimate Golf Challenge includes a golf cart for getting around, and other useful amenities. Yes, that means that a luxury golf vacation can entail a few rounds at each of these award-winning courses. Hawaii golf vacation packages don't get better than this; Kauai is an ideal South Pacific golf destination.