Golfbreaks.com

Review by Adrian Mann, owner of Adrian Mann Design, providing independent reviews and analysis of travel web sites in the UK.

I’m sure there are lots of golfers out there who would appreciate a golf-related travel site, so it’s about time to have a look at Golfbreaks.com.

Overall
It’s a clean, tidy homepage that loads in a refreshingly quick 12.2 seconds – it’s always nice to see that someone is paying attention to the needs of the dial-up community. It’s basic HTML stuff, so it performs well and behaves itself on a wide variety of platforms. It’s sensibly laid out, with a set of menu buttons on the left, and a selection and booking item across the top, and good selection of topical and relevant links on the rest of the page.

Content
The main purpose of this site is to search for and book golf breaks or holidays, and this function is prominently displayed at the top. First, choose your area – this involves a clickable map or a pull down menu. Next, select a venue from a list, which takes you to a page of details, such as location, costs of breaks, special offers and information on the course and accommodation. From there, just pick the break that suits you, and either fill in the form to request further information, or call the Freephone number provided.
You can also make a selection based on Group, such as Hilton, Marriott or DeVere, or just list all the venues to see the full range. The list can further be sorted by name or price.
There’s also a Special Offers page that has a wide range of offers for the year, and some more intriguing breaks – how about “Free Beer”, or a Pamper Break?
Moving to the other links, there’s plenty to choose from. Tours and Events has a selection of longer breaks including trips to Ireland, and packages to see the Ryder Cup or the Open Championships. Ten of the Best is a selection of the ten best deals, top of which is two day break, including 36 holes of golf, 3 course dinner, bed and breakfast, use of leisure facilities, all for £75 per person.
The Locker Room is a page of Classified Ads, for European and worldwide golf holidays, golf tuition and tournaments, gifts and aerial photos of courses, provided by golfair.co.uk.
Corporate Golf links to a separate specialist site aimed at organising company golf days as a reward or motivation, or for client entertainment, while Society Golf is aimed at groups of golfers, individuals and society organisers, who’d rather have someone else do all the hard work. There’s also a free email newsletter to subscribe to.

Summary
It’s a very focused offering – there’s no straying off into non-golf topics, or padding with irrelevant detail or information. There are links to other sites where appropriate, for instance flights through cheapflights.com, or car hire. The whole site is well constructed – I didn’t find a single bad link or missing image – and is very easy to navigate and find what your after.
I must admit that I have absolutely no interest in golf whatsoever, and wasn’t looking forward to reviewing this site, but it came as a very welcome surprise to find it was accessible, interesting and easy to use. Recommended.