Costa Navarino Awarded best Golf Resort in Europe
Costa Navarino to launch 2024 golf season with more experiences and offering than ever
Golfers can enjoy a round across four signature 18-hole courses – The Dunes Course, The Bay Course, alongside The Hills Course and the world’s first International Olympic Academy Golf Course, from February 19. In addition, professionals and amateurs can also participate in an array of prestigious golf tournaments and events such as the popular Aegean Messinia Pro-Am, on November 18-24. The destination recently featured in the Top 10 of Golf World’s acclaimed new “Top 100 World Resorts” ranking and won the coveted ‘World’s Best Golf Venue’ accolade at the 2023 World Golf Awards.
Guests and players can choose from an array of hospitality offerings. This year marks the first full season for the ultra-luxury Mandarin Oriental, Costa Navarino, which joins W Costa Navarino, The Westin Resort Costa Navarino and The Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort, as well as the first full season for Navarino Agora, the vibrant marketplace, open to guests and locals.
The Westin, Costa Navarino
The season at The Westin Resort Costa Navarino starts on February 18 with a wide offering for sports aficionados and gastronomy enthusiasts alike. Guests can enjoy outdoors activities such as cycling and hiking, while exercising at 17 state-of-the-art courts of the Mouratoglou Tennis Center, where they can choose across tennis, padel and pickleball. Kids and adults can enroll later in the season in the NBA Basketball School, and young football fans can join the FC Bayern Football Camps in the summer.
Mandarin Oriental, Costa Navarino opens on April 1 for its first full season with five new three-bedroom villas and a five-bedroom Royal Villa, which will all be launched later in the season. The luxurious Royal Villa can accommodate up to 12 guests and spans across 1,095sqm of indoor and outdoor space. All the villas benefit from views of the historic Bay of Navarino and the unparalleled personalised service that Mandarin Oriental is known for. Guests can experience a wide range of new treatments this year at The Spa and younger guests can throw themselves into a vast array of activities at the new Kids Club.
The Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort will welcome guests from April 25. A new adults-only pool enhances the resort offering, alongside a series of exclusive wine, champagne and whisky events. The resort’s Ionian Exclusive Suites and Villas collection will benefit this year from new, personalised experiences, curated to address each guest’s needs. All pool villas benefit from total privacy and direct beachfront access.
The adults-friendly (over 12yo) beachfront W Costa Navarino opens for the season on May 3, with a new programme of music, wellness, watersports, and gastronomy events. A ‘Wellness Sound Weekend’ kicks off the season for those looking to unwind and discover the benefits of music for their wellbeing, as well as a ‘Chefs on Fire’ festival, hosting well-known Greek chefs who will showcase the best of local cuisine with an innovative and creative twist.
The Bay Course
Navarino Agora, a microcosm of experiences, will welcome guests, locals and visitors of Messinia on April 1. This bustling area is a hub of arts and culture, showcasing the region’s heritage. A rich programme of events this season will encompass music and dance performances, film festivals, fashion events and more. Navarino Agora is also home to more than 20 retail stores offering luxury clothes, accessories, jewellery, books and more, as well as restaurants, street food, an open-air cinema and entertainment venues.
This year will also see the residential community of Costa Navarino Residences grow even more, by welcoming the owners in the Rolling Greens neighborhood at Navarino Dunes. Following an increased demand for freehold customised and turn-key villas -which serve as doorways to unique experiences and services- the Valley Greens neighbourhood was recently launched. For those seeking to live the Costa Navarino Residences experience, a range of villas will soon become available to rent, whilst enjoying access to resort services.
In line with Costa Navarino’s continuous commitment to sustainable tourism development, environmental protection remains a key focus for the destination – named as ‘Europe’s Best Eco-Friendly Golf Facility’ at the 2023 World Golf Awards. The destination enhanced its sustainable credentials by reducing emissions by 80 per cent for 2022 (compared to 2019), aiming to achieve net-zero operations for the destination’s facilities by 2050. On the green, the total grassed area that needs to be irrigated on the Bay and Dunes courses was reduced by five and ten per cent respectively, alongside implementing various large-scale initiatives relating to the optimal management of natural resources across the destination and the reduction of single-use plastics.
The Hills Course
In addition to the World Golf Awards accolades, Costa Navarino continues to receive recognition from global ranking authorities, with National Club Golfer and Golf World magazines both honouring the destination as the number one golf resort in Europe and, in the US, Golf.com including the venue in its coveted ‘2023 World Top 100 resorts’ list.
Costa Navarino is a 45-minute drive from Kalamata International Airport and will welcome its first flight of the season on February 18 from Munich operated by Aegean Airlines, followed by Stockholm on February 24 operated by SAS, and Copenhagen on March 9 operated by Aegean Airlines.
xAdditional new routes include weekly flights by Air France from July 6 and weekly services from Lyon and Lille operated by Volotea, starting on April 17 and 24 respectively, while there are a range of flights from the UK. Easyjet flies direct to Kalamata three times a week from April to October. British Airways has four direct flights a week from May until October. Jet2 and Ryanair have direct flights from Birmingham, London Stansted and Manchester from May to November and between June and September respectively.
There are also connecting flights from Athens and Heraklion with Aegean-Olympic Air from April 4 and June 1 respectively.