Your Guide to a Five-Day Golf Trip on Florida's Paradise Coast
A long weekend feels like a short introduction to golfing on Florida's Paradise Coast—but five days gives you the opportunity to experience it properly. The first round teaches you how coastal wind can influence club selection. The second introduces greens that reward patience. By the third, you're no longer learning the destination—you're actually playing it.
Here’s a breakdown of how to spend five days on the perfect golf trip in Naples, Marco Island and the Everglades.
Where You Stay Matters
Before building your itinerary, one important detail deserves attention: where you stay on Florida’s Paradise Coast often determines where you can play. Yes, the destination is home to over 90 public and stay-and-play courses, but many of these are private.
For example, resort guests at The Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburón receive access to the Gold and Black courses at Tiburón Golf Club. Guests of the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort & Spa can play Hammock Bay and The Rookery, while LaPlaya Beach & Golf Resort guests gain access to the resort's private 18-hole Bob Cupp-designed championship course.
If you choose to stay elsewhere, the destination still has excellent public options. After all, Naples is often referred to as the Golf Capital of the World. Don’t miss Lely Resort's Flamingo Island and Mustang courses, as well as TPC Treviso Bay. Just one important caveat to note for TPC Treviso Bay: tee times are open to the public only May 1st through October 31st and may be booked up to 7 days in advance.
Day One: Arrive & Get Your Bearings
Resist the urge to book a tee time the moment you arrive. Instead, spend your first day getting familiar with the area. Drive along Gulf Shore Boulevard, browse a few shops on 5th Avenue South, or grab a table and watch the sun descend toward the Gulf at one of our many waterfront restaurants. If you're staying at a golf resort, stop by the practice facility, visit the pro shop, and take a look around the property. Tomorrow is when the scorecard officially comes into play.
Day Two: Your First Round
With a whole five days on Florida’s Paradise Coast, think of today as your introduction to the golf scene. Guests at The Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburón will likely want to start with the Gold Course, which famously hosts the Grant Thornton Invitational and CME Group Tour Championship each year. This course offers generous landing areas compared to many championship venues, though scoring still depends on finding the right portions of the greens and avoiding the coquina waste areas that define much of the layout.
Guests at JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort can start at The Rookery, where water is a factor on much of the course, and the surrounding wetlands are home to bald eagles, blue herons, alligators, and other wildlife. It's the kind of round that immediately lets you know you're playing in Southwest Florida.
For golfers staying elsewhere, Flamingo Island at Lely Resort is an excellent starting point. Robert Trent Jones Sr.'s layout combines generous landing areas with strategic bunkering, water on nearly every hole, and a routing that rewards smart decisions from tee to green. After the round, grab lunch, compare scorecards, and enjoy a free afternoon.
Day Three: Go Deeper
Since you’ve already had one day of play, now it's time for a sterner test. At Tiburón Golf Club, that means the Black Course, the site of the Chubb Classic. Many golfers consider it the more demanding of the club's two layouts, placing a greater premium on strategy and execution from tee to green.
At Hammock Bay, elevated greens protected by water and bunkering place additional emphasis on smart iron play. LaPlaya's championship course presents another serious examination, playing to a slope rating of 143 from the back tees.
Public-course golfers should look toward Mustang at Lely Resort or, when available, TPC Treviso Bay. Stretching beyond 7,300 yards, the Arthur Hills layout combines forced carries, strategic bunkering, and water hazards that remain in play throughout the round.
That evening, reward yourself accordingly. Make a reservation at one of our celebrated fine dining restaurants, including BALEEN (for a true beachfront experience), Campiello (a signature restaurant on Third Street South), or Ocean Prime (a Naples staple for premier steak-and-seafood dining).
Day Four: Rest & Explore
By your fourth day on Florida’s Paradise Coast, you've likely walked several miles, spent hours in the sun, and taken plenty of swings. Now, it’s time to decompress and relax before you head home tomorrow.
Some golfers head straight for one of our soft, white-sand beaches – we have 30 miles of them in total! If you’re staying at the Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburón, you can take the resort’s free shuttle to its sister property on Vanderbilt Beach. LaPlaya is located directly on Vanderbilt Beach, while the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort sits on Marco Island’s main beach: South Marco Beach.
If you’d rather take a break from the sun, Florida’s Paradise Coast is home to many top-tier spas. Give your back, shoulders, and legs a chance to recover before traveling home by booking a massage or even a full spa day at the 51,000-square-foot Ritz-Carlton, Naples Spa or the 24,000-square-foot Spa by JW.
Day Five: Depart
One final breakfast. One last look across the water or down a fairway you've spent the week trying to figure out.
As clubs go back into travel bags and luggage heads for the airport, certain moments tend to stand out: a flushed iron over water, a putt that found the center of the cup, or a sunset viewed from a waterfront table after the round was over.
Five days gives you time to play unforgettable golf, enjoy some time by the Gulf, and still leave with a list of courses you didn't get to. So don’t be surprised if it isn’t long before you start planning your next golf trip to Naples, Marco Island and the Everglades.