Pine Cliffs Golf Course

Few courses in Europe can claim a setting quite like this one. Pine Cliffs sits atop the dramatic ochre sandstone cliffs of the Algarve, perched above the Atlantic at the Marriott Pine Cliffs Resort. The layout is a short executive 9-hole course, but its brevity is almost beside the point — this is a place people come to experience, not to test their handicap. The property has been a fixture of Algarve golf tourism since the early 1990s, attracting resort guests from across Europe who combine beach holidays with a round or 2 of golf in one of the continent's most reliable sunshine destinations.

The signature moment is the 9th hole, famously known as "The Devil's Parlour" — a par 3 requiring a carry across a ravine carved through the cliffs, with the Atlantic glittering beyond. It is one of the most photographed holes in Portuguese golf, and for good reason. The shot demands nerve regardless of how comfortable a player feels.

The Algarve itself has built a serious golf identity over 5 decades, with world-class courses spread across the region. Pine Cliffs occupies a different niche within that scene — more spectacle than examination, more memory-making than card-wrecking — and it delivers on that promise almost every time.