There’s a conversation that seems to come up every time we’re sitting around after a round somewhere in Asia.

Good news! Jet Set Golf operates hosted golf tours and golf holidays across Thailand and Vietnam, including Phuket, Hua Hin, Pattaya, Bangkok, Da Nang, Hoi An and Lang Co.

Thailand or Vietnam?

Ask ten golfers and you’ll probably get ten different answers.

Some will tell you nothing beats Thailand. They’ve been going there for years. They know the courses, love the caddies, know where to eat and have probably already worked out where the first post-round beer is coming from.

Then there’s the growing Vietnam camp.

They’ll start talking about Hoiana Shores, Ba Na Hills, the food in Hoi An, five-star beachfront resorts and just how good the golf has become along the Central Vietnam coast.

We understand both arguments.

Jet Set Golf visits both countries with our golfers, with tours and golf experiences taking us through Phuket, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Bangkok in Thailand, and Da Nang, Hoi An and Lang Co in Vietnam.

We’ve played the courses. We’ve moved groups and golf bags between the hotels and clubs. We’ve met the caddies, eaten at the local restaurants, explored the towns and, on more than one occasion, stayed out considerably later than originally planned.

So if you’re sitting in Australia wondering which destination should be your next golf trip, here’s how we see it.

And before we start, there is no bad choice here.

There might, however, be a better choice for you.

Thailand vs Vietnam at a glance

 Thailand: the old favourite that keeps delivering

Australian golfers don’t need much convincing to go to Thailand.

There’s a reason we’ve been taking Jet Set Golf groups there for years.

Thailand understands golf tourism.

You arrive at the course and your golf bag is handled. Your caddie is waiting. Your cart is ready. The clubhouse knows how to deal with visiting groups and, once the round is over, you’re generally not far from a pool, massage, restaurant or cold Singha.

It just works.

But one of the things we like about Thailand is that you can keep going back without having the same golf holiday twice.

Jet Set Golf visits Phuket, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Bangkok, and they are four quite different experiences.

Phuket gives you golf, beaches, resorts and nightlife.

Hua Hin slows things down a little.

Pattaya gives serious golfers a remarkable number of courses to choose from.

Bangkok gives you big-city energy with some superb golf sitting outside the city.

That’s probably Thailand’s biggest advantage.

You don’t simply choose Thailand.

You choose which version of Thailand you want.

Phuket: golf in the morning, Patong at night

If someone has never been on an Asian golf trip before, Phuket is a very easy place to start.

Jet Set Golf has been taking groups to Phuket for years, and it remains one of our favourite destinations for a social golf week.

The formula isn’t particularly complicated.

Play a cracking golf course in the morning.

Get back to the resort.

Pool.

Massage.

A few drinks.

Dinner.

Then see where the night takes you.

Patong certainly isn’t shy.

Some golfers love being right in the middle of it. Others prefer to dip in for dinner and a drink before escaping back to the resort.

Either way, you’re never short of something to do.

And importantly, the golf stacks up.

Red Mountain Golf Club

Red Mountain is the course that tends to get people talking.

The terrain immediately separates it from the flatter resort courses you may associate with Thailand. The course moves through a former tin-mining landscape, with elevation changes, jungle, rock faces and some spectacular tee shots.

It’s dramatic.

It’s also capable of making a perfectly respectable scorecard look fairly ordinary.

That’s golf.

Blue Canyon Country Club

Blue Canyon gives Phuket another level of golf credibility.

With both the Canyon and Lakes courses, it gives us options when putting together a multi-round Jet Set Golf itinerary rather than having to move golfers around the country.

Add Laguna Phuket and Loch Palm and suddenly you’ve got enough quality golf for a very good week.

Our Phuket programs generally combine the golf with a quality resort base, caddies, carts, transfers and enough free time to actually enjoy being in Thailand rather than spending the entire trip on a coach.

The caddies are part of the story

This is something first-time Thailand golfers sometimes underestimate.

The caddies aren’t simply there to carry clubs.

They become part of your round.

They’ll give you distances, help with putting lines, tell you where not to hit it and occasionally look at you with an expression that requires absolutely no translation after you’ve ignored their advice and put one in the water.

We’ve watched plenty of Australian golfers arrive unsure about the whole caddie thing.

By about the sixth hole they’re having a ball.

By the final round they’re taking group photos together.

It’s one of those things that’s difficult to explain properly until you’ve experienced it.

Thailand isn’t only Phuket

One reason Jet Set Golf keeps returning to Thailand is the variety.

Hua Hin gives us Black Mountain, Pineapple Valley, Springfield and Palm Hills.

It’s a more relaxed golf holiday than Phuket or Pattaya and suits golfers who like a premium resort, good restaurants and a quieter evening.

Pattaya goes the other direction.

Siam Country Club, Chee Chan and Laem Chabang are among the courses that make the region such a strong destination for a dedicated golf trip.

Then there’s Bangkok.

Courses such as Nikanti, Alpine and Thai Country Club mean Bangkok can be much more than somewhere you fly into before heading elsewhere.

We’ve used combinations of Bangkok and Hua Hin because they give golfers two completely different experiences in the same trip.

And that’s Thailand in a nutshell.

There are a lot of ways to do it.

Then Vietnam entered the conversation

If Thailand is the destination Australian golfers already know, Vietnam is the destination more of them are starting to talk about.

We’ve watched that change firsthand.

Jet Set Golf has been taking groups into Central Vietnam around Da Nang, Hoi An and Lang Co, and every time we return the golf proposition seems stronger.

Part of the attraction is that the courses feel relatively new.

The clubhouses are impressive.

The resorts can be exceptional.

The service is good.

And the scenery can be ridiculous.

Vietnam’s Central Coast now has a concentration of golf that makes it very easy to build a four or five-round itinerary without feeling as though you’re playing variations of the same course.

Vietnam Tourism itself identifies Central Vietnam as one of the country’s key golf regions.

For us, that’s where Vietnam really starts to make its case against Thailand.

Five courses. Five very different days.

A Jet Set Golf week around Da Nang can include:

Hoiana Shores Golf Club
Ba Na Hills Golf Club
BRG Da Nang Golf Resort
Laguna Golf Lang Co
Golden Sands Golf Resort

What we particularly like is how different they are.

You can be playing through dunes beside the coast one day and heading towards the mountains the next.

You don’t finish four rounds thinking, “Didn’t we basically play this course on Tuesday?”

Hoiana Shores

Hoiana Shores looks and feels like somewhere you should be playing a significant round of golf.

It’s wide, sandy, exposed and coastal, with a large clubhouse overlooking the property.

The Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed course sits south of Hoi An on Vietnam’s Central Coast.

We’ve used Hoiana as part of our Jet Set Golf Vietnam tours and particularly like it as a finishing course.

There’s something about walking into that clubhouse after the last round that feels like the end of a proper golf trip.

And then, naturally, there’s the presentation and a few drinks.

Ba Na Hills

Ba Na Hills couldn’t feel much more different.

You leave the coast and head towards the mountains.

The scenery changes.

The temperature can change.

The style of golf changes.

That’s exactly what we want when we’re designing a tour.

And nearby is one of Vietnam’s most recognisable attractions.

The Golden Bridge at Ba Na Hills is the sort of place that even golfers who claim they “aren’t really into sightseeing” somehow end up photographing.

That’s another advantage Vietnam has.

There is plenty to build around the golf.

BRG Da Nang

BRG adds another completely different look to the week.

The Norman-designed course has links-style characteristics, while the resort also features a Jack Nicklaus design.

It’s another reason Da Nang works so well operationally for Jet Set Golf.

We can base a group in the region and give golfers genuine course variety without continually packing bags and changing hotels.

Laguna Golf Lang Co

Then there’s Lang Co.

This is where Vietnam’s golf-and-resort argument becomes very persuasive.

Laguna Golf Lang Co sits between mountains and the coast and forms part of the larger resort precinct.

You can play golf in the morning, get back to the resort, spend the afternoon at the pool or beach and be sitting down with a drink without needing to organise another transfer.

We like the area enough that Jet Set Golf also offers Laguna Lang Co as a Stay & Play option, rather than only including it on hosted tours.

Sometimes you don’t need a complicated itinerary.

A great resort and a great golf course will do nicely.

So which country actually has the better golf?

This is usually where we’re supposed to declare a winner.

We’re not going to.

We’ve played enough golf in both countries to know that it isn’t that simple.

Thailand has depth.

You can build entirely different trips around Phuket, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Bangkok and still leave a long list of courses for next time.

Vietnam has concentration.

Around Central Vietnam you’ve got Hoiana Shores, Ba Na Hills, BRG Da Nang, Laguna Lang Co and Golden Sands sitting within one very workable golf itinerary.

Our 2027 Jet Set Golf Da Nang program, for example, brings those five courses together in one trip.

So perhaps the fairest description is this:

Thailand gives you more ways to build a golf holiday.

Vietnam gives you an extraordinary amount of quality in one region.

The other 19 hours matter

A round of golf might take five hours.

That leaves nineteen.

This is where we think golfers sometimes make the wrong decision when choosing a destination.

They compare golf course rankings but forget to ask what they’re going to do once the clubs are back in the bag.

We don’t.

When we’re building Jet Set Golf trips, the location of the hotel, restaurants, bars, beach, transport and what everyone can do on a rest day matter enormously.

Because nobody wants to play a brilliant course and then spend the rest of the day sitting in a hotel in the middle of nowhere.

Thailand after golf

Thailand is extremely good at this.

Especially Phuket and Pattaya.

Golf finishes.

People scatter for a few hours.

Some head to the pool.

Someone always books a massage.

Someone else says they’re having “one quiet beer” and appears at dinner three hours later having made six new friends.

Then the group comes back together.

That’s the social side of a golf tour that you can’t really put into an itinerary.

And it’s one of the reasons we keep returning.

The golf gets people there.

The people often become the reason they come back.

Vietnam after golf

Vietnam has a different rhythm.

This is where we think it has a slight edge for golfers who want more than a pure golf trip.

Hoi An is a great example.

Sit down for Vietnamese coffee.

Walk the old town.

Find somewhere for lunch.

Browse the markets.

Have a beer beside the river.

Then head back to the resort.

It feels like you’ve actually travelled somewhere.

Da Nang gives you something different again.

It’s a proper city with beaches, restaurants, rooftop bars, the Han River and the Dragon Bridge.

We’ve had Jet Set Golf groups staying in the area and one of the things we like most is that a rest day doesn’t feel like a day you’re simply waiting to play golf again.

There’s plenty to do.

What about the non-golfer?

This question is becoming more important.

Not everyone wants to disappear overseas with 40 golfers for a week.

Sometimes your partner is coming too.

Sometimes they don’t play.

Both Thailand and Vietnam work extremely well in that situation.

Thailand has beaches, spas, shopping, markets, restaurants, islands and resorts.

Vietnam has beaches, spas, markets, food tours, Hoi An, cultural experiences and excellent resorts.

If we were putting together a holiday where one person was serious about the golf and the other wasn’t interested in golf at all, Central Vietnam would be very high on our list.

The golfer isn’t compromising.

Neither is the non-golfer.

That’s the sweet spot.

Thailand vs Vietnam for value

Here’s another question we get all the time.

Which one is cheaper?

It’s not really the question we’d ask.

We’d ask:

Which gives me the better holiday for what I’m spending?

A golf trip isn’t just a green fee.

It’s accommodation, golf, carts, caddies, transfers, airport transport, meals, location, resort quality and all the little things that mysteriously appear on the credit card when you’re away.

Thailand gives you an enormous range of accommodation and therefore plenty of flexibility.

Vietnam can be remarkably good value when you start comparing the quality of five-star resorts and golf courses with what the same level of experience would cost elsewhere.

That’s why we look at value rather than chasing the cheapest possible package.

Cheap golf in a poor location isn’t particularly good value if nobody enjoys the week.

And the food?

We’re staying out of this argument.

Thailand has a case.

Vietnam has a case.

We’re happy eating in either.

What we would say is this:

Leave the hotel.

Some of our favourite evenings with Jet Set Golf groups haven’t involved anything elaborate.

A local restaurant.

Cold drinks.

Plenty of food in the middle of the table.

Golf stories getting progressively less accurate as the evening goes on.

That’s a golf trip.

When should you go?

This is where a little local knowledge matters.

Thailand doesn’t have one golf season.

Neither does Vietnam.

Weather in Phuket isn’t identical to Hua Hin.

Central Vietnam isn’t the same as Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.

That’s why we don’t look at a country and simply decide, “April is good for Asia.”

We look at the particular region, rainfall, temperature, golf-course conditions and what else is happening locally.

The best question isn’t:

“When should I visit Thailand?”

It’s:

“When should I play golf in Phuket?”

The same goes for Da Nang, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Lang Co.

It sounds like a small distinction.

It can make a very big difference to your holiday.

Thailand or Vietnam: which one would we send you to?

After travelling to both with Jet Set Golf groups, we’d probably ask you three questions.

Who are you travelling with?

What do you want to do when you’re not playing golf?

Where have you already been?

If you’re heading away with a group of mates who want golf, caddies, resorts, bars, restaurants and plenty happening at night, Thailand is difficult to beat.

If you’re travelling as a couple, want exceptional golf but also want food, culture, sightseeing and a slightly different travel experience, we’d take a very close look at Vietnam.

If you’ve already played Thailand several times?

Go and see what all the fuss is about in Da Nang.

If you’ve done Vietnam?

Come back to Thailand with us and try another region.

You don’t have to settle the Thailand versus Vietnam argument.

You just have to decide which one you’re playing next.

Frequently asked questions

Is Thailand or Vietnam better for a golf holiday?

Neither is universally better. Thailand has a larger and more established golf tourism industry with major golf regions including Phuket, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Bangkok. Central Vietnam offers a remarkable concentration of newer championship courses around Da Nang, Hoi An and Lang Co.

Jet Set Golf visits and operates golf experiences in both countries, so our recommendation normally depends on the type of holiday a golfer wants rather than simply the golf-course rankings.

Where does Jet Set Golf travel in Thailand?

Jet Set Golf visits several of Thailand’s major golf destinations, including Phuket, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Bangkok. Depending on the itinerary, our trips combine championship golf with accommodation, transfers, caddies, carts and social activities.

Where does Jet Set Golf travel in Vietnam?

Our Central Vietnam golf trips focus primarily on Da Nang, Hoi An and Lang Co, giving Jet Set Golf groups access to courses including Hoiana Shores, Ba Na Hills, BRG Da Nang, Laguna Golf Lang Co and Golden Sands.

What is the best place for a first golf trip to Thailand?

Phuket is one of the easiest introductions because you can combine quality courses with resorts, beaches, restaurants and nightlife. Hua Hin is another excellent option for golfers looking for something more relaxed.

What is the best place for a first golf trip to Vietnam?

We particularly like Central Vietnam. Da Nang provides the infrastructure and accommodation, Hoi An adds food and culture, and the surrounding region contains an excellent collection of golf courses.

Is Da Nang good for a golf holiday?

Very. The combination of Hoiana Shores, Ba Na Hills, BRG Da Nang, Laguna Lang Co and Golden Sands gives golfers enough variety for a four or five-round trip without needing to travel across Vietnam.

Do you use caddies in Thailand and Vietnam?

Caddies are part of the experience at many courses in both destinations, although individual course requirements vary. For many of our Jet Set Golf travellers, getting to know their caddies becomes one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip.

How many rounds should I play during a one-week golf holiday?

We generally like four or five rounds across a six or seven-night trip.

You could squeeze in more.

But why?

You’re in Thailand or Vietnam.

Leave enough time to enjoy it.

Can my non-golfing partner come on a Jet Set Golf trip?

Many destinations work extremely well for golfers travelling with non-golfing partners. Thailand and Vietnam are particularly good because resorts, beaches, spas, shopping, food and sightseeing give non-golfers plenty to do while the golfers are on the course.

Great Golf. Better Company.

We could build a golf tour around nothing more than highly ranked courses and nice hotels.

But that’s not really what makes a great golf trip.

It’s the caddie who has everyone laughing.

It’s sitting around after the round dissecting the putt that definitely “hit something.”

It’s the restaurant you weren’t planning to visit.

It’s the rest day that somehow becomes one of the best days of the trip.

And it’s arriving knowing a few people and leaving knowing everyone.

That’s the part of golf travel we love.

Jet Set Golf visits Thailand and Vietnam with hosted groups and also offers golf holiday options for travellers wanting to experience these destinations in their own way.

So, Thailand or Vietnam?

We’ll happily argue about it over a beer.

Better still, come and play both.

Explore Jet Set Golf Thailand Golf Tours

Explore Jet Set Golf Vietnam Golf Tours

About Jet Set Golf

Jet Set Golf is an Australian golf travel company specialising in hosted golf tours, tournaments and Stay & Play holidays across Australia and international destinations including Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand, Fiji, South Africa, the USA, Scotland and Ireland.

Our team regularly travels with golfers to the destinations featured in our tours, giving us first-hand experience of the courses, resorts and golf travel logistics we recommend.

Then ideally:

Written by Jamie Gianneas – Jet Set Golf