Fall is starting. Here's Why I'm Already Looking at Bogotá

You can feel it before anyone says it out loud. The evening light starts hitting the course a little different, tee times fill up earlier because everybody's trying to squeeze in one more round before the days get short, and somebody in the group always says the same thing around this time of year: "well, that's probably it for a few months." I've had that conversation every September for as long as I've had a membership at Rock Manor here in Wilmington, and it never gets less annoying.

This year, instead of just accepting it, I actually started looking around in August instead of waiting until my course closed and panic-booking whatever was left. And that's how I ended up deep in research on Bogotá, Colombia, and specifically its golf courses. Turns out, late summer is exactly the right time to be having this conversation, not January when half the good tee times and hotel rooms are already gone.

Why Now, Not Later

Here's the thing about waiting until winter actually hits. By the time your course closes and the cold sets in, you're not planning a trip anymore, you're scrambling for one. Prices go up, good availability disappears, and you end up booking whatever's left instead of what you actually want. The smarter move is to start looking now, while the weather's still good and you've got time to actually plan something worth taking.

And if you're going to look somewhere new instead of just defaulting to Florida again, Bogotá deserves a real look. It sits at close to 2,600 meters above sea level, which means it barely has a winter at all. The kind of mild, clear days we get for maybe three or four weekends here before the season ends are just a normal Tuesday down there, pretty much year round.

The Courses Worth Knowing About

I did the homework so you don't have to start from zero. Bogotá isn't a one-course destination, it's actually got a real cluster of options depending on what you're looking for.

La Cima, out in La Calera, sits around 3,000 meters up and is about as dramatic as golf terrain gets, with the Andes rolling out in every direction. If you want to feel what altitude actually does to a drive, this is the one people talk about most.

El Rincón de Cajicá is a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design, a serious, championship-caliber layout if you want something that tests your whole game, not just your driver.

Country Club de Bogotá is one of the older, more established clubs in the area, the kind of course with real history and a layout that rewards course management over just bombing it off every tee.

La Sabana Golf Club rounds things out with a more classic, open feel, still up around 2,600 meters, still delivering that same altitude boost, but with a different character than La Cima's mountain drama.

Point being, you're not stuck playing the same course four days in a row. You can build an actual variety into the trip the way you would with a proper golf destination, not just one property you're locked into.

What I'm Actually Planning

I'm not waiting until my course shuts down to figure this out. I've already started putting together a trip for a few of us, tentatively for that stretch right when things go gray back here, hitting two or three of those courses instead of one, and building in some time to actually see the city in between rounds. From what I've read and heard from a buddy who's already been, that part matters just as much as the golf. Bogotá isn't a resort you fly into and never leave, it's a real, alive city, and that changes the whole feel of the trip.

The other thing that made this an easier yes for me was realizing I didn't have to figure out all the logistics myself. There's an outfit called BGX that specializes in exactly this, getting American golfers set up with tee times, transportation, and a real itinerary across these courses, so the trip doesn't turn into a logistics headache on top of everything else.

Don't Wait Until You're Staring at a Closed Course

I get it, summer's still technically here, and thinking about winter travel while you're squeezing in evening rounds feels a little premature. But that's exactly the window you want to use. Once your course closes and the group chat starts asking "so what are we doing this winter," you want to already have an answer, not be starting the research from scratch with worse prices and fewer good options left.

If you're the type who's already dreading that last round of the season, do yourself a favor and start looking now. Bogotá's worth putting on the list before you default to the same old trip you've taken every year.