Why My Next Winter Golf Trip Isn't Florida Anymore

Every year it's the same routine. September hits, the leaves start turning up here in Delaware, and my buddies and I start the same group chat conversation we've had for the last six or seven winters: "So, Florida again?" Somebody throws out Naples, somebody else says Orlando, somebody mentions that resort in Scottsdale that was cool the first time but has gotten stupid expensive since everybody and their cousin discovered it. We book it, we go, we have a fine time. Fine. Not memorable. Just fine.

This year I broke the routine before it even started. I'm not asking "Florida again?" I'm telling the guys we're doing something different, and I've already started planning it. That trip is Bogotá, Colombia, and after playing La Cima out there earlier this year, I'm convinced it should be our new default, not a one time detour.

The Florida Math Isn't Going to Add Up Next Winter Either

Here's the thing nobody says out loud about the Florida trip, the Arizona trip, the "usual" winter golf circuit. It's crowded. It's pricey. And it's only going to feel more repetitive the more years we keep doing it. You're playing courses that a thousand other groups from your tax bracket played the week before, staying at a hotel that looks like the hotel from last year, eating at the same steakhouse chain you could find twenty minutes from your house in Wilmington. You pay premium prices for an experience that stopped feeling premium a while ago, and that's not changing on its own.

I ran the numbers on what a Bogotá trip would actually cost my group against what we usually drop on a Naples weekend, and it isn't close. Same budget, maybe less, buys better courses, a nicer hotel, and food I already know will surprise everyone. So this coming season, instead of watching that budget disappear into inflated green fees and resort markup, I want to see what it does when it actually works for us.

A City, Not Just Another Golf Package

The part I keep coming back to isn't even the value. It's that Bogotá isn't a resort bubble. Our Florida trips, if we're honest, have always been pretty contained. You're on property, you play, you eat where the resort tells you, you go home. Bogotá is a real, alive city, and that's exactly what I want us to build the next trip around. When I played that morning round at altitude, I watched my drives fly like I'd added twenty yards to my game overnight, and by evening I was in a neighborhood full of restaurants and street life that had nothing to do with golf at all. That's the version of the trip I want to plan for my guys, one that isn't just a "golf package" but an actual trip that happens to have incredible golf built into it.

Golf gets us there. The city is going to be the reason we keep going back.

The Weather Argument I Didn't See Coming

Going in, I hadn't really thought through the climate angle. I figured, sure, South America, it'll be warm, whatever. What caught me off guard was how close it felt to those perfect fall days back home, the ones we get for maybe three or four weekends before everything turns gray and the course closes for the season. Bogotá just keeps handing you that weather, year round, because of the altitude. It's the kind of day we'd circle on the calendar back in Delaware. Down there, it's just a Tuesday.

That's changed how I'm going to think about "winter golf trip" going forward. Florida in January has always just been a break from the cold. What I want next is a place where that break doesn't have to end after a week, somewhere that stretches the best golf weather we get into something closer to year round.

What's Going to Make the Switch Easy

If I'm honest, my hesitation about pitching this to the group isn't the golf, it's the logistics. New country, new language, figuring out courses, transportation, where to eat, whether we'd spend half the trip lost or overpaying because none of us know any better. That's the piece I already have an answer for. The outfit I worked with when I scouted the trip, called BGX, handled exactly the parts I didn't want to figure out myself: tee times at the good courses, a driver who knew where he was going, restaurant recommendations that weren't tourist traps. Booking it again for the group is going to feel less like planning a trip and more like calling a local friend who happens to know golf.

That's the piece that makes this switch actually doable and not just a nice idea. Bogotá being the smarter trip on paper doesn't matter much if nobody wants to deal with the headache of getting there. Having that part already handled is what turns "we should do this" into "let's book it."

So Here's What's Changing

I'm not telling my buddies to swear off Naples forever. There's nothing wrong with a course you know like the back of your hand. But when I look at what we'll get for what we'll spend, and how the trip is going to feel day to day compared to the same old circuit, Bogotá wins on almost every category that matters to us now: value, experience, weather, and a golf game that's going to genuinely benefit from playing somewhere different for once.

If you're a golfer up here in Delaware, Jersey, New York, wherever the winters shut your season down early, I'd put the same question to you that I'm putting to my own group this year. Before you book Florida again, at least look into what Bogotá has going for it. I went in skeptical on my first trip out there, and now I'm the one building next season's plans around going back.

Some habits are worth breaking. Starting this winter, this is the one I'm breaking.