Fly or ship your golf clubs to Turkey, Cyprus and mainland Europe?
Ryanair’s golf bag fee, Luggage Forward prices and transit times, EU, Turkey and Norway customs, and club hire costs for Belek, Paphos, Sicily and Paris.
The short answer: fly with your clubs to most of these places.
For Belek, Paphos, Sicily and Paris, the comparison starts with what your airline charges for a golf bag. Ryanair charges €/£40 for each one-way flight when you add the bag at booking, so a return costs €/£80 per golfer. Luggage Forward’s golf page lists small bags from US$129, but that headline figure does not say which routes it covers, so price your own addresses before you compare. Turkish Airlines publishes its own golf rules, but its page would not load when we checked on 11 November 2026, so we quote no figures for it. Lofoten in Norway is the clear case for flying. Norwegian Customs says holiday visitors who receive shipped personal belongings must pay duties, even if they take the items home again. Shipping makes more sense when the trip has several bases, for example Costa Navarino followed by Verdura, or when a long-haul flight ends with a separate low-cost leg and its own golf fee. Count the rounds, too. If you play only twice, a hire set may cost less than either option.
Turkish Airlines to Antalya: what to check on its golf page.
Turkish Airlines keeps its golf rules on a dedicated page, linked in the sources below. That page would not load for us on 11 November 2026, so this guide does not quote its allowance, fees or weight limit. We would rather leave a gap than repeat figures we could not open. Before you book, look for four things on that page. First, whether a golf set travels free on international flights, and whether any free allowance has an end date that falls before your trip. Second, the weight limit for one set; weigh your bag in its travel case against it. Third, what the airline counts as a golf set and what else may go in the golf bag. Fourth, how to add the bag to your booking, and whether a ticket that combines several airlines has to be arranged some other way. Domestic Turkish flights may have their own rules, so if you add a separate Istanbul to Antalya ticket, check that leg too. Then set the result against the Ryanair fees below and the hire prices further down.
Ryanair and other short-haul flights: Paphos, Sicily and Paris.
From Britain and much of Europe, low-cost airlines are the main way to reach Paphos, Palermo, Trapani and Paris, and they charge for golf bags separately. Ryanair’s fee table lists golf clubs at €/£40 per item for each one-way flight if you add them when you book. If you add them later or at the airport, the fee is €/£50. The limit is 20 kg per item, so weigh the travel case with the clubs inside before you leave home. Ryanair lists general sports equipment on a separate line: €/£40 at booking as well, but €/£45 later, so the late fee for golf clubs is €/£5 higher. We could not open the sports equipment pages for Aegean (Kalamata and Athens, for Costa Navarino), Air France (Paris), Widerøe (the small planes to Svolvær and Leknes), Jet2, SunExpress or Turkish Airlines. Their fees and weight limits are not given here. Look them up during booking, and add the golf bag at the same time. On Ryanair, that is when the fee is lowest.
Luggage Forward to Turkey, Cyprus and Europe: price, timing, paperwork.
On its golf page, Luggage Forward’s small bag size (18 kg at most, 127 × 30 × 25 cm) starts at US$129, and the large size (22 kg at most, 132 × 38 × 30 cm) at US$149. Those are starting prices, and the page does not say they apply to international routes. Most international shipments take 7 to 11 business days on the standard service. The Preferred service costs more and is two to three days faster. For the lowest rates, book at least seven days before pickup. You can book up to 180 days ahead. The company fills in and submits the customs forms for each country, and the bag travels as personal effects. Duties, VAT and import taxes are not part of the quote. The destination country sets them and bills them. Leave the bag unlocked, because the company says a locked international bag can be delayed and lose its on-time guarantee. Lithium batteries cannot go, so pack rangefinders in your hand luggage. Luggage Forward says it delivers to more than 200 countries, but its pages do not name Turkey, Cyprus or Greece. Confirm by phone on +1 617-482-1100 or +44 (0)20 3375 4769 before you book.
Customs: EU, Turkey and Norway are three different cases.
Whether a shipped bag clears customs depends on the border it crosses. Inside the EU, a bag sent from Amsterdam to Paris or from Munich to Sicily crosses no customs border. From the US or the UK, every EU destination is an import, including Cyprus, Greece, Italy and France. Turkey is not an EU member, so a bag sent to Antalya crosses a customs border even when it leaves from Germany. In all of these cases, Luggage Forward prepares the declaration and any duty is billed separately. Norway is outside the EU and has the strictest rule for golfers. Norwegian Customs says the traveller’s exemption covers belongings you carry, not belongings you send. It adds that people in Norway for a holiday who receive shipments of personal belongings must pay duties, even if they take the items back out at the end of the stay. For Lofoten Links, that turns a shipping quote into a shipping quote plus Norwegian duty. Taking the clubs as checked baggage avoids it.
From the airport to the course.
Most of these courses are a short drive from the airport, which makes travelling with a golf case easier. In Belek, Carya is about 35 km from Antalya Airport, or 35 to 40 minutes on the coast highway. Cornelia is about 40 km away, and Lykia Links, further east, a little under an hour. Hotels and tour operators often include the transfer. In Paphos, Minthis gives a 20-minute drive from the airport. At Costa Navarino, Kalamata Airport is about 45 minutes away and Athens roughly three hours. Verdura in Sicily is about 100 km, or an hour and a half, from Palermo. Le Golf National is about 30 minutes from Orly, or you can take the RER C or Transilien N or U trains to Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and a short taxi from there. Lofoten needs the most planning. The club recommends Harstad/Narvik Evenes, the airport for larger jets, if you bring clubs. From there it is a drive of about 3 hours 20 minutes. No bus serves the course, so hire a car or ask the club for a quote on its shuttle.
Hiring clubs instead.
For one or two rounds, a hire set can cost less than your own bag on a low-cost airline. Several courses on this site publish their prices. Cornelia in Belek hires a full set for €40 a round and says clubs can be hired only directly from the golf club. Minthis, in the hills above Paphos, hires TaylorMade clubs for €40. Le Golf National charges €50 for a set for 18 holes, the same price as its buggy. Do the sums before you book. Two rounds with €40 sets cost €80, the same as a Ryanair return with your own bag. A five-round week at Cornelia costs €200 in hire, which is more than double that fee. For a full week in Belek, your own clubs usually win unless the airline charges more than €200 return for the bag. Hire still makes sense for a single round in Paris on a city break, or on a Lofoten trip that uses the small planes into Svolvær or Leknes.
A checklist before you book.
Check six things before you book. First, which airline flies each leg, and what does it charge for a golf bag? Ryanair charges €/£40 each way at booking. Second, if you are flying Turkish Airlines, have you read its golf page yourself, including any end date on a free allowance? Third, does the bag weigh less than the limit in its travel case? On Ryanair that is 20 kg. Fourth, if you are shipping, have you booked at least seven days before pickup and allowed 7 to 11 business days in transit, plus a day or two before your first tee time? Fifth, is any part of the trip in Norway or Turkey, where a shipped bag crosses a customs border and duty may be due? For Norway, take the clubs with you. Sixth, have you taken rangefinders, trackers and medication out of any bag you ship? Then compare the total with hire sets at €40 to €50 a round.
Price your own route before you decide.
Enter your home address and your Belek, Paphos, Peloponnese, Sicily or Paris course or hotel, and Luggage Forward shows the price and pickup dates, including whether it serves that address.
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