Disc Golf Over Olive Groves: Alvaiázere Bets on Year-Round Tourism

A handful of plastic discs are quietly redefining how one of Portugal’s smallest municipalities imagines its economic future. Inland Alvaiázere, better known for olive groves than international arrivals, has just opened a second course designed for the soaring sport of disc golf. Local officials are betting that mild winters, botanical scenery and an enthusiast community that already spans Finland to New Zealand will turn the town into a magnet when the Algarve beaches empty out.

A quiet inland county bets big on plastic discs

Standing on a ridge above the Mata do Carrascal Botanical Park, Mayor João Paulo Guerreiro conceded that most Portuguese still confuse disc golf with beach frisbee. Yet the numbers he studies tell a different story. The sport already circulates “hundreds of millions of euros a year” worldwide, and its strongest bases—North America and the Nordic countries—search for temperate training grounds the moment snow blankets their fairways. “If even a fraction of that spending lands here,” he insists, Alvaiázere’s 6 000 residents will feel it in new jobs and livelier cafés.

Winter sun meets Nordic drives: why Portugal is on the map

Central Portugal’s winter high of 15-18 °C hits the sweet spot for athletes fleeing Oslo’s minus temperatures. Tourism strategists point out that Portugal already welcomes traditional golfers during the so-called shoulder season; offering disc golf layouts simply widens the funnel. Bruno Gravato, who coordinates PDGA Europe in Lisbon, argues that the country has “3000 hours of sun a year and airport links an hour from nearly every course.” That combination, he says, gives visiting players “outdoor practice when their home clubs are literally iced shut.”

Two Swedes, one farm, and a 15-hectare playground

The local story began when Swedish partners Anders Gustafsson and Elin Ström moved to Alvaiázere and persuaded landowner Amaral Carvalho to clear throwing lanes through his hillside farm. A year later the private Valle D’Encanto Disc Golf Park boasts three 18-basket tracks and a shorter nine-hole loop. More than 500 foreign scorecards have been logged, with accents ranging from Texas drawls to Helsinki vowels. Plans for a five-star, 100-room hotel next to the first tee are on Carvalho’s desk, aiming to capture teams that currently rent rural villas scattered across the county.

Public course inside a botanical park opens the sport to all

Last weekend the municipality cut the ribbon on the Carrascal Disc Golf Course, threading fairways between cork oaks, wild heather and a stand of strawberry trees five minutes on foot from the town square. Where Valle D’Encanto challenges seasoned arms, the new layout targets beginners, school groups and tourists who arrive without specialised discs. Municipal workers added bilingual signage explaining local flora so that a mis-throw becomes an impromptu botany lesson. An accessible loop for players with reduced mobility is in final design, responding to pressure from Portuguese para-sport federations for more inclusive outdoor venues.

From barnyard to boutique: hospitality tightens the ecosystem

Valle D’Encanto’s fairways double as an quinta pedagógica, meaning competitors occasionally putt past baby donkeys, goats and grazing sheep. Fresh tangerines hang within reach of tee boxes, and caddies teach visitors to peel cork if they ask. This rustic charm is about to collide with upscale lodging. Preliminary blueprints show spa suites, a recovery pool and fast fibre internet—amenities crucial for remote-working athletes who extend stays beyond a weekend tournament. Meanwhile, City Hall is pressing CP and Rede Expressos for a seasonal shuttle connecting the courses to Coimbra-B rail hub, hoping to lower the current car-rental barrier.

Early signs of an off-season tourism engine

Local restaurant owner Catarina Neves says January once meant closing her doors mid-week; last winter she stayed open after spotting Finnish and Canadian players queuing for bacalhau at 21:00. Though Turismo de Portugal has yet to isolate disc golf in its spreadsheets, informal tallies by course operators suggest visitor spend topping €1 500 per player per week, factoring accommodation, meals, green fees and, increasingly, custom-moulded discs sold on-site. Guerreiro’s administration has earmarked part of next year’s budget to market Alvaiázere at PDGA trade fairs in Stockholm and Charlotte.

The national picture: eight courses, rising curiosity

Portugal now lists 8 permanent disc golf venues, five with 18 or more baskets, up from three before the pandemic. Tracks in Aljezur, São Luís, Cantanhede and Amadora have hosted PDGA-sanctioned leagues and will share a six-event winter series promoted by Natural Born Disc Golfer this December. The calendar pinnacle arrives 18-19 October 2025, when Valle D’Encanto stages the Portuguese National Championship. Organisers forecast a maximum field of 120 athletes, the limit before tees bottleneck, and are already vetting volunteer translators and physiotherapists.

Whether those discs deliver a lasting economic bounce remains unproven, but the early trajectory suggests Alvaiázere has tapped into a sporting movement whose pioneers still remember the first Portuguese fairways by name. In this corner of Leiria district, a plastic flyer floating through crisp winter air could soon be as emblematic as the region’s prized olive oil.