How To Book Bandon Dunes

Bandon Dunes​ is one of the greatest golf trips on planet earth, a voyage that sits on every golf bucket list in America, for good reason. But that popularity has come with a bit of frustration among golfers ready and willing to make the trek to the remote slice of coastal Oregon: It’s really damn hard to secure a spot.

Tens of thousands of people are entering the resort’s lottery system every year. But here in 2026, you do have a few additional routes to booking Bandon. Consider this our attempt to sort through the complicated system and make sense of your options.

Option #1: Enter the drawing

Let’s start with that lottery system. As of one month ago—April 20th, to be precise—all four reservation windows for the 2027 Bandon Dunes golf season have come and gone. If you didn’t luck into a spot, you’ll have to wait until the 2028 lottery opens up (possibly this September, if recent history holds) and be ready to jump into the drawing.

Right ​here​, you can read all the details on how Bandon handled 2027, its second full season since moving to a lottery format. But the short version is this: the resort sliced the year into four distinct reservations periods and opened separate sign-up windows for each. To enter the January through March 2027 lottery, for instance, you needed to throw your name in the hat by mid-September 2025. The next three windows closed in October, December, and April, respectively.

The resort drew names within a couple weeks of each sign-up window, sent out emails to let people know they were chosen and notify them of their place in line, and then called them when it was their turn to book.

There’s no guarantee the 2028 season will work exactly the same, of course, but at this point, the above feels like a more-or-less established recipe. There’s a form at the bottom of this ​page​ where you can express your future interest and ensure you’re notified when Bandon settles on its 2028 drawing windows.

Option 2: Keep a keen eye on the lodging availability calendar

Here’s where your ability to stay nimble and perhaps tighten your group to a few flexible friends can work to your advantage.

Because if you’re not quite so precious with your selected dates, you can occasionally do something that feels like magic: Skip the lottery system altogether and still book on-site accommodations and golf across Bandon’s five 18-hole courses.

The trick is to frequently check Bandon’s ​lodging availability calendar​, which gives you a glimpse at what dates have popped open due to cancellations. When you see something that could work, drop what you’re doing and call the resort to talk through your booking.

At current check, finding a stretch of three straight nights on property this summer is a tall order—but one such window does appear to exist on a Thursday through Saturday in August (see below). Things open up as you get into the colder months, and as of this writing, plenty of dates appear available (limited or otherwise) in November and December. It’s a dice roll, weather-wise, but it’s an option for folks who want to experience Bandon Dunes—resort and golf—sooner rather than later. And you’ll certainly get a break on price: Resort guest greens fees dip as low as $130 in December and January, with replays costing just $65.

Option #3: Go golf-only

Maybe the cleanest way of them all? Decide to ditch Bandon lodging altogether, bunk up in a short-term rental house, and set up your tee times from there.

As it turns out, the supply problem is most pronounced on the lodging side of the equation, which means in many cases, plenty of tee times still exist. And from ​several​ ​reports​, your chances of securing them are quite strong.

Two big timing notes here:

• For April through November dates, you can book tee times as far out as a year. So, your best strategy for these months is to figure out your travel dates before the slots open and be ready to call exactly a year out.
• For December through March dates, however, the system works much differently. You can only book 21 days out. In this case, you may need to book lodging ahead of time and call for tee times right when that three-week window opens. Again, nothing is guaranteed, but as of this writing, you can search around and find a few recent, first-hand accounts that the approach works. These folks were able to book a full Bandon slate because they were comfortable with their itinerary remaining a mystery until the tight booking window opened.

To be sure, part of the experience of Bandon is baked into a stay on-property. The shuttle system is like none other, a constant on-demand flow of buses that take you around the property, to and from all five 18-hole courses, the two short courses, the famous after-golf social hang that is the Punchbowl putting course, and the resort’s restaurants and bars, like the legendary McKee’s Pub.

But there are plenty of people who won’t care so much about those extras. And even for those who do, there does come a point at which it just makes sense to take your Bandon experience off-resort. For many people, coming up goose-egg a time or two in the lottery is that point.

If you do go the day-guest route, there are a few caveats to consider. The resort won’t let you book a tee time until after 10 a.m., which makes timing up a full 36-hole day a real challenge (though not impossible). That may serve to elongate your vacation at a place where you’re trying to squeeze five 18-hole rounds into the plans (not to mention the two short courses).

Again, there’s advantage here to traveling with a smaller crew, or even a twosome like ​this redditor​ did; even in August, the two were able to get last-minute tee times to all five courses from Tuesday through Thursday. It’s possible, people!

The greens fees are $50 higher per round for day guests than for those staying at the resort. But that’s not much of a deterrent—you’ll likely more than make up for it with cheaper, off-site accommodations.

Bottom line

If you’ve been frustrated by Bandon’s switch to a lottery system, know that there are ways to circumvent the system. You’ll need to be flexible. You’ll need to be opportunistic, ready to book without much notice. And you may need to reduce your group size a bit. But it’ll be worth it to experience the American golf mecca that is Bandon Dunes.

Pricing details

Overall range (golf + lodging): $2,215 – $4,225
• Assumes four days, four nights

Golf: $1,755 – $2,125

• Resort guest rates:
  • Peak months—$375 | $190 for replays
  • Winter—$130 | $65 for replays
• Day guest rates: $50 more than resort guests

Lodging: $460 – $2,100

• Two-person room at The Inn: $230 – $420 per night
• Four-person suite at The Lodge: $1,300 – $2,100
• Full list of options and rates ​here​.

​Travel considerations
• You’re about 35 minutes from North Bend Oregon regional or about 2.5 hours from the more widely serviced airport in Eugene.