(MONEY Magazine) – Golf can be part of a vacation--or it can be the vacation. If you're interested in the former, there's likely a fine course available at or near any vacation destination you can name. If the latter, you need something special: a place with a range of world-class, public access courses to choose from. And even if you don't plan a 36-hole-a-day golf orgy, you probably want at least some of those courses to offer value. Alabama's Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail (page 133) is a unique example--but hardly the only one. Here are four more suggestions, listed from East Coast to West Coast.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.

With some 120 courses, Myrtle Beach is home to the greatest assemblage of public access courses anywhere. It's almost impossible not to get great golf for your money (the golf package was invented in Myrtle Beach, after all), but the town has largely shed its bargain-basement, "Redneck Riviera" image. The 1990s boom added loads of world-class facilities and a clientele to match. Playing many of the finest courses here requires a surcharge on top of package prices, but what makes Myrtle Beach an enduring value is that there's no time of year when greens fees (highest in spring and fall) and room rates (most expensive in summer) peak together. And though the winter weather is mild--the average daytime temperature in January is 54[degrees]F--prices are a steal on both fronts. Highlights: The Dunes, Long Bay Club, The Legends, Tidewater Plantation, Caledonia and Pine Lakes. Go to www.golfholiday.com or call 800-845-4653 for package information. From Dec. 1 to Jan. 23, three nights at the Four Points Sheraton Resort, breakfast and three rounds of golf (cart included) at your choice of several premier courses is $210 per person if you arrive on Sunday.

PORT ST. LUCIE, FLA.

The PGA Golf Club here, about 45 miles north of Palm Beach, offers three of the region's finest public access courses at strikingly reasonable prices. Two are designed by renowned course architect Tom Fazio and have been top-rated since they opened in 1996. The third course, designed by the equally revered Pete Dye and opened in 1999, is notable for the vast Florida marshland that comes into play on several holes. Greens fees range from $29 to $75. Hotel package details are available at www.pgavillage .com or by calling 800-800-4653.

SAN ANTONIO

Some of the country's finest Tex-Mex food and the exuberant nightlife along the lovely Paseo del Rio, which traces the San Antonio River, make for what may be the perfect "19th hole" arrangements anywhere. That's especially so when you consider the topnotch (and reasonably priced) golf in the area. Among our favorite courses: Cedar Creek, Pecan Valley and The Quarry, which is literally laid out in an abandoned cement quarry and features a back nine that runs along 130-foot-high rock walls and a hole that doglegs around a canyon. Greens fees at the Quarry are $95 to $110. Call 800-447-3372 for a San Antonio golf guide.

MESA, ARIZ.

Mesa and the surrounding towns of Tempe, Chandler and Gilbert offer a laid-back (and generally less expensive) alternative to the ritzy golf resorts of nearby Scottsdale. As you'd expect, the courses generally take advantage of the area's desert topography, featuring red-rock mesas and buttes, cactus forests and gullies. Our favorite places in the area to play include the Las Sendas Golf Club, Raven Golf Club at South Mountain, Gold Canyon Golf Club, Ocotillo Golf Club and Superstition Springs Golf Club. We recommend taking advantage of a hotel package that gets you onto any of 13 area courses at discounted rates. The deal runs $119 a day, golf not included, at the Hilton Phoenix East/Mesa (866-446-5366). Go to www.mesacvb.com for more info.