Admittedly I do not play golf, but I do absolutely love St Andrews. My gran lives in the centre of St Andrews and for the last few years I have become fairly familiar with the area through friends at University there, and weekend trips to eat scones and gossip with my fabulous Gran! The town has such beautiful architecture and history, the cobbled streets, old harbour walls and castle attract a huge amount of tourists in the summer, so I actually prefer to visit during the winter months when all is a little quieter. In January I can get Jannettas ice cream without a 20 minute queue, and a walk on the beautiful sands without many people around. So to beat those infamous January blues I booked a chilled weekend in St Andrews at The Fairmont Hotel – which is located in all its glory at the top of the hill just 10 minutes from the town centre. I say in all its glory, as this 5* establishment is HUGE, 520 acres to be exact and it is absolutely beautiful.
Once checked in, we were treated to a champagne afternoon tea, courtesy of The Fairmont. Inspired by ‘The Savoy’ in London, The Fairmont’s Savoy afternoon tea was something truly special; traditional, elegant and tasty! The menu offers 28 different types of tea to accompany the three courses of finger sandwiches, seasonal cakes and impressive bakes. Although I’d say read the menu twice before ordering, because I totally overindulged on the first course… not realising there was another two to follow. But our waiter kindly boxed up everything we couldn’t finish!
The hotel itself was such a lovely place to chill out, with so many places to sit and relax it would be easy to spend all day there reading a book, drinking coffee or even a few cocktails… which we also sampled! The staff are all incredibly attentive, we were actually really impressed with the service.
I totally forgot to take a snap of our room, which was a Deluxe Sea View Room. But it was really spacious, elegantly decorated with quirky Scottish touches! Our bathroom was huge, with a large walk in shower and a luxurious bath!
…and this was the sunrise I woke up to!
The Fairmont Spa was defiantly one of the best hotel spa’s I’ve ever been to; even although we didn’t book in for any treatments it was really nice to wrap up in robes and relax by the pool for an hour in the evening. The hotel is super family friendly (which is great) but did mean that there was a lot of kids around in the evenings playing in the pool – so that’s something to consider if you wanted a child free zone!
After breakfast on Sunday morning we wandered round the golf courses (of which there are two) – and had coffees in the clubhouse, which has stunning panoramic views over the courses and St Andrews Bay!
Overall, our stay was fantastic. A beautiful location for a romantic and chilled night away. A walk round St Andrews is always so lovely as well, with plenty of options for good food and drinks!
R x
Rona McMillan 