Hotels in St Andrews

Deciding where to stay in St Andrews comes down to one question: how much of your time will be spent on the golf courses, and how much in the town? The two are only ten minutes apart on foot, but the difference in atmosphere, and in price, is considerable.

The Scores is the address most visitors picture. This clifftop terrace above the castle holds a run of large Victorian houses, most now hotels, and the better rooms look over the bay towards the Angus coast. It is quiet at night, five minutes from both the cathedral and the first tee, and priced accordingly. The Old Course end of town, around Golf Place and Pilmour Links, is more expensive again for the simple reason that you can see the eighteenth green from some windows; if golf is the point of the trip, the premium is easy to justify, and if it is not, you are paying for a view you may not use.

For a first visit, or any trip without a car, basing yourself on or just behind the three central streets makes the most sense. Everything worth walking to is genuinely walkable, the restaurants and pubs are on the doorstep, and you can leave the car for the whole weekend. The compromise is that rooms in converted townhouses are often small, and weekend nights carry some street noise.

The best value tends to sit slightly west of the centre, in the guest houses and B&Bs around Murray Park, Kinburn and Hepburn Gardens. These are family-run for the most part, breakfast is usually a highlight rather than an afterthought, parking is far less of a struggle, and the walk into town is under ten minutes. Groups and anyone staying a week should also look at the self-catering townhouses in the same streets, which work out considerably cheaper per head than several hotel rooms.

Book early for the Dunhill Links week or an Open year, when the town sells out months ahead and rates roughly double. Midweek nights between November and March are the best value on this coast.