hsv

Having received so much good advice from friendly people here on Fodor's, I'd like to follow up with a short trip report about my trip to St. Andrews on the occasion of this year's Open tournament held there.
I will not necessarily outline things in the order they happened but will rather divide this into different chapters as I hope people can thus pick out the particular information they might be interested in more easily.
I will in particular elaborate on the following subjects:

- Background of this trip
- Flying KLM
- Rental Car from Sixt
- Driving in the left lane
- St. Andrews Bay Resort Hotel
- The Open
- Edinburgh excursion
- Meals or finding something to eat
- Weather
- Resumé and Acknowledgements


<b>Background of this trip</b>
Sometime in life one lucks out. I did on this occasion. I won tickets to The Open in some German sweepstakes that I had participated in upon a recommendation of my dad. As he had given me the tip and as this was supposed to be a long weekend (Thursday to Monday) all about Golf, which my girlfriend does not care for too much anyway, I asked my dad to come along, knowing that this should be a trip very well suited for a father-and-son-outing.


<b>Flying KLM </b>
Flights were booked on KLM as they had the most reasonable schedule for travelling between Hamburg and Edinburgh available on short notice. Each way we had to connect in Amsterdam. Each ticket cost a pretty steep EUR 593,26 including fees and taxes, but would have been available for less had the flights not been booked only 10 days in advance.
BTW German low-cost carrier HLX has tickets for nonstop-flights between Hamburg and Edinburgh available for only EUR 19.99 if you book far enough ahead in advance.

The flights out of and into Hamburg were each on a small Fokker jet. The flight from Amsterdam to Edinburgh was also a small Fokker (actually the same one that we had been using coming in from Hamburg), the flight out of Edinburgh to Amsterdam was a Boeing 737. Flights were fully booked and the seating configuration was especially tight on the Fokkers with two seats to the right of the aisle and three to its left. This is valid for business class, too.
Service was reasonably friendly and on the flight out of Hamburg they even offered some English or Dutch newspapers.

Their food is horrible, though. I know that some people consider any airline food to be inedible, which I cannot say for myself. But should anybody be offered a sandwich on a KLM flight I'd strongly recommend they friendly decline.
Their selection of beverages was not too impressive either. On the flight from Amsterdam to Edinburgh they only offered Orange Juice, Coffee, Tea or Water. No other soft drinks.
I was unable to notice any difference in either seating, service (apart from newspapers being available on all fights in business class) or food between business class and Coach. Thus, I would think flying Business is not really worth the steeper price tag.

Check-in on the outbound flight from Edinburgh was a catastrophe. We had reconfirmed our flights (a habit I keep sticking to) the day before by telephone. We arrived at the airport about 1 hour and 45 minutes before departure. With two lines open and 6 people in front of us, it took more than an hour until it was our turn – and actually only because a nice American gentlemen was kind enough to let us step in front of him when he noticed that we were booked on the 10.40 h flight, while his flight was much later.
It took them another 25 minutes to check us in – without being able to assign us connected seats. Communication was non-existent. No apologies, no explanation of what their problem was. I only gathered from several phone calls that they had overbooked the flight and in addition had let on stand-by passengers which they started trying to get off again once they noticed that regularly booked passengers indeed did show up. I will say here that the lady at check-in was the only unfriendly person I encountered on the whole trip.

Connecting in Amsterdam was rather easy in both directions. On our outbound trip, we had a time span of slightly more than an hour. Upon our return, we had even more time with 2 hours and 20 minutes to be killed.
Walking distances between gates were far, though, so some time should be factored in.

Restaurants at the airport are extremely expensive. We had intended to kill some time by having a nice lunch on our way back, but decided that a restaurant charging EUR 20.00 for some Spaghetti Bolognese could not possibly be worth the expense. We instead retreated to a food court with a selection of some bakery, a Sbarro's and a McDonald's. The sandwiches we had did not exactly make for a nice lunch as we had planned, but were still far better than the dubious sandwiches offered by KLM.

hsv

<b>Rental Car from Sixt</b>
The rental car was booked through Sixt. It was a brand new Ford Focus with six miles on it that also featured a GPS system. It was an automatic, which may have helped to make driving in the left lane a bit easier. The price for the rental with pick-up on Thursday and drop-off on Monday morning was GBP 149.60.
Sixt does not have a counter in the terminal. There is a free phone, though, which one can use to make a call. They will send their driver immediately. The Sixt Bus usually stops in front of Bus Stop No.3 outside the terminal.
Their parking lot and office are about a 10 minute drive away from the Terminal and their service is incredibly friendly and accommodating. This includes not only the Manager and the staff at the counter, but also their drivers.
This is the main reason why I would strongly recommend their services, even though one has to allow for a short wait for the bus, which might be slightly less convenient than when one uses one of the other major rental companies.


<b>Driving in the left lane</b>
Traffic does not move at a particularly fast pace in Scotland, from what I encountered. Drivers were attentive and well mannered, which is why I found driving on the &quot;wrong&quot; side of the road not the least bit disturbing.
Roads (especially in the countryside) are pretty narrow, though, which is why I would not encourage anybody to rent a car bigger than a BMW 3 series or Audi A4 to name only a few.
The Focus turned out to be good for two people, although I wouldn't have minded if it had had a bit more pep in its engine (just for the fun of it).
Even driving in Edinburgh upon a short excursion there did not turn out to be a hassle. Although signs were not exactly abundant and orientation therefore was not too easy, the traffic itself was absolutely no issue. I had been warned here and cautioned to take a train into the city, but with the sparse time we had, we decided to give it a try and still use the car. I will add that this was a Saturday afternoon/night, so at least there were no commuters, which may well have eased things a bit.

hsv

<b>St. Andrews Bay Resort Hotel</b>
Our accommodation was at the St. Andrews Bay Hotel just outside of St. Andrews.
The hotel is considered a 5 star property and is very nice. Situated between two links-style golf courses, it overlooks St. Andrews Bay as its name suggests from a cliff-top location.
Despite being located out of town, the lovely town of St. Andrews is easily reachible by the Hotel's complimentary shuttle bus. During the Open the shuttle was running twice an hour and the drive took about 10 minutes into the center of town. I was told that normally the shuttle would run once an hour, which appears to be pretty good and absolutely sufficient.

The Hotel is owned by American millionaire/billionaire (?) Don Panoz, who allegedly has made his fortune through nicotine band aids (at least I was told this by an employee of the hotel) and – as I recall myself - has come to some notoriety by building his own race cars with which he challenged Audi at the Le Mans 24 hour races (to no avail, but still very respectably for an independent participant). He also owns the Chateau Elan Hotels in Atlanta, Georgia and Sebring, Florida as well as the Diablo Grande in California's wine country and the Granite Steps in Savannah, Georgia.
Service is very friendly and welcoming throughout the property. Some of their restaurant staff could use some better professional training, but they definitely made up for some lack of expertise by their friendliness.
They have valet parking, but one can also self park without any fee.

Their rooms are nice enough and of good size. The bathrooms have separate showers and bathtubs – and the shower cabins are huge. There is no separation from the toilet, though.

What was extremely disappointing was the view. Or rather the lack of it. One has to imagine a hotel that stands completely by itself in a gorgeous landscape where to three sides the North Sea is normally visible and where you can look for miles and even see the Firth of Forth in the distance. Ironically though, from one side of the hotel all one can see is a milky glass roof that runs parallel to the building on full length, i.e. an estimated 150 yards. The roof covers the atrium of the hotel, where their buffet restaurant and their convention facilities are located. But the architect can only be described to have been extremely daft to design a roof that completely blocks the view from a considerable portion of the rooms. We had a room on the highest floor (3rd floor) and we could not see a thing because of this monstrosity just about 5 yards away.
We did not mind this too much, as this was a guy's trip and we intended to spend our time at the Open tournament and the Golf course, but it would certainly have bothered me considerably had I been there for a weekend with my girlfriend.
I also would have wished the windows would have opened completely even though the room was air conditioned. But the clean air up there could have been so enjoyable in the room.

On the plus side, they did have a very nice pool and also a small sauna which came in handy after a long day of walking and standing attending the tournament.

Another plus are the on-site golf courses. We played a round of Golf at the Course designed by Bruce Devlin (the other one is a Sam Torrance lay-out) – and it is a true test, while still very enjoyable. Its maintenance was immaculate and I cannot praise it enough. We walked the course, because I feel that is the true spirit of the game and it usually gives me a much better feeling for distances. However, the course is long and crosses some gorges, so renting a cart might be considered. I noticed that the carts were equipped with GPS systems that would indicate distances to the Greens.
As pace of play was very resort-like (in order to not call it outright slow), a cart would also have helped in providing some place to sit for the times when I had to wait for the guys in front of us – who must have played for serious money. Otherwise I cannot imagine why anyone would plumb-bob for a double bogey…

hsv

<b>The Open</b>
This year's Open was special for many reasons. It was held at St. Andrews, widely acknowledged as the cradle of Golf. It was also Jack Nicklaus' last major tournament and Jack stepped back with a birdie on the final hole to end one of golf's greatest careers. Finally it was the first time I came to Scotland and attended the tournament ;-).
It is hard to describe this event. First of all, the atmosphere is truly special. This definitely is an event in a golfing society with about the most knowledgable audience I have ever encountered on a Golf Course.
We had great tickets that gave us access not only to public areas, but also to the press tent and other restricted areas, which made the event even more fun.
For people considering a trip to the Open I do have one word of caution, though. This year's Open had an attendance of about 55,000 spectators per day (average). As the Old Course is not that wide, barriers were erected pretty far from the Fairways. Counting in the number of spectators this makes it pretty difficult to follow one particular flight for a complete round. The marshals were extremely courteous, polite, friendly and I don't know what else to call them and thus made watching the tournament very enjoyable, but especially during the final round one is definitely better of securing a seat on one of the many stands.

As I have already mentioned the Scots are extremely friendly and accommodating hosts, which also showed when I needed some sunscreen on the second day of the tournament. The police would not let fans get off the grounds already some time before Jack's final hole. Upon asking where on the compound I might be able to get some much needed sunscreen lotion, I was supplied by one police officer himself. I was flattered and have to chuckle somewhat imagining what would have happened if I had asked the German police for sunscreen – most certainly a completely different outcome.

The Old Course appears to be a great course. While not visually attractive, this has still history written all about it. In addition the grass evidently is of high quality and I'd love to return and play there at sometime. The surroundings are also quite nice. There is a beach adjacent that sports white sand and quiet and crystal clear waters. In fact I managed to take a short dip on my lunch break on the tournament on Saturday.

<b>Excursion to Edinburgh</b>
The Open Tournament was even more fascinating than I had imagined it to be. We therefore decided to start off to Edinburgh only on Saturday at around 4.30 p.m. The drive from St. Andrews, although not far distance-wise did take its time as we stuck to the coastal route via Anstruther, Leven and Kircaldy before hitting the motorway across the (car) bridge at the Firth of Forth.
We managed to make it into town and found a car park close to the castle. We then reconsidered that choice as we noticed that there were quite a couple of parking spaces roadside. On second glance they turned out to be for residents only, though. We then found a place to park free of charge on Waterloo Place.
We crossed North Bridge on foot and strolled up to the castle. This turned out to be closed as they were setting up some stands apparently for use in the Edinburgh Festival. As it was already around 7 p.m. by now, this was not that much of a pity as our time was pretty limited anyway. We then strolled down the Royal Mile appreciating the medieval architecture and lively atmosphere.
The new Parliament is indeed stunning and I found the idea to include so many plates displaying local proverbs and quotes from local poets especially appealing.
I do acknowledge that we spent far too little time in the city, but the purpose of this trip was a different one and having taken a first look at the city I am certain that I will return here.

hsv

<b>Meals or finding something to eat</b>
Finding something to eat for dinner during the Open is difficult. St. Andrews is a small town and is overrun by tourists, fans, the press and other media for the Open tournament, so one needs reservations at most restaurants.
In our package with the hotel we had included dinner for two nights at our choice of their restaurants, of which there are three.

One of the restaurants at the St. Andrews Bay Resort is a buffet style place called <u>Squires:</u> The Squires is located in the already mentioned atrium of the St. Andrews Bay. They feature a buffet which has a choice of day's soup, various salads and a choice of three main dishes including one seafood entr&eacute;e along with side dishes to match. There is also a dessert buffet with about four or five options. The food is decent. For a buffet it is pretty good and the choices for the main course are more than standard, I would think. Service was friendly, but a bit clueless. We ordered a bottle of sparkling water, but got some still. After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, I reminded them about the wine we had ordered. It took them another ten minutes to finally bring it. This in itself isn't that much of a problem, but with a buffet waiting, this is a bit too long in my book. Evidently our waiter had not been trained (yet) to open bottles, which is why she had to get another waiter to take care of that. We went there for our first evening and for just a quick bite at night this was fine, but it was not a place I would necessarily return to, especially since the atrium creates an airy but not exactly cozy atmosphere (which for two guys having dinner was not that important ;-) anyway).
They also serve a buffet style breakfast at the Squires, which we had on all days of our stay. The choices are plentiful and they will cater to special requests free of charge in their show-style kitchen. Breakfast was great, although I have to admit that I skipped the Haggis and blood-pudding part of it.

<u>Bar at the St. Andrews Resort:</u> The bar at the St. Andrews Resort in contrast is a very cozy place. Nice deep leather sofas and comfortable armchairs make for a relaxed yet refined atmosphere. They serve more than decent pub grub. There is a choice of different beers on tap and the whiskey list should suffice to please the most discerning afficionados.

<u>The Guildford Arms, Edinburgh:</u> On the occasion of our short visit to Edinburgh, we ended up here. The Hub as recommended by fellow Fodorite sheila was already full. As was the Royal MacGregor on the Royal Mile recommended by travel_junkie. We therefore decided to take a look at New Town and the area around George Street and ended up at the Guildford Arms pub. We certainly could have done worse. The Guildford Arms on 1 West Register St. (basically across the street from the Balmoral Hotel and next door to Caf&eacute; Royal, evidently another Edinburgh classic) is a classically Victorian pub with a slightly more modern upstairs gallery which affords views of the patrons downstairs. We ended up getting the only free table left up there and enjoyed some really good dinner along with a few pints – just enough to not get into trouble on our way back to St. Andrews.

<u>The Clubhouse:</u> The Clubhouse is another of the St. Andrews Bay Resort's restaurants. It is separated from the hotel and sits directly above the Bay in a cliff-top location. Its interior is done in dark woods catering to a very relaxed atmosphere. We enjoyed our last meal of the trip here. The food was delicious and portions are generous. This was an informal place, and the food, while not gourmet style, was expertly prepared. We had some excellent Syrah from proprietor Mr. Panoz' own winery in California which was even reasonably priced. The chocolate dessert I had was to die for. The whiskeys to wash it down and to toast on a great trip were good but came at a price. I liked this place a lot and would return if I were to stay there again.

One night we had intended to dine outside the Hotel. Aware of the masses in town, we thought we might as well try our luck in one of the nearby towns and combine a small tour of the country with having dinner. This turned out to be useless. Our trip that started at around 7 p.m. took us to Crail and Anstruther. Every single establishment that was fairly inviting (there were a couple, among them the Waterfront in Anstruther) was completely booked. Still having enjoyed the scenery we returned at around 9.45 p.m. to the hotel where we had a small dinner at the Bar.

hsv

<b>Weather</b>
We were very lucky with the weather. Travelling to Scotland I had thought I could leave the sunscreen at home. This turned out to be quite a mistake, as I had already mentioned earlier in this thread (for those who have made it all the way here). Temperatures were in the mid 70s all the time (around 25 degrees Centigrade) and only on finals day there turned up some clouds. It was still warm, though.


<b>Resum&eacute; and Acknowledgements</b>
This was a great, if a bit exhausting, trip for both me and my father. We still had a terrific time with each other and visiting The Open at St. Andrews is certainly sort of a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Scots were the friendliest and most accommodating people I have encountered on my travels anywhere. The scenery is great and certainly not as harsh as I would have imagined it to be.
I would be hesitant to fly KLM again as I thought their performance was only mediocre.
The St. Andrews Bay Resort certainly is a very nice hotel – although I would think it's rather a very good 4 than a 5 star. For people wishing to stay there, be sure to ask for a room not facing that ridiculous glass roof.
sheila's recommendation of strolling down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh was spot on and I do wish to express my gratitude, which also goes to all the other well-meaning posters on my previous thread. I do apologize for not finding enough time to follow-up on all the suggestions.
Thanks to everbody for reading all the way to down here.

hsv

JJBhoy

hsv,

Thanks for your very full report - you are always very generous with your advice for visitors to Germany &amp; so I'm glad that you enjoyed your trip to Scotland.

Just make sure that you do re-visit Edinburgh - you won't regret it!

Jim