Side trips from St. Andrews

[cldtn]

I have trip planned in the summer of 2019. Paris to London to St. Andrews. Two couples traveling and we wrap our trip up with three days in St. Andrews. We will be arriving in St. Andrews via the Caledonian Sleeper train.

 

Questions:

 

1) Guys plan on playing golf so what are some good day trips from St. Andrews for the ladies?

2) Anyone had any experience on the Caledonian Sleeper? Good? Bad? Ugly?

3) Easiest travel from St. Andrews to EDI (no rental car)?

 

Thanks in advance and always appreciate the local advice posted on these boards.

[Matt J]

Looking forward to reading responses. Been planning a Ireland/Scotland trip and am curious about ground transport.

 

 

 

[tiderider]

doubt there's anything the ladies would want that does not exist in st andrews ... might want to look into surrounding castles, maybe ... my first trip over was in march, many years ago, and a snow blizzard hit, so we decided to trek out one day (or i decided we should) and attempt to visit glamis castle, which is the setting (sort of) for macbeth ... got stuck in the snow and could barely make it out (before cell phones), so i was not allowed to direct any further 'treks' for the trip ... would think there's a daily train to edinburgh ...

[Chanceman]

The new V&A Museum in Dundee is supposed to be worth seeing and quite close to St Andrews.

[Superbrit]

I know my Missus and my dads girlfriend spent 1 whole day just seeing stuff in St Andrews

 

Shopping in the town centre

The castle ruins

St Andrews Museum

Aquarium

Botanic Gardens

 

All within 10 mins walking distance

[davep043]

With a car, lots more things are available. My wife and I took a drive to Stirling and toured the castle there, stopped by Loch Leven on the way back. They could take a drive along the south coast of Fife, stopping in at a number of the small villages. The gardens at Cambo are open to visit, pretty close to Kingsbarns. The train to Edinburgh leaves from Leuchars, a short bus or taxi ride from St Andrews, and Edinburgh has plenty to offer.

[dcmidnight]

3) Easiest travel from St. Andrews to EDI (no rental car)?

 

There are any number of travel companies that would take you in a van for what is probably a pretty reasonable rate. I think our travel agent used St Andrews Executive Travel but there are a bunch of other ones too. Whenever we got to a particular course we would see vans from a half dozen different ones.

[Hawkeye77]

With arrival and departure, 3 days really isn't 3 days most of the time. There is a ton for everyone to do in St. Andrews that doesn't involve golf. Pottery in Crail, head to Anstruther for fish and ships and if they like hiking about and photographing puffins take the boat to the Isle of May (but pretty stark terrain, not a "walk in the park") are nice side trips. If you aren't getting a rental car then it's bus (are they up for that?) or cabs for side trips. Get a cab to a train station and take a day trip to downtown Edinburgh - plenty to do and see there and not a long train ride.

 

As far as the overnight train, enjoy. I looked it up once just on a lark (never been to London), and that looked like a torture chamber of an experience.

[clp34vmp]

We went to Glamis Castle this past summer while in SA. We thought it was a worthwhile excursion. We had a car so it was fairly easy - probably took the better part of an hour. You go right through Dundee on the way - I thought the new V&A museum there (which unfortunately was still a few weeks from opening at that time) looked amazing. Crail and the villages just down the coast looked like they would be a lot of fun to explore, but there's tons to do in the town of St. Andrews itself.

[Stall]

 

3) Easiest travel from St. Andrews to EDI (no rental car)?

 

 

Look on the Stagecoach website. There is a bus X59 i think that goes every hour from St Andrews to Edinburgh. I think it takes about an hour and a half. Good quality coach.

[Shrinkwr4p]

The newly opened V&A Museum in Dundee is well worth a visit (https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee). It's only 30 minutes from St Andrews and right next to the train station. We spent time there on Wednesday and loved it. The reconstructed Charles Rennie Mackintosh Oak Room is stunning. ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-45432993) And as a bonus, berthed right next to the museum is the Discovery (https://www.rrsdiscovery.com/) which took both Scott and Shackleton to the Antarctic.

[Shrinkwr4p]

Easiest travel from St. Andrews to EDI (no rental car)? Train from nearby Leuchars - maybe 10 minutes from St Andrews by taxi.

[Shrinkwr4p]

Easiest travel from St. Andrews to EDI (no rental car)? Train from nearby Leuchars - maybe 10 minutes from St Andrews by taxi.

 

Sorry. I misinterpreted your query. I was thinking about St Andrews to central Edinburgh rather than EDI.

Still, you could take the train to Edinburgh Waverly from which it's half an hour (direct) by tram to EDI. Pretty easy.