The best golf itineraries offer great golf AND great variety. This is especially true for the St. Andrews area, where centuries-old traditional links layouts share the Fife coastline with stunning modern course designs. When selecting courses for your itinerary, make sure to consider both the quality of the course as well as the style. Ideally, your itinerary should be filled with a great mix of the areas top courses. To help you achieve this, we have first broken down the area’s top courses in 3 distinct categories: St. Andrews Links, Historic Members Courses, New/Resort Courses. Then, we have ranked our top 24 courses within approximately 1 hour of St. Andrews.

Rankings are fun but they are subjective and it’s typically tough to come to a consensus among all (or even most!) golfers. Please use our rankings in conjunction with any others that you can find to guide you on where to play. Most importantly, though, make sure that your itinerary includes great variety and plenty of the area’s old, historic links that make the Home of Golf uniquely special. We love to chat about golf courses, and especially those around St. Andrews, so if you need more information in order to select courses for your trip then feel free to give us a call at 1-833-464-6539 or schedule a time for us to give you a call here. 

If playing St. Andrew’s famous Old Course is a priority for you, then understanding the various options for obtaining an Old Course tee time will be the most important, challenging and likely confusing part of planning your trip. We are going to do our best to explain it effectively and concisely below:

To start, there are two primary types of tee times (in terms of price):

1.“Face-Value” Tee Times: These are the cheapest and most abundant Old Course tee times and golfers pay the public green fee (see rates here) directly to St. Andrews Links . There are three primary categories of these:

• Stand-By List
• Daily Ballot
• Advance Application 

2. “Premium” Tee Times: These tee times are scarcely allocated to third-parties like accommodation providers and tour operators, and are packaged with things like hotel stays, transportation and additional rounds of golf. As their name suggests, “Premium” Old Course times cost a pretty penny – typically $1,000-$2,000 more than the public green rate that you would pay for a “Face-Value” tee time.  

Now that you understand your options, it’s time to choose one of the following courses of action:

1. Open your wallet and book your “Premium” tee time early. If the four-figure premium doesn’t scare you and you want to secure your Old Course tee time early so you can finalize your trip plans, then simply contact any one of the handful of tour operators or St. Andrews accommodation providers that were allocated Old Course tee times by the Links Trust. The only trick is to book early since these tee times go fast. 
2. Pull out all the stops for a “Face-Value” tee time. If you are booking late, don’t want to pay a hefty premium, or are feeling lucky, then you can maximize your chances of getting a “Face-Value” Old Course time via the following 3-step process.

Step 1. Advance Application: If possible, enter your group into the St. Andrews Links Trust Advance Application, which is a lottery process that is usually open from late August through early September and allows groups of up to 8 golfers to enter for up to 6 weeks for the following year’s peak season (mid-April through mid-October). Groups are then notified of the application results in October. Remember that tee sheets and hotels book up early, so it’s important to confirm your other bookings as soon as you receive your Old Course application results and/or have finalized your trip dates. Note: there are off-peak advance booking options as well, so if you are looking to travel during the shoulder season (late October and early April) or winter season (November – March), then there are options available. 

Step 2. Daily Ballot: If you don’t get a tee time via the Advance Application but still plan to travel, your tee time options are by no means exhausted. The daily ballot is another tee time lottery run by the St. Andrews Links Trust and a close to half of the tee sheet is filled through the daily ballot each day the course is open (remember that the Old Course is converted to a public park on Sundays and closed to golfers). The ballot process takes place two days prior to each day of play and you can enter a group of 2-4 golfers for each day you are in St. Andrews. You’ll want to leave a couple of open days during your trip to accommodate a ballot time and/or move other tee times around. Note: The best days to ballot are Thursday and Saturday, when there is reduced or no play via advance tee times. 

Step 3. Stand-By List: A great fallback option if you are unlucky and don’t get a tee time through the advance application or daily ballot is the Old Course starter’s stand-by list. Somewhere between 10-30 tee slots, on average, are open each day to be filled by single golfers on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no luck involved, it’s simply a matter of beating everyone else to the first tee starter’s hut early in the morning. If, as a last resort, you are willing to get up as early as it takes to top the starter’s list, then your odds of getting a “Face-Value” Old Course tee time approach near certainty. 

Unless you have purchased an Old Course tee time as part of an hotel/guesthouse package, you’ll have a variety of accommodations options at all levels to choose from. Fundamentally, you’ll have two primary considerations, location and rating/class, and you’ll need to ask two questions about each hotel or guesthouse:

• “How close is it to the first tee of the Old Course?” This is the most straightforward way to assess a property’s location. 
• “What value does it offer?” It is easy to get into star-ratings but at the end of the day, the best accommodation option for YOU gives you exactly what you need in terms of space, amenities, and grandeur – and ideally comes with no extra bells and whistles that you don’t value, because you’ll be paying for them nonetheless. 

With these questions in mind, we’ve broken down St. Andrews’ top accommodations into four categories, Best of the Town-Center, Value in the Town-Center, Just A Bed in the Town Center, and Out of Town, and provided some detailed information about each option. 

Best of the Town-Center ($$$):

These are the 5-star and 4-star hotels that are all within walking distance of the Old Course, provide a little something extra in terms of quality, amenities or room size, and have the price tag to match.

Value in the Town-Center ($$):

These are the 3-star hotels and 4-star guesthouses that are also all within walking distance of the Old Course but which offer smaller rooms and/or fewer amenities compared to the Best of the Town-Center options. 

Just a Bed in the Town-Center ($):

• St. Andrews University – Several university dorms are transformed into vacation rentals (for 2-10 guests) in the summer months and offer a clean place to lay your head at night at a fraction of the cost traditional hotels and guesthouses.

Struggling to find available accommodations that suit your needs? We have a few tricks up our sleeve, so let us know what your room preferences and dates are in the quote form below and we will send over a free trip quote with your best available option(s).

You may be thinking, can I just fill my free time with more golf? Well yes, but if you are going all the way to St. Andrews you might consider a couple of other popular activities that showcase the beauty, history and culture of the Kingdom of Fife and its surrounds.

St. Andrews Area Attractions/Activities:
(walkable from town-center)

Since St. Andrews is such a popular destination, picking the perfect time to travel can be just as important as figuring out where to stay or play. Availability, price, and weather can all vary greatly depending on the time of year that you visit. Here are some of the most important considerations when choosing your travel dates.

One final note about weather: consider the guidelines above but don’t try to predict it and don’t expect perfect weather. No matter when you decide to travel, you will need a warm jacket and you will probably need your rain gear at some point, but that is just part of the Scottish golf experience!

To be frank, this is where choosing your dates can get a little tricky. As a general rule, the warmer the weather is, the more crowded the town will be and the more you will pay. However, there are some intricacies to dig into from April through October:

• Old Course Closures: St. Andrews’ Old Course is closed sporadically each year for various events and competitions, including a stretch from mid-September through early-October for R&A competitions and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. If you are hoping to play the Old Course, make sure to identify Old Course closures here. 
• Major Tournaments: With several major championship hosts in the area – the Old Course, Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns – you can count on there being course closures surrounding a major tournament just about every year. Unless you plan to attend, check out the R&A’s Events Calendar here and avoid championship weeks when prices are sky-high and availability is tight. 
• University Graduation: St. Andrews is home to Scotland’s oldest university and can feel more like a university town than a golf town, especially during late June when students welcome guests for a week-long graduation celebration. Unless you plan to attend, this is a week to avoid, as availability is limited and prices are high. (see dates here)
• Festival Fringe: If you are visiting St. Andrews, you may be flying in and out of Edinburgh and might want to spend some time in Scotland’s capital city. If that is the case, then consider avoiding traveling in August, when millions of people flock to the city for the month-long Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival.

Before we discuss ground transportation, let’s sort out the last key component of your itinerary: flights. Here are a few, simple guidelines for booking your air travel:

• Due to the change in time zone, expect to travel overnight to Scotland and then return home in one day. 
• Scotland’s two primary airports are in Glasgow and Edinburgh, which are located less than an hour apart in the heart of the country. While Edinburgh is a little closer to St. Andrews than Glasgow, it is best to evaluate all flight options into both airports and choose the best one. The time or money that you save by flying into Glasgow may render the extra 30-45 minutes of drive time insignificant. 
• Aberdeen, Prestwick and Inverness have regional airports that offer alternative flight options that may be preferable for certain itineraries or during busy periods. 

With the nuts and bolts of your itinerary in place, it is time to assess your transportation options, which can be summarized into 3 primary categories: Self-Drive, Full-Time Chauffeured, and As-Needed.

Self-Drive: This option offers the most flexibility and the lowest price-point but driving on the left side of the road can be unnerving for some North Americans. We’d guess it is easier than you think, though, and here are 4 tips for those that are up for the challenge:

1. Get the smallest automatic car that you can fit into, but remember that golf clubs and luggage take up a lot of space. 
2. Study the mechanics of a roundabout, there are quite a few!
3. Postal codes are very specific and should be sufficient to locate just about any business or residence.
4. Avoid driving in big cities. Instead, find a car park and walk.

Full-Time Chauffeured: This option is great for large groups (8+) OR small groups that don’t mind a higher price point in order to take the stress out of the trip. A knowledgeable driver will allow you to experience Scotland, rather than just see it, and for many groups a driver is an invaluable component of their trip.

As-Needed: Depending on your itinerary and your preferences, as-needed point-to-point transportation may be all that is required – and it’s a very popular option for clients. Essentially, this options involves mixing and matching a few types of transportation:

• Private Transfers – Any transportation that is integral to the core of your itinerary (airport, golf and pre-arranged sightseeing transfers) can be pre-booked for your group at a fraction of the cost of a full-time driver. Typically, for groups staying and playing in and around St. Andrews, this per-person cost will be close to the self-drive price.
• Taxis – A great way to fill in the gaps that pre-booked transfers don’t cover is with taxis, especially for short rides to restaurants or sites within close proximity of your accommodations. 
• Bus/Train – Unfortunately, there is no direct train in and out of St. Andrews, but Leuchars Train Station is just 10 minutes away by bus and is a decent option for travelers looking for low-cost airport or city-center (i.e. Edinburgh) transfers. 

Two final pieces of advice about ground transportation:

1. Don’t underestimate the value of hiring a local driver, even if it is just for a few transfers or a few days. Some of our clients best memories from their trips involve conversations or experiences they had with their drivers, who know the area as well as anyone.
2. Every Cloud 9 trip package includes all of the transportation that you will need for your trip, whether its a self-drive vehicle, a full-time coach driver, or something in between. If you want to take some of the stress out of your trip planning, simply book with us! Get started with a free quote below.