Fairmont St Andrews

It had been 5 years since we last visited this hotel, it hadn’t changed at all, still a beautiful hotel in gorgeous surroundings. The welcome at reception was lovely, the gentleman who greeted us was very informative and great interacting with my kids. Our room wasn’t ready so we went and explored the kids area. The bouncy castle was a huge hit and with the lovely dry weather we spent some time outside playing football. Unfortunately the air guitar only had 1 working guitar and the air hockey wasn’t pushing enough air out to actually play. Regrettably I would say the kids corner is tired and in need of some attention. To balance this out the hotel did have on a great schedule with lots of different activities and films on throughout the day. The room was well kept and spacious for our family of 4. We had a beautiful welcome plate of homemade cakes which was demolished very quickly. The swimming pool was great - didn’t realise you had to book your slot but thankfully we were able to get in at the times we were after the pool. The breakfast was good, my son was disappointed at the drizzle of chocolate spread on the pancakes. Possibly an idea to provide extra chocolate spread. Overall the beautiful surroundings of this hotel never fail to be beautiful. Although a few niggles we would definitely return again.

We really liked the room, but we had booked a sea-view and ended up with one facing the garden exit, which was a bit disappointing. The late check-out was a great perk. The gym was surprisingly good for a hotel, and breakfast was about a 7/10 (I am quite picky!). The cocktails were amazing, and the staff were genuinely lovely and friendly.

Unfortunately, our festive brunch was below par. At £100 per person, this is way below other premium offerings from brunch. Starters have a decent offering, but everything was bland and under-seasoned. Even salads with no dressings, and seafood with basic Marie Rose sauce just isn’t up to scratch. They advertise oysters and other luxury seafood but these aren’t available. We ordered roast sirloin for mains which were served and again, this was under-seasoned, served with watery purées and spinach. The staff all mention that the desert buffet is apparently the best. It was good, but quite basic and as with the rest of the food, lacked flavour. The chocolate orange or baileys patisserie looked great, but you really have to try hard to think about the flavour, nothing punchy and just under-delivered. The hotel is beautiful, and staff were lovely, couldn’t fault them. While nothing was bad enough to complain, it left us feeling just a bit disappointed and wishing we’d gone somewhere else. This was a festive brunch. If you want Instagram photos it’s ideal. If you like good food, try other restaurants in St Andrews which are superior and lower price.

Very disappointed in my recent stay at the Fairmont hotel. This is the second time we have stayed here as we loved our first visit. My wife is currently 8 months pregnant so we had both been very much looking forward to our night away and spa as a much needed rest from work etc before our baby arrives next month. We arrived at the hotel for 15:25 as check in was 3pm onwards but we were disappointed to find out that our room was not ready for us at that time and were informed it would not be ready until around 4pm. We had spa treatments booked for 4pm so we were looking forward to getting into our room and changed and organised prior to going down for our spa treatments. However, as our room wasn’t ready we weren’t able to have this opportunity and instead, we had to rummage through our luggage at the front door outside the luggage room trying to find swimsuits and other essentials we needed for the spa and we had to remove these from my bag and our luggage had to be stored as there would be no room for all our things to be stored down in the spa. We felt this was quite rushed and unorganised and unfortunately it made the whole start to our stay quite stressful and having my heavily pregnant wife having to sort her luggage at the front door of the hotel, on the floor was quite upsetting, stressful and uncomfortable which I did not think was fair and was not the great first impression to what was meant to be a stress-free, relaxing break for her. The spa experience was lovely and we enjoyed our treatments. However, because we did not have access to our room prior to our spa treatments my wife was unable to style and sort her hair prior to her scalp treatment so felt this treatment wasn’t as enjoyable as it could have been because of this. The pool I couldn’t fault as it was lovely and relaxing. Once we finished at the spa and pool, we went up to our room to get changed and organised before our dinner that evening. Unfortunately when I went to have my shower there was no shower gel left in the pump dispenser and only a small amount of conditioner left. There was a bar of soap that I could use but still, this was again, disappointing. We had dinner at La Cucina which was lovely and service was great. The next morning we went down for breakfast but on our return back to our room at 10:30, our key did not work to allow us back into our room to grab our things as our check out was 11am. We then had to go back downstairs to reception to only find out that we had been checked out early from the system. The women at reception was lovely however, took some time to find our initial booking to be able to reactivate our key. So this was again, a rather stressful and unneeded part of our weekend. I’m not one to complain as I appreciate that things can go wrong sometimes and I am very understanding and easy going when it comes to things like this however, since we have been looking forward to this stay for sometimes and was hoping it would be relaxing and stress free, I must say that it hasn’t been as relaxing as we had hoped for and for my wife who is heavily pregnant, these hiccups have caused our weekend to be less than we had hoped for our stay. Overall, we expected better from our stay at the Fairmont, especially after our last stay which was wonderful. I feel arriving and our room not being ready and then being checked out early doesn’t exactly make you feel very welcome and I am quite disappointed with what was meant to be a relaxing pre-baby enjoyable weekend was not very relaxing.

We had an amazing stay recently. Our rooms were beautifully presented, clean and perfectly situated. We had a king and 2 double doubles. All the rooms were spacious with everything you could need in them. The coffee machine was a real bonus. The toiletries fabulous and plentiful. Showers are huge and the pressure was excellent. Bathrobes and slippers were a real treat. Lovely soft big towels too. The bed and bedding were exceptional. So comfy and you just melted into the beds. The best nights sleep in a sumptuous duvet. Great that you get caramel wafers and fresh water everyday. Our breakfasts were outstanding with everything you could ask for. The staff were so attentive but not intrusive. Naomi at breakfast was just wonderful and looked after us so well. We ate in both La Cucina and Kittocks Den. Both meals were excellent and plentiful. The chicken parfait with fruit bread in the Kittocks Den was delicious. Again the staff were fabulous. We had hot drinks in the bar during the day and the staff were always interested in how your day had been or what you had planned for the next day. They always remembered what you said you were going to do the next time you saw them. Frazer was great in the Kittocks Den. It was also great to hear staff talking about how well they are treated, it certainly shows. Tip for future visitors - only order 1 cake or cookie between 2 if you are having cake during the day, they are huge but so yummy!