East Neuk holiday suggestions

[HipoftheRugosa]

Looking for recommendations of must do/see/eat for East Neuk in the spring 🙏No kids.

Thanks so much for your local information!!!

The Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther is excellent. The Secret Bunker (old nuclear shelter the north of Scotland was supposed to be run from in the event of a nuclear attack) is chilling and very interesting. If you have time to travel a bit, I'd go to Falkland Palace, which is one of the absolute best castles in Scotland.

The chippy in Pittenweem is nicer than either Anstruther chippies.

Apart from the fact it burnt down about 5 years ago.

For chips in Pittenweem there is Murray’s chip van on a Thursday night which is very good. It stops outside The Pop Inn - a massive antiques shop which is full of stuff you didn’t know you needed, definitely worth a visit.

Oh wow I love antiques as well as chips!!!

Try a beach sauna at Elie if its open? The beach there is gorgeous for a walk too.

Get a cheese toasty in St Andrews at the beach, but pay the seagull insurance. They're fearless.

Wander the coastal path at Pittenweem and Crail, and explore the harbours.

Definitely the Wee chippy in Anstruther.

Oh no, as you can tell I’ve not been since Covid times but it was a regular stop off before then. I’m both sad and embarrassed to be so out of date.

The Secret Bunker too. Another vote for the coastal path. Couple of days in St Andrews.

The Dreel Tavern in Anstruther is worth a visit - great food.

There are 2 seaside saunas in St Andrews now - one at East Sands and one at West Sands. St Andrews is a lovely place for a few days.

@Habbibuare they still operating?

How about Cambo Gardens? I thought they were absolutely beautiful. You can also walk down to the sea from there. And yes definitely Bowhouse!
https://www.cambogardens.org.uk/

@Habbibuapologies, apparently they are. It was just a gofundme that I saw

chariots of fire beaches obv in St Andrews!

and a good stroll round town to see the medieval and renaissance bits of the univ - lovely.

Crail is a heavenly walk too, check out the pottery and the beach.

Pittenween very pretty.

TBH it’s all gorgeous, driving and walking round coastal villages is all you need to have a fine time.

The bus makes it easy to do good stretches of the coastal walk. We’ve done Elie to Crail a couple of times (timed to arrive at Anstruther for fish and chips for lunch).

Thank you - looks gorgeous!

Thank you so much to everyone who had posted I appreciate each one and I’ve got some brilliant things to plan booking around for next year. I was moved by the reference to the Dolly Parton and will definitely be making at least one trip with her in mind.

Yeah, it's been hard going for them because rents have increased and obviously a lot of people are struggling for money for extras like that. They reached the gofundme target in 6 hours, which shows how popular they are. It's a brilliant centre and i hope it can keep going.

Kellie Castle
Ardross Farm Shop
Cambo Gardens have lots of snowdrops in the spring

The fish shop on the edge of St Monans, J&G Wilson has a huge range of fresh fish and sea food as well as high end groceries. He does nice fish pie and smoked salmon salads as well.
Ardross farm shop has their own meat, veg and baking as well as good quality frozen food. Their steak pie is about the best I’ve ever had. They have lager made with their own barley.
The butchery at the Bowhouse has exceptional meat, all reared on the estate. The butchers are a mine of good advice on how to cook their meat.
The East Neuk has great food in general, Barnets bread, there’s a shop in every village, is also very good.

I feel a wee day trip coming on @Chemenger 😋

ohhhh that all sounds amazing thank you!!!

Now you see we were very disappointed with the Wee Chippy.

My suggestions-
Crail - the HarbourGalleryandTearoom

St Andrews- cakes and pies from Fisher and Donaldson , ice cream from Janettas. Some nice shopping there too. Fish and chips from Cromars on Market Street.

St Monans - visit the old Church by the sea . It is amazing. The East Pier Smokehouse there too.

Anstruther - fish and chips from Fish and Chips on the Waterfront" .

Elie - The Ship Inn.

There's websites for all these.

Thank you the more suggestions the longer I want to stay there!

It sounds like I’ll need to try all the chippies and make my own mind up 😆

You cannot beat a fudge donut from Fisher and Donaldson!
Fish and Chips on the Waterfront is excellent; in my extensive experience both it and the Wee Chippy can have off days but both are consistently better than the Fish Bar. The new pizza place in Anstruther is getting rave reviews but I haven’t been there yet. Don’t be tempted by the chip shop/pub on the front in Pittenweem but do go to the sweet shop there.