From its breathtaking location in the home of golf, seaside Fairmont St. Andrews, Scotland matches championship links with ace dining and lodgings.

If you love golf, hitting the links-style Torrance Course at Fairmont St. Andrews, Scotland is heaven. Ditto the hotel's Gene Sarazen-designed Kittocks Course, which offers dazzling vistas of the North Sea, the old town of St. Andrews, and the craggy Scottish coastline. Wait, there's more - many other fine courses are just minutes away, including the world's oldest.

But even if you don't know a putter from a 9-iron, 209-room-and-suite Fairmont St. Andrews, Scotland is a bonny place. At 1,500 sq. ft., the stately hotel's Kingdom of Fife Suite features a living room with a fireplace, a dining room with a 10-place mahogany table, and a view of the golf courses and the coast.

The bracing sea air will leave you thirsty for a wee dram of single-malt at Kittocks Den Bar - or hungry for The Squire's contemporary menu. And speaking of menus, the Cliffside spa has 12 treatment rooms and a long list of treatments like Celtic Harmony, which kicks off with a geranium-and-pine scrub.