Right For You?
We know that people look for different things in holidays and holiday homes. In this page we have tried to set out as honestly as we can (bearing in mind that we are fans of the house and of East Fife as a holiday destination!) how we see the pluses and minuses of our property and the area - and to provide further info on how that varies with the seasons, our approach to pets and to pricing. We have also included sample excerpts from our visitor's book as at 25 March 2006. To date all the comments have been very positive but we know we cannot please all the people all the time!
The Post House
We have tried to make the Post House a stylish and well equipped place to enjoy being in - we are conscious that more and more people are looking for more than a place to eat and sleep. This is particularly the case off season. Rather than maximise the rooms we turned one potential double bedroom into a large bathroom - and also provided a small additional cosy sitting room on the top floor (from which the view used as the background to our website was taken on a sunny December afternoon).
We spent much time restoring the original 19th century woodwork. What we could not restore we matched as best we could. The curtain fabrics and sitting room cushions are contemporary Scottish tartan influenced fabrics from the islands. We have decorated much of the house with original photographs and a limited amount of local ceramic art. Currently we plan to commission a local stained glass artist to make glass panels to replace the curtains in the main bathroom and also perhaps the glass interior door.
Self catering has moved on from the days of bringing you own linen etc. We have tried to replicate quality hotel standards by providing all the linen, towels etc; quality toiletries, food starter packs, staples such as ground coffee, tea, sugar, olive oil etc and all the cleaning materials, bin bags etc. The aim is to minimise what guests have to bring - particularly as we already pleased to have bookings this season from Switzerland and the USA.
The house is in the centre of the village so shops are on the doorstep (including a good chip shop next door and an excellent butcher across the road). It does mean that there is more traffic noise than some locations in Crail though even in the summer it varies from silent to pretty quiet from around 11pm to 7 pm.
We have said the house is not really suitable for for children under 6 - primarily because we have 2 flights of stairs (the downside of having brighter open views than some of the cottages we looked at!)
We do not have garden. For some people that can be an issue particularly in the summer. On the other hand we are 5 minutes walk from a grassy area overlooking the sea where we take our picnics in the summer.
Crail
Crail is a very attractive North Sea lobster fishing village (population around 1500) with many buildings dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Although on the sea families should bear in mind that the best beaches are a drive away - Balcomie 2 miles, Kingsbarns 2-3 miles, Elie 8 miles and St Andrews 10. There is some sand at Crail that is safe for paddling but generally the shore is rocky and best for exploring rockpools etc when the tide is out.
The coast path runs both ways through Crail ensuring walking opportunities of any length (there is an hourly local bus service allowing ready access to one way walks)
Crail has no restaurants but the Golf Hotel does good pub food till 9pm (and has an attractive old bar), the newly refurbished chip shop is developing reputation and the Honeypot does good lunches and afternoon tea (March to October). However there are a wide range of quality restaurants (and a much wider reange of shopping including supermarkets) 10 miles away in St Andrews.
Needless to say Crail is a fantastic centre for golf courses: there are now so many that it is easy to find availability (we wrote this in March after a Saturday walk along the coast when we noticed very few people playing on the Kingsbarns course albeit the adjacent Balcomie was quite busy). It is difficult to imagine anywhere in the world that has quite the number of courses within a 10 mile radius.
When To Come
The only really busy time is summer school holidays - particularly weekends.
The rest of the year varies from very quiet to quiet. May and June and July are best for long evenings (its light well after 10 in June). The spring and autumn are quiet but generally mild and excellent for walking - and the golf courses are much less busy. Winter can see the North Sea at its wildest and bleakest but can also give clear crisp days like the day on which the website background was photographed.
The weather, as ever in Scotland, is unpredictable throughout the year. However, East Fife is fairly dry (less than 25 inches of rain and much drier than central and western Scotland) - but there are cloudy days and the wind off the sea can get strong at times.
Pets
We generally accept up to 2 well behaved dogs by prior arrangement at an additional charge. We are (as dog owners ourselves!) aware that many up market properties do not. However, we chose hard wearing relatively low maintenance floors (solid oak and tiles) and employ professional cleaners. On that basis we are comfortable welcoming dogs and are confident that doing so will not affect the quality for non dog owners! Having said that we recognise that because of allergies or other reasons some may prefer a property that does not accept dogs.
As from later in April we are providing dog bean bags, towels and dog bowls to cut down luggage for dog owners!
Our Pricing
We appreciate our prices are towards the upper end of the market reflecting in particular the cost of the interior and what is included in the price (there are no extras to pay as can be the case for self catering properties). Off season weekends are proportionately more expensive: the reason is that irrespective of the period and time of year cleaning, laundry, toiletries and foodstuff cost the same as in the height of summer. We do recognise less people mean less wear and tear and less laundry so we do provide a 10% reduction for 2 person occupancy.
Visitor's comments from 2006
"..has everything you could possibly want...can't wait to come back"
"...accommodation so classy...location is so peaceful"
"...fantastic place to come back to at the end of a day out.....or to spend all day on a wet and windy one"
"...flowers, wine & bathroom smellies a nice touch..."
"..standard of accommodation is extremely high..."