“YOU said yes to what!?”, my partner Jess fumed from the passenger seat as we drove through torrential rain. “A wild sauna,” I explained. “We’re going to run into the North Sea, dunk ourselves in, and then go into a sauna.” “Not a chance,” she said. We were pulling into the luxury Rufflets hotel, ten minutes outside of St Andrews, our first stop exploring the ‘wellness’ offering in one of Scotland’s most famous coastal areas, the East Neuk of Fife, better known for its golf. Our first night’s stay in this former private home, transformed into a stunning hotel, included a surprise upgrade to the Mulberry Suite. Not a sauna in sight, but instead a freestanding bath, healthily supplied with natural, seaweed-based Ishga soaps, music to my partner’s ears. But the real star at Rufflets is the food. The hotel serves up the very best of Scottish cuisine. The highlights were without doubt the mind-blowingly delicious halibut and venison dishes. And the cocktails — an Old Fashioned and a Last World — were the cherry on the cake. Next morning we explored St Andrews, a town is best discovered on foot, where we ambled past its ruined cathedral, its castle, and its university buildings. We stopped off for coffee at Northpoint where royal couple Wills and Kate allegedly met, before visiting the nearby Kingsbarns Distillery. This is a relatively new distillery, built in 2014 by the Wemyss family.Our tour and tasting lasted around an hour where we learned both the history of the area and about the drink itself. Their 10-year-old is almost ready to be released. But my personal favourite was their Sherry Cask, named Balcomie, a delightful dram. Our next two nights were spent in Cambo House & Estate, which includes beautifully maintained self-catered apartments in the old estate house — host to many weddings. We loved our Lower Servants flat, a perfect place to relax and just a ten-minute walk through woodland, covered in wild garlic, to the stunning Cambo Sands. Cambo Gardens, a lovingly restored walled garden based in original stable buildings on the estate, was our next stop the following morning where we met guide Keri Ivins, the managing director of the Cambo Heritage Trust. She told us how the garden blooms into life in late July, early August.Even in March, however, this is a beautiful part of the world and a joy for plant lovers like my partner. Our lunch at the in-house café — a macaroni pie and a falafel wrap - was an excellent way to fill up for the rest of our day. Then came the moment my partner was dreading. We drove down to Wild Scottish Sauna, a stunningly located, Finnish-inspired wood sauna perched on a sand dune overlooking Kingsbarns beach. At least the sun had come out, given we were warned the water is at its coldest in March. Our private 90-minute session saw breathing exercises precede the plunge in the sea, an exhilarating experience, before a race back to the sauna to warm up with a sunset view of the beach. It was bliss. After a restful night’s sleep after a superb pub dinner at The Inn in Kingsbarns, we were back to the beach, this time to go seaweed foraging. Jayson Byles, who runs East Neuk Seaweed, was a funny, engaging, and endlessly knowledgeable guide. He took us out into the intertidal zone where the best seaweed grows and took us through what we could eat. We learned about sea lettuce and sea spaghetti, and tasted some rarer seaweed which exploded with truffle flavours. Then it was back to shelter from the wind for lunch. Jayson, a former chef, rustled up a truly astonishing and delicious set of dishes including a savoury seaweed muffin and seaweed spaghetti with bacon and mushrooms, before ending with a classic of the seaweed genre, Carageen pudding! Forget golf, come to the East Neuk for seaweed and a sauna instead.