A Five Star Resort (Gleneagles Hotel)

Member Name: clairestevens

Product:	Gleneagles Hotel
Date:	05/06/08 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Possibly the best hotel I've ever stayed at

Disadvantages: It's pricey!

The Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire is a five star resort and a member of the Leading Hotels Of The World Group. After organising and attending a conference there recently, I can see why.

Gleneagles is a luxury hotel set in 850 acres of Perthshire countryside. It has 232 bedrooms, ranging from standard double and twin bedrooms to presidential suites. The hotel is situated in the middle of nowhere, but that's alright because there are more than enough activities on site to keep you busy.

Gleneagles was opened in 1924 by the Caledonian Railway Company and was hailed as 'a riviera in the Highlands'.
In the 1950s, golf and grouse shooting became part of the social calendar - an event that all of high society attended after the London 'season'. In 1982 it underwent a huge refurbishment and in 1986 it was awarded the AA's five red stars, which it has retained every year since.

The bedrooms themselves are outstanding - probably the nicest hotel rooms I've ever seen, and as an events planner I've seen quite a few! I just had a standard double room, which was huge and divided into a sleeping area and lounge area. I had two TVs - one wall-mounted plasma screen and one on a pedestal in the lounge - as well as a stereo. Being on the ground floor, the french doors of the lounge area opened out onto a private patio area, equipped with patio furniture. The bathroom was about twice the size of my bathroom at home and had two sinks, heated towel rails, a claw-footed bath and seperate shower area. The bedroom and bathroom were decorated in stylish shades of beige and grey and all the furniture and soft furnishings were of a high quality.

On the first night of our conference, I went round to all our delegates rooms delivering welcome gifts and their rooms were of a similar standard. The directors were even luckier as they had been allocated suites. The suites were decorated to the same colour schemes and had similar furniture, but they were enormous! I didn't have a chance to have a good old nose round, but they looked amazing.

The common areas between rooms are furnished and decorated to an equally high standard. There are a lot of little alcoves and areas furnished with sofas and tables where you can stop and have a cup of tea and the artwork on the walls is tasteful and interesting.

Because Gleneagles is so far from anywhere else, it's handy that they offer so many activities. The most famous activity is golf. Gleneagles is home to the Kings Course, the Queens Course and the PGA Centenery Course - all of which are of championship standard. I don't play golf, but the delegates who did assured me that these courses are of a very high standard.

Gleneagles also houses an Espa spa that offers a wide range of beauty treatments. As a thank you for organising the conference, our director offered me a treatment. I chose a Swedish massage, which left me completely relaxed and chilled out. The staff in the spa were friendly and the spa itself was very luxurious.

Gleneagles also has an activity school, where they offer shooting, horse riding, falconry, gundog training, fishing and off road driving. As part of our team building exercises, we all split off into teams to try our hands at clay pigeon shooting. The instructors that guided us were extremely competent and we all had a great time. I even managed to hit a few! The second day of our conference was given over to free time and we were all allowed to pick an activity to try. I chose to have a horse riding lesson in the equestrian school, which was great. Others chose to go out hacking, some went trout fishing and a couple did off road driving. All the feedback I received was very positive.

There are a number of restaurants, cafes and bars at Gleneagles to eat and drink at, ranging from Mediterrarean style, informal bistro, to Andrew Fairlie's two Michelin-starred restaurant. We took all our meals on site and they were all of an excellent standard, with a real emphasis on local Scottish ingredients.

The staff also scored highly. Over the course of organising this conference, I must have spoken to every member of staff at the hotel. All were courteous, polite and efficient and nothing was too much trouble for them. I had to have two cases of whiskey miniatures and ten Nintendo DS's shipped up there a couple of weeks previous to the conference and the staff signed for them and kept them safe until we got there.

Rooms at Gleneagles start at £385 a night for a classic double room and go up to £1990 a night for either of the two main suites. A budget option this is not. However, if you do want to treat yourself, there are all manner of packages and deals available on the web to bring the price down a bit.

I absolutely loved my stay at Gleneagles, both in terms of organising the conference and actually staying there. I would not hesitate to recommend it. It is expensive, but you really do get what you pay for.

Summary: Definitely recommended, if you've got the cash to splash!