The past few months have been suuuuper hectic (hence the lack of posting!) so Shaun and I decided to have a last minute night away to Crieff Hydro a couple of weeks ago for some relaxation.
We thought it would be nice and quiet with it being a Thursday, however we were sooo wrong...
We'd only forgotten it was the Easter Holidays!! (as you do when you don't have kids!)
So bang went our lovely quiet night - the place was FULL of noisy screaming children!
However, we didn't let that stop us and all in all we had a lovely stay.
We left straight after work and it only takes an hour or so to get there from where we live so we were there by 6.30ish. Stunning hotel by the way, and very nicely decorated. Unfortunately it was so busy I couldn't get many photos of the inside.
Check in was simple, the girl was lovely and very informative. We got a map of the hotel and facilities (yes, it is really that big!) and she told us the meal times etc. We were given our room key (255) and headed up. When we got in the room though, we noticed that it was freezing cold, and the reason quickly became apparent - the window was broken! The latch had broken which meant that it wouldn't close properly and was letting in a draft, but also it was loose which meant it rattled in the wind!
We sat down and started to get settled because we thought "och we'll just put up with it", but then we thought "actually, why should we?" For a place as expensive and of high a standard as Crieff Hydro, we had expected better.
We packed up and went down to reception and asked if we could have an alternative room, (note "alternative", not "upgraded") but the receptionist immediately, without checking, told us that they were fully booked for the night and there were no other rooms available.
So Shaun went onto the website on his phone there and then and lo and behold, there were standard rooms available to book! So the girl then said she would "see what she could do", went to the computer and as if by magic found another room! Why couldn't she have done that in the first place?? She then radioed for a young lad to come and show us to the room and make sure it was to our satisfaction, which it was, and he went down and brought us up our keycards. This room (119) was immediately a lot warmer and the first thing we checked was the window - it closed!
There are two pools, the main pool and the adults-only Victorian Spa which was available for an extra £7.50 per person. If it was a normal Thursday we might have just stuck with the main pool, but because it was swarming with children we opted to pay extra for the spa, and boy was it worth it! A lovely quiet area with murals on the ceiling, soothing music, free drinks, loungers, robes, a sauna, steam room and jacuzzi. Unfortunately the jacuzzi closes at 8.30pm and when we got there around 7.45pm it was full, and the same people stayed in it for the entire time until they got thrown out at 8.30pm ðŸ˜
We didn't eat at the hotel as we had already eaten but there are a few restaurants and bars to choose from. We did have a cocktail in the Meikle bar while listening to a really good band though (Mixtape I think they were called).
Because the hotel was busy (and full of children) we thought we would treat ourselves to room service for breakfast the following morning which was an absolute bargain at £3.50pp! Breakfast was included in the price we had paid for the room and all we had to pay was an additional £3.50pp to have it brought up to our room. We had a little card in the room that we filled out with our breakfast choices and the time we wanted it brought up and just hung it outside our door. Amazing!
I would rate our stay at 7.5/10, a little lower than I had anticipated for a hotel such as Crieff Hydro, mainly due to a) the broken window in the room and b) the fact we were immediately told there were no other rooms available when we asked to switch.
Have you stayed here before? What was your experience like? Let me know in the comments!
