Description: As part of our trip to Scotland we ended up having a couple of nights in Edinburgh. I booked this hotel through the website as it sounded centrally located and looked nice too. I am also a Priority Club member and this hotel is part of that group of hotels so I earned points as well.
The hotel is only five minutes walk from Waverley station and a half hour taxi ride from Edinburgh airport – providing the taxi driver knows how to get around the road works!.
FINDING THE HOTEL
Anyone who has been to Edinburgh recently will know that the place is a building site and several roads are being dug up in order to install tram lines. It is total chaos and of course our hotel ‘s road was one of those closed and as well as that many of the roads are one way or only to be used by buses and taxis. It was utter hell on wheels. Our satnav combined with the hotel’s instruction took in circles and we also went down a street we should not have in error. We finally gave up and parked the car by the blocked road screen and my husband walked to find the hotel and ask how we could get to their car park.
The road was not only closed it was a big gaping hole so my husband walked all the way up then saw the hotel over the hole in the road and had to walk all the way back to a place where he could cross and then walk back up to the hotel. The receptionist tried to show him on a map and eventually she agreed to come with him to guide us. Thank goodness she did as we would never have gone up the narrow cobbled street beside some road works as it really didn’t look like a road cars were meant to go up.
ARRIVAL
The lovely young lady then guided us with all our luggage to the hotel and booked us into our room. She then took us up to our room and showed us in. She really couldn’t have been more welcoming and helpful and I think she felt my husband’s stress when he first arrived and wanted to calm him down and make him feel it was worth the effort to get to the hotel.
RECEPTION AND LOBBY
This was such a surprise after walking along the street outside. We entered a door in a Georgian terrace and inside was really ultra modern with a sort of Scandinavian cum art nouveau twist. This is a really lovely boutique hotel and every one of its rooms and suites is decorated in a different way. The lobby had comfortable seating and wooden floors and was an area you would feel very comfortable sitting and meeting friends.
This area led onto the bar and then through to The turquoise thistle Restaurant which can also be accessed from outside through a door further down the street. I will come back to them a bit later on.
OUR ROOM
This was fabulous and not at all what we were expecting. It was huge with a really king sized bed divided from the rest of the room by a media centre. The TV could be swung round to watch it from the bed or from the living area.
The living area had a chaise long and a chair as well as a slim desk/table under a mirror. On the media centre divider were two orange shaded modern table lamps. The media centre could be used for the laptop or music or whatever connected through the TV and under this were shelves and drawers to put clothes or anything else you wanted to in for storage. The wall paper on this back wall was an enlarged old map of Edinburgh in more muted colours than the other wall paper in the room
The bed was really high with huge soft pillows and a small orange cushion in front the sheets were white soft cotton and then an orange runner across the bottom and then on the bed with cylindrical brown cushion on the bed. The headrest was silk rounded cushions attached to the wall behind in a muted sand sort of colour which went up really high, almost four foot up. The wall paper behind however was not one that you would miss with huge orange flowers very in your face but actually really great in the room.
On the right as you came in was a set of shelves with tea and coffee stuff including biscuits all on a tray. The mini bar of soft drinks was all included as was the chocolate and indeed everything in the fridge. Then there were more open shelves for clothes or whatever
The bathroom door was next and then there was a wardrobe in which we found the safe, shelves, laundry bags and hangers too.
THE BATHROOM
This was beautiful with a lovely big bath, a huge shower cubicle with two different shower heads and large rectangular modern basin with mirror behind. The toiletries were lovely and great quality Aveda shampoo, conditioner, soap and shower gel and I made good use of these. The room was tiled in pale colours all around and the shelf unit had orange painted inside walls and glass shelves. Sadly I made good use of the toilet too as I managed to get food poisoning and spent the entire day in the room while my husband went out to explore the city. At least it was a lovely room to be ill in!
OTHER BONUS FEAURES IN THE ROOM
Wifi was FREE! Hallelujah a hotel that realises we like to use wifi and it doesn’t actually cost them that much to offer it free.
A lovely free welcome tray with fruit and biscuits on a little tray on the desk.
The contents of the fridge was all inclusive so we paid no extra.
The media centre allowed you to use the connection to watch things from your laptop on the TV.
Every room was different.
I will review the restaurant in another review - part 2
Close