After visiting the desolate Isle of Skye and driving around the southern part of Harris, we expected more of the same with Stornoway, but were quite surprised upon arrival. It is by far the largest settlement on the Western Isles. It has proper grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, and so on. The streets and gardens are well-manicured and the centre of town has a nice pedestrian shopping area. We found general liveliness around town, which seemed to be lacking anywhere we had been in the past few days.
We had trouble finding our hotel at first — it doesn’t really have an address except Manor Park, Stornoway. I called the hotel to ask for directions from near the ferry port, and she told me to go inside the ferry port and ask someone since there were too many twists and turns. After she told us it was near a big roundabout with a petrol station and grocery store, there was no trouble finding it — the hotel was even listed on our map and I didn’t even see it. If you need to find it, look for the large roundabout in the north part of town where the A859/858, Willowglen Road, junctions with A857 Macaulay Road — you can’t miss it.
After our hotel the night before in Portree, we were curious to know what exactly this three-star would be like, since the night before was supposed to be a four-star and they are run by the same company. To our surprise, it turned out to be one of the nicest places we stayed on our holiday — similar to a Holiday Inn. It is a large white hotel situated on several acres of gardens. Our room was very large with a gorgeous, dark red, modern décor. The window looked out onto a roof with a petrol station in the distance, but at least the room was nice. The bathroom was sparkling clean and bright. Fresh apples and oranges were placed in the room alongside the tea and coffee service.
Since this hotel is another hotel in our itinerary for the Hebridean Hopscotch tour, dinner and breakfast was again included in the price. We had excellent breakfast and fabulous dinners both nights we were there. The only disappointment was awful vegetables at dinner the first night — burnt stir-fry veggies and the rest of the selection just wasn’t up to par with the rest of the meal. The three-course meal was listed as £24.50 per person.
Overall, Caberfeidh Hotel has to be one of the nicest places to stay in Stornoway, but that also comes at a price. It is probably one of the more expensive places to stay, too. The hotel was completely refurbished in the past few years to attain its status in the community. It was a nice change after over a week of quaint hotels and small bed and breakfasts. I felt like I was back to reality. I highly recommend this hotel if you are staying in Stornoway.