Why Gleneagles is one of the best luxury family hotels in the UK

Gleneagles has been a hotel firmly on my list of places to visit for years and after I attended the World’s 50 Best Hotel awards and saw Gleneagles ranked 41st best in the world, my desire to go there was confirmed.

We have a bit of a holiday gang with my sister and her kids plus my mum – we’d all been wanting a trip to Scotland, with Edinburgh being included, so we got it all booked for October half term.

What is The Gleneagles Hotel

Once you hear the nickname for Gleneagles, the ‘Glorious Playground’ you can already get something of an impression of what this epic hotel is like. It’s a ‘playground’ for adults and children alike, with something for everyone!

Located in Auchterarder, in Perthshire in the Scottish countryside, the gorgeous Edwardian country house hotel is faraway enough to take you ‘away from it all’ but with it being an hour’s drive from Edinburgh it’s still very much easy to get to! To make it easier still, the hotel has it’s own railway station!

Probably best know for being a location for golf lovers, something that doesn’t describe anyone in our group, you don’t need to play golf or even be a lover of the great outdoors to have an amazing time here!

With a history dating back 100 years, when the hotel opened in 1924 it was a grand retreat for golf enthusiasts. During World War II the estate was repurposed as a military hospital and post-war it was again a luxury escape undergoing various renovations and expansions through the years.

Something that particularly struck me about Gleneagles was just how vast it was and how much there was to do!

Our Room and Interior Design at Gleneagles

The interior design at Gleneagles is a blend of classic Edwardian with contemporary luxury and lashings of Scottish charm! Recent renovations were taken out by David Collins studios with care to preserve the heritage of the hotel. Though the hotel is a real mixture of different styles, everything blends together seamlessly to make this place a real beauty. You really get the feeling that no expense has been spared, the hotel’s grand entrance really sets the tone with high ceilings, huge windows, wood panelling creating grandeur but blazing fire places, rugs and plush sofas adding to a cosy tone.

Even the bathrooms were completely beautiful!

If you don’t already Gleneagles sister property is Estelle Manor (both owned by Sharan Pasricha, Founder of Ennismore) and the two gorgeous properties share a similar aesthetic.

Something we discovered when staying at The Four Seasons Hampshire is that it works out cheaper (yes really!) for our family to have two interconnecting rooms rather than a suite. This means more space, extra storage and two bathrooms as well. We took this option for our trip to Gleneagles and booked two Manor family rooms for our stay. The rooms were actually quite different so here’s some photos of both.

As you can see, the rooms are just gorgeous. They are spacious with a mix of tweed, velvet and wool giving a nod to Scottish craftsmanship while the colours reflect the countryside; mossy green, glimpses of heather and soft neutrals. The furniture is classic and antique but there is no shortage of modern luxury.

As a hotel focussed on serious luxury, the mini bar is very well stocked, there’s a pillow menu (obviously!), beautifully luxurious bath products, the most sumptuous beds… but with places like this it’s often the little things… shortbread replenished every night, ‘toasty toes’ slippers even in the smallest of sizes, bath products for babies.

For Noah, a cot, cosy robe, a cuddly squirrel and Oscar wasn’t forgotten with a snuggly robe and an activity pack to whet his appetite for adventure!

The Grounds

If you’re used to city life like me, the grounds at Gleneagles are an absolute breath of fresh air! We actually audibly gasped at how breathtaking the grounds are… much more than the Championship golf courses… the lawns, the hills and views all make for the most stunning experience. There’s actually three golf courses; the King’s Course and Queen’s Course have been designed by James Braid and the PGA Centenary Course was designed by Jack Nicklaus and hosted the 2014 Ryder Cup and 2019 Solheim Cup.

The estate itself is actually 850 acres and it’s more than just manicured golf courses there’s rugged woodland and scenic walking trails and absolutely so much to do!

Experiences and Activities

Those gorgeous grounds provide a background for an absolute wealth of activities: there’s horse riding, falconry, fishing, clay pigeon shooting, cycling, tennis, lawn games… honestly so much to do you could stay for weeks! With our mere three days we chose to book Junior off-roading in mini Landrovers for our boys. An activity that’s suitable for 3 – 8 year olds. How cute are these cars? And it was actually the perfect way to explore the hotel’s woodland.

Swimming is always a big hit with our boys and of course multiple trips were made to the family pool which includes an indoor and outdoor thermal bubbling pool.

There’s an adult’s only pool inside too for those looking for a calm retreat – if you’re like us and visiting with a baby, you may only look longingly at such an amenity!

The Spa at Gleneagles is award-winning and offers luxury treatments from Aromatherapy Associates and Espa including massage, facials and body wraps. There’s a thermal suite with sauna, steam room and vitality pool. The gym offers state of the art equipment and personal training classes. There’s also the Bob & Cloche beauty studio for blowdries and other finishing touches.

If like me, the great outdoors isn’t your thing and you’re a bit restricted in use of the spa, there’s still plenty to do! Gleneagles offers a number of culinary activities. One of my favourite things was a chocolate and coffee tasting that my mum and I indulged in, in the hotel’s own chocolate room (yes, chocolate room… I mean this hotel is perfect).

There’s also a very well-stocked whisky shop that offers tastings… or you can enjoy a casual whisky flight in one of the hotel’s bars.

An activity which cannot be overlooked is shopping! Gleneagles has quite the best shopping arcade that I’ve ever seen at a hotel! The Gleneagles &. Co Boutique sells elegant merchandise branded by the hotel, my sister and I couldn’t resist a tote bag each. Other shops in the arcade sell high end fashion, accessories, jewellery and beauty items. There’s a gorgeous toyshop plus a ‘newsagent’ selling sundries, books, magazines and sweets so don’t worry if you forget the nappies and wipes!

Child care and Kids Club

Gleneagles is known for being Scotland’s best family friendly hotel and of course the kids clubs is fitting with this reputation. We had four boys with us Charlie (13), Jackson (7), Oscar (5) and Noah (1).

The Little Glen is for younger children and suitable for 2 – 8 year olds. The interiors are vibrant with imaginative play areas, an indoor treehouse and slide, play campfires and a railway carriages, child can do arts and crafts etc. Pre-booking is advisable and the creche is complimentary for one session per day with additional sessions charged at £20.

For older children aged 8 – 15 there’s The Den, which as hang out space where children can just come and go. There’s a cinema room, board games, video games, pool and air hockey.

As well as offering these hangout spaces the hotel offers an Adventurers Programme. We were able to book a full day of activities for our older children in order for them to explore what the ‘Glorious Playground’ has to offer. For 3-7 years these are activities such as Den Building, Woodland Pottery, Nature Art and (our boys favourite) marshmallow toasting. We were really impressed by the programme especially the Adventure Kit that each child received.

For children aged 8-12 years they can spend the day doing all sorts of things from archery to air rifle, and woodland skills and tree climbing.

While the hotel doesn’t offer babysitting services, they connected us with a rather excellent company who looked after the children so that we could try the adult only restaurants offered by the hotel.

Food

Food and restaurants are an area in which Gleneagles truly excels. Perhaps one of the best I’ve ever experienced in a UK hotel. There are two fine dining restaurants, four casual restaurants and two bars. Honestly, what more could you need!

Before I get into the individual restaurants, let’s start with breakfast… this was probably our one criticism of Gleneagles… not the breakfast itself, oh no that was wonderful! But when we arrived we were subject to a longish wait in the lounge before we could go to a our table. Though I will be fair there were eight of us.

Breakfast is taken in The Strathearn restaurant, which is the hotel’s most beautiful dining room and probably one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen! An a la carte menu features such Scottish classics as Loch Fyne kippers, Gleneagles smoked salmon or Scots porridge oats with whisky soaked raspberries – hold the whisky for Noah please!

The breakfast buffet was suitably incredible too with a juice bar, lots of egg options, a plethora of bread and pastry choices, multiple types of smoked salmon, bucks fizz station … but my favourite thing was the separate buffet just for kids!

We also had dinner at The Strathearn restaurant – this is a real dress to impress place with a upmarket dress code suggested. Despite the fact this is high end Modern-Scottish fine dining, children are still permitted in this restaurant. The food here is nothing short of incredible and we enjoyed a champagne trolley, salmon-carved tableside, Dover sole ‘from the trolley’ and crepe suzette again done table side with a firey flourish. I mean what trolley doesn’t this restaurant have!

Two-Michelin starred Andrew Fairlie is the other fine dining option at the hotel. Leave the kids with a babysitter for this one and enjoy – as we did – a glorious menu featuring produce from hotel’s Walled ‘Secret Garden’. Though the restaurant’s namesake, Chef Andrew Fairlie sadly died a few years Head Chef, Stephen McLaughlin is at the helm ensuring the excellence of the food while General Manager, Dale Dewsbury makes sure that the service maintains the levels of excellence. The restaurant comes with all the bells and whistles of two star dining and stand out dishes include home smoked Scottish lobster, Scotch beef tartare and herb crusted loin of lamb, rosti potato, slow cooked belly with lamb jus.

The Birnam was our final dinner venue and though more causal, it was no less special and had a wonderful buzzy atmosphere. The American / Italian grill style food included tomahawk, seafood tagliatelle and other classic meat, fish and pasta dishes.

We loved lunch at The Dormy, located at the hotel’s golf club which serves a mixture of classic grill items as well as Indian dishes. We really the enjoyed the Tandoor chicken.

The Garden Cafe was super casual, serving light lunches, sandwiches and salads but was extremely popular with the boys as there’s an ice cream shop and pic n mix.

Elsewhere, the Glendevon is the room for afternoon tea.

And if this was enough, there are three bars too… The Century Bar was open to all and we had a delicious lunch there and if the mood takes you… there’s over 400 whiskies!

The American Bar is small, intimate and super glamourous… this one is an adults only affair.

Finally Auchterader 70 is part of the golf club and is the perfect post-golf hang out with plenty of sofas to stretch out on!

It’s easy to see why we fell in love with Gleneagles with the hotel’s unparalleled combination of luxury, heritage, beautiful crowds and sensational food and service… all of this plus being an exceptional hotel for kids!

Great For Kids

Lots of dedicated children’s activities, Den and Kids club

Child-friendly dining including pic and mix and ice cream station!

Attention to detail in the kids amenities gifts,

Great for Parents

Great mixture of dining

Activities to suit everyone for spa to outdoor pursuits

Amazing service

Hotel Review, Gleneagles