When looking at the Atholl palace website, we thought we had found the perfect old Scottish castle we wanted to sleep in. But it was indeed far from perfect.
First, the reception people weren't nice at all and didn't even indicate us our room, just told us our room number. We took the very small elevator (we found only one for this huge hotel so expect to wait hours at the elevator) and managed to find our room. It was a small and cold room with no view. We ordered a small heater at the reception because the heat wasn't working but even with that, the room stayed cold during our entire 3 nights stay.
As an advice, you should stay far away from the food! It is certainly the worst I have ever tried in my life! Had you ever heard of an hotel serving fryed tripes for breakfast? Me neither! We also had dinner there, reserving a table in the afternoon and of course when we arrived at dinner the table wasn't booked for us (the hotel is so disorganised!). After having finally found a table, we ordered the menu and found out that the quality of the food (although presented in a very gastronomic way) was even lower than that of a low quality fast food. Other advice: if you make it for breakfast, respect carefully the schedule (which, by the way, seems to change everyday) because if you arrive only 5 mins late, they will strongly refuse you your breakfast but, of course, still charging it to you! Anyway, just think at what you missed and you'll realize it wasn't a big loss :-)
The only good thing was the swimming pool and the jacuzzi which are quite enjoyable when they aren't filled with kids or large groups. Don't expect the Sauna or Hamman to work!
Last thing: when we checked out, they didn't ask us to pay so I thought the money would be directly withdrawed from my credit card number I gave them when I booked... No: they called us two hours after we left the hotel and asked us to come back because they forgot to make us pay. I told them that there was no way we would go back there and to take the money from the credit card. It somehow took them 4 days and 6 phone calls to me on my mobile (at random hours) to figure out how to charge my card...
Atholl palace bears its name!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
Would I recommend this hotel to my best friend?
No way!
I recommend this hotel for:
An Amazing Honeymoon, A romantic getaway, Older Travellers, tourists
I do not recommend this hotel for:
An Amazing Honeymoon, A romantic getaway, Girlfriend getaway, People with disabilities
I selected this hotel as a top choice for:
Museums / Cultural / Historical sites, Outdoor / Adventure, Spa