The Gleneagles Hotel overnight - an experience!

The Gleneagles hotel was an experience and a half, this overnight wasn't just an overnight an hour up the road, it was a special little (massive) piece of heaven that made me feel like a princess for the duration of my stay. 

From the minute we walked in the door we were treated like royalty and no request was too big or too small. 

CHECKING IN

We checked in with no hassle at all, when we checked in it was noted my birthday had just been and they wished me a happy birthday - a nice touch.

We were also advised a £100 charge would be taken from my card regardless of if we wanted to use this or not, the £100 wasn't a hold on the card it was taken immediately. 

Our arrangements were also made for breakfast to be brought to our room along with double checking our dinner plans (we booked a table well in advance as we were advised the restaurants would fill up fast).

We were given our keys and a map of the hotel grounds and facilities as well as instructions on how to find our room, we were sent on our way down past the Rolex shops and followed the smell of money and class to the lifts.

ROOM 

We stayed in a deluxe double manor room, the bedroom was big, the bathroom? even bigger! 

The room had an extra large double bed along wit a dressing table and make up application area and a wardrobe that had more than enough space. Coming from me who's an over-packer there were plenty of extra hangers! 

Within the room there was also a large TV which was pre-loaded with loads and loads of movies, they all came free with the room and had such a good mix of movies. 

The TV also allowed you to look at your ongoing bill for the duration of the stay, a feature that was both helpful and disgusting to look at all at once. 

The scary figures of the ever evolving bill were soothed when I stood in the middle of the extremely large bathroom with its own free standing bath and double sinks. 

The Gleneagles shortbread that was left in the room was also a nice treat! Along with the shortbread there was a nice big slice of birthday cake left in the room with a birthday card for me, this was such a special touch that just made the experience even more enjoyable. I personally feel that little touches like this can really make a huge difference to your stay.

Whilst in the room we ordered room service, we ordered the kids chicken bites and fries along with a bottle of whispering angel rosé wine. We knew we had dinner booked but just wanted some lite bites to tide us over. The food arrived promtly  and was utterly delicious, we knew we were in for a treat for dinner if this little nibble was anything to go by. 

Overall the room was just to die for, it was everything I could have dreamed off and more, the plush carpets were silky smooth to float around on like the princess I thought I was while I waltzed around in my matching Gleneagles slippers and housecoat. 

DINNER

For dinner we ate in the Birnam Brasserie, there are various restaurants in the hotel however for us this menu suited our taste the best. (We've also ate in the Dormy Clubhouse on the grounds of Gleneagles which is the perfect chilled out spot for some food and drinks). 

The Birnam Brasserie was lovely, however, at first we were placed in a corner in the main part of the restaurant directly next to the staffing computer. This meant the area was always full and the staff were essentially sitting with us for dinner, I didn't feel comfortable about this and felt really squishy and uncomfy. Luckily I was able to speak to a member of staff and they moved us to the outer area of the Brasserie which was full of fairy lights and fancy plants and decorations. 

Once we were moved through to the second area we were able to fully enjoy our night and relax, the feeling of nothing was too much was really reinstalled during this dinner. 

We ordered 

- garlic focaccia bread while we waited on our wine

Starters

- Minestrone soup 

- Brushetta 

Mains

2 x Fillet steaks with peppercorn sauce and a garlic butter

Side Sweet Potato fries

Wine

2 x Whispering Angel 

Our food was delivered to our table so professionally, the food was always covered right until it got too you and was presented perfectly. Portion sizes were great and overall the food was delicious.

I feel I wouldn't have enjoyed my meal as much had we not moved area, the second area we sat in was more open and felt more relaxed. 

There was such a mix of people and attire in the restaurant, there were all age groups in attendance as well as those in fancy dresses and heels to people in jeans and nice trainers. There are other places to eat in the hotel and I feel the Birnam is the more relaxed and chilled area for eating although its totally up to you how you dress for dinner there. 

Its still Gleneagles so I wouldn't go too chill! 

Once we finished dinner a staff member phoned ahead to The Century Bar to ensure there was a table waiting on us for drinks for when we felt we wanted to go round. 

However, on route to The Century Bar we stumbled across The American Bar. 

The American Bar

I had seen pictures of this bar online and heard stories of how nice it was so I was gutted to see that this was going to be shut while we were there due to Covid-19, so Imagine my happiness when we seen that it was open! We barely seen it was open due to the subtleness of this little bar nestled into the corner of the corridor.

The American Bar was a slice of 1920's speak easy heaven, the room was small and very dark, it felt as though we shouldn't even be in it. The menu is very small and select and I struggled to pick a drink, I eventually settled on a "loch" gin martini, it was... S T R O N G.

From the American Bar we left to head to The Century as we had first planned.

The Century Bar

This bar is just a classic bojuee, fancy, nice bar, its a comfy place to sit and enjoy a drink while also just feeling like the ultimate princess. We were sat right at the window in and this allowed us to look out onto the classic glorious famous Gleneagles grounds. Our drinks were ordered and brought to the table so we never had to lift a finger, this was the vibe the whole time we stayed here, there was never anything that we had to worry or think about everything was just done, new drink? a fresh straw appeared.

We had a few rounds of drinks in this bar and were able to just totally feel at home. 

Finally we left this bar and headed back to our delicious room.

BREAKFAST 

We ordered breakfast to the room, we were given an order list to choose our items from, if you can think of anything you can want to eat for breakfast it was on that list! 

From hot cooked breakfast to fresh fruit and yoghurt this list had it all, we settled for 

- French toast with berry compote and maple syrup with a side of coconut yogurt 

- Selection of breakfast muffins and pastries 

- hot cooked breakfast with my partners selected items 

- fresh fruit juice. 

The breakfast arrived to the room on a trolly that TURNED INTO A TABLE!! Does it get more plush than this? I think not! Then, (hold onto your phone screens...) the table had a hot box underneath it which all of our hot food was brought into to ensure it stayed warm. This was too much for me I was totally blown away, so although we had breakfast in the room we still had a formal table and everything we could ever have needed. 

For breakfast to the room we picked a slot for when we wanted our food to arrive, these were 15 minute slots, I appreciated this as I felt it gave more of a precise time for when to expect the food to arrive. Normally in other hotels this is a half hour slot and you can feel as though a large part of your morning is spent waiting on the food arriving, but no not here. 

The presentation of the food was to die for and the taste was the same, we throughly enjoyed our breakfast and the Gleneagles strawberry and champagne that followed. 

Checkout was at 12pm which I thought was fantastic so there was no rush, we could simply enjoy every moment!

COVID-19 GUIDELINES

Covid has changed the way we can live and has altered many experiences but I didn't feel once that our stay was affected by the awful virus. 

When we arrived we were placed in a socially distant queue to check in, this set the tone for the stay as we felt safe and secure, the minute somebody seen us waiting they made a made a member of staff available to check us in. 

The staff member also advised that we did not need to wear masks during our stay because all members of staff would be wearing them, and they did. 

Our room was spotless, there was a bottle of hand sanitiser on each bed side cabinet. A particular part of the COVID procedures which I liked was the cover over the remote, when we entered the room the remote was in a sealed wrapper which assured it had been cleaned and sanitised. 

We were also advised to always stay left when walking around the hotel which would ensure all the traffic followed efficiently. 

OVERALL 

Overall, this stay was just amazing from start to finish and I felt like a princess the whole time. I would encourage anybody to have a treat yourself time and stay over. 

I wish we had spent more time in the grounds, there were so many activities to take part in and to play. We went a nice walk but should have taken better trainers, if we had we could have got lost in the grounds all day and just played and chatted.