Opinión detallada de LovesTravel
When Himself and Yours Truly planned our trip to Britain earlier this year, a visit to Loch Ness was high on the itinerary agenda. This trip was for our 11-year-old grandson, and it was his wish to see castles. Urquhart Castle was on the short list of must-see attractions. A secondary attraction in this particular region, of course, was Nessie herself—the infamous Loch Ness Monster. None of us could be classified as Nessie diehards, but the mythology of the illusive beast was definitely appealing, particularly for our grandson.
Finding a place to stay in this area is never easy, especially if you require a triple or quadruple accommodation. The obvious choice would have been the Drumnadrochit Hotel, which is located just around the bend from the castle and next to the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre. Our problem with this option was that it is a new facility. We wanted something with a bit more character, even if it wasn’t quite as convenient.
Eventually we settled on the Whitebridge Hotel, east of the loch in a relatively remote location. The adults in our company were attracted by both the remoteness and the apparent charm of the hotel, which was built at the end of the 19th century and seemed to sit pretty much in the middle of nowhere—albeit a rather beautiful nowhere, which was just our cup of tea. The Whitebridge was built on the site of an old military hostel, a King’s House, which housed soldiers traveling along the old military road—now part of the B862. The setting is magnificent, with glorious views of two peaks in the Monadhliaths. The pub side of the hotel is close to the road, but views toward the back roll off into the surrounding wilderness—well, maybe not entirely wilderness, but certainly close.
The ground floor houses reception, the breakfast room, a country pub, and a residents lounge complete with television, a small selection of books, and a computer station (an older Mac desktop that worked perfectly well). Everything was attractive and neat, but nothing was fancy—as befits a 2-star rural hotel. Wireless is available throughout the hotel, and the host will provide the password on request. Parking is plentiful for both the hotel (which has only 12 rooms) and the pub.
Check-in was extraordinarily easy. We gave our reservation and were presented with a key—no fuss, no bother. Simple pleasantries were exchanged, our host announced the timeframe for breakfast, gave directions to our room, and we were off to settle in.
Our triple room was a bit on the snug side. It contained three twin beds, one located is a small alcove next to the en-suite. A built-in wardrobe partially divided the room, separating the alcove from the larger portion of the room that contained the other two beds. The bathroom, clearly a modification added to the original room layout, was small but contained a shower over tub and a toilet. Water pressure in the shower was somewhere between low and moderate, but the water was hot. The basin was on the opposite side of the room, in the area where the two beds were located. There were also small bedside tables, a dresser with mirror, collapsible luggage stand, TV, and hospitality tray. Fortunately the mirror on the dresser was freestanding and could be removed to the floor of the wardrobe. This meant that we could place our grandson’s bag on the luggage stand and our own two on the dresser. In the end, this arrangement allowed us sufficient moving-around space to feel less cramped, and the alcove provided our grandson with a touch of privacy. The room was clean and simply decorated with tartan bedspreads, and the beds were comfortable. Some of the furniture was a bit tired, but it was sturdy and sufficient to our needs. The windows opened to fill out room with fresh mountain air as we slept.
The tariff, £90 per night, included a full Scottish breakfast cooked to order. Cereal, fruit, cups of packaged yoghurt, a selection of juices, and milk were set up on a buffet. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and the cooked breakfast were served from the kitchen. The food was of good quality, well prepared, and attractively presented. Service was pleasant and professional. Our host served as waiter (or server, if you prefer). He asked after our plans, offered assistance, then left it to us to pursue the offer. Ultimately, it was he who told our grandson about a recent Nessie sighting at the village of Foyers—and even provided us with a computer printout of the article describing the event.
The in-house pub is almost a stereotypical country tavern. Listed in the CAMRA guide for several years running, it serves ales on tap from the Cairngorm and Isle of Skye breweries in addition to a good selection of bottled beers and ales. Patrons may choose to sit at the small bar or at a handful of tables and booths. The food is largely traditional, tasty, and plentiful. Service is friendly and casually efficient. Children are welcome, and the pub never seemed to lack for patrons. We took our evening meals here for two of our three-night stay.
Check-out was as simple as check-in. Our host simply processed our credit card and presented an itemized bill for our approval. At our request, he allowed us to access his office printer to obtain boarding passes for our flight to London. He also found us a scale to help balance our bags in order to avoid extra airline fees. We left as satisfied customers. We happily recommend the Whitebridge to other travelers, so long as they understand the charms and the limitations of staying at an accommodation of this type.
BawBaw/LovesTravel
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