Without a doubt,
Cameron House Hotel Resort and Spa in Loch Lomond, Scotland.
(Please enjoy the story with me as I reminisce.)
In short, we were blown away!
Below was our FIRST impression, as the Bagpiper welcomed us as we drove up all alone to the guest entrance.
Imagine the look on our faces, and we all had goose bumps. We jumped out of the car and just listened.
Our children were 15 & 12 at the time.
The Timeshare Cottages, which are 2 stories, are located immediately adjacent to the historic grand old luxury hotel.
Both the hotel and the cottages are to die for. There are also 1 and 3BR retail cottages. There are a bunch of them....dozens.
All cottages are elegantly and comfortably appointed, including many with a large 2nd story deck balcony,
which the timeshare 2-story ones have.
It's such a beautiful and lovely loch-side property with stunning grounds, and you can actually see an old castle on the other side of the loch.
We
TRADED in using an Interval International "request first" search for a June/July/August week.....we got July.
(example of cottages below)
timeshare: (can be traded into)
www.cameronlodges.com
retail rental: (various type cottages)
1.
http://www.cameronlodges.com/rentals/allrentals/lodge-cameronhouse-cycling-701/
2.
https://www.cameronhouse.co.uk/resort/lodges.html
The indoor pool complex in the hotel is one of the nicest I've ever seen.
Cameron House also serves as a great
home base
for traveling
east to St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf, or to many historic towns around central Scotland including
Stirling & the beautiful Stirling Castle. The surrounding countryside scenery is breathtaking.
You can also travel
north to see the entire expanse of the loch, which is 24 gorgeous miles long, or beyond to visit the west coast towns,
including the quaint little town of Oban, and farther north still to the Isle of Skye, a visual paradise with
the most stunning vistas we've ever seen.
The golf course where the annual Scottish Open used to be played is down the road from Cameron House, but very close.
We visited during July several years ago,
and most of the professional tournament golfers stayed in the grand old hotel, and we saw them frequently as they dined and hung out.
From Cameron House, where we spent a week, we drove over 1000 miles around Scotland for sightseeing, and at the end of the week
moved to the grand old historic
Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh for another week, where JK Rowling spent a long time holed up
while writing her final book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows.
What a trip----probably the best, most interesting, and most beautiful trip we ever made, and that includes some great ones!
A lasting memory, you ask?
At each accommodation it was unanimous for me, wife, 2 children:
For Cameron House: it was our DAILY mid-morning hour on the bar lounge sofas,
enjoying hot tea and scones and talking together as a family while overlooking the loch through the huge picture window.
..........seems to always be the simple things.
For Balmoral Hotel:
it was experiencing a "special room"...If you look carefully at this picture link below, you'll see
near each top corner of the hotel (here, under the Clock Tower) there is a large shingled
dome,
and extending from the dome there is a small triangular dormer with a
small circular window just below it.
That happens to be one of the few "roof-line rooms"----- btw, the circular window is just above waist height.
(The big double-arched windows seen in the picture were part of the room below us.)
The
circular window rooms however were actually
part of the dome (the dome
was our ceiling) so we had one of the hotel's 4 cathedral ceilings.
You can't see from the scale, but the circular window was quite large, about 3 feet in diameter, and extended in a tube-like fashion out from the room,
such that an adult could literally crawl easily up from the room into the area with the window at the end, and open the window.
There was enough space for two people to sit comfortably there in the smooth barrel-shaped space to enjoy...
The length of the "tube" space from the room wall to the window at the end of the "tube" was about 4-5 feet.
.....a great visual spot out the window, a neat reading spot, or a quirky conversation spot.
The room was quirky being in a dome, but charming and amazing.
One night after dinner we saw a bunch of beaming search lights of different colors emanating from the grounds of Edinburgh Castle
about a 1/4 mile away, and we clearly heard singing even from that distance. Looked at first like a light show.....
After a minute we realized it was unmistakably Tom Jones performing an outdoor concert from Edinburgh Castle atop Castlehill.
We left the window open and listened to the whole thing. Pretty cool.
Explore the free image collection of Clock tower at the Balmoral Hotel for commercial use. Download high resolution free stock photo collection at Freerangestock.com
freerangestock.com
The COST?
Accommodations: week at Cameron House was one trade week's maintenance fee,
week at Balmoral Hotel Edinburgh was a retail add-on for 7 nights (we got a deal
including a gracious unexpected upgrade),
but absolutely a once-in-a-lifetime experience worth every penny in one of the world's great cities,
4 airline tickets using FF air miles, rental car, excursion tickets for castles, etc, and food. One amazing trip.
Cameron House:
Loch Lomond:
Isle of Skye:
Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh:
1.
2.
Book a Luxury Room or Suite for an Unforgettable Stay in Edinburgh at The Balmoral. A legendary hotel and landmark clock tower: a symbol of its city.
www.roccofortehotels.com
Cameron House -- aerial view of hotel & cottages:
goo.gl
Proximity to Glasgow Airport: 17 miles!!!
goo.gl
Trip examples from Cameron House:
1. Cameron House > Stirling (Stirling Castle) > Edinburgh > St. Andrews)
goo.gl
2. Cameron House > Oban > Isle of Skye......through the incomparable Scottish Highlands.
goo.gl
The Quiraing, Isle of Skye:
We actually drove up the road shown below in the picture, to reach the little parking lot at the top
for the highest vantage point. Very interesting drive to say the least.
Lot of "Whoaaaaaaa's", "OMG's", and "Slower-slower-slower's"!!!!!!
Places to see if desired:
www.google.com
Oban:
Stirling Castle:
To quote a famous philosopher,
"JUST DO IT!"
.
