The Rowan Tree Country Hotel - Aviemore, United Kingdom 

We stayed at Rowan for one night during a one-week tour in Scotland. Location: 2-3 miles south of Aviemore. Nice location - in the woods - if you are driving. The hotel: nice older house, with "character" as some other reviewers wrote. Plenty of parking space. The room: we stayed in room 8, which was nicely appointed with a very fluffy bed. Note that the rooms on the last floor are under the roof so the ceiling is not very high and it can be a problem if you are tall. Fortunately, we are not :-) One funny bathroom "feature" that we observed at Rowan is that you have to push a button outside the bathroom to turn on the hot water in the bathroom - this could have been worth a note in the room. We had instead to walk down to the reception and get the full explanation (as there was no phone in the room). Dinner: here came our "wow" experience. Both my wife's duck with rhubarb and my chanterelle risotto with spinach proved excellent, outstanding in presentation and delicious. If you stay at Rowan, EAT THERE! Overall a very good stay with the dinner as the most memorable experience!

The Rowan Tree Country Hotel is a great place to spend a few days. We stayed twice recently on our way up to / back from the far north of Scotland. The hotel is located close to the main A9 but far enough away not to be affected by road noise. On our first visit we stayed in Room 5 on the first floor - a spacious room with 6ft bed, plasma tv and views of the loch and mountains. The bathroom was quite small and let the room down a little. On our second visit we stayed in Room 9 (an attic room with sloping ceilings on the 2nd floor). This room was also nice with a beautiful 5ft sleigh bed. Again spacious with plasma tv and a better bathroom - although im not a fan of carpet in bathrooms. Being in the attic the room was slightly cheaper and I think i'd pay the extra to stay on the 1st floor. The hotel is a few miles from Aviemore so dining options are aplenty, but why waste your petrol when the hotel has such a great restaurant. The food is first class although the wine list is a little overpriced. We planned to eat in Aviemore at least once but ended up eating in the hotel on all three nights. As the chef is so good its no surprise to find that breakfast is also superb with one of the best choices of fresh fruits ive seen in a hotel plus the usual fry up which was excellent. All in all this hotel is a great choice and given it takes dogs we'll be stopping here again soon.