Crieff Hydro Hotel and Resort Review

Crieff Hydro has all the veneer of a quality hotel but none of the substance. Once a fine and beautiful hotel, it is actually now more like a holiday camp; all hard surfaces with no sanctuary from noise and chaos. Disappointment hounded us as we struggled through 24 hours of inadequate service, lengthy queues, awful food, blatant deception by staff and over-charged bills. It was a release to escape to the drive home. With each incident we tried talking to staff but were met by a wall of incomprehension, partly because of English is not the native tongue of most employees, but also, I suspect, because there is no slack in its procedures enabling them to deal with those who have any expectations that Crieff Hydro could, and should, live up to its 4-star rating.

Beautiful area, fun activities and great food and drink! Would recommend the Monkey and Elderflower cocktail and Treetop Adventure.

Went here for a Birthday celebration, great food, great atmosphere & staff were helpful at every stage

Cafe. Very chilled. Did Christmas food shop on computer with coffee and cake....perfect!

Another great visit! Shame to see the gallery and snooker rooms have been moved about as they were much better in there original locations.

Attended the party night for the 3rd time.

The only thing that let it down for me were the Turkey and potatoes at the party. More gravy always need. Bring me a gravy boat ;)
Staff were very attentive and helpful.

Cannot praise the band enough. They were amazing as usual. Everyone was up dancing and having a great time. Hope they are there next year!

Couple of really minor issues with the room standard. Such as bin in bathroom not emptied, nae tea bags and no loo roll. Otherwise it was fine for one night.

The Victorian spa was great again. Had no trouble booking a slot. It's reasonable for the price.

The rest of the party I was with went quad biking. From my last experience, it's brilliant, but freezing. Wear good gloves and layers of under armour.

For the overall price, I'm a very happy customer.

Can't wait until next time. Cheers.

Rooms and hotel side is a bit tired. Function rooms were good and the organisation was top rate.

Great amenities and a lovely room. Friendly and helpful staff. I really enjoyed my stay here!

A beautiful part of the world and friendly staff working there

Nice room, friendly bar staff and lots of cocktails

No biscuits with afternoon tea a bit disappointing.

Lovely hotel very picturesque lots to do for children but no water fountain in pool area could not get booked for our meal time they gave us was 8 o'clock if we go back will book meal on advance

Been going to crieff hydro for many years and always very relaxing. Food at the terrace was average. Lunch at the winter garden very good. Good cleaning and sanitising throughout the hotel except.in the winter garden where tables weren't cleaned between guests. Not enough staff on. Signature room was lovely .

Great service. Clean rooms and good food. I wish I could have stayed longer.

An excellent weekend, with wonderful facilities for children.

The last time we were here was in 2009 and it's completely different now for the better. We loved our cosy cabin where we stayed, wood fire with everything you need to use it all provided. The resort was excellent, modern and very very child friendly. We had 2 kids and we came with another family of 2. We used the free childcare / nursery services which was fantastic to get some relaxation time.- the kids loved it there. The only thing was that they only had one restaurant opendue to the others being used for daily xmas parties over the month of December. The brasserie was ok, a bit pricey for what it is but there is food that kids will eat there.

Stayed at the Murraypark hotel which has full access to Crieff Hydro facilities. Great 2 night break.

Yes well worth a visit, we could sit in the winter garden all day, lovely.

Good parking easy to get to. Not overly impressed by buffet meal. Golf course is in very good condition.

Fantastic location with great amenities for adults and kids and good restaurants. The staff are excellent and very friendly.

Love this place, it is a well oiled machine! My wife and I held our wedding here and we can't say a bad word against them. We make a point of staying once a year. The whisky bar is particularly good. From the golf course to the quad bikes, spa and cinema all facilities are well maintained and well managed. There really is something for everyone!

Long live the Crieff Hydro!

Stayed in one of the lodges. Very clean and well equipped.

I'm not much for overtly fancy places, but if you are youll love it.

An establishment: great service, great food, great location, great entertainment (especially with kids). Evening meals perhaps a wee bit too expensive for what you get but still recommend as a weekend escape.

Was in self-catering it was out of the way from the main area so if you like quite time its great for you but if you like to be in with the husstle and bustle no good

Great Family friendly hotel with lots to do and great restaurants.

Great place. The only thing that I didn't like was the amount of children and babies witch made it very noisy. Myself and my husband don't get away very often and when we can we pay as much as we can afford for a good hotel as we don't usually leave the hotel until we are coming home. We go just for a relaxing pampering break. But I have been here a few times before and never experienced such noisy children and babies and thier parents/guardian not doing much to control them.

Complete shambles.
Uncontrollable hot water in the X2 baths, third shower flooded the bathroom.
Dirty ceiling! Dirty kitchen.
Broken front door.
This place spoiled a special occasion.
DO NOT WASTE YOU PRECIOUS TIME OR MONEY!
Management do not care as long as you pay your bill.

So good the kids say best holiday ever.... we will be back soon.

When for dinner in the Italian restaurant It was ok, food was decent. The hydro was nice

I never got much sleep at all because my room was next to an outbuilding with a very noisy extractor fan which went on 24.7. I'm sure the owners have had plenty of complaints about this but to no avail. Visited "the hub" for a meal and had to ask for clean cutlery as what was on offer was covered in someone else's food.. Overpriced average food. Staff great though, so helpful. So to sum up, great, helpful staff, management not so great. Crieff hydro not all its cracked up to be. Won't be back and will definitely not recommend unless you make positive changes.

I have been to Crieff Hydro many times before but for days to the activity centre to hire segways & quad bikes. I have stayed in the cabins for a hen party week but this was my first stay actually in the hotel.
We got a great deal with itison for an overnight stay plus use of the Victorian spa and a bottle of wine. Great value.

The hotel has had a boutique hotel style make over and I think they have a great mix of taste and opulence. It feels special but warm and friendly at the same time.

Free wifi in the room - always good
A choice of still or sparkling bottles of water in the room complimentary.
Really decent bathrooms and the toiletries were from "The white company" which isn't bad at all.



The Victorian Spa was very relaxing and they provide cordials & tea or coffee and fruit along with magazines and day beds to chill out on.

You can drive there in under 90 minutes from Edinburgh and feel like you have really had a break away to re-charge your batteries.
Keep up the good work guys!

Fabulous venue. We stayed in a house situated just above the Hydro. Booked the Victorian Spa which was great. Ate at the Brasserie and had a great meal. Loads to do.

If you're in with a group booking, make sure your bag is tagged at reception!

Food was lovely. Staff helpful. Rooms clean. Party night, fabulous!

Beautiful place, relaxing spa area, nice swimming pools, luxury rooms and a lot to do on site

A splendid traditional hydro hotel. One of the best breakfast buffets you will find in the UK. We were there during the season of Christmas office parties I am afraid and our corridor was noisy during the night with distraught drunken revellers.

Amazing food, lots of things to do , great for kids, all round great family place to go.

Great place with lots of activities and good standard of accommodation.

Lovely hotel with great variety of activities available,dining options.Set in beautiful surroundings.

Great setting, great food, great rooms, great staff

Really good for familys. Gary Dunn the magician is brilliant for adults and children.
Food is nice.

Attended a meeting here. All the staff were super helpful and facilities are fantastic

Excellent facilities although could do with private showers in Victorian spa. Very clean n well cared for very friendly and helpful staff.

Fantastic hotel. Staff excellent. Plenty activities
For everyone. Recommended.

Just back from a two night stay in your studio apartments. All staff should be praised for the excellent service they provided during this difficult time due to this dreadful virus. Everything felt very safe with one way systems, plenty handwash stations and staff making sure everything was dealt with correctly. I can t praise them enough even the pens were wiped before use.

Lovely hotel with lots to do to amuse both adults and kids alike.

Lovely hotel but long queues at reception and unhelpful front desk staff make for an often disappointing experience.

Enjoyed a good evening here, lovely location, service could have been better.

Lovely hotel,lots to do,great fun for all the family

Wonderful family hotel with great facilities for all ages , fantastic choice of where to eat and huge choice of food . We have been staying there over the last 25 years + . Would fully recommend and feel good value for the money

Big plush hotel but feels homely which is great. Would and will stay there again.

Another amazing stay in hydro ,what can I say stunning amazing beautiful so much to do

A bit hard to navigate until you work out the layout, but great to visit, nice spa and excellent for kids

Buitfull gardens pleanty parking very friendly staff good food

Hotel room 148 was like a broom cupboard. The dinner was lovely but the breakfast was an abomination. The staff were nice.

Yet another fantastic party night, best I have been to, and will be again.

Thoroughly enjoy staying here - year after year! It works with the kids even as they get older.

Great for young children with lots going on. Lodges are modern and very well appointed.

Negatives

Check In. The gentleman who check me into the room was nothing short of being rude. When asked if he could check my reservation for dinner the reply was, "I'm busy checking people in the restaurant is right there".





The service was diabolical. The pricing on drinks is strange (I'll get to that later) I asked the waiter a question about the chowder and they said I can't help you and got someone else who couldn't answer the question either. So ended up changing my mind and went for the things that couldn't be wrong. How wrong was I.

I don't think I've ever been quite so let down by the food and service as I was expecting. The chicken, onion, rice soup w/ dumplings was near cold on arrival. Its called a soup, would say water with a bit of salt.

Main, burger (I know fine dining and burger was on the menu, should have been my alarm going off) was Luke warm at best. The chips were fried to beyond recognition as well as the onion rings. To which the table beside us asked what it was so they don't order it!

Dessert, white chocolate creme brulee, I said to the gentleman taking the order not to put the pistachio biscotti with my dessert as I'm allergic to nuts. So it really came of no surprise at that point that is came with it on the side. It's just as well the allergy is on ingestion and not anything else, that could of started problems. Then the other issue is the description. There was zero white chocolate in that creme brulee. It also was near solid. On the whole very unappetising.



Speaking with other guests whilst having drinks and their opinion was the same on Meikle.



Positives. (Yes there are a few)

1. Action Glen & Staff.
We were booked in for archery and managed to get in some crazy golf and also managed to get into clay pigeon shooting on the off chance.

Special thanks to Patrick at the Clays. He was fantastic and took me as a total novice into someone that was rarely missing!

2. Victorian Spa



3. Brasserie

So as you would guess, we didn't even entertain the thought of the Meikle on our second night. Went and booked brasserie instead. Good choice it turns out. Food came out hot. Which is always a bonus. Service was far better and the food in general was better. I'm also perplexed at the size difference on the brulee and how much nicer it was this time round.

As long as your room doesn't have mould and don't eat in Meikle, and you get lucky with reception staff then I'm sure it would have been a more enjoyable stay

Wonderful food in a pleasant atmosphere whilst overlooking the Perthshire countryside.

Can't possibly fault Crieff Hydro as they had excellent customer service and very polite and friendly. I liked the welcome into the Hotel and although I'm not accustomed to being called Madam, it felt really nice. There is so much to do even with the rubbish weather outside. I wish I could have stayed longer with my husband. Best honeymoon ever. I would gladly go back.

Went for a Christmas night out and stay. Excellent band and had great times on the floor. Good breakfast in the morning but never used the facilities so not sure how they stand up. Good place to cist for couples, families etc.

Chalets in hotel grounds really nice and beautiful scenery, especially when snow is on the surrounding hills. Activities provided on site are breathtakingly expensive, especially for a family. The Winter Gardens cafe is a lovely place to relax, but the service is very slow and inefficient.

Absolutely fantastic few days. Food of the highest possible standard. Lovely spotlessly clean bedrooms and the most polite, helpful and smart looking staff I have ever come across. Loads to do for families and couples. Really enjoyed the holiday.

A welcoming, family friendly hotel with lots to do. Some great walks and a good play area as well as plenty of choice of food.

On my particular stay, there was an issue with the room (a lot of noise nearby and a very light sleeper), but we were assigned a new room quickly and without fuss. Many compliments to Laura and the rest of the helpful staff who made our stay as relaxing as we'd hoped.