Macdonald Highlands Hotel at Macdonald Aviemore Resort

My experience could be summed up as “I arrived stressed and left relaxed”. The staff were friendly, professional and knowledgeable.

The hot water in the room was not as warm as the showers in the pool area. It meant that the bath was cold by the time it was full. This would have been a bonus but not essential to my stay.

Really friendly staff. Very welcoming and happy to please. Excellent breakfast and our daughters loved the pool.

Good location and nice grounds

Needs updating including bedrooms, dining room and leisure area.

Excellent staff. Great food and rooms very clean

The pool and children’s activity areas are quite small.

Location

Very dated and tired. Sheet had hole in it and towel was frayed.

Absolutely loved the resort, was soo much to do for kids ages 1 and 6 we had the best time. We got food when we first arrived around half past 12 and got early check in for 1 then, We spent most of our first day in the activity centre the girls had a ball and then we headed to the swimming and enjoyed the pool disco and both kids went down flume was super fun. We were really lucky to get the snow and we had brought our sledge to have fun.

What I didn’t like about the property was our room was absolutely freezing! Heating was turned right up but still didn’t heat up I understand we had -2 temps but that shouldn’t affect our room. We all slept in the one bed because of how cold it was and I slept in my thermals. We also had been told that we could get room service and over an hour and a half of messing about we ended up having to go up to the room at half past 8 (kids where asleep so only dad could go up) and he had to bring the food down. And same for breakfast we didn’t get any breakfast sorted for us either and we missed the breakfast slot upstairs so had to go out of the resort with two crying, overwhelmed hungry kids. All this was reported but no resolution.

Location is excellent for Aviemore

Our room (a twin in the MacDonalds Highlands Hotel ) was fine but on the small side. The bathroom was very small. Some of the paint and door edges were tatty. The hotel lobby lounge was cold unless you were in front of the fire. The restaurant is incredibly expensive and the food is 3/10 ….avoid the restaurant. Breakfast is served from 07:30am but if you’re skiing it’s too late as by the time you’ve had breakfast you may struggle to get into the car parks on the hill. I think the hotel has itself as a 4 star rated but I would say it’s more 3 star.

Cosy rooms, fun pool, great staff

It’s a little run down in places, and has a bit of a youth centre feel outside and around the hallways. But we’d come again for a trip to the mountains.

Location good and very comfortable

The coffee at breakfast is awful. I’m not a coffee snob but it honestly isn’t drinkable

We had a family room with three beds and still plenty room .we had a lovely bathroom with overhead shower and plenty beautiful white towels/ soaps / shampoo and wash.A kettle with tea/ coffee and biscuits on arrival.breakfast was great with all sorts of choices.The cleaner was awesome,in each day to turn the beds down for our return.she was friendly and very helpful and polite.The night porters were also very helpful and professional when we had a sick child during the night.

We very much enjoyed every aspect of our visit and would have loved to stay a little longer

Great for the kids easy access to the pool/soft play. And amazing breakfast

The window in the bedroom was very draughty.

Breakfast was average, cold plates on 2 of the breakfasts and the food not overly hot.

On arrival we picked up our keys and after travelling up to our room we found another couple already settled in. They went back to reception and offered to move to another room which they did.

Location

No hot water for a shower. Outrageous prices for a glass of wine.

Staff were helpful. We had a dog with us and they set up breakfast and dinner in area where we could take our dog.Dinner was excellent in Aspects restaurant, and the service was also great.The facilities were excellent, and very clean.

The breakfast was only small negative. The bacon was left in a water, and just didn't feel cooked enough, for me anyway. Although there was a lot of choice for breakfast, it did feel like the food was almost secondary and didn't really do the the rest of the visit justice.

Aviemore

Hotel needs massive freshen up, like something out the 80s. Room was very small, dirty. For a room so small, 3 chairs and a table don't help. Expensive and not worth it, bed was uncomfortable but that's just my opinion, others may think it's fine. Burn mark on wall above a socket, shower head loose, and dog hairs on chair, no issue with dogs, I had mine with me but she's black, these hairs were white. Room generally just untidy, dirty and too small.Breakfast in Aspects was lovely though, no complaints there

The location is fantastic, rooms while not perfect were to a good standard and no power to the shaver socket was fixed on day one. Aviemore town centre is a 5 min walk with lots of food and drink options. The town is well situated for Cairngorms ski resort or for sightseeing around the Inverness area

Breakfast service is disorganised with insufficient chefs on duty. This resulted in cold bacon, sausages and fried eggs due to them being cooked in volume and kept “warm” for too long a period. It’s indicative of poor chef staffing levels at breakfast.

Rooms were fine, restaurant good

Location was convenient

Close to town, good access to local attractions

Was a bit dated, needed a coat of paint

Great location, dont really use the facilities here as come for skiing

Checking in was horrendous, 30 mins. Rooms dated,

Clean,comfy and central in Avimore. Excellent staff good food and good beer.Excellent facilities. What else do you want from a weekend break.

Can’t think of anything I didn’t like