Crowne Plaza Edinburgh

10 Days – England, Scotland, and Iceland – Introduction

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We spent only two nights in Edinburgh and I decided to redeem a total of 70k IHG Rewards Club points for two nights at the four-star Crowne Plaza Edinburgh – Royal Terrace. We took a tram to the city centre and later walked to the hotel, which is located about a ten minute walk away from the city centre. I earned the points for this hotel stay from the IHG Chase Credit Card sign up bonus, which was 80k points.

Upon arriving at the Crowne Plaza, we were welcomed by a very friendly receptionist who immediately checked us in and informed me that thanks to my IHG Spire status, we had been upgraded to a ‘more premium room’, and that my Spire status would allow us access to the Club Lounge and receive free breakfast. Awesome! She also explained everything about the city and what is worth seeing.

The exterior of the hotel is very nice – I really like the contrast of the dark buildings and green plants/trees throughout the city.

The Crowne Plaza Edinburgh isn’t your typical hotel – it has a bit of an ‘aged’ look inside, which was perfectly fine.

Our ‘premium room’ consisted of a bedroom and a very small room with a sofa behind the bedroom. There were also two bathrooms – a main one that was right by the bedroom and a smaller one next to the mini room with the sofa.

The room had a ‘grand’ feeling to it since the ceiling was super high and the bed also had a baldachin.

Along with a coffee maker was a tea kettle with various types of tea. A minibar was located right under the desk.

The side table featured plenty of books about Edinburgh and also two bottles of complimentary water.

Here is what the mini room with the sofa looked like, basically it was located right behind the bedroom and it also had a small bathroom attached to it.

We had a view of the gardens/forest outside behind the hotel from our room.

Both bathrooms were equally nice, however the main bathroom featured a bathtub/shower combo while the smaller bathroom only consisted of the shower. There were amenities in every bathroom and also additional accessories such as a shoe bag, sewing kit, etc.

The minibar was a bit under-stocked, however we didn’t use it at all since we had access to the Club Lounge.

We spent the evenings swimming in the pool and relaxing in the sauna.

There was also a very extensive selection of food for breakfast: cereal, fruit, yogurt, jams, granola, eggs, ham, bacon, etc.

What I loved the most about the Crowne Plaza is the Club Lounge, while the snacks in the lounge weren’t the best, the actual lounge was awesome – it featured an extensive outdoor area where we could relax and take in the fresh air from the forest behind us.

The drinks in the club lounge consisted of juice, soda, tea, coffee, alcoholic drinks, and water. The snacks that were available 24/7 were fruit, chips, pretzels, and nuts. Between the hours of 18:00 and 20:00, warm canapés were available in the lounge.

The canapé on our first night was chicken and rice in a sauce or mini shrimps in a sauce. I hate seafood so I went for the chicken which was too spicy for me.

The canapés on the second night were much better – pumpkin soup, a less spicy chicken and rice, and an apple pie.

The juices were excellent – we kept coming to the lounge just for the juices, which were apple, pineapple, orange, and cranberry. The canapés were definitely a nice addition to the club lounge and I was glad that we had access since it made us try some warm snacks.

Overall, we had an amazing stay at the Crowne Plaza Edinburgh. The staff were beyond friendly and constantly looked after us and we had to stop by the front desk every time we entered the hotel since they wanted to know all about our time spent in the city. In particular there was one front desk agent from Spain that was super friendly and we actually ended up speaking in Spanish.

The amenities of the hotel were awesome – a pool, sauna, club lounge, free (good!) breakfast, a nicer room, etc. I am definitely glad that I booked this hotel since we had an amazing time and everything was perfect – I’d even go as far as saying that this hotel (and the whole experience) was much better than what we had in London at the two previous hotels. While it wasn’t as fancy as the others, it did have a ‘home’ feel to it and we both prefer smaller hotels with more personalised service – since it almost always tends to be better than that of bigger hotels. Awesome, Awesome, Awesome! I definitely wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again!