Villas In Kingussie

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Helen - Verified booking

  We loved the location of this little house.

  From kingusse we visited Inverness and Loch Ness. We had two days out walking up the Caingorms at Aveimore which was so pretty covered in snow. Unfortunately , the fenicular mountain railway is shut until at least summer, so we didn't get to ride it but that just meant more walking. We canoed on Loch Morlich where there is a fab beach and water sport facilities with the stunning backdrop of the mountains. We visited Tomatin distillery and had a tour. We visited kingusse wildlife park which was interesting but expensive we felt. Impressed that they have the only polar bear cub to be born in the UK in 25 yrs, and they have a great compound there. My husband and myself were fine with the house and would stay again or recommend it, however our 20 yr old daughter found the heating of water a trial. There are storage heaters overnight which we all felt kept the house warm just right in the day. But there was meant to be a tank full of hot water in the mornings, which was lukewarm and we had to keep putting the booster time switch on for a bit, to ensure one of us never ended up short of hot. It just took more time to get ready and out in mornings. In the evenings you could make a fire and the back boiler would boost the hot water but we only had the first three nights chilly enough for needing the fire, as in the last week of April we had great, sunny warm weather. For our first visit to Scotland we were pleased with the house, the area and all of the places we went. We will return, and if we wanted to visit more in this area would use Aultmore house again. In Newtonmore up the road, we had a lovely meal in a little restaurant called the letterbox, which we would recommend but book ahead.

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• James - Verified booking

  I had some reservations about this letting because of its location in Kingussie but overall it was a very enjoyable experience.

  All our previous stays over the years (decades?) have been out of town, but the Pandemic has seen the prices of those ramped up to ridiculous levels. The house was spotlessly clean, comfortable and warm enough (mid October). The kitchen was well equipped and very user friendly. The shower was a bit of a problem to the one member of our party who had a lot of hair: geography demanding a limited 'spray'. Towels, were grand, beds comfortable and duvets etc good quality and comfy. The fire required a degree of skill beyond mine to avoid the costly error of constant feeding with expensive logs. That is MY problem rather than the house's! The only drawback, really, was the parking which is not quite as described. Parking in the street in front of the house is not advisable and it was necessary to watch out for the odd lay by space across the road. For this one is in competition with the long term residents! This is, of course, by no means a deal breaker and, I gather, Kingussie in the season is not a great place for parking at the best. I seem to have given this more attention than it probably merits but for some, it MIGHT be an issue. Would I go back? certainly. Was it good value for money? certainly, Is it a good advert for Sykes? Certainly. Oh, and communication with the owners before arrival was easy, friendly and helpful. Thank you for (another) great week in Speyside.

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• Martin - Verified booking

  Sadly the instructions for the heating were a little misleading - basically we worked out that if the water was heating up (ie after a shower), you had no heating!

  Internet signal/WiFi was patchy and as it was shared across the lodges, it wouldn't even work with my laptop. The cooker rings sometimes worked - couldn't understand why. Would have been nice to leave a couple of dishwasher tablets to start you off - for the price of this villa I would have expected a few extras. Toilet upstairs stopped working one morning.....but got it working again myself. However it's a lovely setting and excellent as a base for the west of the Cairngorms, good wildlife - lots of birds and I think we has a Pine Marten visiting. Red squirrels are nearby, one ran across the garden! Would be good to see the visitor book contain leaflets about the area - nothing there about the area, and I left a book on the Cairngorms to hopefully start off a library! Note that for Otter Lodge you cannot park your car outside the lodge itself, it's a very short walk along a level path to get to the lodge.

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• Brendan - Verified booking

  If anything the listing for Aultmore undersold the attractiveness of the accommodation e.

  G. a "shower over bath" listing gave me the impression of a rather basic "crouch in the bath and hose yourself down" type of facility but in fact the shower was perfect it simply wasn't in a free standing shower tray. The owner contacted us by text before arrival, by phone when we turned up, and again by text when we were leaving - friendly and concerned on every occasion. Some winter cottages leave only a very mean fire starter supply of a few pieces of kindling and a handful of logs. Aultmore provided plenty of fuel (which actually we were happy replenish). Our only note of discomfort was the cold kitchen but then we were there over the coldest winter in Scotland for the past 30 years so we are not complaining. I would have no hesitation in recommending Aultmore to anyone looking to get into the highlands but avoid the commercial atmosphere of Aviemore.

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• Carolyn - Verified booking

  This was our second trip to the lodges and we definitely plan to come back.

  They are beautifully done and in a perfect (for us) setting. This time around, some friends hired one of the apartments too, which worked really well. Comfy beds, an extra arm chair in the lounge compared to what we had last year, which really helped, the nicest log burner over and a fab feeling of being in the middle of nowhere, whilst actually being close to great local amenities. Only a couple of minor criticisms - the oven needed a clean, there need to be more towels (we ended up buying hand towels for both bathrooms) and bigger pots/ pans needed. How can a lodge designed for up to 8 people have pots and pans that are only big enough for three people? We brought baking trays and one big pot from home, but of course that didn’t work on an induction hob. Apart from that, completely gorgeous! Thank you so much for having us - we loved it.

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