The Best Luxury Hotels in Glasgow

Sleek and switched on, but with plenty of French joie de vivre, this Britain-wide boutique chain offers low-key luxe. The unbeatable, tree-lined West End location is a gift, as is the terraced garden, candle-lit bistro – served by attendant sommeliers and chef Gary Townsend – cigar snug, whisky room and walk-in underground cellar. Doubles and suites are decked-out with delicate touches like fine Egyptian linens, window seats and cosy alcoves. For a touch of high Glaswegian culture, visit nearby Oran Mor, a renovated church, and enjoy its fabulous lunchtime theatre series.

In the heart of Glasgow’s downtown, this swish Manhattan-esque hotel has a members’-club vibe – right down to the library, cigar terrace and secret champagne bar. Regardless of whether you want to devour a proper steak and enjoy a vintage red, party hard at the neighbouring bars, or chill out with free movies on a cinema-sized TV in your own room, the hotel serves up a slice of Scottish class.

Situated on a Georgian square, this landmark property was once home to the Royal Scottish Automobile Club. Bedrooms have a suitably aristocratic air, and the lobby and restaurant are studded with marble fireplaces, period ceilings and wood panelling. At basement level, you’ll find the most luxurious spa in Glasgow, where you can blow out on an all-day thermal experience. Nearby, the Two Fat Ladies is a pescatarian paradise that’s well worth a splurge for a candle-lit dinner for two.

Talk about location. A short walk to Central, Queen Street and Charing Cross stations, this hotel is surrounded by a veritable black book of recommended restaurants, cafés, bars and shops. Buchanan Street’s “style mile” – home to chi-chi Princes Square ateliers – is 10 minutes by foot, and Scotland’s best small venue for live music, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, is tucked around the corner. In the super-slinky rooms, lounge chairs, king-size beds and feature wallpaper seal the luxe deal.

Once the family home of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the only person born and raised in Glasgow to run the country as Prime Minister, this former Department of Education office is now a stand-out for more than its history. Rooms have sweeping views of Glasgow’s skyline, there’s moreish à la carte dining in the basement restaurant, gold-embossed wallpaper lines the halls and there’s even a showpiece heritage lift – complete with vintage gate.

By the River Clyde, on the low road to the Highlands, just west of Glasgow, this perfectly located estate is where Glaswegians doll up Downton Abbey-style. It has the stately-home vibe down pat, with an undulating golf course, thick woodlands and a sweeping stonework terrace – plus the ballroom-interiors appeal of the hit TV series. Cue high-strung chandeliers, four-poster beds and posh afternoon teas, plus enough proposal-worthy romance to fill the pages of a Jane Austen novel.

Once a landmark 19th-century railway hotel, this Queen Anne-era bolthole is attached to the city’s main train station and comes with golden-era pedigree. JFK, Frank Sinatra and Winston Churchill all stayed here, and the world’s first long-distance TV pictures were transmitted to the hotel in 1927 by Glaswegian inventor John Logie Baird. Even without all that history, it’s a place worth talking about: the building’s swoon-worthy champagne bar remains handy before catching a last-minute train, while one of the world’s largest chandeliers dangles over a central wooden staircase.

The mini-Highlands retreat of Campsie Fells is the setting for this sweeping 120-acre (49ha) golf resort, set squarely between Glasgow and Stirling. While its 148 rooms are simple, with easy-on-the-eye colour palettes, it’s all about the spa here. There’s a huge indoor swimming pool and sauna to stave off the Scottish seasons, and its two restaurants, one of which serves hearty local haggis, are the place to refuel post-pamper.

Head “doon the water” along the River Clyde to this waterfront hotel, close to the Hydro and Armadillo entertainment venues and within easy walking distance of hip-happening Finnieston. The lobby here is art-strewn, showing off the city’s creative side, and nice touches in the rooms include mural-lined walls, monsoon showers and unequalled riverside views. Up top, the vertigo-inducing Red Sky Bar has sigh-worthy views of the iconic Finnieston Crane, whose motif makes appearances throughout the hotel’s design.