A fun place to stay in Glasgow

Forget the chocolates on the pillow, this hotel has a much better treat....

Glasgow skyline

The location is spot on, right in the heart of Glasgow, just below George Square in the Merchant District. Perfect for shopping, sight-seeing, galleries and more.  Not too easy to find, however, basically just a doorway and a bit of graffiti to indicate the hotel. 

This is the Ibis Styles 'design' hotel. It may be a budget hotel but it is a fun and friendly place to stay.

The reception area on the first floor is also where breakfast is served, there is a small bar area, and tea, coffee, hot chocolate and fresh fruit (pastries too) available throughout the day, just help yourself.

The decor is wacky, bright colours and fun imagery, making references to the things Glasgow is famous for.  Rennie Mackintosh designs on the wardrobes, wall art including the famous Finnieston crane on the Clyde, traffic cones (I didn't understand why until later) and Tunnocks teacakes!

Crane wall art 'holding up' the TV

Traffic cone and crane in the bathroom

After checking in it was time to go for a wander.  This is when I discovered the reason for the traffic cone references.  The statue of the Duke of Wellington in Royal Exchange Square is adorned with a traffic cone.  In fact his horse had one too when we were there!  The authorities regularly remove this and it reappears, as if by magic, the following day..

Duke of Wellington statue with traffic cone

Even the horse had one too!

The rest of the day was spent visiting the sights of the city, more of which in a later post.  After a full day of sightseeing and evening entertainment, including a tour of some busy Glasgow pubs, we returned to the hotel to find a gift at our door.

Instead of a chocolate on the pillow we had a lovely handwritten welcome note from the hotel team together with 2 bottles of Irn-Bru and two Tunnocks teacakes! What a brilliant Glasgow welcome.

If you'd like to see more about the hotel here is a link 

http://fave.co/2kjiTiP

I signed up for the Accor hotels loyalty programme when I made this booking and this meant I had a discount on the hotel price too.  There is no charge to sign up so it's worth doing this if you do want to book one of their hotels (including Ibis, Mercure, Novotel and more).

Here a link for this

http://fave.co/2kj2HOq

There'll be more about Glasgow coming soon...