Pitlochry’s Atholl Palace voted best in Britain

Stephen Cotter, MD of CIE Tours presenting the Best Hotel Award to Angela Lorimer and Atholl Palace GM, Brian Wishart

American visitors laud the Perthshire hotel

Pitlochry’s Atholl Palace Hotel is celebrating after being voted the UK’s best hotel by American visitors.

The 4-star Baronial property, which towers over the town, won Best Overall Hotel, beating off stiff competition across the UK in the annual awards run by Irish in-bound tour operator, CIE Tours.

Winners were judged on customer feedback following visits, with merit awards earned by all properties recording a 90%+ satisfaction rating. CIE Tours brought 12 000 visitors to the UK in 2025, generating 100 000 bed nights, with Perthshire benefitting from that custom, comprising largely US travellers.

Atholl Palace Hotel was one of ten gold award winners, with Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Glamis Castle, Norton House Hotel and Spa, Cruise Loch Lomond, Aberdeenshire Highland Cattle and The Scotch Whisky Experience being the other Scottish winners.

Perthshire to the fore

Perthshire businesses scoring over a 90% satisfaction rating with US visitors included Crieff Hydro Hotel, Glenturret and Blair Athol distilleries and Iain Burnett Highland Chocolatier in Grandtully.

The ratings show the quality on show in the region, with other highly rated properties and experiences including the Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Canterbury Cathedral, York Minster, Tintern Abbey and Skara Brae.

Writing on its Facebook page, Atholl Palace Hotel said they were ‘absolutely thrilled’ at the accolade, crediting the prize to the hard work, warmth and dedication of their team.

“A huge thank you to CIE Tours for this honour, and to every guest who has made the journey to our corner of Highland Perthshire. We couldn’t do it without you.”

Visitor satisfaction high

Atholl Palace Hotel still retains some of the original features of the Victorian large country house and stands prominently on the skyline when traveling up and down the A9 arterial route.

CIE Tours’ Managing Director, Stephen Cotter, said: “2025 was another successful year for us with visitor numbers remaining strong despite the inflationary pressures on our partners and customers.

“A major reason for this is the quality of experience our customers are receiving from our UK providers, as evidenced by the steady increase in the number of providers receiving a higher than 90% customer satisfaction.

“When we introduced the awards 14 years ago, our aim was to recognise those suppliers who were going the extra mile. By doing this, we motivated other suppliers to aim for the 90% satisfaction mark and the numbers achieving this have more than doubled.

“This is great news for our customers and our suppliers’ local economies.”