The best hotels in Aberdeen: Where to stay for business trips and spa breaks

Whether you’re visiting Aberdeen for business or pleasure, Mike MacEacheran has scoured the Granite City for the best places to stay

Bed down in tartan-clad style (Malmaison Aberdeen)

Aberdeen has a remarkable sense of tone and colour, particularly when it comes to silvery grey. The telling shimmer of its mottled granite buildings lets you know you could only be in Scotland’s northeast – the city is fashioned from so much rough stone and coarse rock, its architecture makes it one of the UK’s most dazzling places.

Scotland’s third-largest city has more than spires, striking facades and the imposing St Andrew’s Cathedral to appreciate. There’s a jumble of sweeping beaches, galleries and museums to mull over, plus the medieval streets and wynds of Old Aberdeen to get lost in for an afternoon.

Some of its most memorable hotels are hidden in this network of streets, but there are an equal number of punch-packing boutiques worth checking out elsewhere. Wherever you end up staying, be sure to make the most of a trip to this compact city by the sea.

The best hotels in Aberdeen are:

• Best for golf and country glamour: Meldrum House
• Best for royalty: The Marcliffe
• Best for style: The Chester Hotel
• Best for steak and single malts: Malmaison Aberdeen
• Best for business: Sandman Signature Aberdeen
• Best for gig-goers: Aloft Aberdeen TECA
• Best for history: Atholl Hotel
• Best for lords and ladies of the manor: Ardoe House Hotel & Spa
• Best for stopovers: Moxy Aberdeen Airport

Best for golf and country glamour: Meldrum House

Neighbourhood: Oldmeldrum

Meldrum House is a golfer's dream (Meldrum House)

With a golf course for every week of the year, Aberdeen has some of the best links golf anywhere. When not playing the spectacular, wood-fringed 18-holer at this boutiquey country hotel 18 miles northwest of the city, there’s plenty else to catch the eye. The recently renovated hotel has a 13th-century tower (an eyrie from which to view the surrounding 240-acre estate), as well as a lavish spa and restaurant.

Best for royalty: The Marcliffe

Neighbourhood: Pitfodels

The Marcliffe is Aberdeen's only five-star (The Marcliffe)

More than the drawing room, featuring originals by Scottish artists, the fine-dining restaurant and the fact it can organise salmon-fishing trips, it’s the family-friendly feel of this five-star hotel that lingers. The Victorian-era manor house has 32 rooms and seven suites, a spa, a lounge for afternoon tea and a whisky-crammed bar, plus the guestlist’s not bad either: actual royalty (King Charles III and Princess Anne), plus Scots pop royalty Rod Stewart.

Best for style: The Chester Hotel

Neighbourhood: Rubislaw

The Chester Hotel caters for all (The Chester Hotel)

With an audience of business travellers, golfers and weekend breakers, you could call this granite bolthole Aberdeen’s most hardworking hotel. The big benefit is attention to detail and plenty of sophisticated touches, for those who want it (designer toiletries, rainfall showers, Egyptian cotton sheets), plus you can enjoy dinner at the IX Restaurant. For a little more tartan flavour, enjoy an afternoon tea of homemade sausage rolls and Dundee Cake with a peated dram.

Best for steak and single malts: Malmaison Aberdeen

Neighbourhood: Rubislaw

Malmaison Aberdeen has sumptuous style (Malmaison Aberdeen)

Aberdeen’s silver-grey may provide the eye-candy, but this hotel amps up the colour and sparkle. There’s razzmatazz from talk-of-the-town Aberdeen Angus steak restaurant Chez Mal Brasserie (dressed to the nines with photos of shaggy-haired Highland cattle), and plenty of punch from the fruit cocktails and amber-hued single malts served in the snug bar. In a city blessed with great drinking spots, it’s rare to find one with such a great whisky selection. Just remember that, if settling in for the night in Scotland, a malt whisky expert is anyone with an opinion.

Best for business: Sandman Signature Aberdeen

Neighbourhood: City centre

Sandman Signature Aberdeen is one of the city's newest hotels (Sandman Signature Aberdeen)

What was once part of a university campus (where Donald Trump was awarded an honorary degree before having it revoked) is now one of the city’s newest hotels, complete with chophouse-style grill. The king-size rooms and executive suites are set up for business travellers, with kitchenettes and spa-inspired bathrooms, whisking you from meeting to night-on-the-tiles in minutes. It’s bankrolled by a Canadian hotel group, with an out-the-box functional feel, but the draw is the location: an easy stroll to the city centre.

Best for gig-goers: Aloft Aberdeen TECA

Neighbourhood: Aberdeen Airport

Aloft Aberdeen TECA is great for gig-goers (Aloft Aberdeen TECA)

This is Aberdeen’s most switched-on hotel (or at least it claims to be). It’s a looker, as you’d expect from parent company Marriott, and comes packed with open-plan, urban chic design and a playful vibe that’s clearly on show in the gym and at the pool table. It’s bang next door to new multi-million-pound venue P&J Live at The Event Complex, so expect late-night revelry and gig-going fans in pre- and post-concert mood at craft cocktail bar W XYZ. It’s out of the city, but easily walkable from the airport.

Best for history: Atholl Hotel

Neighbourhood: King’s Gate

Atholl Hotel is packed with traditional charm (Atholl Hotel)

All witch’s-hat turrets, rose windows and glorious edifices, this 34-bed independent outpost is a brilliant bet, due to its proximity to the city centre and storied history (it was built in 1892 as a private Victorian pad). There’s an extension, believed to have been used as a private chapel, and a restaurant that focuses on local ingredients such as black pudding, blade of beef, trout and North Sea haddock. It’s as traditional as a tartan tin of shortbread.

Best for lords and ladies of the manor: Ardoe House Hotel & Spa

Neighbourhood: Ardoe

Mercure Aberdeen Ardoe House has country manor vibes (Mercure Aberdeen Ardoe House)

Stately home showstoppers are all the rage in Edinburgh and in the Highlands, but they’re rare as hen’s teeth in Aberdeen. That makes this luxury baronial manor six miles to the southwest of the city a popular choice with those dreaming of Walter Scott’s romantic Scotland. The chateau-like hotel was inspired by Balmoral Castle just down the road, and its 30 acres of gardens and classic whisky bar with grand fireplace make it fit for a prince. There’s a brasserie on site, too.

Best for stopovers: Moxy Aberdeen Airport

Neighbourhood: Aberdeen Airport

Moxy Aberdeen Airport is chic and convenient (Moxy Aberdeen Airport)

You won’t be staying here if you’re visiting for a few days but, if on a flying visit, this predictably cool 200-bed chain hotel can’t be beat. The design is new-era-contemporary-chic, with an open-plan lobby, living room and bar all strewn with casually cluttered furniture and tripod film lamps. The best bit? The in-your-face wall art, bumper-sized TVs and general sense of fun.

Read more of our hotel reviews:

• The best Isle of Skye hotels
• Best hotels in Glasgow
• The best Scottish Highlands hotels

Read more about Scotland travel:

• The ultimate guide to Aberdeen
• Best hotels in Edinburgh
• Have a sustainable Highlands adventure