Hotels of the year 2007

Dakota Eurocentral
by Glasgow Tel: +44 (0)1698 835 444
Winner: Rising Star Award 2007. Dakota is a powerful new hotel brand being developed principally by Ken McCulloch, founder some years ago of One Devonshire Gardens hotel in Glasgow, the city's five-star townhouse. He was also behind the funky Malmaison chain. Now Dakota has flown into both Glasgow and Edinburgh and is creating quite a stir. The hotels are unmistakable in external design: blue-black glass boxes with the brand spelled out on the roof in blue neon letters.

Named after the iconic Douglas Dakota aeroplane which opened-up low cost air travel in the ‘50s, this hotel combines high-spec and fully air-conditioned ‘business-class' rooms with fixed-price value for money: £89 per room, per night. Bedrooms continue the New Yorkfeel with open brickwork walls and witty asides. But they are plush and thoughtfully designed; power showers will impress even the most demanding of American guests. Fresh-baked cookies await you and there's an excellent desk and broadband access for just £5 a day.

If you're planning a visit to Glasgow, then do consider this one because it offers an array of good reasons. True, it's a little out of town and in a plain area just off the motorway – but therein lie the advantages of hassle-free parking and easy access to the arterial routes. Apart from the good value, the two Dakota hotels (the other is just north of Edinburgh) each have very strong restaurants offering first-class dinin...

To read the rest of this article you can do any of the following.

• By :
• In : Best of Scotland
• Issue : 33
• Page : 62
• Words : 1,112