No Kids Please, This Is The Highlands

[Wildfisher]

What sort of message are many highland hotels, guest houses  self catering  establishments   sending out to tourists? It is astonishing that in this day and age it is still common to see statements like "not suitable for children under 14" or "we welcome children over 12 years", in the  advertising literature. I can think of quite a few like this without even trying. It is a damned disgrace. Small wonder  dinner in most highland hotels is about as lively  as  a set from the  Antiques Roadshow  or  a  Conservative  Association annual dinner  / dance. 

The highland tourist industry seems to be struggling to  move  into the 20th century – never mind the 21st. Seems all  they really want is the tweed /  twin set / blue  rinse brigade,  up from the  home counties for a fortnight;   daddy fishes while  mummy crochets  patiently in the shooting-brake, pausing only to eat  her   packed lunch of small sandwiches with the crusts cut off wrapped in frilly doilies.   

Get  them back by 6.00, fed by 8.00, then it's  coffee in the resident's lounge and safely out of the way in bed by 9.30.  Nice people, plenty of cash and  easy to manage.

As the excellent Muriel Gray once wrote – the only thing lonelier than  Scotland's hills is   Scotland's hotels.

Is that how it is or just how it seems?

[Wildfisher]

There are, without doubt, some parents who allow their kids to run  wild in restaurants etc. Have seen it myself. They let other customers look after them or at least opt out of their own responsibilities. These kind of parents should  be told to get them under control or to bugger off.   When our boys were small they sat at the table the same as we did; they did not have to be shackled or threatened – it's how you bring them up.  I never hit my kids because I did not have to.  The fault here is with  the parents not the kids. Why punish responsible people?

To  use this as an excuse to exclude kids is a sham. The real reason, I suspect, is they do not want to  them at all. Heavens, the tweed and twin-set  brigade might go elsewhere!

What kind message is society handing out here? We seem hell bent on alienating   youngsters from the word go  and then pander to the boring old farts with the money. The 'nice' people. The kids can bugger off and find a street corner to stand at.

[Wildfisher]

My own experiences when my sons (now 19 and 20) were small were mixed. Some of the places we stayed made the kids welcome – oddly enough the Tomdoun was one of them – but many moons have waxed and waned since those days and most of the places I visited  have likely changed hands many times since.

Perhaps the worst experience was in a hotel in Nethy Bridge where we went for a bar meal on a day out with my wife's mother,  granny and the kids. Gordon was 2  and as good as gold (as he always was).  Martin was 6 months and in his carry cot. The hotel made it abundantly clear we were not welcome  - they still took our money and had I been there myself I would have told them and all the nice tweedy gents and their crocheting wives exactly what I thought of them and where to stick their frilly doilies. We once stayed in a hotel in Ullapool and the folk who run that were great and did their best not to patronise  the kids even in the dining room – but then they were more used to general tourists and not "sportsmen"

Sorry, but I am far from convinced things have moved on much at all since those days, when I read  some of the trade's web sites where it is clear enough kids are not welcome. This contrasts sharply with most places I have stayed on the continent where they perhaps have a different attitude to children and see them more as the future than a fucking pest that has to be tolerated and probably better discouraged.

Hell, some of our hotels manage to give the impression they don't even want   people with disposable incomes of less than 50K,  far less their children.

[Wildfisher]

If a hotelier refused entry to someone because  they did not approve of the colour of their skin /  race / religion / sexual orientation  etc  they would be prosecuted and quite rightly so.

So how come it's OK to discriminate against children?

[shanksi]

Having read this thread have to say am glad we have taken our holidays abroad with our three kids.  Mostly been to Greek islands where they make the kids feel very welcome and the one of the reasons we have gone back on holiday. 
Was up visiting the Macallan distillery on business the day Scotland played against Ukraine and the hotel we were staying in served meals up to 9.30 pm so we thought will watch the game and then have our meal.  When we arrived were told would have to be out of the dining room by 8.00 which meant we wouldn't be able to watch all the match not the best way to make guests welcome and they have lost business from us because of the way other members of staff visiting were treated.  Not typical of hotels in the area but it just takes one to get them all a bad name.

shanksi         

[rabbitangler]

Personally I find that fisheries, albeit not so much wild ones, are run in pretty much the same vein. Kids are not really encouraged. So what we have is a group who have been turned off by high costs and lack of encouragement who are pretty much lost to the sport.

[Wildfisher]

So what we have is a group who have been turned off by high costs and lack of encouragement who are pretty much lost to the sport.

I agree completely. The reason for  the lack of kids going fishing nowadays has  as much to do with that as it does with  "them being lazy and doing nothing but playing  computer games"  the popular view of many adults. When I was a kid there were loads of places we could go and fish for free. Many of those are now stocked fisheries / syndicated  waters   that are effectively closed to unaccompanied children.

[haresear]

with something like 10 kids in tow

Swithun, were you in Hamelin and playing a flute?

Alex

[shanksi]

So what we have is a group who have been turned off by high costs and lack of encouragement who are pretty much lost to the sport.

Hopefully Josh will stick at the fly fishing but he has certainly been helped by attending the Cygnets at Swanswater and the owners there have to be congratulated for encouraging the kids and allowing them to fish at the weekend and also for having special Father and Son rates.  Hoping that Josh will try out different types of fly fishing and he is looking forward to trying for some grayling at the Earn.

Ian 

[CASTER]

Well, this "Trip Advisor" web site has a few useful reviews. Sadly, there are too many of the following type of report nowadays.
These two examples immediately put me off going to that particular place. 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g551820-d313534-r5221904-Achilty_Hotel-Strathpeffer_Ross_and_Cromarty_Scottish_Highlands_Scotland.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g551820-d313534-r5700207-Achilty_Hotel-Strathpeffer_Ross_and_Cromarty_Scottish_Highlands_Scotland.html

For all the good reviews, the ones that influence me are the bad ones. I just don't have the time to waste on testing whether the venue is good or bad. It may be bad only 5% of the time but if it is bad on the day of my visit it will be 100% bad for me. I don't have any particular gripe with the above hotel but merely use it as an example.I just will not entertain the idea of going there.

On the other hand, as another example,  I have never had anything but praise for the Applecross Inn and I have yet to hear of a bad report and I would willingly travel there (often do) just for a meal with the children because I know they receive just as good a welcome as my wife and I do. They can put their prices up if they wish, I would still sing their praises.

Just my tu'ppence worth.

My interest in this is also partially driven by the fact that I rent out a holiday cottage and try to ensure that my customers receive only the best advice when visiting the Highlands so that they will come back and/or tell their friends what a lovely place it is.