Hotels in Peebles

Peebles offers a genuinely wide spread of places to stay for a town of its size, from country-house hotels set in their own grounds to a boutique conversion in the town centre and simple, well-run inns above a bar. At the top end, Cringletie House and Peebles Hydro represent two very different versions of Borders luxury: the former an intimate 15-room estate with acclaimed dining and walled gardens just outside town, the latter a large Victorian hydropathic hotel with a pool, spa and 132 rooms built for a whole extended family to spread out in. A few miles north at Eddleston, Barony Castle adds a third upmarket option, its 16th-century core wrapped in a modern leisure spa and 82 bedrooms set in 25 acres of woodland.

In the middle of the market, the Tontine and The Park sit right in the town centre and are built around walkable convenience as much as facilities. The Tontine has occupied its spot on the High Street since 1808 and pairs Tweed views with straightforward, comfortable rooms, while The Park has reinvented a former mill building as a quirky boutique stay with its own restaurant and bar, popular with couples on a weekend away. Both put every shop, café and pub in Peebles within a few minutes' walk, which matters in a town where a car isn't strictly necessary once you've arrived.

For a simpler, more personal stay, Peebles and its immediate surroundings have a handful of long-standing inns and a countryside B&B worth seeking out. The Cross Keys, dating to 1693, keeps rooms above a working town-centre pub, while the Traquair Arms in nearby Innerleithen does much the same a few miles down the valley, with the bonus of six self-catering cottages for longer stays. Glenternie House, a Victorian mansion in a hidden valley four miles out, offers a quieter, more traditional bed-and-breakfast experience with home-cooked dinners available on request. Between these eight properties, most budgets and most reasons for visiting Peebles, whether biking, fishing, a wedding, or simply a change of scene, are well catered for.