Airbnb Above a Tavern

Posted on by Stephen Edwards

Forres, Scotland

One of the best parts of staying in an Airbnb is the opportunity to stay in iconic locations. While we were in Scotland, our place in Forres was unique: it was above a tavern.

We stayed on the second and third floors of the main tavern building. From upstairs, we had a view of the town park.

Our apartment above Mosset Tavern was once used as the tavern’s offices, but with multiple bedrooms, we could comfortably sleep eight people. Mosset Tavern was located downtown, so it was very convenient for our trip. Mom and Wayne actually ate dinner in the tavern one evening, but it gets rather pricey to take five people out to eat when we had a full kitchen and a couple of grocery stores a couple of blocks away.

Also, many pubs and taverns in Scotland do not serve children later in the day. If you are traveling with children, keep this in mind before you walk into a pub or tavern and expect to be served a meal.

Air conditioning is not available in the north of Scotland, so we had to open the windows to cool our sleeping quarters. The only issue is that on Friday and Saturday nights, many people were hanging out downstairs in the pub, which meant it could be a little louder than expected. Honestly, it was not that much of an issue, and the area quieted down after midnight.

The tavern had limited parking, but since we had only one vehicle, they were okay with us taking one of their spots. Be sure to check with your hosts about parking before you confirm your booking.

This post is a good time to highlight an appliance not found in many European homes: a clothes dryer. If you have an Airbnb with a washing machine, give yourself time to air-dry your clothes, which can be time-consuming in a climate as humid as Scotland’s. It is also wise to build time into your itinerary to do laundry. After several trips to Europe, I would rather spend a few hours doing laundry rather than carrying an extra bag everywhere.

Adrienne needed to fast-dry one of her bras, and repurposing the oven was ingenious and hilarious. This picture was taken on our anniversary, and if you’d told me on our wedding day that my wife would be cooking her bras 23 years later, I would have thought she had developed mental issues. I guess we took vows for “in sickness and health.”

There are some drawbacks to booking Airbnbs because you do wonder about the impact on local housing; however, in this case, it was a genius redesign of a commercial space, reminding me of the time in Michigan we stayed above a Dollar General. The central location also allowed us to explore the charming town of Forres. If you stay in an Airbnb, be sure to shop local and become a temporary part of the community.