No17 The Promenade Hotel

No17 The Promenade is a seafront hotel on Corran Esplanade in Oban, facing the bay and, beyond it, the islands the town serves as a gateway to. The building holds 18 rooms, each decorated differently rather than run to a single template, ranging from ground-floor rooms with their own outside access to upper rooms looking straight out over the water. Several open to sea views across Oban Bay; others face the wooded ground behind the hotel, where the canopy changes colour through the year. Rooms are fitted with a smart TV, an Alexa-enabled radio and a rainfall shower, and each comes stocked with fresh milk and water in an in-room fridge. It is a compact stay. Porcini, the hotel's own Italian restaurant, serves dishes such as handmade ravioli and Isle of Mull scallops, with an outdoor terrace for meals looking over the water. Oban itself is a working harbour town, reached from Glasgow by a direct rail line that runs through Loch Lomond and Loch Awe, or by car along the A85. No17 has a sister hotel, No26 By the Sea, elsewhere in town. Check-in is straightforward and the esplanade setting means the harbour, the ferries and the hills across the bay are all a short walk from the front door.