Stirling

[greengreengrass3]

Hi everyone,

We’re looking for a bit of advice and recommendations 😊

It’s very likely that we will need to spend 1-2 weeks a month from October in Stirling for my husband’s work. We’re trying to figure out the best place to stay and would really appreciate any local insight.

First of all, what’s Stirling actually like to live in or stay in? From what I’ve seen it looks beautiful, but I’d love some honest opinions. Is it a nice place to base ourselves for part of the month?

We’re open to staying either in Stirling itself or somewhere nearby (within about 20–30 minutes commute). Are there any towns or villages around there that you’d particularly recommend instead?

A few things that are important to us:
• Nice scenery / somewhere that feels pleasant to spend time
• Good local amenities (shops, cafés, restaurants etc.)
• Dog-friendly areas (this is a big one!)
• A generally nice atmosphere / safe / welcoming

Also, if anyone has recommendations for good Airbnbs, holiday lets, or even areas to search in, that would be amazing.

Any tips, experiences, or things we should know (good or bad!) would be really appreciated.

Thanks so much!

Dunblane might suit you?

Will you have a car? Stirling is perfectly fine and ticks all of the boxes that you mention, within reason ie. Its fine, but i guess it depends if you want somewhere to go to work and then go home and go to bed, or somewhere with more to do and see. If the latter then you might be better commuting in and staying somewhere else.

Yes, we’ll have a car we will be driving up there when we need to go.
I’ll also be working, I work from home so can move about easily but we would like thing you do, even if it’s a good couple of pubs/ restaurants etc.
i’ll have a look at Dunblane now, thank you both.

Crieff has a lot of what you're looking for but the commute might be too far for you and might be a bit joyless in the winter months.

There are nice villages along the A811 but I don't know how well they'd do on the amenities front.

Bridge of Allan's nearby, but I'd look at Dunblane first.

I’d look at bridge of Allan, Dunblane, kings park, riverside. The last 2 are nearer the centre.

Bridge of Allan is less suburban than Dunblane which is popular due to the high school. Dollar is nice.

I live in Stirling, there are lots of lovely places you could live. I love living here, we are so close to so many places and it’s a great base. Kings park if you have a good budget but not sure how many rentals there are, we live near the city centre and near a lovely park (not kings park) so it’s handy for lovely walks with our dog and for walking into town, Cambusbarron/torbrex too are nice. We also drive out to Dunblane, Doune etc. I’m not a fan of bridge of Allan not sure why. But it’s pretty central lots pf cafes and little shops. Just depends if you’d prefer to be near the city or more rural.

I’ve never wanted to live out of town, so couldn’t say where outside of Stirling, we can travel to places easily enough. So having a preference might make it easier for people to direct you to areas that are nice.