- Glasgow
- (59)
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United Kingdom
I always find that it is a good idea to book accommodation before I get to a place, it saves you hassle and leaves more time to enjoy the city.
There is a wide selection of accommodation available in Glasgow, the city centre is good but noisy so don't be afraid to go for somewhere on the west end or just outside the city - after all, the public transport is pretty good and easy to use, so you could be into the city in a few minutes!
For those with an unlimited budget try the Radisson and for those backpacking their way around, Euro Hostel is good value for £20.
At peak times avoid long waiting times for your taxi - pre-arrange a transfer with a local taxi company prior to your arrival. Some may only pick up from just outside the terminal.
Look them up on Google or call directory.
Three great restaurants. Relaxed and friendly atmosphere; superb fish with stunning desserts - the trio of creme brulee was superb and enough to share.
Not cheap but worth every penny. Don't miss it - the two TV chefs borrowed the name, with permission. Named after the first to open at 88 Dumbarton Road.
118a Blythswood St G2 - close to Sauchiehall St
88 Dumbarton Road G11
and a new one in Argyle St.
Friendly and comfortable Scottish family-run hotel. Very relaxing for a weekend away.
On the doorstep of The Isle of Arran, great golf courses and other attractions.
Very nice restaurant and bar, and the rooms were very clean and comfortable too.
31 Ardrossan Road, Seamill, Ayrshire, KA239NA
www.merrickhotel.co.uk
01294 822649
West Kilbride Station
A litter-strewn repository for all the crap in the Clyde. No one goes here. Sinister military craft cruise the estuary and odd transients build makeshift shelters on the rocky shore. If you get off on post-apocalyptic landscapes and beachcombing for irradiated flotsam then this is your heaven. If not stay away.
Get the train from Glasgow Central to Gourock, then get the wee ferry to Kilcreggan. Take a right along the shore and walk until the path runs out. Keep going.
Brilliant casual cafe style Chinese restaurant. Don't bother with main courses - just keep ordering starters. They are great.
98 Byres Road
Glasgow G12 8TB
Phone 0141-334 9818
Next door to Rubyat Pub
A great restaurant which offers good discounts to guests at Globetrotters Backpackers hostel. It has a Pharsee section which is Persian so really the restaurant has quite a few menus to choose from.
91 Berkeley street,station charing cross
I booked for a few days and have since rebooked twice. It is ideally located for seeing the city, the nightlife which is student fantastic but it is also really comfortable and as you must have student/international i.d. the other guests are really cosmopolitan and interesting. Facilities are spot on and abundant. It is spotless and well run.
www.glasgowbackpackers.com,0141 221 7880
This is a newly built backpackers hostel, the first in the city to be purpose built but to come with lots of free off-street parking is a huge boon to the car hire afficionados who can whisk into the city and find plentiful free parking. Rooms are for groups of four and six and the facilities in ornate Italian marble are ultra modern and new.
www.aceplace.co.uk, between exhibition station and Kelvingrove park.
A beautiful church built by Italian immigrants. Like stepping into Baroque Rome. Got some fabulous murals of saints associated with Glasgow.
Rose Street, City centre, near Cowcaddens subway stop.
It is a cafe, surprisingly enough, but the traditional-style ice cream is the best I have ever tasted. If you are in the Glasgow or Ayrshire area it is well worth the journey.
Esplanade, Greenock, near the Ocean Terminal where if you are lucky you might see a cruise liner (www.inverclydenow.com/news-shipping.asp)
This music shop has a comprehensive selection of musical instruments, accoutrements and accessories with a very good postal service and large selection of strings for traditional, folk and acoustic music.
22 clarendon place, glasgow g20 7pz www.folkrevolution.co.uk email. enquiries@folkrevolution.co.uk
Georgian house with BBQ courtyard terrace five minutes walk from the city centre. From £8 a night including free breakfast, tea making, internet etc.
56 Berkeley Street, Charing Cross Tel: 0141 221 7880 www.glasgowbackpackers.com
Quaint and quirky with a 650-year- old account of the French-Scots alliance exhibition.
Six by four paintings of William Wallace from etchings at his memorials in Smithfield london and birthplace Elderslie Renfrewshire, two stops from central station and a fair sample of Charles Rennie Makintosh's work and the Burrell collection. This is no run of the mill youth hostel.
Also has a super location opposite the city's Mitchell library and its 100 free computer/internet facilities and around the corner from the exhibition centre.
Attracts an international crowd and has plentiful showers and comfy lounges. Best to book at weekends.
www.glasgowhostels.com,0141 221 7880 ,nearest station Charing cross,at 56 Berkeley street
Great restuarant on Dumbarton Road in the West End, just a little further down the road from the Partick railway bridge. Fantastic, honest and well-prepared Scottish food with an interesting, ever-changing menu.
Friendly, non-pretentious service. Always busy and lively. Bring-your-own wine policy means that this is always a cheap place to visit.
The neighbourhood isn't the greatest but don't let that put you off. We have returned and returned and returned and returned!
Roastit Bubbly Jocks
450 Dumbarton Road
Glasgow
G11 6SE
Tel: 0141 339 3355
An organic bakery and cafe selling fresh, tasty food, with cosy atomsphere and friendly service. By far the healthest place in the east end of Glasgow, a place notorious for poor health statistics. It's fun too - worth the trip.
Tapa Coffee and Bakehouse
21 Whitehill Street
Dennistoun
Glasgow
G31 2LH
0141 554 9981
www.tapabakehouse.co.uk/
It's a wee shop lurking round the back of St George's Cross in the West End and it's packed with books, instruments and recordings to thrill any folkie. The staff are very friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. Magic.
Folk Revolution,
22 Clarendon Place
Glasgow
G20 7PZ
www.folkrevolution.co.uk
Loads of buses and just across the way from St George's Cross subway station.
Not many people know about this, even one tour guide I met hadn't heard of it. At the top of Kelvingrove Park, near the University, sit two tudor-style cottages, built for the 1901 Glasgow Exhibition. They were built by the Lever Brothers (of Persil and Fairy, and Sunlight Soap fame), as an exact replica of the houses that make up Port Sunlight village, the town built for their workers, complete with cinema, art gallery and railway station, near Liverpool.
The Glasgow houses (Port Sunlight Cottage) were intended to be an example of how houses in Glasgow would be built from then on, but this never happened, and now they stand alone, looking quite out of place amongst the sandstone of the city. They are now private residences.
It's a beautiful walk up through the park to get to the houses, and it leaves you within easy reach of the Transport Museum, the Kelvingrove museum and art gallery, and the West End.
You can see more at
tinyurl.com/3dap2j
Just outside Glasgow University, G12, at the top of Kelvingrove Park.
If you are on the Glasgow tour bus, get off at the Kelvingrove museum and walk up from there.
A small bar just tucked away off Buchanan Street, behind Princes Square. Great beer, brilliant service and laid back tone. Do a mean cocktail if you ask nicely. Also - a beer garden in the city centre. What more could you need for Glasgow's tropical climate (unbrellas and heaters too).
26 Springfield Court, Glasgow, G1
Crookston Castle is in the care of Historic Scotland but has free entry. You get two castles for the price of one. It has the ditch and earthen rampart of a 12th century ringwork castle and in the centre the ruinous remains of a 15th century stone castle of unusual form. It's on a hilltop and there's a good view of the southwest side of the city from the top of the tower.
Off Brockburn Road, Pollok, SW of Glasgow city centre. Exit M8 at Junction 26
www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/properties_sites_detail.htm?propertyID=PL_077
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