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

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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.

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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

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If you need to absorb the excess of the night before, or stock up before a day in town, get a full breakfast here. This is Glasgow/Italian fusion cuisine at its best; no nonsense, honest and affordable. The Italian sausage is fantastic and the coffee is how it should be.

360 Great Western Road
www.cafecherubini.com/

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Wonderful food, although to be honest I can't get past the fabulous lamb curry. Incredibly busy with lunchtime specials from under £3.00, but a la carte is excellent too. Take away, sit in the cafe style downstairs restaurant, or in the more traditional upstairs restaurant.

129 Paisley Road West - a 10 minute walk from Central Station;
tel: 0141 429 4610

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Nothing sums up 'Gallus' Glasgow better than a Saturday morning trip to the Barras. Here, Glasgow's answers to Del boy and Rodney make their Southern cousins look like shy introverts, as they sell anything not bolted down, from fur coats to football strips and computers to car parts.

The market has expanded from its humble beginnings to include hundreds of stalls and shops selling everything and anything. Barras are rented out on a daily basis, meaning an ever-changing stock and providing an ad-hoc sales channel for anyone with stuff to shift.

Never one to miss a trick, the Barras has evolved with the times, reflecting the changing needs of a varied clientele. Nowadays, Maggie's original fruit barra has evolved into a farmers' market, which takes place on the last Saturday in every month from 8 am (but get there quick, because stock sells out by lunchtime), and the modern market does a roaring trade in computer software of perhaps dubious origin. Never mind, it's all yours for a tenner.

The Barras was there long before Versace and the Italian Centre, and despite constant raids from overworked and frankly exasperated trading standards officials, it will still be there a long time after they're gone too. Margaret Russell would be proud.

Near Bell Street

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On a clear day you can see the whole city, including a panorama from Ibrox stadium to Celtic Park. The spires of the west end and glittering city centre lie in between the stadia with the highlands providing a spectacular backdrop ( you can see at least 5 munroes from the Arrochar hills to Ben Vorlich at Loch Earn). Glasgow is a much more attractive city than it is often given credit.

Take a train from central station to Queens park, exit the station to victoria rd, turn right and you will see the gates of the park at the end of the road. Walk through them, straight ahead through an avenue of trees to the highest point in the park.

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The People's Palace is Glasgow's social history museum. It tells the story of the city through its people, and not just the great and good. You can listen to examples of Glasgow speech, and see a reconstructed tenement 'single-end'. It's also free, like all of the City of Glasgow's 13 museums. Unmissable if you're a resident or expat Glaswegian, and still good even if you're not.

Glasgow Green, Glasgow, G40 1AT; Tel: 0141 271 2951; www.glasgowmuseums.com/venue/index.cfm?venueid=9

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