My Scotland Travel Blog - May 2024

One morning in January, while doomscrolling through Instagram I stumbled upon a reel that listed a few dark and moody places to visit in Scotland and I was immediately sold. The thought of visiting had always interested me, but at the time it wasn’t on my bucket list, it wasn’t even on my radar. But as soon as I saw the post I started doing some research online and knew it was a place I NEEDED to visit. I hadn’t left the country in a few years (prior to covid ☹) but knew that I had a few family members who would be more than happy to join me on this adventure. Less than 2 weeks after seeing the post, I had 3 family members in and our hotel and airfare booked.

My travel agent told us to spend half of our time in Edinburgh and the rest of our stay in Glasgow, as well as recommended using Viator* to book any tours and experiences, so I began to research these areas. And of course, as soon as family and friends found out we were going, they started sharing social media posts and sending suggestions. Within a few days I had lists of ideas, from restaurants to castles and cathedrals to all sorts of tours I wanted to go on.

*This post contains affiliate links for tours I booked and loved. If you take action (i.e. purchase a tour) after clicking a link, I may earn some money at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Before leaving, I ended up with a lunch (The Lookout) and dinner (The Witchery) reservation in Edinburgh as well as a tour of Edinburgh Castle and an underground vault tour. My research of Glasgow didn’t yield much that struck me as overly interesting or a must-do, but I did find a tour out of Glasgow that went to The Drover’s Inn (which was on my must-do list) so I booked that too. I figured once we got there, we could wing the rest.

I’ve decided to share an outline of everything we did in Scotland, as well as a list of suggestions and things I would have done differently. If you’re booking a trip to Scotland soon, I hope this helps. Please keep in mind as you read through, that while I’m in my late 30s, I was traveling with 3 other women, aged mid 50s-mid 70s.

Day 1: Saturday, May 11th – arrive at the airport 3 hours early to catch our flight to Amsterdam. Our plane took off late, so it was a good thing we were supposed to have a 4-hour layover…

Day 2: Sunday, May 12th - Fly from Amsterdam to Edinburgh. I wasn’t overly impressed with the Amsterdam airport or its options for food, so if you tend to be someone who gets hungry often, pack snacks. From the airportr, we caught an Uber to our hotel (Marriott Edinburgh). Once we arrived, we freshened up and went for a walk to explore and get a feel for the city. About an hour into our walk, it started raining, not surprising at all but we had left our umbrellas at the hotel. For our first restaurant, we ate at The Conan Doyle. And for my first meal, I knew I had to try haggis, neeps, and tatties, I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it. After we walked around a bit more to explore the area closer to our hotel.

Day 3: Monday, May 13th – In the morning we took an Uber to Dean Village to walk around and see the sights. I 10/10 recommend this. It’s a quiet area and an absolutely gorgeous walk back to the city center. We had lunch at Fat Hippo and then walked to St. Giles Cathedral to meet our tour group and head up the Royal Mile to do a tour of Edinburgh Castle. After, I ran through the area to find Wild Moon Botanica (it was one of the recommended places I came across that I really walked to visit). If you are interested in Tarot Cards, essential oils, crystals, etc. you should definitely check it out. We then had dinner reservations at The Witchery. It was our most expensive meal of the entire vacation, but I do recommend eating here. The food was delicious and the ambience and scenery were fantastic.

Day 4: Tuesday, May 14th – We woke up to a kind of crappy day (rainy & foggy with nothing planned) so decided to do the Hop On, Hop Off Bus Tour. We chose the Regal Tour as we hadn’t yet explored those areas of town and a family member wanted to do the Royal Yacht Britannia. At stop 12 of the tour we got off the bus and had lunch at the Granary. After lunch we got back on the bus and got off at the yacht stop so we could do the tour. Afterward, we rode the bus back to our hotel and went to The Theatre Royal Bar. Here I had the vegetarian haggis bon bons (10/10) and my first, and only, Guinness on this vacation.

Day 5: Wednesday, May 15th – I kept telling myself that I was going to make it to a yoga class at the studio right down the road from the hotel and I hadn’t made it yet. I found this place long before we got to Scotland and I was intrigued based on what I saw online. Knowing that this was likely my last chance to make it to yoga, I woke up and went to Tribe Yoga, the Leith Walk location. As an American, I quickly found out that warm yoga in Scotland is what we refer to as hot yoga here. My only regret was not going to the studio earlier in my trip (but with the heat, I also would have needed more yoga clothes!). We were supposed to do a St. Giles Cathedral tour but there was a funeral when we got there (administrative error on the booking site) so we walked around for a bit instead. We headed to Calton Hill for our noon lunch reservation at The Lookout, but unfortunately, nobody liked the menu but me, so we had the cheese board and left. We explored Calton Hill and walked around for a bit. There is quite a bit to see up there and the views were fantastic (after the fog rolled out around 1 pm that is). On our walk back towards the Royal Mile I finally found the Halfway House so we stopped to have a couple of beers. I had a beer flight and my mom was more than thrilled to stumble across Coors Light in Scotland. We headed back towards the St. Giles area where our 6:45 pm tour was scheduled to meet, ate at the Filling Station, and then met for our tour, The World Famous Underground Ghost Tour where we had Lafayette as our guide. It was fantastic and I learned so much!

Day 6: Thursday, May 16th – Probably the second most chill day of our time in Scotland. We woke up, got ready, and headed to the train station to buy tickets and catch a train to Glasgow. Once we arrived in Glasgow, we Ubered from the train station and decided to eat lunch at the hotel. This time, we immediately got Hop On, Hop Off bus tickets to see the city and get a better idea of how it was laid out and what we wanted to see. We did get off in George Square to do some shopping and then got back on (we found out the tours were almost done for the day). In the evening we walked to La Lanterna for a really good Italian dinner. After our time spent on the bus and seeing the city, we knew there weren’t any must-dos in this city for us (please know that this might be totally different for you based on your interests and reasons for visiting) so we booked a last-minute tour for Friday.

Day 7: Friday, May 17th – We woke up and headed to the bus station to catch our bus for the Loch Lomond, the Trossachs, and Stirling Castle from the Glasgow tour. It was through Timberbush Tours (booked on Viator) and Stuart was our guide. It was a fantastic tour. There was quite a bit included on this tour, but a few of the stops we made and places we went through were: Luss to see Loch Lomond, the Trossachs, saw Highland Cows, ate at the Old Bank in Callander, and Stirling Castle. After we went to Tennent’s Bar for dinner (this was a restaurant I wanted to visit based on what we learned on the Hop on, Hop Off bus tour).

Day 8: Saturday, May 18th – First thing we headed back to the bus station for another day-long tour. This one was the Oban, Western Highlands, Lochs, Castles & Glencoe tour, and one that I had booked before leaving. Jeff (or John) was our guide, I don’t remember his name, but it was great!! There were so many stops. We didn’t go into Inveraray Castle, but the little town was great for walking around. Oban was fantastic, we ate at one of the little stands where they serve only scallops, mussels, and fish. The food was fantastic, it was fresh out of the water! There were also a lot of little stops to take pictures and take in the scenery. The stop at the Drover’s Inn on our way back was one of my favorites and the main reason I booked this tour over others that covered similar stops. It was a long day so we ate at the hotel after.

Day 9: Sunday, May 19th – We didn’t have anything planned on our last day so we woke up and walked around. Most of the city was closed off for a 10k, so it was nice to walk around without all the traffic. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to do in the city (at least not for our interests) so we ended up having a beer at Wetherspoon’s and heading back to the hotel. The hotel bar was under renovation and had JUST opened, so we had a few drinks there and then ended up going back for dinner.

Day 10: Monday, May 20th – Our flight out of Glasgow was at 6:20 am and we got to the airport wayyyy too early. In the US we are told 3 hours early for an international flight, but there you can only check in 2 hours prior so we had to stand around (there was seriously nowhere to sit), so keep this in mind if you have an early flight (and know that it could be different for flights later in the day).

Tips/thoughts/recommendations/experiences:

· Edinburgh was cooler, damper, foggier, and rainier than Glasgow. The fog didn’t roll out until around 10 am or so most mornings and was coming back in around 8 pm some nights. If you book anything with views or at a higher level, book it in the afternoon! And pack layers, an umbrella, and a rain jacket.

· Glasgow was much warmer and sunnier, so much so, that I had to rewear tank tops and T-shirts because I packed too many long-sleeved layers.

· Both cities require a lot of walking and we had a family member in her mid-70s with us, so we Ubered a lot. For the whole vacation, we had about $215 in Uber charges. For transportation, we also did a train ride from Edinburgh to Glasgow and only got in a cab once (booked through the hotel) to get to the airport at 3 am. We did not buy our train tickets in advance and I don’t believe it is necessary.

· Wear flats, not only is there a ton of walking up and downhill, but there are also a lot of cobblestones in Edinburgh and in both cities, the sidewalks were very worn, broken, and uneven.

· Go on the guided tours! We had great tour guides that were knowledgeable, humorous, and very friendly.

· If you have never been to either city before, do a Hop On Hop Off bus tour first. It helps you get a feel for the city you are in, where everything is, what there is to do, and where you might want (or not want) to go.

· 99% of our Uber drivers in Edinburgh said that the people in Glasgow were friendlier, I thought the people were friendly in both places. I’ll let you decide.

· Edinburgh was frequently described as a village whereas Glasgow was described as a city. There are way more people in Glasgow and it’s definitely more of a city. In comparison to Edinburgh, there is more mixed architecture (new vs. old buildings) and the shopping is more regular style stores (everything from H&M to Nike to Balenciaga). It’s also much more spread out. On the other hand, Edinburgh is very touristy – there are gift shops filled with the same things over and over and over again. I was expecting something much different from the Royal Mile.

· Try the food and beer! I found the haggis to be delicious (it’s perfect for the Edinburgh weather). Tennent’s was a good beer and I loved Innis and Gunn (can someone tell me how to get this in the US?). While I didn’t drink any scotch or whisky, I did come back with a newfound love for Gin.

If I could do it again – I’d have kept 99% of what I did in Edinburgh the same. There were a few restaurants I didn’t get to try and a few things I didn’t get to see, otherwise the experience there was fantastic. However, when it comes to Glasgow, I would change a lot. I’d have kept day one the same and got on the bus to see the city, but I would have only stayed there for one more full day. If (when) I go back, I will most definitely book one of the 3-5 day tours and get out of the city, because after seeing everything I did, I feel like I MUST one day see more.

Exploring Scotland

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