During our time in Edinburgh, (see my bucket list-eque post: here and my foodie guide: here) we stopped off in Glasgow en route home. Hence a mini guide to Glasgow. The main reason for this was it made the train tickets sooooooooo much cheaper – bloody British rail network (travel hack – it is often drastically cheaper to book multiple train tickets to make up a journey in the UK for instance Rugby > Crewe, Crewe > Glasgow, Glasgow > Edinburgh and vice versa!) Yes it is probably a 10/10 on the faff scale but it is much lighter on the bank account. 

Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprised and wanted to put together a little mini guide of what to do on a mini break/24 hours in this thriving Scottish city…

Where to stay:

Now we (myself and Josh) are BIG fans of Z hotels, so much so we have stayed in multiple London branches and the one in Liverpool. You can not argue with the price, you can stay for as little as £35ish a night mid week in Glasgow/Liverpool and the locations are spot on. The rooms are perfectly adequate, air-con, Sky TV, a comfy bed and YOU GET A FREE GLASS OF WINE AND CHEESE between 5pm and 8pm – personally, any hotel that offers free wine and cheese is a winner for me! (I had photos of said wine and cheese but appear to have lost them *insert very annoyed face). 

Brunch:

Hands down my favourite meal of the day and the Singl-end Café did not disappoint. There’s a great menu for both vegetarians and non. The café has such a cool vibe with all the décor incorporating vintage stamps, postcards and letters into the table set ups and walls. We went for the baked eggs with halloumi and sour dough – we ordered one each – but you can easily get away with ordering one between two as the portion is HUGE (I was mainly gutted because I didn’t have room for any of the fab looking baked goods!). Oh and FYI there’s now two venues: Garnet Hill and Merchant City. 

Street Art:

Whenever we go anywhere, Josh is a big fan of looking up the best locations for street art. Turns out Glasgow is teaming with awesome art installations. My favourite piece is the one featured below by artist Smug, located on the back wall of  Ingam Street Car Park. Check out this site to see the locations of some other great pieces! 

Botanical Gardens:

Everyone loves a quick saunter around a botanical garden, right? It’s free, it’s pretty and it’s a good way to spend a couple of hours (especially if it’s raining) – what is there to lose?

Cathedral and the Necropolis:

When I saw that this was one of the top sites to visit in Glasgow, I was a little creeped out! But, this remarkable Victorian cemetery inspired by the famous Père Lachaise in Paris is one to see.

The Lighthouse:

A fabulous building commissioned by Art Nouveau designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. In its previous life it was the Glasgow Herald newspaper offices but today it’s a centre for design and architecture. Make sure you take the spiral staircase up the old water tower for a great view across Glasgow city centre!

If you have been to Glasgow and have any other recommendations please comment and let me know! As ever thank you for reading! xxx