Post-trip Update: Travel to Scotland questions

Personally, I’d take my luggage to my hotel/airbnb and store it there for the day rather than at the airport. That way you don’t have to go back out there to collect it.

As far as what to do for the day in Edinburgh, the city is your oyster. Pick a dry day activity or two, and a wet weather activity or two and see what you feel like that day.

Onw word of warning. I’ve rarely been as cold as I was on a late March, windy day in Edinburgh. Pack accordingly. Early spring is cold!

I hope you have a lovely trip. And try not to be too nervous about that first day. I found the Scots to be warm, helpful people, and it helps that we all (kind of) speak the same language 😉

 I’m a bit bemused by our new poster just above me here. She recommends going to Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow for high-end retail. This is absolutely wrong. Thirty years ago, yes, but nowadays it’s full of pound shops, and tartan tat. I would steer clear. The west end of it has loads of restaurants, some of which are really good. If you plan to shop at all, you want Buchanan Street, which also has small but good malls at either end of it. There are also lots of small, interesting shops on Great Western Road and also on Byres Road in the West End. 

The easiest way to travel to Edinburgh city centre from the airport is by tram. You can find out journey info, prices etc from Trams info. Where is your hotel/AirBnB? It would be easier to take your luggage there if possible (I imagine it would be easier getting early access in a hotel.) I know some years back, luggage lockers were removed from the train and bus stations because of terrorism possibilities. I have no idea if they have been re-instated. 

Edinburgh and Glasgow are very different despite only being about 50 miles apart. Edinburgh is the capital and the main governmental, financial and legislative services are based there. Glasgow is just more, of just about everything really! There is a friendly rivalry between the two cities, but despite living much closer to Glasgow, I attended the University of Edinburgh, so my hat isn’t in anyone’s corner! 😄

There’s loads to do in both cities, so if you can tell me your interests, I’ll see if I can narrow it down a bit for you. In April the weather may be dry and mild, but it could equally be cold and wet. 😂 Be prepared for both with layers and you’ll be fine. Skye is stunning, but again the weather is very unpredictable, and it will likely determine the success or otherwise of your visit. 

The bold above is exactly what we did when we were in Edinburgh this summer. No issues whatsoever. Our hotel let us store the luggage when we came in mid-morning. So we ate, left it there, and went exploring. We did a lot of walking about and hit several museums before coming back the hotel to get into our rooms.

As to weather, we were there in July and even then had some cooler days and a light misty rain on one day. Layers are your friend!

I was in Sauchiehall Street in October for the first time in several years, and I was totally shocked by how rundown it is. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself. Once you get out of the pedestrianised area, it does get a bit better, but from the corner of West Nile Street up to about West Campbell Street, it is dreadful. The BHS building has never been occupied, Watt Brothers has also gone, and now that M&S has shut down, there is less of a draw for many people. It’s quite sad really. 😕

We did Scotland in September of 2022. It’s one of my favorite trips, hands down. We took the ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle, so I can’t comment on the airport. But it’s not difficult to drive on the left—it just takes a little getting used to. We stayed in an Airbnb that was great for our needs. It was clean and well stocked and had parking. It wasn’t fancy, but we spend so little time in our lodgings when we travel that price and location were higher priorities for us.

For your bag, definitely bring it into the city with you. You can use the app Nannybag to find somewhere to leave it. A lot of the time, it’s not possible with an Airbnb because there’s turnover from one day to the next. But April is off season, so you may get lucky there.

Once you know your plan, check out joining one of the historical trusts. We joined at Edinburgh castle and used it quite a bit in the two weeks that we were there. There’s another that’s popular, so look into them both. Joining the second was a wash for us, so we didn’t join that one. I think it was roughly 100£ each.

If you’ll have a car, there’s a site around Newcastle that has an excellent museum on Hadrian’s Wall, with part of the wall still standing . Rosslyn chapel is just south of Edinburgh and was really interesting.

In Edinburgh, we did the Royal Mile, the castle, went to a kilt shop, and bought a lot of wool scarves and cashmere at a shop just below the castle. Something Mill. Be sure to check out St Giles—it’s beautiful and one of the better maintained old churches that I’ve seen. We did a day trip to Midhope, Sterling, and Doune castles and stopped in St Andrew’s the next day on our way to Inverness, where we did the church and castle and had the best scones in a little shop about 2 blocks from the castle.

I’ll skip Inverness since you aren’t going there. We did Culloden, a whisky tour, petted a highland cow, and explored a standing circle. We drove from Inverness to the Isle of Skye, down Loch Ness where we stopped at Urquhart Castle. We stayed at an Airbnb bothy just over the bridge from the island. Best place that we stayed on the trip! We did a tour at Torabhaig distillery which was excellent, then found out that there was a big whisky tasting at a nearby inn. DH was THRILLED! We stopped at Talisker distillery; we had been unable to get tour tickets and were hoping to get a spot from a no-show, but they don’t give away spot for no-shows. We then drove in a big circle around the island which was wild and feral with a storm coming in!

In Glasgow, we stayed at an excellent Airbnb outside the town—I couldn’t find anything right in town cheap enough for me. We did the Cathedral and Necropolis which was really interesting. It’s an easy trip to Sterling castle from here if it doesn’t fit into your itinerary in Edinburgh. We also did the Castlerigg stone circle.

I was in Scotland last spring and it was by far one of my favourite places I've ever been. I agree with seeing if you can drop your luggage off at your lodgings. Edinburgh is lovely, public transportation is fairly simple. We never made it to Glasgow. But with did a Rabbie's Tour from Edinburgh to the Isle of Skye - highly recommend!!! Small 16 passenger van, and the guide was excellent and very knowledgable.

Hiya! I'm not sure if you already know this and that's why you said the "so I can't comment on the airport" part, but I feel like I should clarify just in-case (every day is a learning day)... Newcastle is in the country of England, not Scotland. All of the other cities and places you've mentioned in that comment are in Scotland though. If you did already know that, feel free to just ignore this

The one we did was 3 days, but they offer a few different ones

Exactly! DS's GF is from Florida and the first time she visited was December. It was cold and wet, just like we had warned her. Her next visit was in June and we cautioned her not to expect much different from her first visit. 😄 Instead we had a three-week long heatwave, with temperatures only a few degrees cooler than Florida! She thought we had been kidding her and didn’t believe our protestations of innocence. 😂