Why Scotland?
Me and my best friend wanted to go on a trip somewhere and with COVID rules changing all the time we decided to stick in the UK. Our trip to Scotland was in summer 2021 so prices may have changed a little bit since then but honestly, I would really recommend the trip we did. We got to see some great places and made so many new memories!
Where we stayed in Scotland
Our first overnight stay was in Glasgow. We stayed at a hostel called 'Euro hostel Glagow' in a double private room with our own bathroom. It's a great location in the main city, includes a TV and was perfect for one night and the price (£24 for one night). I probably wouldn't have wanted to stay here any longer, though.
In Inverness, we stayed at 'Inverness youth hostel' (£114 for two nights). The location of this hostel is a little out of the centre and does mean you need to walk up a hill to get to it. The hostel is really basic but has everything you need for two nights. It was also one of the best prices we found online.
Lastly, In Edinburgh, we stayed at 'Edinburgh house hotel' (£47.03 for one night). The hotel was a little out of the old town, so a bit of a walk, but there is a bus route just up the road. The bedroom was fine, and it was clean. It is a little dated and you can hear everything in the hallway, but for the price and staying one night, it suited us fine.
Day 1- Glasgow, battered mars bar and coneheads
My flight to Glasgow Airport arrived at the airport at 7:30 am and then I had to wait for my friend to arrive at 8:20 am. Once we both met and said hello, we headed towards the airport express (£8.50 per person one way) and went straight to the hostel.
After checking in, we ventured around Glasgow city, going into a few shops and seeing the statutes with cones on their heads outside the Royal exchange. We also sat on a bench at George square, had a catch-up and did a bit of people-watching.
We then decided to head to Tubbees desert lab, which we had seen on TikTok for the amount of different flavour slushies they had to offer! It's located in a BP petrol station and the walk from the centre of the city was long but did mean we got to see a little more of Glasgow. Once there, we both got slushies with many different flavours and looked at the other international sweets they were selling. This a really cool place, but I'd recommend getting public transport if you were only in Glasgow for a few days.
We walked back to the centre and stopped off at Cafe wonder for a bit of lunch (a quick sandwich) and then shared a battered mars bar from Blue lagoon' fish and chip shop. I've always wanted to try a battered mars bar and I actually really liked it but it was incredibly oily and sweet.
After this we had more of a walk around Glasgow and headed back to the hostel for a freshen-up before dinner.
We both craved noodles for dinner and found this great-looking spot called Yippon. It was a little walk from our hostel through the town and slightly up a big hill. The restaurant has lots of different options for food as well as bubble tea. I went for 'vegetable noodles and satay chicken' and it really hit the spot! Plenty of food and full of flavour! We also had some spring rolls to share which were also really nice.
We then headed back to the hostel and stayed there for the rest of the evening.
Day 2- Breakfast, botanic gardens and Inverness
We started off the day with a plan to go to Glasgow's Botanic garden. We started walking up towards it (very hilly) and came across a little cafe called 'The butterfly and the pig' for a quick breakfast. This is a really sweet, homely cafe with a great choice of food on the menu. Sam went for the porridge and I went for the veggie breakfast (£11.50 including a coffee). Honestly, it was great, I loved that it was baked in a skillet and definitely was not what I was expecting!
After breakfast, we headed to the gardens, had a walk around and saw lots of the different plants in the greenhouses as well as visiting kibble Palace. We also spent some time people-watching and taking in everything the park has to offer.
We then headed back to the centre of Glasgow, stopping off at loop and scoop. This is the UK’s first Ice Cream and Churro Bar and honestly, it's worth a stop by. I'm not a huge fan of churros, but love the idea behind it! I went for the 'cookies galore churro' which was nice and then 'Charcol ice cream' (£9.95) (I think that was what it's called?- I just got it because of how black is it!).
On our way back we headed to the area of Glasgow University and came across the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. It was free to enter, so we popped inside, took some photos, looked at some paintings, and saw a lot of history.
Moving closer towards the city, we headed for a quick drink of cheap margaritas at Taco mazama. and then created our own little tour to see the famous graffiti of Glasgow. We stopped off at 'honey, I shrunk the kids', 'the words economical taxi' and 'wind power'. I would have loved to see more, but we ran out of time and had to head back to the hostel to pick up our bags for the train to Inverness.
On our way to the station, we headed for a quick takeaway pizza at pizza punks. The pizza was really nice, and I loved the Sourdough base. We both got a pizza each and shared it 1/2 and 1/2. We then headed for our train at just past 6 pm. The train journey was fine, and it was nice to be able to see lots of Scotland, we arrived in Inverness at around 9:30 pm. There wasn't much to see in the dark and so we made the short but hilly walk up to our hostel and stayed there for the rest of the night.
Day 3- The Loch ness, castles and burgers!
Our plan for today was to go to the Loch ness and walk around a little of Inverness. We first headed for Morrisons and grabbed a meal deal for lunch later on, as well as a quick breakfast snack, and went to Inverness bus station.
The buses we found were a little complicated but after asking them at reception, we knew which bus to take to get us to Drumnadrochit for The Loch ness centre and exhibition (£9.95 or Concession £8.95). The exhibition had lots of different rooms and a short video in each which would go through history, sightings, scientific research and anything and everything to do with the loch ness monster.
After finishing the exhibition and checking out the gift shop, we decided to make our way to Urquhart Castle. After waiting ages for a bus and nothing showing up, we decided to make the long walk up there. There are some great spots for taking pictures of the loch and the castle on the walk and, although it was long, we got some good pics!
Once there, we had our meal deals and decided to go inside. Unfortunately, they were fully booked for that day and so we ended up having to wait for the bus back. We made a huge mistake as we both accidentally bought a stagecoach ticket rather than a Citylink (the busses were less frequent) which meant we had to get a lift back to the exhibition centre and then on the right bus to Inverness.
Once In Inverness, we had a walk around the local town and walked along the river up to Ness lands. Took a few pics here and then made our way back to the centre and Inverness castle.
We then popped into a few shops and went to get dinner at Coyote Burger. The staff are really friendly here and the food is great! I really loved the dirty bbq fries and the chicken burgers were great too!
After dinner, we popped into Escobar and had a few cocktails. They were pretty strong but had great flavours. I especially liked the bubble gum margarita, but all sounded great! After a few drinks, we then headed back to the hostel.
Day 4- Edingbrough, smoothies bowls and cocktails
We had a coach booked for 6:45 am at Inverness bus station arriving at Edinburgh for 10:52 am. It was a really smooth journey with barely any traffic and another nice way to see more of Scotland.
Our first stop when getting off at Edinburgh was to check into the hotel and drop off our bags. We then headed to Hula Fountainbridge for a smoothie bowl for lunch. I've never tried one before and would definitely try more!
After food, we headed to see some of the Edinburgh sites, like Edingbrough castle and the royal mile. We even did a little shopping in St James Quarter.
Before dinner, we stopped off at Candy bar and diner and got a few cocktails each. I really love the decoration of every cocktail we had and it got incredibly busy! The cocktails are really sweet though.
For dinner we got burritos at Freshmex, they tasted ok but I probably wouldn't go back. The staff were friendly though. We took the long walk back to the hotel and got an earlyish night for the flight home in the morning.
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