Day 1 Optional Glasgow Sightseeing
The itinerary says there are optional city sightseeing excursions available. Could someone who has taken the tour recently tell me what the options were and what time they were available?
This isn't one of those general questions about what sights there are. We are planning to do some touring in Scotland before the tour starts so I'm trying to figure out how soon we should get to the hotel.
0
Comments
Hi Claudia. On our tour, the options were (1j The hop-on-hop-off tour reimbursed by the TD and (2) a walking tour in the area around the hotel with 2 beer tastings. We did the bus and got a pretty good overview. Some of the folks who went on the beer tour were not impressed.
Hi, Claudia - I’ll have been there from the night before, and have booked on my own a tour of Glasgow’s Street Art that I’m intrigued by - but I’d wondered if I should be doing the beer tour to start meeting people. So I’m glad to hear Dottie’s info - I love great murals (my own city flourishes with them!) so this looks rather fun and was inexpensive. Just saying, since you seem to want to fill the day as I did.
The hop on hop off bus sounds like a good idea. We are planning to arrive several days earlier and heading first to Oban. Sounds like we might want to get back to Glasgow the day before the tour start.
I'm trying to find a transfer service to get us to Oban from the airport. Does anyone have the phone number from their green book/final documents of the company Tauck arranged to pick them up? Tauck uses pretty good services for that sort of thing.
Sorry for the late response, Claudia. Just returned from London and was unable to post there. You may have made arrangement already, but our transfer company was Fly’n Feathers Concierge. I don’t have the phone number handy, but can get it if you still need it.
Thanx. Yes we're still researching and planning so I'll add them to my list.
Fly'n Feathers 44 7795 230 769 or 44 7769 636 968
Taking this tour in September 2023. Was suppose to go in 2020 but was cancelled like all the tours. Taking the gift of time in Edinburgh at the end of the tour. Any suggestions for what to do/see in Edinburgh? Debating on whether or not to come into Glasgow a day early.
This will be our second time in Edinburgh and we're planning a couple of extra nights. Hope to see the Royal Yacht and more time in the National Museum. Considering a side trip to Roslyn Chapel.
We came in to Glasgow a day early, primarily for insurance against jet lag and missed connections. One thing we wish we had seen, but didn’t due to dealing with lost luggage, was the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. It’s a stop on the Hop On Hop Off.
After Dottie said that one option from Tauck in Glasgow might be the hop on hop off bus I looked at the route and two places that look interesting were the National Piping Center/Museum and the Riverside Transportation Museum. The Piping center looks to be close to the hotel and have a nice little restaurant.
Edinburgh- Stroll Princes Street and Princes Street Gardens, see HMY Brittania, former royal yacht at the waterfront, climb Arthur's seat, visit Craigmillar Castle (Mary Queen of Scots stayed and was also briefly imprisoned there, and while there supposedly hatched a plan to kill her husband Lord Darnley. ) it is an interesting ruin. Visit Rosslyn Chapel- ties to the Knights Templar, filming site for and woven into Dan Brown's Davinci Code story. Walk the Royal Mile, stop and see St. Giles Cathedral, visit the nearby National Museum of Scotland.
We were on the England, Scotland and Wales trip and stayed at the Sheraton on Lothian Rd across from Usher Hall (had a view of the back side of Edinburgh Castle.) We used the excellent local Lothian Bus service https://www.lothianbuses.com/ to take us to see Brittania the day we arrived and also the next day to go to Craigmillar Castle then caught another Lothian bus to Rosslyn Chapel. We met our friends at Rosslyn Chapel. They skipped Craigmillar and caught a bus there from the hotel. I planned this from the US using the online bus schedule. Worked perfectly. I posted a pic of Craigmillar and Rosslyn Chapel here:
https://forums.tauck.com/discussion/comment/83308/#Comment_83308
I spent three days in Glasgow on my own in 2019. Kelvingrove is definitely worth a visit. I also enjoyed the Hunterian Museum, the MacIntosh House, the Willow Tea Room and the People's Palace (not a palace, but a museum of Glasgow's history). I took a tour of Glasgow University with a student and walking tour of the city, the latter of which you'll probably cover with Tauck. I'm thinking of doing the Scottish Isles cruise and look forward to enjoying more time in both Glasgow and Edinburgh.
We have done 2 Tauck tours which included Glasgow ( Scottish Isles cruise and a Week in Scotland) . Although the "Week in Scotland" tour technically includes Glasgow, the focus is on sights outside of Glasgow and not Glasgow itself. The Scottish Isles cruise did a much better job of actually touring the city and sights of Glasgow. Definitely take an extra day or more before the tour starts because this is a beautiful and fascinating place. Do the hop on hop off bus. With the hop on hop off you can do the Kelvingrove. You can also go to the University which has the Hunterian Museum and is worth a visit (read about it beforehand because parts of it you will need to make an appointment to get into) . At the St. Mungo/Cathedral stop you can go to the Glasgow Necropolis. We wished we had time to go to the Necropolis, but did not. The Riverside Transportation museum is quite interesting (favorite quote- a little girl in the cafe looking out the window “ Mama- look ! The sun is coming out! It’s a miracle!”). Also, if you take a few extra days in Glasgow and need some down time, about 20 or so minutes outside of the city is a wonderful resort- The Cameron House. Lovely. A truly special place on Loch Lomond.
Edinburgh- extra days in this magical city are always worth it. Walkable to most of the great sites . Royal yacht Brittania is a highlight, but not walkable from downtown. One thing- the Balmoral is a great place to stay. The George was , in our opinion, sub-optimal at best. There was no air conditioning and the street noise was abysmal. The rooms were small . The bathrooms were accidents waiting to happen. People on our tour were really unhappy and were complaining bitterly. That was 3 years ago and I see Tauck is still using it. We were all in the old part of the hotel. Hopefully the situation has been dealt with.
We used to live very near Kelvingrove Art Gallery when we were first married. There is really no need for air conditioning in Glasgow, Scotland or the UK. Homes don’t have A/C, hey, they don’t even have screens on windows. Hotels in the UK have small rooms and bathrooms, that’s just the way it is. Homes are much smaller. We lived in a four bedroom house but it was two and a half times smaller than our four bedroom house here in the US. You have to remember that most countries are not the same as the US, which is why of course it’s good to travel to see how other people live as well as the scenery. No wonder so many British people don’t like Americans, we have to learn that there are other ways to live, sometimes, better ways to live.
Agree with absolutely everything you say. Just reporting on our experience with that hotel . Everyone in the older section was miserable. For some it was not only the oppressive heat in the rooms, it was the bathrooms too. Very difficult to get in and out of the showers and no non- skid surfaces. There was practically a revolt in the lobby with everyone wanting to change rooms. What can I say? I understand and love Scotland and would go back whenever I have the chance. I would not stay in that hotel.
We stayed in a couple of hotels in Ireland with no screens or ac during a heat wave. Fortunately they were golf resorts so noise wasn't an issue. Bugs were. Pick your poison.
British, when you were living in Scotland, did it get as hot in the summer as it has lately? Europeans have been laughing at our ac fondness for a long time but may start seeing the need for it.
In the summer of 76 there was a heatwave in England and we got a bit of it. If Scotland gets hot, we all need to really worry. I was in the very north of Scotland about twenty years ago on the coast in August and there were howling gales.