Unfortunately Convenient routes and Glasgow Airport aren't phrases I'd normally use in the same sentence!

the airport is south west of the city centre. Everything you'll probably want to see is north or east of the centre! There are three bus companies offering routes into the city but none go anywhere beyond it.

There is one route (915) , twice a day direct from the airport over the Erskine Bridge to Loch Lomond and the West Highlands. Had this been a more useful frequency I'd have said head for Loch Lomond as a base and from there you can visit a mix of Highland scenery and Glasgow's museums/galleries/shops.

As a base for seeing a lot of Scotland I'd normally suggest Stirling. It's not a difficult journey from the airport with one bus (INVALID URL and one train and they all run at frequent intervals with a journey time of about an hour. But there is still a short transfer in the middle at Queen Street railway station and you have to carry the baggage. Stirling is within reach of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee and some real Highland scenery.

For all public transport in Scotland see http://www.travelinescotland.com (disclaimer: this is possibly the most annoying journey planner in Western Europe, sorry!). For train only, especially if you plan on travelling at weekends, use http://www.nationalrail.co.uk

The Glasgow Flyer offers a period return allowing a round trip at discount on the price of two one-ways. All rail trips will do the same (or a day return for shorter ones).

First off - can I check that you are definitely flying into Glasgow and not Prestwick? Visitors from outside of Scotland have been caught out in the past!

Assuming that you don't want to tour around but want to base yourself for the whole of your stay in just one place then I'd suggest Perth rather than Stirling. I'm assuming from your post that you don't want to be bothered with hiring a car? Perth is the nearest thing to a central junction on the rail network in Scotland and you'll be able to get direct trains to all the main cities in Scotland ie Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness and all points in between. This will put both coastal and mountain scenery within easy reach and FirstScotrail offer a whole range of Railpass options which means that you could actually travel around at a reasonable price. You don't give an indication how old you are but if by any chance you are 55 or over then from now until 20 June you could take advantage of their Club 55 offer which means that you can travel anywhere in Scotland for £15 return on proof of age! You'll find details at:

http://www.firstgroup.com/scotrail/

The one area that would remain fairly inaccessible would be the the Northwest Highlands and coast but to do that you really would need a car - the area simply isn't well served by public transport.

Good point - Prestwick would be even more hassle.

I agree that Perth would be just as good as a base, and probably has more accomodation than Stirling. I was just thinking about reducing the travel with luggage, it is an extra 30 minutes away from Glasgow. May make a difference depending on flight times.

Hi and thanks for the prompt and valuable responses.

Any suggestions on the accommodation. my budget is between 70-80 pounds per-night..

So guys, what you think Perth or Stirling? my criteria is convenience in getting there + things to do / see.

See the point is if I want to stay in one hotel and go all over the place and return back at night ïÅÂ

Would appreciate the feedback.

Thanks again.

Personally, I would go with basing yourself in Perth - a little longer journey to get there from the airport than Stirling but much a more convenient place to base yourself once you have got there. As Steve has already said, Galsgow airport isn't really that conveniently placed for anywhere unless you stay in one of the airport hotels - and nobody would spend their holiday in scotland in one any of them! You'll be able to get direct trains from Perth to anywhere in central, eastern and northern Scotland, whereas if you base yourself in Stirling you'll have to go to Perth anyway and change trains there if you are to visit anywhere on the Edinburgh - Inverness line.

If you do settle on Perth I can highly recommend the Royal George

http://www.theroyalgeorgehotel.co.uk/

It's a lovely family run hotel, right at the heart of the city for shopping etc and right next to the River Tay which most of the public rooms overlook. Their 'rack' rate for a double room/twin is £90 including breakfast which I realise is a bit over your budget but they will usually be willing to negotiate a weekly rate at a discount on this which should bring it down to the upper end of your budget. It's about 15 mins walk from the rail station, so best to get a taxi on arrival with luggage, but it's a nice stroll through the centre of town to start your day. There are hotels closer to the station (see below) but that means that they are on the edge of town and away from the river and I personally would always prefer to stay more centrally and as close to the river as possible. I am biased though, I am on the organising committee for an annual academic research conference and we have used the George very successfully for some years and I think we'd have a revolt on our hands from the regular attenders if we tried to re-locate! I look forward to my stay there every year and would probably join them at the barricades

The Salutation is also very centrally placed and is a 'listed' building too - it is very popular with coach touring holiday companies but a lot of the public areas are looking a little tired and shabby though most of the bedrooms are OK because they have been refurbished fairly recently. It too is situated right on one of the main shopping streets and just a few 100 yards from the river.

The Queens hotel and the Central hotel are right by the train and bus stations so very convenient for travelling but you'd need to be very careful about where your room was located in the Central - it wasn't called the Station Hotel for years without good reason! It's right alongside the main track north to Inverness and you'll be woken late at night and early in the morning by the London-Inverness sleeper train if you've not careful. The Queens is slightly farther away from the station but some rooms back onto the Glasgow-Aberdeen track which is a much busier route and again you could be disturbed by the late night/early morning services. But it does have a swimming pool and small health club for the use of guests and both of these hotels are only 10/15 mins walk to the main shopping area.

There is also a Ramada which is pretty centrally placed in a converted mill but don't think small and country - it was a large C19 industrial mill but it is an interesting building. I would expect it to be quite a bit over your budget though unless you can get a good discounted deal.

SM

perth is a good location, there are travelodges and innkeepers lodges in perth that could offer bargain deals if the most important thing is a bed at night obviouslly the hotel facilities are basic but both chains are comfortable ideal budget accomodation, if you wanted to stay somewhere else inverness is only a couple of hours up the road from perth and has a lot of touristy things, renting a car is the best way to get around and see some of scotlands hidden treasures.

unique

The important thing to consider first is flight times in both directions - if you've got a late night arrival or early morning departure (or even mid-morning if it has a long check-in time) none of the places we've mentioned will be any use for the first/last night.

Second, your £70-80 budget has to cover what? Just the room? Breakfast? Other meals? For how many?

Personally I think one of the best things about visiting Scotland is the small private guesthouses and B&Bs rather than hotels full of businessmen.

The Travelodge in Perth is out on the by-pass at Broxden - very convenient for the motorway but not for anybody who is wanting to use public transport and not hire a car. Similarly, the Innkeepers Lodge at Huntingtower is outside the city and I think you would have to hire a car to get anywhere. The other Innkeepers Lodge is listed as being 'city centre' but it's the old Isle of Skye hotel and it is on the opposite side of the Tay from Perth city centre. Rooms on the front of the hotel would have a good view of the river and the civic buildings which line the far riverbank but it would be a longer walk into the city centre and be something like a 20 mins walk to the rail station.

But more to the point - it IS the old Isle of Skye hotel which under the previous management had acquired a pretty dire reputation and was associated at one point with a bad outbreak of food poisoning. Personally given the choice of other hotels in the city, I would think twice about recommending that anybody stay there. We have used all the other hotels I mentioned above for accommodating conference delegates and have had good feedback about them all - we have never used the Isle of Skye because we were pretty unimpressed with the facilities and could find no good feedback about it. The one year we did consider using it, because we were expecting a much higher number of delegates, was the year it was clearly having a lot of problems and we decided it was out of the question to recommend it. Others might have more recent experience of both the hotel and the facilities it offers but I would want convincing that things had changed for the better before planning on staying there myself or recommending it to someone.

Unique, Steve's point about B&Bs and guesthouses is a good one and I would certainly second his recommendation to avoid the chain hotels that are aimed at the business traveller. Not because most of them aren't of a decent standard but because there are so many small, family run hotels with character that there's no need to end up in a soulless chain hotel. As you will be here for 9 nights it is probably worth your while to seriously consider booking into somewhere close to the airport for your first and last nights, especially if you will be arriving after a long flight (incidentally, where are you arriving from?) and/or have a late arrival/early departure time. You would then still have a full week in whcih to base yourself more centrally and for exploring this wonderful country.

SM

Hi, thanks a lot for your feedback, I have decided to go to Perth.
Arriving on the 31-May-2008 at around 14:00 BA flight from London Heathrow to Glasgow International (GLA) and leaving on the 9th June from Glasgow Airport to London Heathrow also at 14:00. what do you think of taking a taxi from the Airport to the Hotel at Perth - heard it will cost around 80 pounds? If we are tired we might do this what do you think?

The £70-80 is for Hotel only - I might go up-to £100 if the Hotel / accommodation is very good.
With regards to private guesthouses - any suggestions? Are they well services, I mean can we get laundry, breakfast etc.. do they have internet etc. or we have to take care of it ourselves? Also, I am not into hiring a car and mostly would prefer using public transportation / taxies (if I can afford them )

Did some search and would be nice to get some feedback about the following hotels:

Quality Hotel Station Perth
New County Hotel Perth
The Royal Hotel
The Swallow Fisher's Hotel
Scotlands Hotel & Leisure Club
Rosemount Hotel
SYMPHONY LOVAT HOTEL
BEST WESTERN QUEENS HOTEL
Ramada Perth

I would appreciate getting some recommendations on what to do at Perth i.e. getting around, things to do etc.

Thanks again and would appreciate your feedback

Regards,

Hi,

RE your questions below:

1) Is your flight from Heathrow a connecting flight after a longer journey? If it isn't then I personally wouldn't take a taxi from GLA to Perth - £80 sounds like a private hire rather than a 'blackcab' which I would have expected to cost more - it's at least an hour's journey from the airport to Perth. But you'd need to book a private hire in advance. It would be much, much cheaper to get the airport bus which serves Glasgow Queen Street Railway station for trains to Perth. A return ticket on both bus and train should cost no more than £30 per head - in other words a taxi in each direction would cost you going on for 3 times as much in total.

2) A private guesthouse will provide breakfast but most are unlikely to provide a laundry service and in my experience few provide internet access either. Few will offer the same level of service as a hotel and for example won't necessarily be licensed etc.

3) What used to be the Station Hotel has changed it's name again - The Quality Hotel you list IS the same hotel as the one I referred to as the Central. And the Best Western is the same Queen's hotel I mentioned. I have no personal experience of the other hotels you mention, other than that delegates who have stayed in the Ramada the first time they came to the conference preferred the Royal George and the Queens when they returned another year. Also, I think that some of those you mention are not that centrally placed - do check locations carefully as some booking sites are listing as 'Perth' hotels, hotels which I know to be outside of the city. We thought of using the Lovat for overspill accomodation last year but decided against it as we would really have needed to bus delegates in and out - it's not within easy walking distance of the centre.

SM

First, the transport. These are pretty good flight times in both directions, no problem at all with connections. Only small issue is the return journey at 1400, is that departure or check-in by? If it's departure you may need to leave Perth on the train just after 0900, if it's check-in you can use the one just after 1000. Allowing for connection time in Glasgow the overall journey Perth - Airport would be about 2 hours. Trains from Glasgow to Perth are at least every hour (every 30 minutes during the afternoon you arrive)

Prices: the return price on the airport bus to Queen St railway station would be £6.50 each if you buy the return ticket when you board at the airport. The return price on the train from Queen Street to Perth would be £22.60 each (open return) but if you could come back on the one after 1000 that falls to £13 (saver return). You need to know this before you buy the ticket on the first day. You don't have to make any advance reservation for the train but if you want to use the early one back it might be more convenient to make a reservation any time you're in Perth station because it could be busy (which is why it costs more!).

The £80 taxi price could be misleading. If you take a taxi from the rank at the airport that sounds like the one-way price but it might be possible to find a private hire service who would take a reservation for a round trip at that price. If the price didn't come with a name you should assume it's the rank price - which makes it £160 return compared with either £58.20, or possibly £39, return for two by public transport.

Getting around on trips shouldn't be too expensive, especially if you check what time the "off peak" train tickets become valid (around 0930 weekdays and anytime weekends). You can check prices via the journey planner at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk , put in rough times for your trip and it will offer a selection of trains to match and offer to show prices, you may spot that cheap day/saver fares aren't marked against some busy trains and only open fares are given.

When checking hotels/guesthouses in Perth go for one with a postcode beginning PH1 or PH2 as these will be close to the centre. I've not stopped in Perth itself for years and British hotels tend to change ownership quite frequently so any recommendation from more than a couple of years ago may not be valid.

If I was looking for a place I'd start here simply because it's an easy way to get a list. The prices on this page may not be 100% up to date but give a good comparison of how they vary - 4 star guesthouse are less than 3 star hotels. The difference between a guesthouse and hotel may be hard to spot, probably no permanent reception staff and no alcohol licence (which is what SMa refered to - don't get the idea that they're not licenced for guests!!). Taking pot luck from the page I looked at this one and it does offer laundry but no mention of internet http://www.dunallan.co.uk . The cheapest on the page doesn't offer either but will do you a double room with breakfasts, private bath and TV for £34 - so your budget looks safe!!

Guesthouses and B&Bs will always include full breakfast in the price (in Scotland this can be a very full breakfast!). Most privately run hotels will include breakfast but some of the branded chains may not. Tea/coffee making faclities in the room (sometimes called Hospitality Trays and often with packets of shortbread) are very common and always included in the price.

I spoke with one of my friends from the UK. He highly recommended staying in the surroundings of Glasgow. He told me that Perth is a nice place but there is nothing much to do compared to Glasgow area. He recommended that I base myself at the surroundings of Glasgow and use public transportation / buses to go around - he also suggested hiring a car (not sure about that fuel is expensive and am not sure about the rates). In particular he recommended the following hotels which are located at the surrounding areas of Glasgow:

The Kirkhouse Inn
Strathblane, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, G63 9AA
United Kingdom
01360 771771

Westerwood Golf
1 St. Andrews Dr
Cumbernauld, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, G68 0EW, United Kingdom
01236 457171

Holiday Inn Glasgow-East Kilbride
Stewartfield Way
East Kilbride, Glasgow, G74 5LA, UK
01355 236 300

The Bruce Hotel
Cornwall St
East Kilbride, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, G74 1AF, United Kingdom
01355 229771

Macdonald Crutherland House Hotel
Strathaven Rd
East Kilbride, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, G75 0QZ, United Kingdom
01355 577000

Doing some search on the above hotels, I liked the Holiday Inn Glasgow-East Kilbride. So what do you guys think, is this a better plan than the one we explored before i.e. Perth / Sterling - any ideas about the hotels mentioned above.
Regards,

Unless you plan to hire a car I would avoid the Crutherland and the Holiday Inn. I know East Kilbride well. and I'm not sure that public transport from either of these hotels would be great. The Bruce Hotel is right in the centre of East Kilbride and very close the bus station and taxi rank so if you plan to use public transport would be ideal. East Kilbride used to be a small village and it was built up as a new town when the Glasgow slums were knocked down and the inhabitants moved out to East Kilbride so the train station isn't very central as it is in the old part. There are lots of lovely places to eat about 5 minutes walk from the Bruce Hotel.
Strathblane is lovely but is a small place and I think public transport might be a problem, especially in the evening. I can't help with Cumbernauld.

Dear Unique,

Your 'friend' (or you?) is having a laugh if they think that East Kilbride or Cumbernauld are good places to base yourself for your first visit to Scotland. Both are overspill/new towns some way out from Glasgow city, neither are convenient for the airport with regard to transport and unless you do hire a car you'll find getting to see anything other than attractions within the city of Glasgow itself very time consuming to get to. Before asking for further advice it would be a good idea to decide what your priorities are for spending your time on this holiday and to share them with people on this forum. Given the info you have given us so far:

I dont want to stay in central Glasgow maybe I can visit somewhere other than Glasgow but I am stuck with Glasgow Airport return ticket and I dont want to waste much time in trains / buses etc....

I am looking for a romantic + full of activities sort of holiday !

See the point is if I want to stay in one hotel and go all over the place and return back at night

then neither East Kilbride or Cumbernauld fit the bill. If you want the bright lights of the big city then stay in Glasgow itself - the shopping, art galleries and museums, nightlife etc are top notch, but if you want to get out and about and see something of the rest of Scotland and especially the historic sights and the wonderful scenary then take our advice and stay in either Perth or Stirling. Wherever your friend lives in the UK, I would suggest that they don't actully know Scotland that well - it's the only explanation for why they would make such an odd suggestion for someone from outside of the UK (which you appear to be) on their first visit and wanting to see something of the country.

SM

The important thing is that you are coming over for a holiday in Scotland but without the accents that area could be anywhere in northern industrial Europe, it's not Scotland as you would imagine it.

I hope you don't think I'm being rude but I think you would be really foolish to come all the way to one of the most scenic countries in the world and stay somewhere like Glasgow, East Kilbride or Cumbernauld. OK, spend a day or two in Glasgow if you want clubs, shopping etc but then move on. Bets plan would be to hire a car and head north, but if you can't do that take the train to somewhere like Aviemore. Lots to do if you like water sports, cycling, hiking etc or go to Mallaig with the connecting ferry to Skye if you want your scenery even more stunning.
I've reread all your posts and I still don't get what you are looking for. Sorry.

You could use Balloch on the southern end of Loch Lomond as a base. It's just a short train ride from Glasgow There's lots to do there and plenty of places to go for day trips, Oban, Glencoe, Stirling, the Trossachs, Glasgow, Edinburgh etc. Car hire from there would be ideal as there are so many wonderful places to see and just a short trip back to Glasgow for your flight home http://www.visit-balloch.com/
A return taxi from the airport to Balloch would be £56
Just noticed that this is more or less what Steve suggested in an earlier post

I think it depends on how far north the OP intends to travel

If they are going up north, Perth is ok, if they are just gonna do the central belt then Perth really isn't the best base in my view

Thank you guys, your insights are really helping me clarifying the picture.. as I understand, the surroundings of Glasgow would not be good as a base and Glasgow center would be ideal for city life, clubs and museums (NOT what am looking for)

If I can relate a bit.. to make what I am looking for clear.. in our honeymoon we visited New Zealand a place called Queenstown"¦ and I am looking for something similar with activities such as:
1. horse riding
2. boat trips
3. biking
4. fishing
5. beautiful scenery
6. village visits (tours showing sheep farming, culture etc.)

To be more specific, the idea of this holiday is for me and my wife to get away from our routine life, relax, and recharge for 9 nights and would pretty much like to do some if not all of the activities above. At the same time we cannot be overwhelmed inconvenient routes - overcrowded trains buses, difficulties in transportation etc.. my wife is recovering from an operation and it would be difficult for her - that's why I asked for convenient routes and travel plans.

I would prefer using the public transportation - but If I have to, I will hire a car.. any thoughts about the cost and what would be the best way of doing this.

Going forward now, 1st I thank everyone of you for the valuable tips and would like to have some more feedback please.. now what I understand:

1. avoid surroundings of Glasgow (and central because I don't wish to stay in the center) - but Bruce Hotel could be good.
2. almost all recommended hiring a car - not sure about cost / best way to do this.
3. Perth, Stirling, Aviemore, Balloch / Loch Lomond would be best for what am looking for.

So my friends"¦. I will arrive at Glasgow on the 31st and i did not book anything yet