2 Days of tours OR 1 tour and 1 day in Glasgow?

Glasgow is very different than Edinburgh. It's a vibrant large city with gorgeous architecture and a lot of sights to see. I really enjoyed my stay there and loved exploring the city. If you go, I highly recommend the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum. It was absolutely fabulous and I could have (and did) spend hours there. The exhibits are diverse and beautiful - it's really amazing. Do not miss this - it was probably my favorite site in Glasgow, although I did like the Necropolis as well. That was also very interesting and makes for a nice walk.

Just a note that the lovely place with the birds and seashore is North (not New) Berwick. I hope to take a day trip there myself next spring!

:D. Oooops - that was a slip of the mind.

I especially enjoyed tracking down the Charles Rennie Mackintosh buildings in Glasgow. But Scotland has months' worth of sightseeing opportunities, so it's really up to you. What I wouldn't do is spend a large amount of my time traveling a great distance from Edinburgh and back to the city.

What Marlee said, Glasgow is quite different from Edinburgh, and I also really enjoyed Kelvingrove museum, having tea at the Willow Tea rooms, and wandering Sauchiehall street looking at the architecture. Someone advised me that when in Glasgow to remember to look up as there is a lot of architectural detail up high. A lot of my photos from there are off the tops of buildings. It’s worth at least a day. I was there for four.

While I like Glasgow and have been a few times, I think any trip to Scotland without at least one day in the Highlands is missing something very important.

Look into Rabbies tours for their offerings.

I had a solo trip this past May that included 7 nights in Edinburgh. You might find the second part of my UK trip report helpful:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/solo-in-the-uk-my-york-and-edinburgh-trip-report

Also, I have a few thoughts for your trip:

1) Head to North Berwick early in your trip. If you enjoy your time there, you may want to spend a few hours later in your trip at Dunbar. Dunbar is a quick 20-minute train ride from Edinburgh and another great setting to enjoy the seabirds.

2) I highly recommend the Rabbie’s loch ness, glencoe, highlands’s tour as a chance to see some of the countryside.

https://www.rabbies.com/en/scotland-tours/from-edinburgh/day-tours/loch-ness-glencoe-highlands-day-tour

3) I did not go to Glasgow and I’m happy with that decision. I always try to include some less popular, non RS mentioned places/sights on my trip. Hence, the day trips to North Berwick and Dunbar instead of Galsgow. That being said, I will probably include it on a return trip.

There are no wrong choices. It just depends on what sounds interesting to you.

Have a great trip!!

There is a bus- the #120 which links North Berwick and Dunbar, so they can be combined into one day- Train to North Berwick, bus to Dunbar, train back to EDI-

https://bustimes.org/services/120-dunbar-north-berwick?date=2023-10-30

The Scottish Seabird Centre also run infrequent landing trips to the Bass Rock, and a couple of companies run daily non landing trips to the Bass Rock.

Thank you, Carrie! I had seen Rabbies Tours recommended to others and myself and checked them out already. The West Highlands tour was already on my short list, so based on your recommendation, I will go with that one. And thanks for the Dunbar tip. I will check it out - it sounds like what I’m looking for, and probably much less expensive than going on another day trip tour. Thank you!

isn31c, thank you for the transport tip! The reason North Berwick was appealing to me besides the seaside town itself was the Seabird Center tours to Bass Rock, so thank you for validating my choice on that. With the train and bus, maybe I can accomplish even more than I originally thought I’d be able to. Much appreciated!

Thank you everyone else who chimed in. I know there’s no right or wrong trip, but I want to see everything and there isn’t time, so I have a bit of option overload. I’m excited though, and your input has helped focus me. :)

Hi Erin, as you reminded me on my trip report, it was actually the loch ness tour that I preferred over the west highlands one. 😊 I corrected that above for others who might read this in the future.

Something else that might interest you is duddingston village. Here’s a recent video on that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfN0gGS60_U

I did not make it there, but it’s on my list for next time.

You may want to check out his other videos too. He has some nice ones on Edinburgh and the surrounding area.

https://www.youtube.com/@ClanBroonford

I also highly recommend arthur’s seat. Even if you don’t want to do the hike up, you can get some nice pictures from the base of the yellow gorse. I think it will be in bloom in April.

Whatever you decide it will be a fabulous trip and you’re making me want to go back. 😊

The first Rabbies tour we took to St..Andrews was fantastic and picked up and dropped off same
location. Just took one to Loch Ness and never again as I am.still.fuming over this. Picked us up at bus station , tour was good., nice stops etc. At end of day did not drop off at bus station. Driver said they are not allowed to.do.that any more so.we were.dropped off between bus and train station at eight pm.in the dark and driving rain. It was two block walk to bus station and even with umbrellas we were soaked. She did not even to offer to call us a cab. Just said sorry and left. We were all furious. Be sure to clarify where they will drop you off.

Gail, was that a Rabbie’s tour that left you stranded in the rain? That doesn’t sound right at all. I wonder if that particular driver just didn’t want to drop off at the bus station. I would email the office to complain: [email protected]

Or if you like, you can PM me your tour info. and i'd be happy to send the email for you. As i plan to take tours with them in the future, i'd like to know if this is their new practice.

Definitely was a Rabbies tour. Thanks for your offer but my husband is following up on this as I sent first complaint when we returned to the States a couple of weeks ago. They did respond within a week of my original complaint so give them credit for that so far. The driver stated she only does one tour a week as she works in the office the other four days so I would assume she is aware of the policies. Will post a follow up as this progresses. I was doubly upset as I had fractured my back several months ago and was using a walker as I was still not 100% steady on my feet so you can imagine walking the distance to the bus terminal. The bright side of that was I was so furious I covered that distance in record time!!

I did the Rabbie’s West Highlands, Lochs and Castles day tour in September—it was a wonderful day out of Edinburgh, I very much wanted to see some of the Highlands and the landscape and lochs were just beautiful. I had 5 days in Edinburgh, and thus I decided against a day trip by train to Glasgow, I just needed another day in Edinburgh. My research leads me to think Glasgow is worth more than one day so next trip will start there!

Re the Rabbie’s tour—it was a Monday and we returned to Edinburgh around 6 pm and the guide—who was absolutely a delight and so knowledgeable and hilarious—had to let us off a couple of blocks from the bus depot, something to do with depot traffic at rush hour. My map quickly oriented me, and I walked 2 blocks to Princes Street and knew exactly where I was.