Glasgow - places to stay

Do you want clean, cheap, and basic? Atmospheric and intimate with special touches? Small and quirky? Large and predictable? What kind of amenities are important to you? What part of town do you have a preference for?

And do you want to be downtown or in the West End? I stayed most recently in the Premier Inn near George Square. It was convenient; it was clean; it was reasonably affordable. It's not atmospheric. :)

I stayed at the Grand Central Hotel prior to refurbishment and even then it was an impressive place. There were long hallways, and my window looked out over the covered railway lines. Breakfast was unimpressive then, but I suspect now it's impressive, but pricey. Interestingly, while reading Michael Palin's Diary--The Python Years, I learned that the Pythons stayed there when they went to Glasgow in the early 70's to do a cabaret. He was as impressed as I was by the really big stairway and the wide halls.

In the west end I stayed in a B&B. It wasn't memorable, but the location is good for restaurants and music.

Pam

Thanks for your replies.
Not really sure where we need to be, will be driving there by car, so need somewhere to park it.
Probably reasonably central and easy to get to, but quiet, where we can either walk or catch a bus, haven't done too much research yet.
As long as its reasonably priced, clean and has a reasonable breakfast, it doesn't matter too much.
My husband would quite like something quaint but we don't really mind.

Think about ditching the car at the airport or in town the night before. There are lots of easy buses from downtown that will take you to the airport in 20 minutes or so. Or if you want to keep the car, I think I would stay in the west end. The Kelvingrove museum for example is about 10 miles from the airport. I stayed near the Botanic Gardens and it was quiet. No specific place to recommend however.

BTW I would avoid taking your car into the city centre. I believe that there are some no go areas/lanes for cars and they may not be the clearest. I may have improved since the initial hoo hah about it. But at the time there were dire comparison to Florence, Italy.

Pam

I was getting muddled, we will have the car the whole time in Glasgow, until Edinburgh.
Thanks for the info on the car in town as we didn't know that. So it seems you park the car where you're staying and generally leave it until you leave, using public transport and not in the centre of town. It sounds like that's the West End area then or am I wrong, that we need to be staying in.

We stayed at the Marriott in Glasgow and Glasgow Central is only a 10 minute walk away with very easy access to the bus route. They treated us royally well and we had a really good experience there.

You really do not want to drive in Glasgow if you have a choice. If you are intending on keeping the car, you are best finding a hotel with off road parking included. Also it is worth ditching the car before hand, otherwise you get the pleasure of potentially paying to park a car you are renting to not move.

Thanks for your suggestions and the points about the car are particularly useful, sounds like we stay on the outskirts and use the bus but then have to get out as easily as possible to carry on to Oban.
Any other accommodation suggestions would be welcome thanks, in case the one mentioned doesn't work out,