Going to Scotland Alone

You could have Glasgow as your southern base, then take the train north and have a northern base (Inverness, perhaps).

Hi, saiynee, I spent 3 1/2 weeks in Scotland in May of 2023 as a solo traveler, and absolutely loved it! You will find that Scottish people are very friendly and will go out of their way to help you.

I think taking day tours is a good idea. One of the tour groups that is frequently recommended on this forum is Rabbies, who offers a number of day tours (or day+ tours) out of Glasgow. https://www.rabbies.com/en/scotland-tours/from-glasgow As you can see, they do offer a one-day Outlander tour. Allan, who is another member of this forum, went on it with his wife, and really liked it. I will look for his report and add a link to it. ETA: I found the link to Allan's trip report. Just scroll down to Day 4 and you will see his opinion.

For what it's worth, I rented a car for 16 days through Celtic Legend while I was in Scotland and had no problem finding an automatic. You just have to book early enough. That's not to say you really need a car, especially if you are doing day tours.

I don't know if you have accommodations yet, but I stayed at Grasshoppers Hotel, which is right next to the train station (Central) and was really lovely. The rooms were very nice with lots of room and a comfy bed. They have an amazing selection of homemade cupcakes and ice cream (with vegan options) that are always available (gratis!) for guests. There is a lounge with coffee and tea makings for guests and wine and beer is available for purchase, based on the honor system. The lounge was a wonderful place to meet people as everyone tends to gravitate there. Breakfast is included and is served buffet style with cooked options as well as cereals, yogurt and so on. The staff was very friendly and went out of their way to be helpful.

Thank you for the replies. I have nothing booked yet, not even my flight. I want to fly nonstop out of JFK in New York, so I think my options of airports over there are going to be only Glasgow and Aberdeen? I will look into my rental car options. I do a lot of road trips on my own here so I'm not opposed to long drives in a short span of time.

I didn't have any real problem driving in Scotland. It can get a little hairy on some of the single track roads in the mountains, but not terribly so. And your itinerary shouldn't have any really bad roads. There was only one place I turned back (on Mull) and that was more due to my fear of heights. :-)

That said, I really liked Celtic Legend - they work with the Arnold Clark agency to provide car rental services. So much so that I have booked another rental with CL for my upcoming trip to England in a couple of months.

I would consider stay in various locations, but again, I'm trying to figure out how to get from place to place and then get my tours booked.

Rabbies (and some other companies) do small group tours that can take you from place to place. They will book you in hotels or B&Bs or hostels.

Ten years ago, I took a tour with Heart of Scotland that spent 2 nights in Skye and 1 night in Inverness. I was traveling with a friend and we stayed in B&Bs. The company gave you a variety of options for accommodation and they made the bookings for you. It was a good way to get around without a car. They no longer offer the same tour that I took, but they have some other tours. https://www.heartofscotlandtours.co.uk/

Rabbies offers similar tours and their tours operate more frequently. Many people on this board have recommended them.
https://www.rabbies.com/en/scotland-tours

Salynee, I have visited Scotland twice and liked it so much I am going again this June. I took a large group tour the first time and traveled solo the second time (2018). For that more recent trip, I flew on IcelandAir to Glasgow via Iceland, where I attended a wedding prior to going to Scotland. I used public transportation to go to Skye and Oban. These were not day trips, though: I stayed two nights in each place. JetBlue will start nonstop flights from NY to Edinburgh in May--that is how I am getting to Scotland in June, using frequent flier points. In 2018 I stayed at Grasshoppers Hotel in Glasgow and liked it a lot. I am planning to stay there on this trip. I will also go to Edinburgh and Nairn/Inverness on my own and take a small group tour of the Outer Hebrides. While I prefer to travel solo, I do not want to drive on the other side of the road, and I thought it would be easier to go with a group to the islands rather than trying to time buses and ferries on my own.

Mardee, what was your experience last year of the area around Grasshoppers Hotel, namely the central station? I have read that it is pretty tough over there these days. Note that I live in NY and have some experience (and comfort) with sketchy areas. In 2018 it did not feel unsafe to me, but I am not sure if anything has changed. It was not an especially charming neighborhood, but that is not a requirement for me.

When I travel, I tend to return to my hotel fairly early in the evening mainly because I am a "morning person" who runs out of steam after dark. The great thing about Scotland being so far north is that it will stay light outside until 9 PM at least in the summer!

Another New Yorker here! And a completely non-driving one at that. :) Staying in a city or two and taking day trips is my M.O. as well. I visited Edinburgh last June and can't wait to go back this May and see more, including Glasgow.

NYC Librarian mentioned the JetBlue flights to Edinburgh that will start soon. Delta already has nonstop daily flights to Edinburgh. From Edinburgh Airport you can take the Citylink AIR bus to Buchanan Bus Station in Glasgow city centre, a trip of just under an hour. That's what I'll be doing.

NYC Librarian,

I talked about the area around Central Station with Mardee a while back. Without meaning to speak for her, she thought it was fine! My perspective is slightly different, but it's not dangerous.

It's a bit of a hub for rough sleepers and folks with addiction issues in the block around Central. The risk of being accosted in any way, apart from being asked for spare change, is low. As a very generalised rule, the block around the main railway station in major European cities can be quite edgy. No different in Glasgow.

As far as it having changed since 2018, I very much doubt it. I started work at McDonald's on Argyle Street when I was 16, 35 years ago, and it was much the same then. I saw two really violent incidents at work there, and another at Dunkin Donuts (where Tim Horton is now) at about 5am when I was out and about in the same era. When I was standing smoking before catching a train on Gordon Street about 2 or 3 years ago the chap standing next to me served a "customer" blatantly, even though I've been mistaken for a cop several times. Glasgow's red light district used to be the next block west, though I think that sort of activity has been stopped in more recent years.

Still, none of my horror stories would put me off saying the Grasshopper Hotel is a bit of a bargain. I know Mardee loved it. Just my 2 cents about the area. My location is London but I was running around Glasgow city centre from age 12 or 13. I'm in Scotland just now and was in Glasgow yesterday.

I also travelled solo to Scotland and rented an automatic car with no trouble. Having said that, you don’t have a lot of time to so it may be best for you to just base yourself in Glasgow and do guided day trips from there. If you try to go too far afield, such as all the way up to Inverness or Skye, by public transit, you will end up seeing a lot less due to the time you will be sitting on a bus or train trying to get to another town. The other good option would be to look at Rabbies tours as they have many short tours of just a few days that will help you cover more ground without having to do the driving. Other day trips you could do from Glasgow could be Rosslyn Chapel, or Hadrian’s Wall.

Mardee, what was your experience last year of the area around Grasshoppers Hotel, namely the central station? I have read that it is pretty tough over there these days.

As Gerry mentioned, I thought it was fine and had no problems walking around. I really liked the convenience of it. It's not the prettiest neighborhood, but I didn't spend a lot of time walking around there. I did visit a few restaurants near there in the early evening and had no problems at all. I never felt unsafe.

That fact that I really didn't have a need to go out and visit a cafe or wine bar in the evening may have helped my perception. Grasshoppers hotel provided a lounge where you could get wine, beer and snacks or coffee and tea. And the lounge always had other guests in it, so I happily enjoyed sitting there chatting with everyone each evening.

Thank you, Mardy and Gerry for addressing my question about Central Station's neighborhood. I look forward to staying at Grasshoppers again in June!

NYC Librarian, I think you will really like it! Don't forget to try one of their homemade cupcakes and ice cream that they offer as a courtesy to guests. They are wonderful! And they go great with a glass of wine! 🤣

Thank you again for all the replies. It’s truly helping me solidify plans. Love that JetBlue will be doing nonstop, it’s my airline of choice.

Outlander tours are very popular now with season 8 on TV , plus the start of filming of the prequel, Blood of my Blood. There are lots of tours available from Edinburgh but I'm sure you can book one from Glasgow too .
Loch Ness and the Highlands tours are also very popular .

I see Mardee already posted a link to my Trip Report so I won't bother, but if you do read it, we stayed in Glasgow for our final 3 nights and loved it. We were going to stay at the Grasshopper, but it was fully booked and we chose Motel One instead https://www.motel-one.com/en/hotels/glasgow/hotel-glasgow/ and were happily surprised. It's about a block from the Grasshopper and we had no issues with the area and felt perfectly safe after dark.

Rabbies Tours does have an Outlander tour out of Glasgow which my wife especially enjoyed despite their being no Jamie Fraser sightings. If you like castles then you can make a day trip via train to Stirling Castle which was the highlight of our trip. We enjoyed it much more than Edinburgh castle because Stirling was more about Royal history while Edinburgh focuses on military history.

Like Mardee we rented a automatic car from Celtic Legend and have nothing but positive things to say about the company.

Rosslyn Chapel is a side trip from Edinburgh, not from Glasgow.

You have all been great and giving me awesome advice. I’m currently looking into flights now. What a difference between round trip and one way costs. I’m wondering if it would be worth it for me to to do round trip to Edinburg or Glasgow, then take a round trip flight from there to London.

Rosslyn Chapel is a side trip from Edinburgh, not from Glasgow

It may be more normal to visit Roslyn for Rosslyn Chapel from Edinburgh, but it adds on less than an hour each way to do so from Glasgow.

@sallynee- Are you actually going to London?- all you mention above in England is Liverpool. If you are starting (or ending) in Liverpool, it would be easier to open jaw/multi-city into or out of Manchester, rather than London, then just see which of Edinburgh or Glasgow makes the most sense to you in cost terms or maybe convenience of flights.

Investigate for your dates and start airport in the US what combination of flights makes the most sense for you. Too many variables to give a clear or definitive answer. Several trains an hour run Liverpool- MAN including some actually from MAN airport. Roughly a 1 hour journey.

@ isn31c yes, my plan is to split the trip into two parts. Scotland then England. It’s been changing as I’ve been receiving advice and trying to book my flights. I was originally going to start in London, go for two days to bath, from bath to Liverpool and from there take the train to Glasgow. I will reverse the order of countries, and am now thinking of basing myself in London, day tripping to liver pool, then overnighting in bath.