How much is cash needed?

I would think £20 would be enough. Personally I haven’t used any cash in the last six months. And you don’t need to tip here.

We usually get 100 pounds upon arrival in local currency--from a bank ATM machine. Otherwise we try to put everything we spend on a Visa credit card. You can get by on very little cash if you pay attention.

Even at home, I still have 20 British Pounds in my billfold from last year's trip. I'll spend it in London in a month.

I agree that Scotland is largely a "tap and pay" country. However, I wouldn't think 20 would be sufficient. For example, on many RS tours, the bus driver has bottled water on board for tour members...and you pay the driver at the end of the tour. I think it likely the driver needs payment in cash rather than by credit card. . Can someone who's done the RS Scotland tour weight in on this question?

I spent three months in Scotland last year. I used cash four times.....twice to get a haircut and twice in cabs that didn't take cash. That was in a town you won't be visiting on tour.

Use an ATM to get cash. However, in Scotland, you may get Scottish pounds rather than British pounds. They are equal in value but may be harder to spend outside Scotland.

Not sure if this is true but a Scottish friend of mine said to use an ATM from an English bank vs a Scottish bank and you will get British pounds. It worked for me.

More important, make sure your credit cards are contactless and perhaps even set up Apple Pay or Google Pay on you phone.

Some businesses are cash only, hair dressers, barbers, small cafes, and my garage. Thankfully there is an ATM around the corner. The choice really is yours, £100 is a good start and you can top up from there.

In terms of what you get in Scotland - there are no British notes, there are English notes, Scottish notes, and NI notes.

You will get own brand from the relative banks in Scotland. Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland. You will get Clydesdale from Clydesdale and Virgin Money. But you will get based on my recent experience RBS from Tesco, and Bank of Scotland from Sainsbury's. Remember the BofE, RBS, BofS, Clydesdale Bank, and the NI banks are notes of the pound sterling. The notes of Jersey, Guernsey are not even if they are £1=£1

You will get Bank of England from some ATMs but not all if operated by English based banks. It depends.

In my opinion with the change from paper to polymer the RBS went from worst to best of our bank notes. Otters! The £10 has gone from a boring bloke in a wig to having otters on it!

Thank you all for your tips (no pun intended:). I can cross off one more thing on my To Do List.

We are taking several day trips and walking tours. I like to tip 10 pounds to the guide (5 pounds each) and guessing that's a good amount? Maybe 20 pounds. For that reason alone we will need some cash unless the guides have a tap-and-tip app on their phone.

If they have been paid why do you need to pay more? Do you tip the check out people at the supermarket?

Tipping in the U.K. comes up a lot and even people who live here have different ideas about it. I think that if a person wants to tip a guide or a server then that is absolutely fine and not unusual.

For me personally, I always tip waiting staff and I give my hairdresser a bit extra at Christmas and holidays. Beyond that it’s pretty rare. I’d only tip a tour guide if it was a free or very cheap service. It is customary to tip drivers on bus excursions or holidays (not public transport buses) but usually no more than a few pounds each.

I carry very little cash these days, maybe £20 at any one time. A couple of things I use cash for here on Skye
1) tip jars in small cafes - I chuck in a few coins (maybe £1) if I buy a tea and a slice of cake.

2) buying things from honesty boxes at the side of the road. Lots of people here sell home produce in honesty boxes at the end of their driveways. For example free range eggs, home made fudge or tablet, home made jam, cake. etc. Not sure if your guide will stop at honesty boxes, but they're fun and very much part of local tradition here on the islands.

Additionally you might see talented local kids busking and want to give them a couple of quid. Here on Skye kids busk (pipes, fiddle, flute, whistle etc) at major tourist sites and in Portree to earn a bit of extra pocket money. Many of them are excellent!

Hope that helps.
Jacqui (Skyegirl)

Never tipped a coach driver! That is a valid point, there are very few hard and fast guidelines let alone rules about tipping here. I tip at a sit down table serve restaurant and to a delivery driver. I sometime tip the barber sometimes I do not. Sometimes I think 'I should have tipped' half way home, other times nah.

For the office cleaner at the office I dip in at Christmas, partly because she is excellent, and also it is not really considered a tip more 'something for Christmas', and a few notes from the staff soon add up.

I did one put in a two pence piece into a leaving do present for an old boss, and took out change. I did not like them. So really the choice to tip is yours, and remember here a £5 tip on a £100 bill in a restaurant is considered generous. Which also explains why some US and Canadian waiting staff's hearts sink when a European guest turns up. And don't get us started on sales tax NOT being included...!

I do whatever I can not to use cash, but that doesn’t mean there are not situations where it can be cash only like a small stores/small restaurants. It really is up to you and how you travel. There is no one answer or one size fits all answer.

So when you arrive in Scotland, go to a bank ATM & take out £40 to start. If you feel that is too much, take out £20.

So when you arrive in Scotland, go to a bank ATM & take out £40 to start. If you feel that is too much, take out £20.

You want to go to a hole in the wall that offers RBS notes, and get notes that include a twenty. They have red squirrels. The RBS polymer notes have salmon on the £5, otters on the £10, red squirrels on the £20, and ospreys on the £50. They also have midges as a security measure. In my opinion the RBS went from the WORST of the 4 we get to the best, they look like the notes an independent state would issue whether or not you are in favour of independence, they are well designed, and they have these animals on the back. Also interestingly the polymer RBS notes are the first modern sterling notes which have only women on them who are not the late queen, Elizabeth II.

Though Jersey's current issues beat any sterling or sterling adjacent notes by being issued in THREE languages. All the others are just in one.

MC-Glasgow, thanks for the RBS link. That is so cool. Loved clicking on the description to highlight an image on the note. Especially finding the midge

Skyegirl, that's interesting. Honesty boxes. Around here in the vast metropolis of Waynesboro, VA (pop. 23,000), the closest comparable thing we would have is book exchange boxes, where you borrow a book and place another one in there, keeping it refreshed and news. The other is food boxes adjacent to churches, where people take whatever they want. Church members take turns keeping the box stocked with nonperishable food.

Ah yes we have book exchanges too - there's one in an old telephone box and another at Glendale village hall. We also sadly have food banks - at least two that I know of on Skye. But those are to help out those who cannot afford the basics. The honesty boxes are just for selling homemade goods.

Incidentally, at MacRae's fuel station in Portree they have a freezer (inside) filled with venison from their farm. It's cash only as far as I recall.

Skyegirl,

Thanks for the tip about the honesty boxes. My wife and I are traveling in and will be there end of next week and will keep an eye out for them. She loves stuff like that.