24 hours in Glasgow
We round up some of our favourite places to visit in the cultural Scottish hotspot.
Glasgow: the city of strong Scottish ale, arctic temperatures, excellent local snack options and over-friendly strangers. We had a really lovely long weekend up there recently and ate and drank like kings and kweens, so have compiled a list of our best discoveries.
Eat
Ashton Lane
Head here first, if you’re not quite sure what you fancy and feel like you need a peruse. Quite a few of the following choices are around this area, so if you’re as indecisive as us, this is a good starting point.
This was our food highlight of the weekend. It’s been voted the best pizza in the UK a number of times, and there’s no question as to why. With queues out the door, Glaswegians have sussed it out as an eatery worth visiting. The simple Neapolitan pizzas are fresh as can be, with tasty flavour combos and incredibly reasonable prices. They’ve nailed the ambience too — there’s a real buzz in the air.
Come here for poutine (the heart attack-inducing Canadian dish of chips topped with cheese curds and gravy) and an exceptional burger menu.
If baked goods are what you’re after, head here. It’s a big bakehouse, pumping out freshly-baked sandwiches and cakes to a very high standard. This is Freya’s sister’s top recommendation, and she’s lived in Glasgow for two years and is something of a carbohydrate connoisseur.
Falafel To Go
If you walk past this, you may think we’re pulling your leg. It’s something of a dodgy little falafel joint, but the queues speak for themselves. The falafel is a bargain too, at just £2.50. Yes please.
Drink
Laboratorio Espresso
Genuinely good coffee is often hard to dig out in a new city, so go here first for a safe pair of hands. It’s a lovely place to wile away a few hours and the coffee is, well, fab.
You’ve got to give the Scottish beers a go, so why not head to Ashton Lane (home to many great eating and drinking spots) and try an Innis & Gunn? Their beer list is 10/10.
This is the other favourite haunt of Freya’s Glasgow local sister. And she’s a right old ponce about coffee, so this speaks volumes.
Do
We return to Ashton Lane for this choice, to one of our favourite cinemas in the UK. They’ve got sofas at the back if you’re feeling slouchy, and their ticket prices are very affordable. Plus, you can roll out of the cinema and into Brel, the Belgian beer bar opposite. Fun for all the family.
Necropolis
A cemetery may seem like a surprising choice of recommendation for a new city, but stay with me on this one. For the best views of Glasgow, this is the place to come. You climb to the top of the graveyard and are right alongside the top of the cathedral (also worth a quick visit inside) and it’s all pretty darn epic.
Riverside Museum
For any architecture nerds, this is a must-see. Inside, it’s a strange transport museum that honestly isn’t worth your time, but the museum building itself is designed by Zaha Hadid and is just…well, you can imagine.
Glasgow Museum of Modern Art
Bang in the centre of town, this gallery has some really great exhibitions and is open to the public. It would be rude not to pop in.
Sometimes it’s nice to schedule a bit of green time into your weekend. And the botanic gardens are really rather fun. The plants inside the greenhouses are genuinely fascinating, and yes — we’re aware of how nerdy that sounds. Last time we went, they had a phenomenal cactus sale on, so we only hope that you too can be that lucky.
Royal Scottish National Orchestra Concerts
If you’re under 26, you get £6 tickets to all the RSNO tickets. Give it a go. Don’t @ us, you might like it.
If shopping is what you’re after, there are all the usual high street suspects in Glasgow, as well as some really great independent boutiques. Love and Squalor is one such spot that we completely loved. With a sewing room out the back, all the clothes are handmade in-store and the prices aren’t crazy at all. The candles, jewellery, bags, shoes and other bits and bobs have been really well curated. They certainly know what they’re doing.
