Need help planning a half day in Glasgow . . . My flight (if on time) arrives Glasgow airport at 8:30 a.m. & my hotel, where I will join a Road Scholar tour to Aigas Field Center in the Highlands that evening, is the Airport Holiday Inn. I would like to be back at the hotel by 4:00 p.m. but don't want to waste my only opportunity to visit Glasgow. Hotel website says there is a bus that goes to city centre across the street from the hotel. Do anyone have any experience with getting into city by bus from this area? What would be most practical to do in the city? I am not a seasoned city traveler and know I will be exhausted from the overseas flight/plane change in Amsterdam, etc. so want to stay pretty simple. Any advice appreciated! (If it matters, I will be arriving on a Friday.)

There is a Holiday Inn and a Holiday Inn Express which are on opposite sides of the Parking garage. If it s the Holiday Inn (not Express) you'd catch the Airport Express bus route 500 right form the terminal. If the HI Express you'd just need to walk 5 or 10 minutes over to the terminal. (Or ask the hotel desk if there is a closer bus stop w/o walking over to the airport)

The bus ride will take about 25 minutes to Glasgow Central.

While in Glasgow there are TONS of things to see and do -- just depends on your interests. The Cathedral, some wonderful museums (Kelvingrove, the Riverside Museum, the Burrell Collection, House for an Art Lover, and tons more -- google these and see which seem most of interest to you), lunch or tea at the Willow Tea Room (Charles Rennie Mackintosh site and a 6 or 7 minute walk from Glasgow Central station), some terrific pubs.

There is excellent bus service to just about any museum/site but since the 500 will drop you at Glasgow Central Station you can also take a taxi anywhere if you don't want to deal with buses. Then to return to GLA just take the 500 bus back from the station.

Thank you! Hoping plane is on time so I can get that bit of Glasgow time in. I promise a trip report when I return.

You will find that Glasgow has a weird structure, unlike just about every town or city in the UK the streets are laid out in a grid pattern (crazy I know). You may find it a bit confusing but do your best.

Worth checking the Mackintosh museum is open as it burnt down recently. There is also a tea room (from memory)

We loved Glasgow, where my father grew up and went to school. We didn't notice much grid pattern in most of the city. I know that the street where my father's family lived was was demolished and parts of the neighborhood was rebuilt in a sort of grid pattern. The botanical gardens were very nice, and the tenement museum was interesting.

Thanks for the help. My flight was on time so I had about 5 hours to spend in Glasgow. Bus from airport was easy; was able to immediately get on a hop on and off bus. Got off at the Cathedral, walked up to the Necropolis and got a good view & sense of city. Cathedrals always interesting to me. Also got off at the Transportation Museum, new and very impressive but crowded and not really my thing. Kelingrove was wonderful and well worth a day, also was in an interesting area. But I only had an hour & even then was tired. Would love to go back.