I will be flying to Glasgow on a sunday, end of september, staying 3 nights - single female. would like suggestions for a budget priced hotel/guesthouse - preferably not more than $100.Want to be in a central safe location. plan on a day in Edinburgh and maybe a bus tour to the highlands and if possible isle of skye. comments are welcome. thanks - erica

We prefer Edinburgh. Any reason you cannot stay there? Business? I thnk you would enjoy it more than Glascow.

Erica,

Bob1 is spot on - forget Glasgow and stay in Edinburgh. I assume you are flying in from the US? Continental have just started direct flights from Newark to Edinburgh. If you can't change your flight jump on a bus through to Edinburgh as soon as you land. Edinburgh is the most beautiful city and there's so much to see & do. In fact, you could easily spend your whole time just in Edinburgh. Plus, whilst you will miss the fantastic Edinburgh festival the bonus is that you will miss the worst crowds too.

Two suggestions for Glasgow lodgings. I have stayed in both and would recommend both.

1. The Townhouse on Royal Crescent in the West End. Beautiful restoration of a 19th century townhouse. Not as central as you would want, but great location near Kelvingrove Park and good bus service to central London. See http://www.townhouse-glasgow.com/

2. On the western edge of central London is the Premier Lodge Glasgow City Centre. Modern highrise, part of a budget chain, but clean and comfortable. Right next to Charing Cross train station, 3 minutes by train to Queen Street station. See http://www.premierlodge.co.uk/

I disagree with the two previous posters about the relative merits of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Edinburgh is touristically, superficially more attractive, but Glasgow has more depth and sustaining interest. I have been to Edinburgh once and have no plans to ever return. I have been to Glasgow three times and hope to return many times.

I've posted bits and pieces of this before but here goes.

I was in Edinburgh and Glasgow in early June 2001 with my Dad, niece and nephew. Dang, that's 3 years ago now. Too many places to revisit and not enough time.

Edinburgh is more popular with tourists. It has more to see and do than Glasgow, but I think Glasgow gets overlooked.

I liked walking around the old cathedral and looking at the tombstones upon the graves.

My Dad loved the transportation museum in Glasgow, lots of trains and automobiles.

The Kelvingrove Art Gallery has a very good collection. It's in a beautiful old stone building too.

I really liked the excellent Burrell Collection to the southwest of the city center a bit. From there we walked past gorgeous, towering rhododendrons in bloom (and over mats impregnated with disinfectant. It was the summer of the devastating hoof & mouth outbreak.) to the Pollack house. It's a pretty, historic manor house. Had a snack-y/lunch thing there around 1:00pm that was good.

We walked along the river front and enjoyed the boats. We took a tour of one that had been built there.

I liked riding their orange, circular subway with the interesting sayings on the arches above the subway tunnels.

Off one of the subway stops is a small museum that I didn't get to see. It's a flat that was inhabited by a woman who was a recluse and collected endless amounts of stuff. Her flat is left the way it was when she died. It had very limited hours which is why I wasn't able to get in.

At the time they were building a new science center across the River Clyde. It should be open by now.

We stayed at a (then) very new Holiday Inn Express in the downtown: Holiday Inn Express Riverside. It's just a few minute's walk from the central train station. Breakfast was included. I checked a random date. The rates are 60-70 pounds, a bit out of your range, but maybe they have cheaper weekend deals.

I'm not a shopper. From what I've read Glasgow is THE shopping destination for a lot of the UK.

"Off one of the subway stops is a small museum that I didn't get to see. It's a flat that was inhabited by a woman who was a recluse and collected endless amounts of stuff. Her flat is left the way it was when she died. It had very limited hours which is why I wasn't able to get in."

My mom and I visited this musem in April, it's called the Tenement House and it is really interesting. My mom had tried to visit on several previous trips to Scotland and never seemed to be there at the right time, so she was very pleased to get to tour it this time. Like indytravel said, it is a time capsule of Glasgow city life in a previous era. I recommend it.

I'm one of those who also prefer Edinburgh much more than Glasgow, we stayed there and went to G as a day trip, less than an hour by train. From the Queen Street train station we walked to Tenement House, which is quite far but we did it via Sauchiehall Street which is a pedestrianized shopping street, and stopped to eat at the Willow Tea Room which was designed by Charles Rennie McIntosh. From there it's a very steep uphill climb to the Tenement House, if I had to do it over again I'd have taken a taxi, which we did to return to the train station.

Glasgow is underrated. It's a fine city in its own right.

I have had recommended to me a guesthouse called Adelaide's in Bath Street. It's part of a 19th century church building in Glasgow converted to incorporate a guest house with eight bedrooms.

please drop me an email for the Glasgow doc I have.

erica,

Here's a link to a previous thread on this subject which might help.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...en_name=JJBhoy

All of the previous posters here have been persuasive with their various reasons for favouring Glasgow over Edinburgh, or vice versa, & no doubt some of these will strike a chord with your own preferences. From the point of view of visiting the West Highlands & Islands, however, I would say that Glasgow is the more conveniently located of the two.

Jim

I can't really suggest a particular hotel but I would vote for Ron's suggestion of the Townhouse if it is in the West End. Glasgow has so much to offer and the West End is a lovely area of magnificanet old tenemnets, now substantially restored - Byres road has a range of restaurants & Cafés - my personal favourite café being Tinderbox. Unfortunately, the Kelvingrove gallery is currently closed for renovations but a visit to the nearby University is well worth while seeing for its cloisters and the Hunterian Museum. In my opinion the Burrel Collection in Pollock Country Park is a gem - it is a diverse collection but has may lovely exhibits. I would also recommend the nearby House for an Art Lover. In town, the catherdral is intersting as is the Provands Lordship, the oldest house in Glasgow. The interior of the Municipal Offfices are also worthy of a vist - I think they do free guided tours most days. Glasgow is also an excellent base to see Loch Lomond and some of the highlands.

isn;t there a nice B&B castle near glasgow?? I knwo i stayed at one near stirling which was excellent value but my memory about glasgow is on holiday. I agree that Edinburgh is generally better than Glasgow but Glasgow's not bad if thats what you want to do