Scotland Travel 101 with a Local (Podcast #19)

In this episode, Laura chats with Travel Lemming Scotland local Louise as she shares everything you need to know about traveling Scotland.

Louise reveals the best Scotland festivals, the key differences between Edinburgh and Glasgow, whether you should rent a car, top experiences, and how far in advance you should book your trip.

She also gives her hot take on the Loch Ness monster + etiquette mistakes not to make while you’re there.

Have a question about Scotland? Drop it in the comments 👇

📰 Articles from Travel Lemming.com

-All Scotland guides: https://travellemming.com/scotland/ 

-Day trips from Glasgow: https://travellemming.com/day-trips-from-glasgow/ 

-Where to stay in Scotland: https://travellemming.com/where-to-stay-in-scotland/ 

-Where to stay in Glasgow: https://travellemming.com/where-to-stay-in-glasgow/ 

-Where to stay in Edinburgh: https://travellemming.com/where-to-stay-in-edinburgh-b/ 

-Places to visit in Scotland: https://travellemming.com/places-to-visit-in-scotland/ 

-Edinburgh’s best hotels: https://travellemming.com/where-to-stay-in-edinburgh-hotels/ 

 

🎙️ Other Links Mentioned: 

-Edinburgh Fringe Festival: https://www.edfringe.com/ 

-Up Helly Aa: https://www.uphellyaa.org/ 

-Edinburgh Book Festival: https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/ 

#Scotland #Edinburgh #Glasgow #ScotlandTravel

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Castles, kilts and Harry Highland coups.
Today we're talking about how toplan the perfect trip to Scotland.
But first, here's a quickpreview of the episode.

(00:35):
Welcome to the Travel Loving Podcast,where we talk all things travel with our
team of expert, locals, and travelers.
I'm your host, Laura McFarland.
I'm a senior travel writer here atTravel Leming with experience visiting
and living in over 40 countries.
My guest today is Louise.
She's a freelance travel writerwith Travel Leming and is
our resident Scotland local.
She writes a ton of articles for us

(00:56):
about places to visit in Scotlandand how to plan the Perfect
Scotland.
trip.
She's also lived in Spainand traveled extensively
around Europe.
Louise, welcome.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about yourself and why
you're a Scotland expert?
Laura.
Thanks for having me.
I am our local Scotland expert becauseI was born and raised in Scotland.
I was born in Glasgow and lived thereuntil I was a student when I moved to

(01:17):
Edinburgh, Scotland's Capital City.
And I lived there for severalyears, and now I'm back in Glasgow.
And I love to write travelguides to Glasgow, Edinburgh,
and the whole of Scotland.
I also lived in Spain for a coupleof years, and I really knew the
difference that having local expertisecould make to having a great trip.
That's amazing.
I think that's one of the big thingsthat we try to push here at Travel

(01:37):
Leming is just the difference that localexpertise really does make for your trip.
I mean, a little bit aboutmy Scottish background.
I definitely don't have the samebackground as Louise, but I'm excited
to be here talking about it today.
I do have some Scottish heritage.
My last name is McFarland, whichwe traced to the old time clan
McFarland in the Scottish Highlands.
My parents actually had theirhoneymoon in Scotland and they had

(01:57):
a pipe band play at their wedding.
So it's been a big part of my life growingup is this emphasis on Scottish heritage.
I've been lucky enough totravel to Scotland twice now.
Once in 2018 for the EdinburghFringe Festival where I traveled
around Edinburgh, Glasgow, andhiked in Lo Loma International Park.
And then I also went again in 2024to Edinburgh and the Isle of Sky.

(02:18):
Alright, Louise.
Let's jump right in with the firstquestion of why should someone go visit
Scotland?
Scotland has so much to offerfor people who want to visit no
matter what you're interested in.
It's packed with history.
There are hundreds ofcastles around the country.
There are neolithic ruinsin Orna and Shetland.
There are Viking remainsin parts of The West coast.
There's a world-renowned landscape.
The Highlands are unlikeanywhere else on Earth.

(02:40):
They have jaw droppingmountains, Glens locks.
You can travel around the Hall ofHighlands and just see unbelievable things
that you wouldn't see anywhere else.
It also has, like, you see the largestperformance art festival in the world,
the Edinburgh Fringe, which runs everyAugust for the entire month of August.
It's a huge straw to the country,and it's so entertaining and best of
all, the people are really friendly.
They're really welcoming.

(03:01):
You'll often hear visitors say how wellreceived they were by the local people.
Did you say that there are Viking remains
at, in a part of the
Yeah.
In Larks there are, there's aViking museum called Viking Garden.
It's interactive and it's reallygreat for kids to go and visit and
see some of the places where theVikings landed and then and raided.
Wow, that's crazy.
I'm excited to get to knowmore of your little hidden gems
because that's, I never knew that.

(03:22):
So what type of travelers should
visit Scotland?
Is it a great place for someonewho's outdoorsy or adventurous?
Or is it better for budget travelers or
maybe history lovers would really
Well, it's great for all types oftravelers bending on where you go In
Scotland, there are different regions andthere are different attractions to them.
Outdoors and adventure Travelerswill love the highlands.
There are so many hill walking paths.
There's trails, there's ski slopesin the Keran Gomes around Aviemore,

(03:46):
and you can go Monroe Bagging.
Monroe are mountains in Scotland,which are over 3000 feet.
There's almost 300 of them, So you cando a lot of hill walking if you want to.
People will try and bag all of the Monroesand climb all of them, but that will take
a bit more than, more than a week anyway.
Thanks for putting
that in feet by the way, and not metersfor us Americans that are listening.

(04:07):
I think we, we use a mixtureof both feet and meters.
It can be really confusing, but mountainsare often in feet and not meters.
Our height, we better
in feet, but then we mentionother things like distances
can be in kilometers or miles.
It's a bit of a mixed bag.
It's very confusing at times.
Our speed limit is, yeah.
We've got, we
haven't got, we haven't got Metric garden.

(04:28):
We, we use both, which is just the worstof both worlds, but we get by somehow.
Okay, so Monroe are mountains that
are over 3000 feet.
There are, there are 282 of them.
Wow.
Has anyone ever climbed all
282?
a news story the other day of a, likea child who had climbed them twice.
So she's just done them.
They're not too hard to climb.

(04:48):
You can, if you are safe aboutit, if you go in good weather,
you can climb pretty much all theMonroe, without a lot of experience.
The biggest one has been Nevis.
That's the highest mountain in the uk.
And you have to be careful about it.
You have to make sure you don't, goin really bad weather, have your
equipment, make sure you go withsomeone and, just take precautions.
But these aren't too arduous.
It's not like Mount Everest or anything.

(05:10):
So you can, it can be a nice day out.
Okay.
Well that sounds fantasticand we'll cover a lot more
about hiking and outdoorsystuff later on in the podcast.
But I wanted to touch back on, you said
history lovers might also find
something in
Yeah, there's lots to find in Scotland.
There are literally thousands ofcastles all around the country.
In different states of preservation, thereare the ones which are best preserved.

(05:30):
Like Edinburgh Castle, oneof the most famous ones.
It has the crown jewels in it.
It has the royal palace.
It's so much s history, andit's in a great location right
in the middle of Edinburgh.
If you climb up to the top of EderCastle, you can see all around the city.
It's absolutely stunning.
But there are also ones whichare a bit out of the cities.
There's Otter, which is justoutside of Stonehaven in Aberdeen.

(05:51):
It's just, it's a stunning, castle.
You can see in postcards everywhere.
it's really famous image of a castle.
It mostly intact the castle,or is it more the ruins
it's mostly intact.
Nobody lives in it, but itis mostly an intact castle.
There are, it's really well preserved.
Some of these, these castles arehundreds of years old, but they were
built so well that they've, they'velasted through all the horrible

(06:12):
weather and seizures and everything,and they've managed to keep standing.
Sterling's another one that's beenrenovated and restored really, really
well, It's, again, it's a great location.
It's got great views.
You can see the, Wallace Monument fromSterling Castle as well, which is a huge
tearing monument to William Wallace,the the famous hero from Braveheart.
And Sterling
Okay.

(06:32):
I, I've
never seen Braveheart.
So who is William Wallace?
Is
this a fictional characteronly or is it based on a
William Wallace was a real man.
He rebelled against the English,and he was killed for it.
So he won some famous battles and he lost.
some other more famous battles.
And then he was, decapitated andsplit into four, and his body
parts were sent around the uk.
It was quite grim.

(06:53):
But he was a a really famousScottish hero, even though he lost.
So we we commemorate him.
And so you can see thatthat statue is near Sterling
It's, it's a huge building.
It's, like a tower andit's just outside Sterling.
It's great.
You can climb up to the top And see allaround, you can see the Battle of Sterling
Bridge, which that's, one of his famousvictories over the English was Sterling.

(07:15):
A very narrow bridge.
And you can still see wherethe battles took place.
Another really beautiful castle, whichpeople might be familiar with, images,
is a donan, which is near the Kyle of la.
It's just a stunning castle.
It's on an island.
The background's amazing.
It's near locks and It'ssurrounded by mountain ranges
and it's absolutely stunning.

(07:36):
It's well worth a visit if you're in thehighlands, especially if you're doing
a tour you can get to quite easily.
There's also some hidden gems, castles'cause there are so many castles.
Some of them are quite unique.
K is a very unique castle.
It's near Larks and the owner ofKern Castle has had it graffiti
painted on the outside, so it's pinkand purple with shapes and spray

(07:58):
paint everywhere and it's, it'shost a festival every year as well.
A big, big party.
And it's quite unique in terms of castles.
That sounds fantastic.
So just before we fully dive intomore of our Scotland advice, Louise,
I wanna ask you, there are certainwords that you're using that I think
it might be helpful to translate for
our maybe American audience or NonsScottish audience who might be listening.

(08:20):
So you already talkedabout Monroe and that's the
Scottish word, meaninglike hill or mountain.
I know lo you've mentioned a few
times and I believe that
means lake,
Yeah, it does.
It's just the Scottish word for lake.
It's luck.
But it said with a rolling, tongueat the back of your throat, which is
not a very common sound in English.
So people will often struggle to say luck.
But we know what you mean if you say luck.

(08:40):
There's also, Glen,which is like a valley.
You'll see the, the hills and the ends.
Ben is also the Scottish word formountain So Ben Nevis just means Nevis
mountain and a, a little bit lateron I'll talk about Kaleigh dancing.
And Kaleigh is just aform of Scottish dancing.
It's a traditional Highland dancing.
Okay.
I just figured that would be helpfulto get off right off the bat, just so

(09:03):
that we're all on the same page here.
So jumping in now, if someone'splanning a trip to Scotland, what
would you say as a local are theessential places to visit and things to
do?
I wanna start
first with a quick breakdown of theregions, because Scotland is not all the
same.
There are different regions of Scotland.
So can you break down alittle bit the different areas

(09:24):
that someone might encounter
when they're planning a
Yep.
So Scotland has a few different regions,which are very different in terms of
the character and the number of peoplewho are there and the things to do.
There are the Highlands, whichare to the north and west,
which are mostly mountainous.
There are very few people there.
It's quite space, and the scenerythere is absolutely beautiful.
It's full of locks, it'sfull of Glens mountains.

(09:45):
It's, a really popular place tovisit, especially on tours, places
like Lockness or Lock Long, andyou'll find a lot of hill walking,
outdoor attractions, things like that.
There's also the central belt, whichis across the middle of Scotland,
which is the most populous area.
It's very urban.
It has the cities of Edinburgh,Glasgow, and Sterling in it,
and around half of Scotland'spopulation live in the Central Belt.

(10:07):
So there are really good transport links.
There's lots of accommodation options.
You can travel around a few places inthe course of a day, and it's quite
a popular place to travel as well.
If you go to Edinburghand Glasgow and Sterling.
There are, ranges of attractions to sea.
There's lots of cuisines,there's lots of different things
to do in the central belt.
So just to give us an example of thesize of the central belt, how long
does it take to travel between the

(10:28):
two biggest cities, Glasgow and
So if you get the train betweenGlasgow and Edinburgh, it
takes around 53 to 55 minutes.
So it's very quick.
Those are the express trains?
Yeah, and that's coast to coast.
So that's the extent of the central Bill.
Scotland is very thin,especially in the Central Bill.
it's, very narrow.
hour
An hour close to coast.
To get to Sterling, it's,maybe about 45 minutes as well.
Between Glasgow and Sterling, it's,they're all very close together.

(10:50):
You can take the bus as well, which is abit longer or drive between them, but your
best way to get between them is the train.
It's very fast.
So it seems possible then that someone
could plan a trip to multipledifferent regions of Scotland
and maybe that they should try to
visit multiple different regions to
see the full variety
of landscape that Scotland has to
Yeah, definitely.
You have to try and explorea bit of Scotland if you want
to see what it's really like.
It's good to have a base in certainareas and then you can travel around.

(11:12):
For example, if you wanted to see thecentral built, you could stay in Edinburgh
and get the train between places.
If you wanted to see the, the Highlands,you could travel to Verness and take
some tours from there or drive aroundand, and it's, a good way to explore
lots of parts of the country withouthaving to constantly be on the move and
find new accommodation all the time.
But it's, it's really good to travelaround different parts of the country and
see all the variety of areas there are

(11:34):
So we've talked about theCentral Bell and the Highlands.
Are there any
other regions we should be aware
Yet there are the islands, whichare mostly to the West coast.
There are a few to the Northas well, the Shetland Islands.
These are very different areas.
They're very rural.
They have some absolutelyincredible scenery.
The most famous one is probably Sky, whichis connected to the mainland via bridge.
So you can actually drive onto Sky.
You can take the bus to Sky you cango and explore and see the gardens.

(11:57):
There's also Shetland to thenorth, which is quite far away.
They have a very unique accent as well,because they were, colonized by Vikings.
So they have a lot of words whichare very similar to Norwegian and
they have a very unique culture.
Shetland is, is a lovely place to travel.
It's quite remote, so you can eithertake a, a ferry or you can fly there.
There are a few options tofly to the islands in the west

(12:17):
coast as well, or otherwise.
It's ferry Sky is the only, island whichis connected to the mainland by a bridge.
Yeah.
As I mentioned, I, I was luckyenough to visit the Isle of Sky on
my most recent trip to Scotland andI can attest it as a lovely place.
But Louise, I know that you have a fewother islands that you say are, are just
as beautiful as Sky and are less touristyand a lot easier to travel around, which

(12:39):
we will get to later in this episode.
But to round out our
geography lesson, are there anyother regions we should be aware of?
Yeah, there are the Scottishborders, which are often
overlooked by tourists, unfairly.
So there are some really beautifultowns to visit in the borders.
These are to the south, butthe border with England.
There's a town of Fris to the South,which is a really beautiful city.
They have some lovely cathedralsthere with a lot of history.

(13:01):
They have, a Peter Pan House as wellbecause Peter Pan was created in Fri.
There's Peebles, whichis a beautiful city.
There's also a few notable placesin the borders, including G Green.
It was a, a wedding town becausehistorically the age to get married
in England and Scotland was different.
If you were 16 or 17 and youwanted to get married in England,
you had to have parental consent.
And you didn't in Scotland.

(13:22):
So young Lovebirds would travel to GREGreen on the border and get married
there and it would often get married byblacksmiths 'cause they got, ordained
and, were able to perform weddingsand you can still get married by
blacksmiths and, gret Green to this day,
Wow.
So is Gretna
Green the Scottishversion of Vegas weddings?
Is it, or is it.

(13:42):
it's, a little bit moretraditional in Vegas, but it is a
traditional wedding destination.
That's what It's best known for.
It has been a, a weddingtown, So It's quite unique.
in that sense.
That sounds beautiful.
there's also the town of, WG Town,which is Scotland's National Book Town.
It's a, it's a really small town,but it has dozens of bookshops in it.
And every year it hosts a book festival.
So if you love books, youshould travel to Wigtown.

(14:03):
It's quite unique.
sounds amazing.
I will definitely be addingthat to my bucket list.
Well, thank you Liz,
for breaking that down for us.
Now that we've talkedabout the variety in the
landscapes in Scotland and thecultures, what are the most
essential places to go for first
time visitors to Scotland?
I always recommend that firsttime visitors go to Edinburgh.
There's just so much to do there.
You could spend weeks in Edinburghnot running out things to do.

(14:25):
I spent years in Edinburghnever found out things to do.
There's the obvious attractionsof Edinburgh Castle.
There's Edinburgh Dungeons, if you like,a bit of a ghost tour of, creepy history.
There's the Royal Mile along the centerof Edinburgh, right in the old town.
There are so many attractionson the Royal mile.
There's St. J's Cathedral, whichis a really historic cathedral
in the heart of the city.

(14:45):
There's Kaob Obscura, which is a houseof illusions, which is great for kids.
There's, hobby Route, whichis the Scottish Parliament.
That's a modern building andit's quite controversial.
You, it's a bit Marmite.
You either love it or you hateit, but it's got great background.
It's got Arthur's seat behind it,which is a ancient volcano in Edinburgh
and It's, traditional that you climb

(15:05):
A volcano.
but it doesn't erupt.
It's, it's extinct.
So you're a no, no risk inEdinburgh, but it's traditional
to climb up, it's an Arthur seatand see the views over the top.
And Edinburgh as a whole,
would you define it as a city with quite
ancient architecture, or is it moremodern or does it have a little bit of
everything?
very historic in this EnterEdinburgh, particularly the old town.

(15:28):
The Royal Mile is ancient.
There are so many close anddifferent places to travel down,
which are, are just packed historythat are hundreds of years old.
The New Town is also ironically oldThat's, a couple of hundred years
old, but it's relative to the old town.
There's also the historic porting ofLeaf, which is now part of Edinburgh.
It was made famous in the movie trainspotting, and, but it's very trendy.

(15:49):
It's very cool.
Lots of people want to travel there.
There's, there's so many great restaurantsand bars, and it's really the place
that young people from Edinburgh wantto go and spend a lot of time in.
all.
Oh, that sounds fantastic.
And does Edinburgh have an
international
airport?
How easy is it for peopleto travel and start their
trip in Scotland from Edinburgh?
has an, an national airport,which is quite busy.
It has a lot of connections, and you canalso fly into London and either fly from

(16:12):
London or take the train up to Edinburgh,which is quite a popular option.
it's a really scenic train journey, andit's quite frequent through the day.
So you can either fly directlyinto Edinburgh, you can fly to
Glasgow, and it's only, like I say,a 50 minute, train journey away.
Or you can, fly to London and getthe train or fly up from there.
I actually did, the first time I went toScotland was I took the train from London
to Edinburgh and I attest it is beautiful,quite scenic, just rolling green hills

(16:37):
with like sheep and cows andit was very, very beautiful.
Okay, so we talked about Edinburgh.
What are some other
essential places to go
for first timers?
I really don't think you've seen Scotland.
If you haven't seen the Highlands,they're just unbelievably beautiful.
They're unparalleled.
A good place to base yourself tosee the highlands is Inverness.
You can stay there and seethe town, the city itself.

(16:57):
It is Inverness is beautiful.
There is so much to do in thecity or just outside of it.
But from there you can also take tours oryou can drive to parts of the Highlands.
You can see the famous Lochness andlook for nessi and travel to the
cl CNS and different places aroundabout, and see some of the real
natural beauty around about there.
So you mentioned, facing yourselfout of Inverness and you can take a

(17:18):
tour of Loch Ness.
so I have to
ask you, in your opinion,is the Loch Ness monster
Well, yeah, obviously the LochnessMonster drill, there's so much proof
that, Nessie is swimming around.
We just haven't been able to find her yet.
Hmm.
But there's so much
Yes, so many, so manyphotos, historic photos.
So it seems
like a trip to the Highlands isdefinitely worth it for first time
visitors to Scotland, anywhere
else.
Another place which is great tovisit if you're new to Scotland

(17:40):
is Addin, the ILE of Addin.
Many people will start theirfirst trip to Scotland.
They'll go to Sky, which is likeyou say, it's, it is beautiful.
It's like got such incrediblehigh walking route.
It's got so much to do, but it isalso very crowded in summer months.
So if you don't want to be caught upin some of that, the accommodation
prices can be very high as well.
Aaron is a great alternative.

(18:01):
It's known as Scotland andminiature because it has so
much geographical diversity.
There's so much to do and you can,travel around the coastal way of Aaron.
You can cycle, you can walk, youcan climb, goat film mountain.
You can see lots of things in, and so Iwould always recommend maybe branching
out a bit and seeing Aaron or anotherisland, but she's got so much to offer.

(18:24):
That's great advice.
And I, I do want to clarify when you saythat Isle of Sky can be busy or quite
touristy in the summer, what kind of
numbers are we talking about here?
Because I know Scotland in generaldoesn't feel ever super overcrowded.
I
mean, it seems like the cities areon the smaller side in terms of
major international cities, right?
Like do you know what thepopulation of Edinburgh is

(18:45):
Edinburgh is around 400,000 people.
So that's very small for a city.
It gets really crowded in Augustwhen the French, because there's so
many tourists that come and stay.
And the accommodation pricesin August can, can shoot up.
And it's the same in Sky.
It's quite small.
There's not a lot of people there.
Throughout the year, not many, notmany locals, and there's, the island

(19:06):
is big, but there's not that manyaccommodation options and the roads
are very narrow and quite windy.
So if you're there in busy summermonths, it can become quite tricky to
drive around and find places to stay.
You have to book well in advanceif you're sitting and going to Sky.
So if you want something a bit morelaid back, a bit more space and a bit
fewer people, I would go to add in.
And it seems like that wouldmaybe be a strain on local

(19:26):
resources as well.
If everyone is trying to go
to this one place in peak season,it might be nice to spread
the wealth a little bit, so to
Yeah, that's definitely true.
it can be hard for local people toafford to stay in places like Sky
because tourist prices have driveneverything up and made it more expensive.
So it can be more considerate sometimesto go somewhere a bit quieter and share
some of that tourist money and not puttoo much strain in the local resources.

(19:47):
Yeah.
That's a great point.
I'll definitely add Aaron tomy next Scotland itinerary.
What are the most
essential experiences you would sayfor someone who's visiting Scotland?
I think it's great to go on a boat tourto try and find Nessie in a lochness.
You can, you can go and see all theplaces that she's been spotted before.
A boat tour in a lock is generally great.
There's one of the best ways to see thescenery, to actually get on a boat trip,

(20:11):
to see the mountains around about you.
Even if it's cold and rainy,it'll still be a great view.
So I think it's definitelysomething that's worth doing.
For people who love, whiskey as well,you can do a whiskey distillery tour.
You can do whiskey tastings,you can, try some of the local
whiskeys, and that's a great wayto experience some local culture.
Just make sure there's always a DDdriver because Scotland's drink,

(20:32):
driving limit is zero, so you can'thave a single drink before you drive.
It's very strict.
One other thing that you cantry and do is a Monroe bagging.
Like I said, you can try and fitin as many, claims of Monroe
Hills as possible during your trip.
You might not be able to get all ofthem 282 mountains and hills to climb,
but you probably won't find a bad one.
There are so many great Monroes to climb.
There'll be all around theisland, so you can take your, pick

(20:53):
whatever one you're closest to.
That sounds fantastic.
I mean, I haven't ever tried to huntfor Nessie who is real and exists.
But I have done a whiskey tasting and awhiskey distillery and I have done some
hiking of the, the different Monroes andI can attest that those were two of my
favorite things that I did in Scotland.
. Well, the whiskey in Scotland is
fantastic, So if you do,if you're into trying
different spirits, definitely makesure that you check out a distillery.

(21:15):
Louise, what are some of your
personal favorite or hidden
gem
things that locals like to do in
Scotland that maybe theaverage tourist wouldn't
know about?
So I love visited inthe little town of Cura.
It's spelled C-U-L-R-O-S-S.
It's one of those Scottishspellings, which is completely
different from where you see it.
It's a, it's an older villagefrom the 16th to 17th century.

(21:37):
It's appeared in quite a lot of TVshows and films, including Outlander.
So some people might recognizeit if they've watched Outlander.
It's beautifully preserved.
There's some really stunning streets, oldcobble stones, and there's a KS palace.
in the center, which is very small.
It's very small rooms, soit's quite cute for a palace.
It's also got a ruined Abby, sothere's lots to do around about there

(21:59):
Oh wow.
And where is
Kuri located?
CDI is in five, sothat's on the East coast.
It's not far from Edinburgh.
You can travel thereby, bus quite easily.
Oh, nice.
So it'd be a
good day trip from Edinburgh for someone
Yeah, definitely.
It would be a great place to, to spendan afternoon and have some, have some
tea and cake and enjoy the local scene.
That sounds fantastic.
Anywhere else?
I really love the City of Dundee anda lot of people wouldn't recommend it

(22:22):
to tourists because it doesn't have asmuch obvious attraction to people, but
it's, it's a really great place to visit.
There's a lot that's happened inthe past 10, 15 years to rejuvenate
this cultural, side of Dundee.
There's the v and a museum alongthe beach front, which is a
stunning architectural building.
It's a fashion museum and we havelots of traveling exhibitions on,
and it's really beautiful to see.

(22:42):
They've rejuvenated the beach frontin Dundee as well, which maybe you
don't wanna go swimming in Dundee.
It's not, gonna be the warmest, but it isa really beautiful place to, to hang out.
There's a ship there as well that youcan explore some of Dundee's, ship past.
It's, I just think it's really overlooked.
There's, it's really affordable.
It's really friendly.
There's great nightlife.
you.
can also climb to Dundee Law, whichis a viewpoint over the city and see

(23:05):
all of it spreaded out before you.
And it is really gorgeous.
And it's, It's very affordable.
It's much cheaper than, thanstaying in Edinburgh, Glasgow.
oh, wow.
And where is that?
How far away from one of the major
so it's on the East coast, so it'sonly a couple of hours from Edinburgh.
You can travel there by busor by train really easily.
There's lots of goodtransport links to Dundee.
Fantastic.
Well, thank you so muchfor those recommendations.
So for someone who's trying

(23:26):
to plan a trip to Scotland,how long should you
plan for?
Like what's your ideal?
Is one week enough, two
weeks, three weeks?
depends on how much you want to see,especially if you travel to some of
the islands or to the highlands, youneed more time to really get around.
Transport takes a bit longer.
if you're traveling to Shetland, youhave to get along very there or fly.
So it's worth going for longer if you'reonly going to Edinburgh or Glasgow.

(23:47):
So you can see a lot on a long weekend.
You can get a real good feelfor the cities, you can see a
lot of the main attractions.
But if you're traveling between places,if you're seeing a fewer cities, if you're
traveling to the countryside, I wouldsay you need at least a week preferably
to just to really see the countryand not feel rushed between places.
Just get to enjoy and exploreand maybe take the less beaten

(24:08):
track and find a few new places.
Okay, great.
So let's say
someone's planning a trip forsomewhere between one to two weeks.
What's your ideal Scotland itineraryfor say a seven to 10 day trip?
I would recommend flying into Edinburgh.
It has the international airport,so it's really easily accessible.
You can see a lot in the, if youstay there for two days, you can
see a lot in the first two days.

(24:28):
You can visit Edinburgh, castlethe dungeons, go down the Royal
Mile and climb Arthur seat.
You can get a real feel for thecity and enjoy some of the cultural
attractions that there are there.
On day three, I would either takethe train or bus to Inverness
these are really frequent,they're not too expensive, and
you can see a lot in Inverness.
You can see Inverness Castle.
You can travel to Clain Battlefield, whichis a really significant battlefield in a

(24:52):
Jack about uprising in the 17th centuryto curtains, which were Neolithic ruins
and Leakey's Bookshop, which is thebiggest secondhand bookshop in Scotland.
And you can see all of that in, in a day.
From there you can travel toLochness on a tour or by driving.
And if you're in the city itself,it's not uncommon to see dolphins

(25:14):
in the river nest, which runsthrough the middle of the city.
So keep an eye out for those.
If the weather's good, yeah,they swim along the, river from
the from the North Sea so they
can see dolphins in there.
it's, it is
That sounds incredible.
I
don't know anywhere that in the worldthat you can see dolphins in a river
in the middle of a
Yeah, . it's absolutely beautiful.
Ever Nest is a gorgeous city and it'sreally quite small, so you can see

(25:34):
a lot of things in nature, which youwouldn't find in a lot of other cities.
The dolphins, for me, is my favorite part.
You can also sometimessee dolphins in Aberdeen,
So next, you should takea visit to the Highlands.
You can either drive or take a tour.
I wouldn't recommendgetting public transport.
It can be very patchy.
It won't go everywhere you want itto go, and it can take a long time.
So definitely drive.
Take a tour.

(25:54):
you
can see Ben Nevis thebiggest mountain in the uk.
You can see some Monroe.
You can go to the townof Aviemore in winter.
You can go skiing.
There's lots of outdoor hikes to do.
It's a really beautifulplace to go, to be in nature.
There's also, adventurePark for kids there.
There's water coasters.
There's Forest Adventures.
It's called Landmark Forest.
It's really popular placeto go with families.

(26:15):
So you can spend a coupledays in the Highlands.
There's so much to see.
You can travel around area moreat different places and really
get a feel for the Highlands.
Are the highlands quite big, or is it
possible to see, like, canyou see all of the Highlands
in two days, or are you just
kind of picking one routeand seeing things along that
The Highlands are really massive.
So it'd be really difficult to seeit all in even a couple of weeks.

(26:36):
You can spend so much time on theHighlands and still find new things.
Part of it is because it's so ruraland so mountainous, so you won't be
able to travel very easily between it.
Two days is enough to get a feelfor the place and see some of
the, some of the best scenes, thebest scenery and the best nature.
But you won't be able to see allthe islands in in a week even
so, You want to try and pick yourfavorite parts of the islands.

(26:59):
You can't really go wrong.
There's not much badto see in the islands.
The scenery everywhere is beautiful,but it is a very big part of Scotland.
It's the majority ofScotland is the islands.
Okay.
Good to know.
And so then where do you go
after the Highlands?
So after the Highlands, youwould want to travel to Aaron.
You can get the ferry from Roston andyou can go and see a lot of the, the
island in two days.

(27:20):
There you can visit BroadCastle, goat Fell mountain peak.
You can go to a distillery thereif you wanna try a whiskey,
the island of Aaron Distillery.
And you can also see the macro mirrorstone circles, which are neolithic
remains, which are really quite stunning.
Stone circles reallywell preserved in Adam.
So you can spend two daysthere and see a lot of Aaron.
Wow.
And can you take the
car that you rented todrive around the Highlands?

(27:40):
Can you take
that on the ferry
to Aaron or are you leavingyour car and walking around?
Aaron?
I mean, how big is
I would recommend taking your carto add 'cause it's quite big.
There are coastal paths that youcould walk around and you can cycle
around, but you can't do it in a day.
It'll take you a long time to, youcould cycle around it in a day, but
you couldn't walk around in a day.
So I would recommend taking the car.
you can take cars in the ferry as longas your rental contract allows that.

(28:00):
And there are car ferries.
So if possible I would take, takethe car To make it easier to get
around and see all the sites.
Okay, wonderful.
and then you spend a few days in Aaron,
and where do you go next?
finish off your trip,I would go to Glasgow.
And I'm not saying that'cause I am Glaswegian.
It is a great place to be.
It's a good cultural center.
It's very different from Edinburgh.
It's not just this, anothercity which is quite similar.
It's got a lot of, modern culture.

(28:23):
It's got a lot going on.
It's much bigger than Edinburgh.
It's twice the size of Edinburgh.
You can go and see them.
Some of the oldest parts of Glasgow,Glasgow Cathedral, Glasgow, and Acropolis,
which is the cemetery overlookingthe cathedral on top of a hill.
It's really stunning.
It's got great views.
It's really historical.
From there you could see the bar'smarket, which is a large flea
market, which has got everythingyou could possibly want to find.

(28:45):
There's, so much going on there.
You can find suites, you can find, oldvideo tapes, you can find, handmade
crafts, art, clothes, everything.
It's just great to spend, sometime in there and find some like
hidden treasures and little gems.
You could also travel to theWest End with one of your days.
And see some of theattractions around there.
You've got Calvin Grove Art GalleryMuseum, which has got a lot of artwork.

(29:07):
It's got a lot of zoologicalexhibitions, and it's in a really
beautiful building as well.
It's, it's a great place to evenjust to go and see and sit inside.
We have, organ performances everyday and those are, those are beautiful
just to sit and listen to those.
From there you can also see theUniversity of Glasgow, which is
this gorgeous campus building.
People compare it to Hogwarts quite a lot.
They think it's really, really grand.

(29:28):
It's got clusters and it's, Iwent there and it's a really
beautiful place to study.
It's, just got great viewsover the West End as well.
You can see more of the west end,including the botanic gardens.
They have glass houses in them, whichare filled of statues and exotic plants.
They're great.
If it's cold, you wannago and get warm somewhere.
You can go to the botanicgardens and heat up.

(29:48):
And if it's on a side, you can sitoutside and have a picnic or, just relax.
In summer, they have performances of,Shakespeare, they have outdoor cinema.
They have lots going on in the West end.
So I would spend one of yourdays in the West end and get to
explore some of that as well.
So
Glasgow seems like quite a lively city.
It seems like there's so much to
Yeah, there, there's alot to do in Glasgow.
There's lots of arts.

(30:09):
There are so many museums, modernart centers, there's lots of music
venues as well, Glasgow's knownfor its music heritage, so there
are some great places to see gigs.
The Barons are really famous forbeing a great venue for artists.
King Tots is a really small one, which hashad a lot of huge names come through it.
Oasis were signed there, so it's areally really small venue, but some

(30:30):
really big artists have played there.
So it's good to see somebodybefore they make it big.
If, if you go to King to, they've got agreat, they've got a good record on that.
that's incredible.
Would, and maybe this is justme as an American not knowing
much about Scotland, but
would you say that Edinburgh retainsmore, of The kind of traditional
old timey Scottish heritage,where as Glasgow is maybe a bit

(30:52):
more modern and almost futuristic,or is that completely wrong to say?
I would think that's, that's true.
Glasgow's got a lot more,
Modern art places.
It's got a lot more, modern changes.
The city's end itself is a lotmore modern than Edinburgh's one.
Edinburgh is
much older.
Glasgow has some reallyhistoric buildings, but they
are more in the East end.
They're a bit out of the city.
The cathedral is, is really, really old.

(31:13):
But it's, it's very vibrant.
There's a lot going on.
There's a lot of new culture.
Edinburgh has too, but thearchitecture is a lot older and a
lot of the traditions a lot older.
They have some really historic things likethe Edinburg tattoo, and the one gun they
have these, these traditions and Glasgowhas a lot more new things going on.
It's quite exciting time to be in Glasgow.
Can you real quickly
clarify what the Annenburg tattoois for people who might not know?

(31:36):
The Edinburgh is, a festival in August,it's held at Edinburgh Castle and it
is Pipers and it's a big band thereand it's a great place to go and to
celebrate, traditional Scottish culture.
and that's where you could see traditionalthings like bagpipes and the drums and
maybe kilts and dances and that kind
yeah, yeah, exactly.
Lots of, bagpipes.
And they play them really well.

(31:57):
It's really popular traction.
The tickets sell it really fast, soyou want to make sure if you want to
go the tattoo to book far in advance.
fantastic.
So that rounds out our itinerary for aperfect seven to 10 day trip in Scotland.
And now for those of us who mightnow be planning our accommodation,
now that we're all going Scotlandtogether, So where would be the best
place to stay while you're in Scotland?

(32:19):
If maybe you wanna base yourselfout of one city and do a
few day trips, what are the majorareas where you'll be able to find
accommodation?
I would say Glasgow is agreat place to base yourself.
There's lots of transport links.
There are two major trainstations in Glasgow.
There's Glasgow Central, which,connects with the south and there's
Glasgow Queen Street, which connectsto the east and to the north.
There are lots of buses as well.
There's a bus terminus.
You can travel around quite easily fromGlasgow and there's lots of places to stay

(32:41):
there, you can see in the city center.
And be really close to these twotrain stations and be in the heart
of Glasgow and be around a lot ofculture, a lot of things to do, a
lot of shopping streets as well.
And good night life.
So that's a great place to see ifyou want to see some of Glasgow
and see some of Scotland as well.
and you wrote an article aboutthe best places in Glasgow to
stay, right?
Kind of breaking down the differentareas and different hotels that

(33:03):
are your personal favorite picks.
Yeah, I did.
Some of my favorite places to stayin Glasgow are in the city center.
There's a really iconic hotel atGlasgow Central Station, called
Vocal Grand Central, which isactually built into the train station.
It's a really historic building.
There's had a lot of major guestsover the years at JFK visited.
An so just brings, so it'sgot very good heritage there.

(33:25):
And you can stay in the West End as well.
And there are some reallybeautiful places to stay in the
West End, which are, very grand andnot too, not too expensive as well.
Amazing.
So yeah, anyone
looking to find a good place inGlasgow, make sure to check out
Louise's article on traveling.com.
Now outside of Glasgow,
any other
cities that you'd recommend
Edinburgh is also anothergreat place to base yourself
because of the transport links.

(33:46):
You can obviously spend a lot oftime in Edinburgh just itself, but
then you can take day trips as well.
You can go to Sterling or FK or Dundee.
It's really great place to totravel around there And there are
some great areas to see as well.
You can stay in the, theold town or the new town.
Both are very essential.
Both have a lot of historyand a lot to things to do.
You could stay in theScotsman Hotel in Edinburgh.

(34:06):
It's right in the heart of Edinburgh.
It's right next to Waverly train station,the main train station in Edinburgh.
It's a former newspaper building,so it's, it's very grand.
It's from the early 20thcentury, 1905, I think.
And it's a really beautiful place to stay.
Amazing.
And then what if someone
wants to visit the Highlands and kind
of base themselves outta the Highlands?
I know you talked about Invernessbeing a good starting point there.

(34:27):
Yeah, Inverness is a great place to start.
There's a lot of tours that start fromInverness, so if you're already there, it,
it's really easy to connect the tours tothe Highlands or you can drive from there.
You can get the train fromEdinburgh, Glasgow to Inverness
itself and then travel onwards.
You can travel onwards to getthe ferry up to the Shetlands.
The Kingsville Hotel inInverness is really beautiful.
I stayed there before and itwas, it was absolutely gorgeous.

(34:48):
They've got a spa, they've got apool and they've got little cottages
out the back, which is where westayed and it was, felt very fancy.
It was snowing when we werethere, so it was very picturesque.
Oh,
Yeah, it was gorgeous.
So I would really recommend that one.
And in terms of these hotels,I guess that brings us to our
next point, which is budget.
I mean, what should you expectto spend on accommodation
in Scotland?
Does it vary by city?

(35:09):
And what are some of the other things
that you should expect to budgetfor while you're visiting?
Yeah, it, it does varyby city quite a lot.
Especially the time of year ifyou're staying in Edinburgh in
August, it's extremely expensive.
So it depends on whereyou're traveling to.
You can get good deals if you bookfar in advance or if you, try
to find places that are a littlebit out of the city center.
And Vanessa's much moreaffordable than Edinburgh.

(35:30):
Glasgow is the same.
But it depends on major events.
If there's a lot going on, culturallyin Glasgow, if there are major events
on at the, the Hydro Stadium, forexample, which hosts, concerts
and shows, then prices will risebecause more people will be staying.
But you can get good deals on hotelsas long as you plan in advance and
preferably avoid August unless youare going for the fringe, in which

(35:51):
case that's the only time it's on.
You have to be there.
Then other ways you can savemoney is to get a reel card
for the trains When you travel.
You can get a 16 to 25 reel cardif you're between those ages or if
you're 26 to 30, you can get one.
You can get a senior reel card ifyou're over 60 or a two together reel
card, which is people for any age.
You just have to travel with two peopleat all times and all of those will

(36:13):
give you a third off of your train fareas long as you buy the ticket, which
is 35 pounds for each one of them.
They're really good value for moneyif you're traveling a few times.
They last over the course of a year,so I. If you have a few long distance
trains, you can see you can makeyour money back through doing that.
I would recommend looking into real card.
If you're traveling a lot by train.
Buses are actually cheaper as well,if you don't mind that they'll take

(36:34):
a bit longer you can get buses.
There's Flex Plus, whichis very affordable, which
travels quite frequently.
Those will take a little bitlonger than the trains, but they
might go more places as well.
So there are some ups and downs to that.
There are also for trains thatare off peak and on peak fares,
and they're very different.
So if you travel in the mornings whenit's really busy or just after work, 5:00
PM to 7:00 PM it'll be more expensive.

(36:56):
So if you can, I would, I wouldavoid traveling those hours.
It'll be much more affordable.
And a good way that I find to savemoney if I want to, have something
to eat when I'm out, is to geta meal deal from a supermarket.
You can get them in most supermarketsand it's usually a sign major or wrap
a drink and a snack, and it's a bundlethat you get and it's very affordable
and most places will offer those.

(37:16):
And those are a good way to have likea good lunch on the go or breakfast,
and they're much more affordablethan, buying them all separately.
So I would recommend looking intothose if you're out and about.
That's great.
I mean, as a whole, would you
say that Scotland is
an affordable place to travel ormore on the expensive side, or
does it really just dependwhat activities you're doing?
Scotland can be more expensive,than other places in Europe.

(37:38):
Particularly, accommodationcan be quite expensive.
Food shouldn't be too bad.
If you pick, some cheaper restaurants,they can still be really good
restaurants, but you can find moreplaces which are more informal
and they'll be more affordable.
But it can be more expensive.
So that's why I do recommend bookinginto Van, looking for best deals
and maybe planning a bit more sothat you don't are, you aren't left
with, expensive hotels Last minute.

(38:00):
Well, that leads us right intoour next question, which is what
is the best time of year to visitScotland if people are looking to
book in advance so thatthey can get the best deals?
What season should you plan for?
My personal favorite timeto visit is in the spring.
It can be cold, it can be rainy,but the days are really long.
You can get.
16 hour days, with the sun.
So that makes a bigdifference to your travel.

(38:22):
You'll see a lot more, you'llbe able to do a lot more, and
it is more affordable as well.
It's easier to find accommodation.
Attractions have opened up their summerhours so you don't miss out on seeing
things because they're closed too early.
The weather can be unpredictable, butit can be unpredictable year round.
So that's not reason not to planto go in summer, you can never
guarantee you're not gonna get rain.
So I would, I would say spring,

(38:43):
if you're going to theFringe, it has to be August.
Otherwise I would go in spring.
That's the, that's the best time of year.
Well, that sounds lovely.
I mean, the longer days, the fewercrowds, it seems like spring is
a really wonderful time to plana visit, so when you plan your
trip, do you need a rental car?
If you're staying in the cities or justtraveling between cities, I would say no.
Because you don't need it.
There's very good public transportand it can be very difficult to

(39:04):
find parking quite expensive.
There isn't a lot available.
It usually isn't worth your while.
If you're only in Edinburgh,you're only in Glasgow or you're
only going between the two.
If you're going elsewhere, then Iwould say, yes, you should get a car.
It can be difficult to find publictransport between rural areas.
Just be aware that when you'retraveling, the roads are often
narrower than you might be used to.
And darker as well.

(39:24):
We don't have as many streetlights, so it can be a bit tricky.
Just make sure you're comfortabledriving and you know where you're going.
And also we will often havemanual cars, not automatic.
It's quite uncommon to havean automatic rental car.
And
Scotland drives on theleft side of the road.
It does.
Yeah.
Left hand side of the roads.
Just make sure that you knowwhich way you're going and you're
comfortable driving with that,with all of those things in mind.

(39:46):
But it is a good place way tosee a lot of the country that you
might not be able to see otherwise.
Perfect.
Okay.
So rental car, no need in cities, but
definitely helpful for exploringmore of the countryside.
How is safety in Scotland?
Is it a safe place to travel
Scotland is generally asafe place to travel to.
I would just take normal precautionswhen you're going places.
The cities are generally safe.

(40:06):
Just make sure you know where you are.
You have a charged phone and you'renot wandering around in dark places.
But I would say that in anywhere,one issue we don't tend to have
is pickpocketing is uncommon.
It's possible in tourist areas,but it's not something that,
that happens very frequently.
There has been a bit of a trendof scammers in some city centers,
especially Edinburgh, who will attemptto get people to take bracelets or

(40:29):
books and then charge money from them.
So I would avoid anyone who'strying to give you something on
the street that you don't want, andespecially if they're quite insistent
on it, that tends to be a scam.
But generally it's quite safe.
There's not many p boxers orgeneral crime in the size.
One thing to be aware of is that pepperspray is illegal in Scotland completely.
It's quite a serious offense.

(40:50):
So if you're used to carrying pepperspray, you can't have it in Scotland.
You can't buy it here.
It's not possible.
Wow, that's a very goodpoint that you made.
I think a lot of people
wouldn't know that, that it's illegal.
What about traveling in the countryside?
I
mean, we've talked about safety in cities.
Is there
anything to be awareof in the countryside?
Any dangerous animals ifyou're hiking or camping?
So there are very few dangerous animalsin Scotland, which is, which is lucky.

(41:10):
There's like one breed ofsnake, which is quite rare.
Ticks can be more of an issue if you
get infections or anything through that.
But generally it's pretty safe.
Just make sure you give cows deerwell bore or distance, especially if
it's maintenance season, just becauseit can make them a bit tense, but
you, otherwise you're pretty safe.
If you are camping, I would highlyrecommend bringing bugs spray for midges.

(41:31):
These are flying insects, whichare quite common in summer,
especially around swamps.
They're not dangerously bite andthey're very painful and you want
to avoid that if at all possible.
Well thank you so much for thosetips for first time visitors.
I wanna talk next about someScottish culture and etiquette.
So what are some etiquette tips that you
would say Americans or other peoplevisiting Scotland might not know about?

(41:53):
So one thing I think there'ssome confusion about, or people
aren't really aware of is thetipping cultures in Scotland.
It can be quite different from whatpeople are used to if they're, if they're
American or for other parts of the world,as common to give tips at restaurants.
But we don't give as muchas you would typically do.
In America.
It's common to give tips of aroundfive to 10% for good service.
That's considered polite, that'snot considered rude at all.

(42:14):
Some people would also tip taxi driversor hairdressers or nail artists,
but only a few pounds, just maybe toround up to the nearest 10 pounds.
Not typically many more than that.
It's, it's not impolite toonly give a couple of pounds.
We don't typically tipbaristas or bartenders.
Sometimes there's a screen for tippingbartenders or baristas, which you

(42:34):
can do, but it's not rude to not tip.
It's not really a culturalthing to that we do here.
So it's slightly different in thatregard, but it is common to tip
at restaurants for good service.
The service is also a bit differentthan you might be used to.
It's slower you're notattended to as often.
It's considered sort of rude ifsomebody intrudes on you too much.
If you're encouraged toeat faster or drink faster.

(42:56):
And with that You won't get your billautomatically at the end of the meal.
You have to ask for it fromyour waiter just so you don't
feel rushed out of, of eating.
So that's a difference thatyou might notice is in terms
of service and restaurants.
One thing which can cause offense inScotland is if people are a little bit
rude about traditional Scottish foods, itdoesn't often look the most appetizing.
It can be a bit differentfrom what people are used to.

(43:17):
Things like haggis andneeps, which are turnips.
They don't look very appetizing,but they are traditional food
and people eat them regularly.
They're actually very tasty.
We have lots of traditional foodlike haggis, which is, it's sheep's
innards in a sheep's stomach,which can sound really unappealing.
It's not something you traditionallyeat in other parts of the world,

(43:38):
but it is a cultural dish here.
It's very popular, it's very tasty.
There's a vegetarian versionif you don't want to eat sheep.
And it, it is really good.
And one thing that does cause offenseis when people express disgust or are
a bit rude about some traditional foodsbecause they're unfamiliar to them.
So it is more polite to, begracious about the food sometimes

(44:00):
and not, make jokes about it.
Yeah, that's a very good point.
I mean, I have tried haggis.
I think it's great.
But I think just in general, it's,that's such a good point to not
be rude about traditional foods.
I mean, like, yes, sheep's innardsmight not sound like something you
would eat all the time, but that is avery common thing to eat in Scotland
and it's delicious and you should bevery open-minded about cultural dishes.

(44:22):
I think that this is a great time tokind of plug your article that you wrote
on Travel Ming about tourist faux paws.
So mistakes that touristsoften make in Scotland.
I mean, I read through this, it's afantastic article, and as I was reading
I realized that your number one thing,your number one tourist faux paw was
a mistake that I made at the beginningof this podcast, which is claiming

(44:43):
Scottish heritage, or I mean, notclaiming heritage where it doesn't
exist, but talking about, you know, theclan that you're from and, and talking
about maybe the kilts that you have.
Whereas a lot of times, I mean, you writethat maybe the average Scottish person
doesn't kind of feel that
same connection to Highland culture.
That a lot
of, Scottish descendants maybe in like

(45:04):
America or other countries aroundthe world might, might try to feel.
I think the Scott are very welcoming.
People who want to explore their familytree and their ancestry, and chase back.
People that have come from Scotland.
But it is right that we don'thave a strong clan culture.
The clan system has been gone fora long time and many Scots were
never part of the clan culture.
That was never the majority of ScotlandSo it can be a bit, of a, if you

(45:29):
come to Scotland and say that you'reScottish because you were part of
a clan, when many Scots these daysare, have never been part of a clan
and we have no real connection to it.
That being said, trace and yourfamily tree is very popular here.
People really enjoy to look backto their history and we welcome
visitors to do so as well.
We just don't like people to saythey're more Scottish than we are
because they were part of a clan.
I was never my family was neverpart of a clan, so I can't be

(45:52):
Scottish under that metric.
But, we do appreciate that peoplewant to connect with their history.
It is a great history to connectwith, as long as you don't, go
a little bit overboard with it.
That is a fantastic point and I thinkone that we would all do well to keep in
mind.
So now let's talk alittle bit about different
festivals and culturalcustoms in Scotland.

(46:13):
So we've talked a lot aboutthe French festival and it's
time to finally dive into it.
What is the Edinburg of Fringe
So the Edinburgh Fringe Festivalis the biggest performance
art festival in the world.
It runs for the entiremonth of August, Edinburgh.
It is over hundreds of venues.
There are thousands of performers.
It is
a huge event.
It takes over the entire site.
There's comedians, There's dancers,there's spoken word performances.

(46:35):
There's all sorts of events thatgo on, and you can see them all.
And the program that comes outwith Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in
June, which showcases everything youcan see There are paid for events.
There are free events.
You can really find lotsof things on the day.
Not everything sells out.
It is really worthwhile visitingas long as you're okay with the

(46:57):
number of crowds that are going tobe 'cause it is very, very popular.
So I went to the Edinburg Fringe Festivalin 2018 on a weekend trip, and I was a
silly 18-year-old at the time and didnot plan any part of my schedule out.
I just kind of showed up and thenfound, oh, this is a extremely huge
event that is, sells outquite, quite a lot in advance.

(47:17):
So how would you goabout planning the best
Edinburg Fringe festival trip?
Like how many months inadvance should you start
looking for tickets to differentshows or accommodation or stuff like
I would look for accommodation as early
as possible, even from the year before,because prices will climb and climb.
They will sell out.
It's not uncommon for students tovent out their spare room for the
fringe to make some extra money,and it, it can be very expensive.

(47:40):
So our accommodation, as soon as possible,as soon as you know you're gonna go,
the Fringe Festival itself, the programis put out in batches from, March.
Once a month, more batches ofshows will come out until the
final program is published in June.
So a lot of the shows willalready be announced by June.
If it's a big name, big Performance,a really famous comedian,

(48:02):
they will sell out very fast.
If it was the really famousScottish comedian, Kevin Bridges,
that would sell out within a day,if not less, a couple of hours.
So if you want to see somebody big, makesure you get tickets as soon as possible.
Otherwise, you can see things on the day.
you.
can, You can go off your programand see what's closest to you.
You can get the Fringe app, which tellsyou what's nearby and what's got, still

(48:24):
got what's still got tickets, so you canplan things on the day, you can explore
a bit, you can see different things.
It's quite a good ideato see some free shows.
They can be great andthey can be terrible.
It's a real mixed bag.
There are so many shows that go onthat you never really know, but a
free show's a great way to do it.
You should bring some cash in caseyou do enjoy the performer, because
that's the only way they makemoney is through tips at the end.

(48:45):
But it's not, you don't have to pay yet.
A lot of people will spend thousandsof pounds performing at the fringe.
They don't make any money from itbecause of the cost of accommodation
and renting the venue and allthe costs that go along with it.
It is a way to launch your comedy career.
So people will invest in itand spend a lot of money.
And if it's a free show,they get no return on it.
You don't have to, you'd haveto pay if it's not a good show.

(49:07):
I went to one that I didn'tpay for because the comedian
threw water over my head.
So I, I didn't enjoy thatand I didn't, I didn't tip.
But if they are good, it's goodidea to bring some cash to give
them, because that's the only waythey have any money over the month.
Wow.
And so do you need to buy a pass
to get into the Fringe Festival or is
it because it's in so many differentvenues around the city of Edinburgh

(49:28):
itself, you only buy tickets for thespecific venues and shows that you wanna
Yeah, you only buy tickets for the venues.
It is held across the entire city.
It's in so many venues.
It's in the university,it's in grand big, halls.
It's in tiny little basements.
I, I saw one underneath the pub ones,which was so crammed and so warm in it.
So you buy tickets for theshows themselves and you

(49:50):
can buy them on the app.
You can buy them online or on the door,or if it's a free show, you just turn
up and see if there's any space leftand try and get that a little bit early
so you can get a seat at the back whereyou won't get water thrown on you.
But you can see thingsthroughout the day.
The, the events last, they startin the morning and they can run
until two or three at night.
So there's always something on, for thecourse of August is a huge, huge thing.

(50:10):
There are also a few other festivalsat the same time, which coincide with
the Fringe, which make it even better.
You can see the filmfestival at the same time.
There's the Edinburgh Book Festival, whichruns for two weeks in August, and there is
the tattoo as well, which is on in August.
Wow.
So it does seem like
August is an incredible time to be inEdinburgh, but like you said, it's the

(50:31):
most crowded, it's the most expensive anddefinitely needs to be planned in advance.
Yeah, it can become really expensiveand you can just not find accommodation
if you leave at last minute.
So I would definitely planit in advance, but it is, an
incredible time to be in Edinburgh.
Wow.
Any
other festivals that you'd recommend?
Besides the Edinburgh French
So a really unique and overlookedfestival is uphill in Shetland, which

(50:51):
is, held in January, and it is a Vikingfestival that they hold each year.
It is, they dress as Vikings andthey walk through the streets
with a fire procession, and theylight fire to a Viking ship,
and then they have a huge party.
So it is a, it is a really big festival.
It's, it's really striking, with allthe fire everywhere, the bonfires,

(51:12):
and they do performances as well.
So that's something that's really.
Beautiful to see.
that's incredible.
I mean, so January, is it quite
It is freezing in January.
Shetland is very far north, so youhave to wrap up warm, you have to make
sure you bring your hots, scarf, glassgloves, your thick jacket, everything.
it is very cold but atleast the fire warms you up.
Now that we've talked about themajor festivals in Scotland,

(51:34):
what about any kinds of
holidays or different cultural days
throughout the year thatsomeone visiting might
want to take advantage of?
So one of the, one of the mostimportant holidays in Scotland is
Hoy, which is New Year's Eve, butit is very, traditional to Scotland.
It was traditionally the major holiday.
We didn't celebrateChristmas until the fifties.
So Hoy is a huge deal in Scotland.

(51:56):
We have Pacific traditions that we have.
It's very common to eat steakpie on the 1st of January.
As a way to recover from the night before.
We actually have two full daysoff after hog money, whereas is in
England, only have one because it'ssuch a big holiday in Scotland.
We have two bank holidays.
We sing all, which is verycommon around the world.
But it was written by ournational poet, Robbie Burns.

(52:17):
So we danced to that and we, we sing all.
also a tradition called firstfooting, where the first person who
crosses your door after the midnightbells should be tall, dark, and
handsome, and bring coal, and that'llbring you luck through the ear.
And, we we try to make surethe first person is always
tall, dark, and harm them.
We also have a holiday in November,bonfire Night, or a Guy Fox Night.

(52:40):
It's the 5th of November.
It's commemorate the foiling of theGun Power Plot by Guy Fox, against
the, the Houses of Parliament inLondon, back in the 17th century.
And it's a, it's quite a fun night.
People set off fireworks.
There's bonfires.
Lots of kids will run around,with sparklers and we'll have
little fireworks that get set off.
You might see some caricatures whichget burned, or there's bonfires and

(53:04):
kids running around the sparklers,setting off little fireworks.
We have, a big fireworks, event ratherthan people individually setting off
their fireworks for safety reasons.
And because the law has changed slightly,but you can go and see some fireworks
shows, which are really good fun.
every year on the 5th of November,we also have, burn suppers in
January on the 25th of January.
This is to commemorate Rabbi Burns, whowrote Odd Zion and lots of other poetry.

(53:27):
He's Scotland's national poet, andit's traditional that people will eat
haggis because Rabbi Burns wrote apoem about haggis called O to Haggis.
And you recite Rabbi Burns poetry.
People will, somebodywill address the haggis.
And quite often there's a Kaleydance afterwards, which like I
say, is a traditional Scottishdance with, Highland, music.

(53:48):
People will dress sometimes inkts and there'll be bagpipes.
And it's, a way to kind of markScottish culture and Burns night.
Wow.
Okay, so New Year's Eve.
Bonfire night on the 5th of Novemberand the burn supper on the 25th
of January.
Now, if you're looking tocelebrate some of these
holidays, do you need to knowsomeone Scottish and be invited
to their family party, or is there

(54:09):
places that you can go in the city centersto kind of celebrate these holidays?
night.
We'll have a lot of organized eventsrun by some city councils and some other
towns, so you can see where those are inadvance and you can go and gather in like
fields or in parks where those fireworksare getting set off to enjoy them.
Burn stoppers can beheld in people's homes.
It's common for people to have peopleover as guests, or there are more

(54:30):
formal events for burn stoppers.
Some are like Sloan's Pub in Glasgow.
They have a Kaley every Friday andthey'll have a burn stopper and
they'll have a Kaley dance afterwards.
So you can see where some of these eventsare taking place and go and have a supper
and then go for the dance afterwards.
And it's, it is really good fun.
Oh, that sounds fantastic.
Okay, well the final section
before we wrap up.
Any tips that you have for

(54:50):
visitors or any kind of commonmistakes that you notice tourists
make when they visit Scotland?
So I've I've seen sometimes peoplewill, worry too much about the weather.
Obviously people are told thatScotland is very rainy and it can
be very cold, and that's true.
I. But it isn't rainingcold all year round.
You can get some nice weather in thesummer, and I have heard of people who
buy hats and gloves to come and visitin June, in July, which they don't need.

(55:14):
It's not cold enough.
Need hats and gloves.
You'll just end up takingthem off and being too warm.
So make sure you pay attention to whatthe weather forecast is going to be.
You might need, so tan lotion and shorts,you might need hat and gloves, but
it's not the same weather year round.
So don't worry too muchabout bringing your.
Big, hiking boots in July.
I mean, you might not need them.
Another common concern I've seen peoplehave is to do with the difference between

(55:37):
Scottish and English pounds and whetheryou need to convert Scottish pounds.
They are the same thing.
They are the same currency.
They're just printedfrom different places.
So, Scottish pound notes are printedin Scotland by the Royal Bank of
Scotland, so they look different.
There's different pictures on them'but they're the same currency.
So you can use English bank notes inScotland and you should be able to
use Scottish bank notes in England.

(55:57):
They're not always accepted.
Sometimes you'll have shopkeepers whodon't like them cause they're not used
to them, but they are the same money.
So you don't need to convert them.
You don't need to change 'embefore you go to England.
They should work the same way everywhere.
That's so interesting.
Do you know
why the look different or theBank notes look different even
though they're the same currency?
have different national banks.
There's the Bank of Englandand Royal Bank of Scotland.

(56:19):
We have banks traditionally from beforethe country's united, so they have always
remained separate, but they make the sameco and it's just more of an artistic thing
to have bank notes, which have Scottishpeople on them, Scottish historical
figures and legends, and landscapes.
It's just more of an artisticthing than it is a co thing.
So they're nice to look at, butthey don't make any difference
in terms of what the money is.

(56:40):
Okay, great.
Well, that kind of brings
us to the end of our episode,but to conclude, Louise,
in a few sentences, why should
someone plan a
trip to go visit Scotland?
I.
There's so much to offer.
Visitors to Scotland.
There's a thriving culturalscene, particularly in
Edinburgh and D and Glasgow.
There's so much going on.
There's unparalleled nature.

(57:01):
The highlands are absolutely stunning.
So are the islands.
There are areas of theborders which are beautiful.
If you're an outdoorsy person,you won't want out things to do.
You'll find lots to explore.
And overall, it's areally friendly country.
People love having visitors.
They talk to people in the street.
It's very welcoming.
So tourists will enjoy being partof this culture when they visit.
That's incredible.
I mean, I love visiting Scotland.

(57:22):
It is one of my favoritecountries to go back to.
And I hope that with youradvice, I'll plan a trip soon.
I mean, this was incredible advice.
So thank you so much for, forlending your local expertise to
us and, and giving us your time.
Thank you for having me.
Be lovely.
Yeah.
And for anyone who's anyone out therelistening who is inspired to plan a
trip to Scotland now, definitely checkout Louise's articles on Travel Leming.

(57:43):
She has tons of articles about whereto stay in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Best day trips from Edinburgh,the best like road tripping
itinerary around Scotland.
So those are some reallywonderful articles, written by
our local Scotland expert, Louise.
If you are planning a largertrip around the United Kingdom or
Ireland, definitely check out someof our other podcast episodes.

(58:04):
We interviewed Abigail, one of our writersabout road tripping around Ireland,
and so that's a podcast that we have.
We also interviewed our localLondon expert, Brooke, about the
best ways to plan a trip to London.
So if you are looking to extend yourtrip around Scotland and venture off
into Ireland or England, definitelycheck those podcast episodes.
Well, Louise, thank you againso much for joining us today.

(58:27):
That's all.
For now, I am your host, Laura McFarland.
We will see you next time onthe Travel Living Podcast.