Quick Details
Private Tour
(up to 5 people)
£ 400
Enjoy a private tour in Glasgow
Scotland’s capital is not its largest or most influential city. This is not unusual in itself, but unlike many nations, this is not by design. Glasgow was simply better at selling itself at times when it counted most. As Scotland’s second ecclesiastical centre under Catholicism, Glasgow survived the Reformation to re-establish itself as a global leader of commerce.
Like any other city, it takes time for it to get under your skin. It’s a real citydweller’s city. To be sure, it has wonderful wide-open spaces, but it doesn’t have the instant wow! factor of Edinburgh. Glasgow creeps up on you until you form a love affair that will last forever.
Tour itinerary:
- Scotland’s most complete cathedral
- The Merchant city
- World-famous necropolis
- Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s city
- Award-winning Riverside Museum
- Kelvingrove
What is included:
- Eight-hour tour (start at 9 h)
- Pick-up (Edinburgh/Glasgow Airport)
- Drop-off (Edinburgh/Glasgow Airport)
- Comfortable car
- Private guide
This tour is the perfect introduction to the city. It can set you up for a longer stay, can be undertaken on a day trip out of Edinburgh, or on the way to or from Glasgow Airport. The tour can be undertaken with chauffeur or on foot and utilising Glasgow’s Underground System (small, but perfectly formed).
For tours ending after 18 h, we add a one-off evening supplement of £50.
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Glasgow Cathedral is a breathtaking testament to the mediaeval stonemasons’ craft, and the building, in its present form, has an 800-year history as a place of worship. It is without parallel in Scotland. Provand’s Lordship, also within the Cathedral Precinct, provides a wonderful glimpse into the lifestyle of the period. Hugely evocative, the wonderful Gothic majesty of the necropolis tells of a Victorian fascination with wealth and immortality. On clear days, the view of the Clyde Valley are wonderful. When it’s overcast, the immediacy of the memorials transports you into a hundred different stories.
How Glasgow came to assert itself, finally, as the second city of the Empire makes for wonderful street theatre, and the story is picked out in stone in the confident buildings of the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century, which we discover on foot around the City’s old Saltmarket and mercantile centre. Heart-wrenchingly, Glasgow suffered a terrible loss very recently in a second major fire to take place at Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s beautiful School of Art. Whether this treasure can ever be revived, only time will tell, but in the meantime, there is still much of this master craftsman’s work to see in the Scotland Street School.
There are such wonderful museums in Glasgow, we are truly spoiled for choice, but your guide can help you make the most of your time and recommend a wealth of exhibits across the city at the Riverside Museum, Kelvingrove, the Hunterian, Glasgow’s Science Centre and many more.
With plenty of other activities, from bungee jumping to biscuit factories, Glasgow is a perfect day out.