GBT Guide: Five Fun Things to Do in Glasgow in a Morning or Afternoon

Take a 3 Hour Guided Bike Tour of Glasgow

We have to admit that we are slightly biased, but taking a guided bike tour of Glasgow is easily the best way to see what the city, the west-end and bits in between have to offer in a morning or afternoon. What we recommend is using the bike tour around the city to work out where in Glasgow you would like to spend some more of your holiday time.

Visit Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

A visit to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, one of Glasgow’s most iconic landmarks, is a must. This stunning museum, located in the West End, offers a diverse collection of art and artifacts, including works by Salvador Dalí, Vincent Van Gogh, and celebrated Scottish artists. The museum’s 22 galleries are packed with everything from ancient Egyptian relics to a Spitfire plane. If you can, aim to be there for 1pm, when the original 1901 pipe organ is played.

The building itself is an architectural marvel, featuring a grand Baroque design. After exploring the museum, take a leisurely stroll through the surrounding Kelvingrove Park. With its lush greenery, picturesque pathways, and tranquil river views, it’s the perfect place to relax and enjoy the outdoors.

Explore the Glasgow Botanic Gardens

Another West End gem, the Glasgow Botanic Gardens, offers a peaceful escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. The gardens are home to a vast array of plant species from around the world, housed in beautiful glasshouses. The highlight is the Kibble Palace, a magnificent Victorian glasshouse that features a collection of tropical plants, tree ferns, and statues.
Take your time wandering through the gardens, soaking up the serene atmosphere. The Botanic Gardens are an ideal spot for nature lovers and photography enthusiasts alike, providing countless opportunities for capturing the beauty of nature.

Stroll along Buchanan Street

For a taste of Glasgow’s vibrant city life, head to Buchanan Street, the heart of the city’s shopping district. Known as Glasgow’s “Style Mile,” Buchanan Street is lined with an array of high-end shops, designer boutiques, and popular high street stores. But even if shopping isn’t on your agenda, the lively atmosphere makes it a fun place to explore.
Street performers often entertain the crowds, adding to the bustling vibe. You’ll also find numerous cafes and restaurants where you can take a break, enjoy a coffee, and watch the world go by. Buchanan Street’s blend of modernity and tradition encapsulates Glasgow’s dynamic character.

Discover the Riverside Museum

Dive into Glasgow’s rich transport history at the Riverside Museum, an award-winning museum situated on the banks of the River Clyde. The museum’s striking design, created by renowned architect Zaha Hadid, is just the beginning of what’s inside. The museum houses an extensive collection of vintage cars, trams, bicycles, and even a recreated historic street scene.
The Riverside Museum is highly interactive and family-friendly, offering a hands-on experience that’s both educational and entertaining. Don’t miss the Tall Ship Glenlee moored outside, which you can also explore as part of your visit.

Conclusion

Glasgow is a city that seamlessly blends history, culture, and modern charm. Whether you’re exploring its world-class museums, strolling through lush gardens, or simply enjoying a coffee in a cozy cafe, there’s always something fun to do. These five activities provide a perfect snapshot of what makes Glasgow such a captivating destination. So, the next time you have a morning or afternoon free, get in touch with us for some first hand advice on the best things to do in Glasgow and perhaps check out our 5 star rated tours

GBT Guide: Reflections on the Glasgow UCI world cycling championships

 World Class Cycling in Glasgow

The UCI world cycling championships were hosted by Glasgow between the 3rd of August and 13^th of August (2023) and it was really great to see so many elite cyclists and cycling fans around the city. There was definitely an added buzz in the city and more people were out on their bikes than usual. Some of those bikes looked like they’d spent a few years in the loft, but let’s hope the bikes don’t go back to the attic.

Not only were all the competitions exciting, but it was very impressive seeing the cyclists out training, quite often on the same cycle routes as we were guiding our guests, on their bike tour of Glasgow. It doesn’t need mentioning, but it’s fair to say that these elite cyclists were travelling a few km/h quicker than our bike tours were going. We would say that the enjoyment would have been similar though and would encourage everyone to try cycling and find out ho much fun it can be.

 Highlights of Professional Cycling in Glasgow

From a personal perspective Mathieu Van Der Pole’s win of the men’s elite road race, beating Wout Van Art and Tadej Pogacar (both hot off the tour de France) having fallen on a slippy corner during his break away to win, was a particular stand out.

Having recently taken up trials riding I was particularly in awe of Charlie Rolls and Jack Carthy both of Team GB. Charlie was unlucky to finish 3^rd in the 20” event and Jack won the 26” event. Both riders got off to a bad start with Charlie only taking 10 points out of a possible 60 and then slipping and damaging his forearm, but looked completely unflustered and fought back to a podium place. Jack had a poor start, but like Charlie kept calm and focused taking top spot. Both guys put in a great performance in less than perfect conditions.

Tom Pidcock was another inspiring GB winner having had a disappointing tour de France by his own standards. Tom won the elite men’s cross country cycling, held at Glentress. Having started the race back from the front runners, he didn’t waste any time catching the leading group and finally leaving them behind to take a decisive win.

Congratulations to all the GB cyclists who took part and good luck with future events.

Glasgow Bike Tours team.

GBT Guide: Why a Bike Tour is Better than a Walking Tour of Glasgow

If you’re coming to Glasgow on holiday and getting to know the city, then the first thing the Glasgow Bike Tours team would say is that we’re pretty jealous! We know how great our city is, so we know you’re going to have a good time exploring, both on your own and as part of a guided tour.

Glasgow has an amazing restaurant scene, fantastic craft beer, wines and whisky served in authentic bars and restaurants. We also have live music every night of the week, comedy most nights, stunning architecture, and a bunch of fun things to do in Glasgow. One of the most enjoyable things to do in Glasgow is to take a tour, and we’d like to make a case for why a bike tour is better than a walking tour of Glasgow.

Why tour Glasgow with a local guide?

Whether on a walking tour or a bike tour, we think it is always better to see Glasgow with the help of a local guide. This helps you enjoy the best of the city through the eyes of someone who knows it. Touring Glasgow with a local also means you can explore the city without worrying about getting lost; it’s simply far less stressful to follow someone around a big city than it is to use a map or your smartphone to get around. And… you can’t fully appreciate Glasgow’s incredible architecture if you’re glued to your phone, looking on Google Maps!

Part of the enjoyment on a tour is the journey you take through a city — it’s not just seeing the biggest sights you’ve read about online. The time spent travelling between the sights is when you will see real Glasgow life; it’s when you can enjoy chatting with other members of your tour group and sharing general observations and travel tips.

Guided tours are especially good for bringing people together by giving them a shared purpose. It’s a bonding experience, making it perfect for families, friends, or just other like-minded travellers, some of the longest lasting memories you will take away and hold on to are experiences which you have shared with others.

At Glasgow Bike Tours, our guides are all locals (some are musicians too), so you know you’re going to get an authentic experience cycling along with them.

Should you take a bike tour or a walking tour through Glasgow?

Walking tours can be a great option for travellers with specific interests, such as museums or attractions. Walking tours allow you to get up close to things and learn from a guide in a way that you simply couldn’t do on your own. However, if you are looking to see more of the city and to get the lay of the land (figuring out where else you’d like to visit), then a bike tour of Glasgow is the answer. But there are more reasons to take a bike tour through Glasgow…
If you take a bike tour and walking tour of approximately the same length of time, a walking tour would limit you to as little as 1 square mile. This means that you would be restricted to the very centre of Glasgow, causing you to miss out on some of Glasgow’s best bits — such as the West End. The West End of Glasgow is amazing for lots of reasons — not least because of the buildings and attractions found there. You’ll find the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow University (with its beautiful quadrangles and cloisters), the River Kelvin Walkway, the natural beauty of the Forth & Clyde Canal, the Mackintosh Church at Queens Cross, and the historical centre of Glasgow’s shipbuilding. You would also miss out on the very chic Finnieston area, which was recently voted one of the coolest places to live in the world!
You absolutely should go on a walking tour of Glasgow if there’s something specific you’d like to see, but if you want to explore the city as a whole, then a bike tour will let you discover more of the city, while still being able to get off the bike and talk about some of the sights. Our bike tours aren’t non-stop pedalling — they’re casual, winding journeys through our wonderful city!
With a walking tour you will spend nearly all of the tour on pavements, which means being next to traffic and all that that brings with it: noise, pollution and hustle and bustle. With our 3-hour Glasgow Sightseeing Bike Tour, less than a mile is spent on roads with traffic, making the whole experience more tranquil and peaceful — not to mention less polluted. There are some parts of the tour which are so quiet, leafy and green that visitors have felt like they’ve been teleported to the countryside and back again.

Calories and exercise on a bike tour

It turns out that cycling uses approximately 600 calories per hour (speed dependent) as compared to walking, which burns 300 calories per hour. So, what does this mean for a person on vacation? For some very health-conscious travellers, this will allow you to stay fit on your trip. However, for us at Glasgow Bike Tours, it means that after a 3-hour bike tour you have a credit of around 1800 guilt-free calories. Deep-fried mars bar anyone? Burger? Fish and chips? Pint of craft beer or glass of wine? The options are mouth-wateringly unlimited and you will know all the best places to get them thanks to your local tour guide.

If you’re interested, read a little more about us and please get in touch if you have any questions. Glasgow is a beautiful, vibrant, safe, modern city and we look forward to showing you the best of it… by bike.

GBT Guide: How safe is a Bike Tour of Glasgow?

At Glasgow Bike Tours, potential customers regularly ask us about how safe a bike tour in Glasgow really is and how much time is spent on the city’s busy roads.

Fortunately, we are able to honestly reply that cycling as part of our guided Glasgow tours is extremely safe…but why? Please read on to find out or get in touch with any specific questions.

What makes a Guided Bike Tour of Glasgow so safe?

Of the 9-mile route, that makes up the 3-hour Glasgow City Sightseeing Bike Tour, around half a mile is spent cycling on roads with other traffic. Most of the route is either on cycle lanes; beside rivers on dedicated cycle ways; along canal tow paths, or through some of Glasgow’s endless selection of public parks (not actually endless… 97, if you must know). All this means that quite often cycling around Glasgow is more like being in the countryside than a city.
The reason that the bike tour route is like this is simple. : in selecting the route, Keith (the founder of Glasgow Bike Tours) used the same principle he has followed for some 20 years of cycling and commuting around Glasgow and that is to “avoid traffic wherever possible”. So, whether it was cycling to the local pub… (for a soft drink, obviously) or commuting to the Sheriff Court, a route that avoided as much traffic as possible was always chosen over one that followed roads, — even if it that meant taking 5 or 10 minutes longer.

Do I need to be fit to cycle on a Glasgow bike tour?

How fast we cycle on our tours and how fit guestssomeone needs to be to take part in a our bike tours of Glasgow [where should this link to] is something that some people worry about before booking. This worry is totally understandable; perhaps because they’re on holiday with someone who is a cycling enthusiast and has decided they want to see the city by bike. The worry is usually that the bike tour pace and difficulty is designed for avid cyclists and not mere mortals. But FEAR NOT, this couldn’t be further from the truth! The tours have been designed with non-cycling tourists in mind and go at a very gentle pace because we want everyone to enjoy seeing the best of Glasgow, without any worries that they will not be able to complete the tour or keep up. In fact, even our full-day Glasgow bike tour is suitable for mere mortals!

How fast do we Cycle on a Bike Tour of Glasgow?

The quick answer to this is “not very!”, but that isn’t very helpful, when trying to decide whether to do a bike tour or not as “not very fast”  is clearly subjective.
However, to be more helpful, it is worth remembering that the tour is about 9 miles long and takes roughly 3 hours to complete. During the tour, we have regular stops (approx every 10-15 minutes) to admire and talk about Glasgow’s fantastic sights, which means we are only cycling for between 1.5 – 2 hours. This in turn means we are cycling at around 5 miles per hour, which isn’t much quicker than walking pace, known to be about 3.5 miles per hour. Due to the relaxed pace, we have yet to have any sort of accident… other than a direct hit by a seagull with a good aim.

Will the Weather Affect my Bike Tour

Despite its reputation for rain, Glasgow has surprisingly little rain during the summer months. Even if it does rain, the rain is generally a short-lived shower and it is just as likely to be sunny 15 or 20 minutes later. Billy Connolly (a famous Glasgow comedian) said “if you don’t like the weather in Scotland, just wait 15 minutes”. Obviously, it makes sense to be prepared for any bad weather, so if you are coming to Glasgow or Scotland, it is a good idea to bring a packable waterproof, just in case, as Glasgow and Scotland’s beautiful scenery is best seen from outdoors.
Don’t worry about your tour being cancelled at the first sign of clouds; all our guides are used to the outdoors, so we will run tours in most weather —, unless it would be dangerous to do so.
If you have any doubt about the difficultly and safety of our bike tours, please check out our 5-star reviews on tripadvisor or get in touch for more information.

GBT Guide: The Ultimate Glasgow FAQ

A comprehensive guide to Glasgow for visitors

Glasgow bike tours are specifically designed to be easy enough for the average person without any mobility issues — they are an alternative to walking tours or bus tours of Glasgow; they are not a fast-paced, lycra-glad race through the city! We are passionate about the history and culture of Glasgow here at Glasgow Bike Tours and this blog is our attempt to answer a bunch of frequently asked questions tourists have about our city. We hope this guide will help some readers plan their Glasgow trip better and that you have an amazing time with us!

How to pronounce Glasgow?
This might seem obvious to people who live in the UK, but it really isn’t for anyone who comes from afar — especially if English isn’t their first language. Everyone has a different point of reference, so it can be a little tricky to explain how to pronounce things, but we recommend pronouncing it as follows:
Glaz (rhymes with the English word ‘has’) — Go (rhymes with the English word ‘low’). Glaz-go. Glasgow.

What is Glasgow famous for?

We could write a whole blog just on this topic because Glasgow is a fantastic city with a long, impressive history. However, we’d like to give a shorter, more concise answer to this question on this blog:
– Glasgow was the birth place of Charles Rennie Mackintosh — the genius artist, designer, and architect and huge influencer in the global Art Nouveau movement. Glasgow has A LOT of Macintosh artworks and furniture on display across various galleries, including The Lighthouse, Kelvingrove Art Gallery, and The Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society.
– The Arlington Baths in the West End of Glasgow has been up and running since 1871, which makes it the world’s oldest swimming club.
– Glasgow’s unassuming Partick Cricket Club was the location of the world’s first international football match. Slightly less impressive, however is that it was between England and Scotland and the score was 0 – 0.
– Glasgow has the only women’s only library in Scotland. Glasgow Women’s Library is dedicated to women’s literature and to serving women.
– Glasgow is renowned around the world for its shipbuilding heritage, and this is best represented and celebrated by The Tall Ship you can visit on the River Clyde, right beside the Riverside Museum.

What to eat in Glasgow

Once again, we could write an entire guide all about the best places to eat Glasgow, so we won’t try to give our readers an exhaustive list of all of our favourite restaurants here. But we would like to whet your appetite!

It might surprise you to know that Glasgow is the vegan capital of the UK… Glasgow was named the most vegan-friendly city in Britain by Peta. So, if you’re vegetarian or vegan and you sometimes worry about finding good restaurants on your travels, Glasgow is your dream location. There are lots of great vegan restaurants, but Stereo, Mono, and the 13th Note are the most popular options in the city centre. In the West End, The 78 is also a great choice.

Glasgow is famous for battering and deep-frying Mars Bars and other confectionary, but it’s not really as common a practice as you may have been led to believe. However, it certainly is true that Glasgow has particularly good fish and chips — a British staple! An interesting quirk of Glasgow’s fish and chip shops is that many are owned by Italian immigrants or descendants of immigrants, so they also sell great Italian food. And something that you may have never heard of before is a ‘pizza crunch’: it is a slice of pizza covered in batter and deep fried.

Glasgow is a fantastic city for Indian cuisine (which is really an umbrella term for the combination of Indian, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani cuisine). Glasgow is actually the birthplace of the now-world-famous chicken tikka masala. The Shish Mahal restaurant in the city’s West End has a good claim to inventing the dish, and the story goes that chef Ali Ahmed improvised the dish from yoghurt, cream, and spices when a customer complained that their chicken curry was too dry. There are dozens of highly rated Indian restaurants scattered around Glasgow, but Mother India Café in the West End is usually ranked at the top of most foodies’ lists.

What are the top tourist attractions in Glasgow?

We have basically covered this question in our 5 Most Fun Things to do in Glasgow blog, so you should give it a read if you’re looking for more ideas, but we’d like to make some more suggestions in this blog too. Previously, we recommended the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, a tour of Hampden Park (Scotland’s national football stadium), and the weird-and-wonderful Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre. Here are a few more of Glasgow’s top attractions for tourists:
– Glasgow’s Necropolis (translates to ‘city of the dead’) is an incredibly impressive graveyard on top of a hill to the east side of the city. The Necropolis is the resting place of many of Glasgow’s rich merchants, so there are elaborate mausoleums and crypts to admire, as well as unparalleled views of the city and Glasgow Cathedral below.
– Glasgow Cathedral, just below the Necropolis, is also sometimes called St Mungo’s Cathedral or the High Kirk. It is the oldest Cathedral in mainland Scotland and the original church built on its land is believed to have been the first church St Mungo built, founding Glasgow in the late 6th century. Glasgow Cathedral is a beautiful building and there is a lot of history to explore there.
– The Willow Tearooms is a popular location for anyone looking for traditional afternoon tea. However, it is also popular with admirers of Charles Rennie Mackintosh as he helped design the tearooms, the furniture, and the interior décor. This is a celebration of all-things Art Nouveau and the perfect place to take a break between Glasgow’s other tourist attractions.
– George Square in Merchant City is the administrative hub of the city, with the impressive Glasgow City Chambers holding pride of place. This ornate square has an undeniably Victorian feel and it has 12 statues of famous people who came from Glasgow or are associated with the city. On the run-up to Christmas, George Square transforms into a Christmas market, with seasonal food, various mulled drinks, and even a small ice rink.

That’s all the time we have for this blog. Hopefully, we’ve answered a few of your burning questions. If you’d like to know more or you’d like to book one of our Glasgow bike tours, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Glasgow is an incredible city with so much to offer visitors; we are extremely proud and privileged to be the city’s only bike tour company. You can simply take our classic Glasgow City Sightseeing Tour, which lasts 3 hours, or you can come on our all-day Glasgow bike tour which we’ve called ‘The Full Bhuna’. However you decide to explore Glasgow, we hope you’ll have a fantastic time in our city!

GBT Guide: 5 Fun Things to do in Glasgow if you have Kids

Last month we wrote a blog detailing what we believe to be the 5 most fun things to do in Glasgow. It’s our hope that our knowledge and insights into the city will help people get the most out of their visit to Glasgow or that it will help people already living here discover one or two great places or activities on their doorstep. So, following on from last month’s blog, we thought it would be useful to offer some help to parents looking for fun things in Glasgow for kids to do. This blog isn’t a Buzzfeed-style list of “27 unforgettable things for kids to do in Glasgow” — it’s a shorter, more considered list and we hope it’s useful!

While we stick to cycling routes throughout Glasgow, avoiding roads whenever possible, we still go onto a few roads. This means that our bike tours through Glasgow are only open to kids who are 12 years +. It’s not that cycling in Glasgow is dangerous — far from it, in fact — it’s just that there are legal limitations. So, while we hope this guide helps a few parents to have fun in Glasgow with their we’uns, we can’t include our 5-star-reviewed bike tours on this list. Perhaps if you have grown-up kids and you’re visiting Glasgow, you can come on one of our tours.

Glasgow Science Centre

Glasgow Science Centre isn’t like any old average science museum; it’s a vibrant hub of fun and entertainment. You’ll find it on the River Clyde, just to the west of Glasgow’s city centre. It’s easy to find as it’s the large silver building with an observation tower beside it. A lot of time and resources have been put into the centre, resulting in a staggering range of exhibits and interactive experiences. Science really is fun, and Glasgow Science Centre clearly understands that children are its main audience and it has adjusted accordingly. On top of astronomy, physiology, quantum technologies, etc, you’ll also find family events, such as a Halloween Spooktacular event, Little Explorer days, and various other seasonal experiences that make a second or third visit more than worthwhile. Glasgow Science Centre is guaranteed fun and it even advertises autism-friendly hours for families who need the lighting and noise to be a little dimmer and quieter than usual.

The Riverside Museum of Transport and Travel

Just along the river from the Glasgow Science Centre, you’ll find the Riverside Museum of Transport and Travel — usually just referred to as the Riverside Museum. This isn’t your typical museum experience — it’s a vibrant, interactive extravaganza filled with anything you can imagine that relates to transport. And we should stress the interactive aspect of the museum as children will always want to climb on things, push buttons, and see how things work. There are touch screen displays, films, and so much more to keep the little ones amused and engaged. If you’re looking for a sneaky way to get your kids interested in history, then the Riverside Museum is a must!

Visit Glasgow’s Parks or Botanic Gardens

There’s so much more to Glasgow than museums; in fact, it has some of the best-kept, most popular public parks in the UK. The only tricky decision you’ll have to make is figuring out which park to visit. Location may be the deciding factor for you, with the beautiful Glasgow Green park just to the east of the city centre. This park has fewer trees than some of the other parks, but it has plenty of beautiful fields and pathways — it also has the impressive People’s Palace, with its gardens and fountain outside. If the west end of Glasgow is handier for you, then Kelvingrove Park and the Botanic Gardens will be the best choices for you. Botanic Gardens is just off Byres Road and Great Western Road and it’s packed with interesting plant life and nooks and crannies for your kids to explore. Kelvingrove Park is much bigger and it’s full of trees, hills, and other features — and the River Kelvin runs through the whole park. Another great feature of Kelvingrove Park is that you’re right beside Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which is the next location on our list.

The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

This is the one suggestion that features on both this list of activities for kids and our general list of things to do in Glasgow for adults. While some of the activities on this list would appeal to adults, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is probably equally fun and interesting for your granny and your we’uns! There is a huge selection of art from many of the world’s masters, but there is also a wide range of animal and dinosaur fossils, an Egyptology section, and loads of interactive features that make museum exhibitions fun for children. This is the third most visited museum in Scotland and it’s absolutely free (but there are suggested-donation boxes). There’s always more to see at the Kelvingrove, so it’s great to revisit it at different points, when your children are older, as they become more interested in the more adult exhibitions.

Flip Out Glasgow

We didn’t want to only include parks and museums, so it’s lucky for Glasgow that it has one of the biggest, best indoor trampolining centres in the UK. Flip Out Glasgow is a huge indoor trampoline centre with a range of horizontal and even diagonal trampolines, which allow for some really crazy antics. There are bigger trampolines for bigger kids and smaller trampolines for the smaller kids. Flip Out is located on Southcroft Road to the south of Glasgow Green, south of the River Clyde. Keep in mind that Flip Out is the kind of place where you need to sign a waiver; it has good safety policies, but kids can always find ways to injure themselves and their siblings! We’re sure they’ll be fine, but you might want to give them the safety talk before you set them loose on the trampolines…

There it is: Glasgow Bike Tours’ 5 things to do in Glasgow if you have kids. There are so many more things to do in Glasgow, and we may make another list in the future, but we hope this guide helps a few readers ensure their children have a great time in Glasgow. If you are interested in our Glasgow Bike Tours, you may like to read a little more about us, and please get in touch if you have any questions!

GBT Guide: The 5 Most Fun Things to do in Glasgow

Take a Bike Tour Through Glasgow

This is our only plug, so it makes sense to put it first and get it out of the way. There are all kinds of
great walking tours and bus tours in Glasgow, but there’s only one bike tour operator (as of the time
of writing this). Many people imagine super-fit people in Lycra when they think of bike tours, but
most aren’t like that and our tours certainly aren’t. Think of them as walking tours where you can roll
around the city and cover a lot more ground. It’s fun to take the secret cycling routes through the
city and learn about Glasgow from our experienced guides. You can opt for our classic Glasgow
bike tour, which lasts three hours or The Full Bhuna, which is a much longer tour of our wee city (it’s
actually not that wee).

Visit the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is one of the most frequented museum in Scotland — and for
good reason! You can find it in the West End, near the university, on the edge of Kelvingrove Park
(funnily enough). The huge red sandstone building is impressive in itself, but its museum exhibitions
and art galleries are one of the best in Scotland. Last year, the Kelvingrove even rose to the top art
gallery spot on TripAdvisor (as voted for by users), beating out the Victoria and Albert Museum, the
British Museum, and the National Gallery in London. You can expect to find work by Salvador Dali,
Titian, Vincent Van Gogh, Laurence Stephen Lowry, and so much more. And, if art isn’t really your
thing, there’s a huge collection of armour and weapons from around the world and a few dinosaurs
to marvel at. The best part is that the Kelvingrove is completely free.

Visit Drygate Brewery

Drygate Brewery is located in Glasgow’s East End, just south of the Necropolis. Drygate Brewery is
actually a collaboration between Tennents and Williams Brothers and it is, without doubt, the best
place to try new and exciting craft beers in Scotland. There is a rotating range of 26 cask beers and
ales to try and an even larger selection of bottled beer. The beer hall is full of screens for watching
sports and the atmosphere is fantastic. If you’re visiting Glasgow and looking for a great night out,
but you don’t really do clubs, then Drygate is the perfect spot for you. You can also do a beer tour of Drygate, learning about Glasgow’s brewing history and trying a few taster samples as you go!
Coincidentally, we’re actually based at Drygate, so you could pop in for a beer tour after our bike
tour. It’s better done in that order, we think…

Take a Tour of Hampden Park

Hampden Park is the home of Scottish football and it’s a must-see for fans of the beautiful game.
Hampden Park can be found on the southside, not far from Mount Florida station. It is Scotland’s
national stadium, so it hosts all of the big international home games. There’s nothing like going to
one of the matches and seeing thousands of Scotland fans marching in lines towards the stadium on
match day. But if you can’t see that, a tour of the stadium and the museum is a close second.
Hampden Park was actually Europe’s first ever national stadium and the museum situated in the
stadium is full of facts and memorabilia about the history of Scottish Football. Find out more about
the museum and the tour on the Hampden Park website.

The Glasgow Bike Tours Blog – Things to do in Glasgow

We are always trying to improve this blog – to fill it with well-researched travel guides, helpful hints, and local knowledge about all of the best things to do in Glasgow. Obviously, going on a bike tour in Glasgow is the best thing to do… but we’d like to suggest some other fun activities and to make this blog a great resource for anyone interested in Glasgow’s history and culture. Watch this space for more blogs and guides in the future!

Whisky tasting and tours
The Clydeside Distillery, is Glasgow’s new kid on the block, but that is where the inexperience ends. It is owned by a family steeped in whisky tradition and have some of the most knowledgable whisky brains around. Well worth a visit.
The Gengoyne Distillery is approximately 20 miles from Glasgow and they have a great whisky tour and a fantastic selection of whiskies of various ages. Our favourite is the 12 year old.
The Auchentoshan distillery is also close to Glasgow and worth a visit.
The Pot Still pub in Glasgow city centre, has the biggest selection of whiskies we have ever seen and the landlord knows about most of them. Don’t plan an early start the next day.