*POST UPDATED OCTOBER 2026
Hello friends! I hope this finds you well! I’m here today to share a lovely little travel guide with you: A Girly Getaway to Glasgow, Scotland. See, in September just past, I celebrated a friendiversary with one of my besties - nineteen whole years of enjoying each other’s company! We hadn’t celebrated a friendiversary since 2017 when we went to Copenhagen, and honestly, that’s just too long! We decided to make an occasion of it and planned our 12th trip out of the country together - this time to Glasgow! We took the first flight out of Dublin on the Saturday morning, and one of the last flights back on Sunday night, giving us a whirlwind 38-ish hours in town! The perfect amount of time to go out exploring and frolicking, but still be back in time for work on Monday morning. How fun!
Although both of us had been to Edinburgh in the past, neither of us had ever been to Glasgow. I always kind of had the sense that the city would be a bit *cough* stab city *cough*, but it was gorgeous! Going on the recommendation of friends and loved ones, we based ourselves in the West End and adored it! The architecture, the people, the restaurants and bars, all of it! It definitely exceed my expectations.
This is a recap of everything we got up to in town, divided into different sections for ease: fun facts / getting there / where we stayed / where we had coffee & pastries / where we ate / where we drank alcohol / and where we tourist-ed. If you’re looking to jump to a specific section, you can use the navigation bar on the left of this page.
Enjoy, friends!
fun facts
Before we get down to the guts of what we got up to in Glasgow, I thought I’d share some fun facts - I know you love them just as much as I do! Good to keep up your sleeve for an impromptu pub quiz, you know?
apparently, chicken tikka masala was invented in Glasgow! A Glaswegian chef, Ali Ahmed Aslam, is said to have created the dish in the ‘70s when a customer asked for a sauce to make their chicken tikka less dry! Obviously this claim is disputed, as are all great food-origin stories, but oof we sure did eat a great version while we were in town!
the raincoat was invented in Glasgow! Charles Macintosh, a Glaswegian chemist, discovered a formula for waterproofing cotton in the 19th century! Seeing as it rained almost non-stop on-and-off during our weekend in town, this one doesn’t really come as a surprise to me — ha!
Glasgow’s underground railway is the third oldest in the world! Beaten in years only by London and Budapest, Glasgow’s underground metro has been open since 1896!
Fun!
getting there
One of the reasons we chose Glasgow is because it’s a breeze getting there from Dublin! Here’s how we made the journey:
we flew direct from Dublin Airport to Glasgow International Airport with Ryanair. The official flight time is 1-hour, but it was definitely less than that.
at Glasgow airport, we walked straight out the doors at arrivals to the Glasgow Airport Express Service 500 bus stop - which was literally just to the left outside the door. There was no queue when we got there, and we were only waiting about 5-minutes before we departed. A single ticket costs £10.50 one way, and you buy it on board with the driver. For more information about the bus, click here.
the bus took 15-minutes to get from the airport into the city centre, and we got off at the George Square stop.
on our return to the airport the following night, we took the same bus back. We made our way to the Buchanan Bus Station, followed the signs for stance 46, and off we went. However! This return journey took twice as long as our initial one - 35-ish minutes in total - so definitely allow extra time just in case!
All in all, a rather pain-free experience!
where we stayed
