Scotland Destinations National
Offers
Reviews
 |
Fort William (Scotland)
by andyoz I am a big fan of climbing, hiking and all round mountains sports. I love going up to Scotland and spending some time in the highlands. One of my favourite places in Scotland is here, Fort William. I've been going there since I was a little kid, its a great base for so many activities in the area that I enjoy doing. Fort ... William is the largest town in the Scottish Highlands. It lies on the shores of the beautiful Loch Linnie and lies the west end of Scotland's 'Great Glen'. The small town lies in the shadow of Scotland's and the UK's highest mountain, Ben Nevis. The town has a population of around ten thousand all though this swells due to the mass of tourists that flock to the area. Fort William is known as the adventure capital of Scotland. Close to the spectacular Glen Coe this is a great base for walking in the imposing Scottish mountains. Its also near to the small Ski resort. Along with that there are loads of other outdoor pursuits you can get involved in. There are lots of nice hotels in Fort William, I have stayed in the youth hostel which lies a few miles up the road at the foot of Ben Nevis. There is a big walking culture so there are loads of out door shops for you to browse through and stare at the sharp shiny toys in there! There are also some really nice pubs in Fort William, most have a real warm and cosy atmosphere and walkers are welcome. There are some nice shops in the town, some tourist type shops and some traditional shops as well as things like small supermarkets and other such stores. There is also a really good whisky shop with a very good selection. Another thing that attracts people is the distillery, I've never been but as I love whisky its a place I would like to visit. To get to Fort William there are a few ways you can get there. The most obvious is by road, I love the drive up Glen Coe as its so spectacular and really gives you everything that Scotland is about with the wild moors and towering peaks. Another means of transport is the train, the West Highland Line passes through Fort William and again the journey up through the mountains is supposed to be one of the most stunning rides in Britain. You could also probably get there by boat, the loch goes into the sea so this is an other mode of transport available. If your looking to stay in Fort William there are a few nice days out. Oban is about an hour away and is a lovely sea side town well worth a visit. If you want to venture a little further its about two hours to Inverness which is an excellent city that has plenty to do and is very lively. If you do go to Inverness you pass Loch Ness which you can also have a look at and see if you can spot Nessie! There are some good visit centres there where you can learn the history of the Loch and learn all about the mysterious monster. Also worth a visit is Urquhart Castle which lies on the shores of Loch Ness. Its an interesting place to look round and you get some great 'Nessie spotting' views of the Loch. You can combine this into your day of going to Inverness. There is so much to do in and around Fort William if you are into the great outdoors. I always enjoy being in the area and will no doubt return many times over the coming years. There is a really nice atmosphere around the town and despite the Scots not always being the most welcoming of people, the people in Fort William always seem pretty friendly. If you are planning a visit to Scotland and want to get into the heart of the highlands then this is the place for you. With wild beauty and a warm welcome Fort William is a wonderful place to visit. Read the complete review |
 |
Edinburgh in General
by tree568 We came back to Britain six years ago, and fully intended to live in London. Three days of gritty eyes, hair that washed out black and schools that looked like they should be pulled down instead of being inflicted on children convinced us that London was not where the taxpayers hard earned dosh was being spent. After a couple of false ... starts we ended up in Edinburgh. Edinburgh is a great place to live. Many people first moving to Edinburgh live south of the castle. As a rule of thumb, the further inland (south) you go, the higher you are and the worse the weather. The first two winters we were here, living on the north side, near the sea, the longest snow settled was overnight, and then only a pathetic half an inch. I was telling my friends that it doesn't snow in Edinburgh. Then one day that second winter, we ventured south, just as far as Bonnyrigg, barely ten miles south of the city, and just off the ring road. What a surprise. It looked like Canada! Trees with their boughs weighed down by snow, white as far as the eye could see. And it was SO cold. This is a city with two climates - below the snowline/castle we get lots of sunshine, yes, even in winter, pathetic rain (drizzle does not count as rain, I doubt if North Edinburgh has ever met up with the spectacular sheet rain one gets in places like Manchester), and snow that puts on a great show of falling, settles for a couple of days at best, never seems to manage more than an inch (and that's optomistic). If your idea of snow is "lovely to look at , lovely to see, but not outside my front door, please" then North Edinburgh is a good place to live. Venture above the snowline, so most points south of the castle, and it's a different story. Rain that really looks like rain, snow that is capable of simulating Canada, if only for a few days, and an inland cold that can chill your bones. I like the cold. Unlike the heat, it's an easy matter to dress warm and snug before venturing out. Sunny and cold is my ideal climate. Not an insect in sight. No cockroaches, ants, flies in the house. No flies chasing you down the street (anyone who has ever lived in a hot climate may be familiar with being chased by a fly?). Is Edinburgh a friendly city? Probably not as friendly as some other cities I have lived in. I've made acquaintances rather than close friends in the years we have been here. It's not the kind of place where one can drop by the neighbours for a chat. Having said that, there is a lot going on, and plenty of scope for meeting people - there seems to be a club for every interest. If you have children and you are planning on using state, rather than private, schools to educate them, some research of the local secondary schools would be well advised. I suggest emailing the Edinburgh City Council and asking them to email you back a map of the catchment areas. What we found is that you get a very good performing school next to a poorly performing school. This is just my opinion, but on the south side stick to Boroughmuir, James Gillespies or Firhill. On the north side, the Royal High is a very good school. Likewise Trinity Academy. To the East, Portobello High School is quite good. To the west of the city, Craigmount High is quite good. For Catholic secondary schools, the best, and heavily over subscribed, is St Thomas Aquinas. Catchment areas are important here; if you're not in the catchment area, the chances are you won't get a place at a good school, because they tend to be oversubscribed. It's rare to be in the catchment zone and not get a place in P1 or S1, but not unheard of. Shopping in general in Edinburgh is pretty poor as cities go, particularly in the city centre. The new town, where the main shopping centre is located, is like a place that people pass through on the way to somewhere else rather than a place to go and enjoy a day out shopping. There's hardly any pedestrianised areas, and what there is seems half hearted. As to Princes Street, my advice would be to skip the shops and head across the road to Princes Gardens and the art gallery. Much better value! If you like to shop, I recommend heading out to Livingston, to the Almond Centre. This is three shopping centres, all joined together and indercover, including a dedicated designer outlet. Even better would be to catch the train to Glasgow and investigate Buchanan Street and all the surrounding streets and shopping centres. On a brighter note, the Lothian Bus service is nothing short of astonishing. When we first got here, I couldn't understand why no one used timetables. I've since worked it out. Some of the buses run every 4 minutes. Our local stop is on five bus routes (why have one bus service when you can have five?) It's also very cheap. I would ignore organised bus tours and instead, if you are coming here to settle, go to the Lothian Buses office - there's one in Hanover Street, near Princes Street in the New Town, - and invest in a weekly or monthly pass. The cheapest method is monthly direct debit, but in the meantime, a monthly or weekly pass is well worth the investment. The other thing to note about these buses is that the city centre is never the destination - it's just a place some of them pass through. For an alternative tour, plus a great way to get to know the city, I recommend getting on any bus and just staying on it. At the terminus, there's no need to get off- it just turns around and comes back. The buses serve Midlothian (south of Edinburgh) and East Lothian, so are a cheap way to see further afield. There is something to be said about using buses rather than cars to learn how a city goes, because they are higher up, so give you a better vantage point than a car. I don't really enjoy driving within Edinburgh itself. Not many traffic jams, but plenty of obstacles. I like the fact that all the services are underground, so no ugly power lines gracing the streets, but it means one utility company or the other is forever digging up the roads. This seems to be an Edinburgh thing, because from what I have seen of the rest of Scotland this doesn't seem to be as much of a problem. We arranged viewings of flats and houses before we came here, with a lot of help from Google Earth, and thanks to its efforts when it comes to mapping every single street. The older style tenements have advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, they are close to main roads, so very good for public transport, the rooms are usually huge, with ten foot ceilings, and if you are on a high enough floor you hardly hear the traffic. Plus they have very thick walls, - I have never heard the neighbour next to us but on next door's stair in almost six years of being here. The downside is that they can come with a lot of stairs, 60 in our case. Plus the parking isn't always that great. On street and sometimes you have to park a couple of streets away, even if you have resident parking. If we were to move, we would move down to one of the new waterfront apartments, by the sea. Maybe not to everyone's taste, but I did see one with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, (which I thought was a bit OTT) a balcony and views to die for at around £800 a month recently. We had heard that Edinburgh was a city where people walked everywhere. When we first came here, there seemed to be hardly any people on the street. We couldn't understand it. Where were they all? Then one day I was walking along the street, and the guy in front of me disappeared. Literally. One minute he was there, and in the blink of an eye he was gone. I followed him down these steps - just to see where he went. Well, what a surprise! The old railway cuttings have all been turned into bicycle and walking tracks. And they were full of people. People walking home from work, people with their grocery shopping, cyclists, dog walkers. It was like finding this alternative world. I've since discovered that Spokes pblish very good guides to these tracks. If you like the sea, then I recommend a trip to South Queensferry, just near the Forth Road Bridge. Unfortunately, though it is within the city of Edinburgh boundaries, Lothian Buses don't go there. You have to use First instead, annoying because they are more expensive. Heading east, Portobello beach is a proper beach and is on a bus route (no 26). If you like car boots and jumble sales, there are plenty here. The main Sunday car boot is on Sundays, underground at the Omni centre, at the top of Leith Walk. It's on the 4th underground level. It's opposite the St James Centre, - the main entrance is opposite the back entrance to John Lewis. There are quite a few buses that stop right outside it. The 22 bus is good, because it runs every few minutes, even on Sundays. I love indoor car boot sales. They are warm and cosy in winter. And there's no chance of leaking roofs in this car park. In the Omni centre itself, overlooking the roundabout at the top of Leith Walk, there is a Wetherspoons pub, called Lloyds. I recommend it. It has cheap, good quality coffees (used to be 99p, but currently £1.29) and full English breakfasts for around £3. Though it is a pub, provided you are eating a meal you can take children into the dining area. I have spent many a Sunday in there eating a full vegetarian breakfast. If you are selling at the car boot, you probably need to get there for around 6am. You go in and grab your spot, but you can't actually open until the horn goes, at 8.30am. And you also can't leave until 1pm, after the horn has sounded. A bit regimented I know, but it's great if you are buying, because you don't have to get there at 7am to grab the bargains. A leisurely (for car booting) arrival at around 9am should ensure you get plenty of first picks. For selling though, it poses a problem, in so far as you probably have a wait of at least an hour and a half. There are no toilets at the car boot, but across the road, up the back of the cathedral, there are public toilets which usually open at around 6am. If they aren't open, there's a MacDonalds, along Princes Street, on the east side of South St Andrew Street, which opens at 5am. There are no toilets in the Omni Centre without going into the restaurants, but Lloyds opens at 8am. If you prefer outdoor car boot sales, then on Saturdays and Sundays there is a car boot opposite Asda, at Chesser, at the back of the Corn Exchange. Any bus that goes up Dalry Road (the A70) would stop next to it. The number 35 bus stops right at the entrance. Further afield, there is another indoor car boot up at Kinross (on the way to Perth, 26miles north of Edinburgh), at the motor auction site, every Saturday, with a smaller car boot section and a regular market on a Sunday. There is also an outdoor car boot on a Sunday out at East Fortune, at the old airfield site, though this is more like a regular market, with not so many car booters. The on line information about both these sales have good links. When it comes to jumble sales, spring fayres and the like, we have a steady stream all year round. The ones I would recommend are Ravelrig Riding for the Disabled out at Balerno (usually last week of January but this year postponed until 13th March because of the weather), Greenbank Parish Church (South Morningside - April), Cramond Kirk (this year 13th March, usually in March) and St Serfs Spring Fayre (Ferry Road, usually in early June). For places to stay, if you are not driving and on a budget, the Travelodge in the old city is worth a look, especially if you book well in advance. Read the complete review |
|
|
Motherwell in General
by angelboouk I am shocked to be the first person to write a review on Motherwell, Lanarkshire. Motherwell is a 25min train ride from Glasgow. I have lived here all my life and i will admit it isnt the best place in the UK to live, however it is by no means the worse. Motherwell like most towns is made up of different areas and ... different schemes. There are various groups called Young Teams who live in most areas but not something i take anything to do with! The last i heard Motherwell had over 10000 inhabitants. Motherwell comes under North Lanarkshire Council who seem to have different rules and regulations from every other council in Scotland! The main shopping area in Motherwell is overdue a revamp and plans were suppose to be in place to put it all undercover but never materialised. The main supermarket is Asda but we have a Farmfoods, Iceland and a Lidl near and within the main shopping area. The shops are ok but i wouldnt say a brilliant selection compared to nearby towns. Motherwell is also home to Motherwell Football Club situated in Fir Park stadium which is a short walk from my home though i have yet to be in it! There is quite a few hotels in Motherwell including The Old Mill Hotel, Moorings & the Bentley. Motherwell is on the main train route for Glasgow, Edinburgh, London & Newcastle. Motherwell is also home to Scotlands largest theme park M&Ds and Strathyclyde Park which has a large lake and sport centre offering various water sports. There is also a state of the art gym & swimming pool in Motherwell. There are several cafes to choose from and the a McDonalds however i do recommend a few restaurants if you ever happen to be in Motherwell. Hup Lee - opened in 2009 this is a chinese all you can eat buffet with lunch 7.95 and dinner 12.45 and they offer very good service Weatherspoons - excellent bar & restaurant The Mandarin - another great chinese set restaurant. As for nightlife, just outside the town centre there is a large nightclub called MegaBar with Hype upstairs. Been once but its not my sort of thing. There is also a bar called Starka and various pubs that are usually overcrowded with old men! Motherwell is home to Gala Bingo! In August 2009, Motherwell College opened doors to their new £70 million college but it hasnt been very well thought out but still offers excellent courses. It is built on the former Ravenscraig site on the outskirts of Motherwell. There will be various developements here as it is becoming a new town. If you ever visit Mothewell pop buy for a cuppa Read the complete review |
Scotland Destination National |
||
|---|---|---|
|
1 review Destination National / |
|
|
8 reviews Destination National / |
|
|
|
Destination National / |
|
|
2 reviews Destination National / Perth (Scottish Gaelic: Peairt) is a royal burgh in central Scotland, which lies on the banks of the River Tay. |
|
|
|
1 review Destination National / |
|
|
|
2 reviews Destination National / |
|
|
|
1 review Destination National / |
|
|
|
1 review Destination National / |
|
|
7 reviews Destination National / |
|
|
|
Destination National / |
|
| Scotland Destination National Recommendations 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... back next | ||
| dooyoo Results 51 - 60 of 355 | ||
