UK Spring 2025 - Day trips from Glasgow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glasgow is a cheaper city to stay in compared to Edinburgh and a convenient starting point if you are driving up to the Isle of Skye. We did a few day trips out of Glasgow:

Day 1 - Stirling, Falkirk Wheel and Kelpies

All these are just less than an hours drive from Glasgow and you can leisurely space them out and cover all of them in a day, maybe even more :)

 

Day 2 - Carlton Hill, Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle

Between Glasgow (Queen Street Station) and Edinburgh (Waverley Station), ScotRail runs over 180 trains daily with express trains only taking 45-52 mins each way. You don't have to book that much in advance, a day before is perfectly OK. For the 2 trips we did from Glasgow to Edinburgh, we bought the Off-peak day return. Note that Off-peak tickets allow you to travel any time after 9:15am to 4:30pm and 6:30pm onward on weekdays and any time on weekends and bank holidays.

We started from Carlton hill first and work our way into the city and then Edinburgh castle after lunch 

There is always a long queue to see the crown jewels. But since the collection is not as extensive as the Tower of London, the wait is not too overwhelming :)

 

Day 3 - Deans Village and Edinburgh city 

Edinburgh is a very beautiful city. We can actually spend a few more days there but unfortunately, time does not permit. We can only visit once more time on the next day. Deans village is not that far from the city, if the weather is not too warm, it's can be a very nice and leisure walk.

 

 

 

UK Spring 2025 - London transportation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The transportation in London is very convenient. We arrived in Heathrow T3 and the Underground station is about 5-10mins walk from the Arrival hall, it's not far but not exactly near either. Just follow the signs at the Arrival hall and head towards a ramp which will bring your all the way to the Underground station. 

You can buy the TfL Oyster cards from the machines before entering the turnstiles.

You have the choice of using: 

1. Buy a TfL Oyster card when you are in London
We used this method as it's the most convenient and safest way to travel. The Oyster card cost £7 and is non-refundable, you need to top-up upon purchase. We took the card home as a souvenir, plus there's no expiry on the card so you can use it again if/when you decided to visit London anytime in the future :)

2. Your own Debit/Credit card which supports contactless payment
If you have Debit/Credit cards which do not charge international transactions fees, this is also another option. We didn't use this though because we didn't want to flash either our credit card or Wise card in crowded areas, especially on the tube stations. The good thing is the transportation system is able to calculate the daily cap on buses or tube if you are using the same card, similar to the Oyster card.

3. Order a TfL Visitor Oyster card and get it posted to you 
We've read some bad experiences with this as the card is sold by 3rd party merchants, not directly by TfL. The visitor card cost the same as the Oyster card you buy from the machine and the courier charges are insane! In the event the card got  lost in the post, well... Good luck recovering that :(
Visitor Oyster Card

More details from TfL's official website:
Tfl tickets and Oyster card

 

Remember, for buses, you just need to tap once when you enter, you don't need to tap upon exit. Basically the daily cap on buses or tube is after 3 taps, you will not be charged on the 4th tap onward.

 

The TfL Go app is very useful as it lets you keep track of your credit on your Oyster card.

 

Refunds on unused credits in your Oyster card is also very simple and convenient and you can do it at the Heathrow Underground machines before heading to the airport's departure hall:

You only have the choice of getting the refund in cash.

UK Spring 2025 - Qantas Lounge Heathrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Qantas Lounge in London Heathrow is located in T3 Lounge B, just a short walk after airport security. You can check-in to your flight fairly early to enjoy a hot shower and some snacks prior to you long flight back home. We checked-in 4 hours before our flight. Entry can be bought at the entrance, as of 2025/5/14, adults are £65 and children are £40. Or if you have lounge pass invitations, you need to link the invitations to your QFF membership 48 hours prior to and print out/show the invitation email at the reception :)

Do note that, unlike the Lounge in Changi Airport in Singapore, there is no way you can purchase the London lounge passes in advance via QFF website or App. Entry passes can can only be purchased in person at the Lounge entrance. At the time of this posting, this information is unavailable anywhere on the internet, even Qantas customer service is unable to provide much info on this.

More details on the lounge and amenities on Qantas's official website:
Qantas International Lounge Heathrow Airport London 

 

On the usage of the shower facilities, they are on the upper level. There are staff manning the area, handling out towels and coordinating which bathrooms to use, etc. Everything from shampoo and shower gels are provided, you basically just need to bring some fresh clothes and some dental care products with you. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most people would know about this already but we'll just put it here just in case. You can bring liquid pass airport security with the following conditions:
1. containers must be 100ml or less, i.e. you cannot bring a 150gm half used tooth paste or 50ml of shampoo in a 200ml container 
2. all 100ml (maximum) containers must fit into a 20cm x 20cm transparent zip lock/resealable bag 
3. only 1 of the above mentioned bag per person 

Anyway, after a refreshing shower, you can relax and enjoy some food/snacks and drinks and look at planes taking off. There's food there but don't expect a full-fledged buffet, drinks are pretty good however we wanted to get some sleep on the plane hence limiting our alcohol consumption before the flight.

Till next time and thanks for reading :) 

 

UK Spring 2025 - Isle of Skye

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a very popular tourist destination in Scotland. How should we describe it... It is a wild and rugged version of England's Lake District. Roads get narrower and more winding after passing Skye bridge. The views are amazing! The terrain makes you feel tiny in a giant's world.

Driving is probably the best way to get around this place. But we don't recommend driving all the way from Edinburgh/Glasgow to Portree (the capital and largest town in Isle of Skye) in one go. There are a lot to see between the Scottish cities and the town, especially Glencoe. 

 

We started from Glasgow in the morning, went for short walks around Balloch Castle & Country Park and Luss for some great photos of Loch Lomond, then had lunch at Callander. There are a lot of view points between here and Fort William, take your time and soak in all the scenery! We spent a night in Premier Inn Fort William. The hotel is quite dated, not the cleanest we have stayed in and have no air conditioning, hence the under 4 star rating in Google. Temperature wise is OK during early May, and because it's the highlands, it's pretty cool at night... The beds are out of this world! It is so out of place because they are absolutely comfortable!

The next day after hearty (and standard) buffet breakfast in the hotel, we went to see the Jacobite train which is just 6 mins walk or 2 mins drive away from Premier Inn Fort William. It departs the Fort William station to Mallaig around 10:15 and will pass by the Glenfinnan Viaduct twice a day around 10:45 and 15:15. Bear in mind that Glenfinnan Viaduct is 30 mins drive away from Fort William station and can be very crowded during the train passing times. Parking is also limited around that area, so try and reach there early. 

 

 

 

 

 

We reached there around 10:20, the main parking area was already full, some parking areas were already blocked/closed hence it took us 20 mins to drive further down the road and parked in a hotel parking which we needed to pay. We walked at least 10 mins to the viaduct and by that time it was already 10:50, we thought we missed it but there was still a fair bit of crowd. Suddenly people started shouting, "Train!" and you can hear the whistle of the steam train! Man, we were really lucky!

  

 

After this we drove to Fort Augustus for lunch. After so many days of western food, we were craving for Chinese cuisine, options were limited. We took a rather risky choice of a restaurant with a 3.3 star rating, turned out to be surprisingly good! :)

 

Now Isle of Skye has limited food options, here are some which we think were good:

* Restaurant Claymore (seafood) - no reservation / walk-in only, please go early. We went twice because the lack of good food options :)

* Pizza in the Skye (pizza) - a food truck near Portree - pretty good customizable pizzas  

We stayed in an excellent B&B in Portree which was extremely difficult to book! There were only 3 rooms and once they open for booking, all 3 rooms were gone in less than a week for the days we were interested in! And when we were there, we know why. The host is a very nice and friendly lady, the rooms were very clean, even better than a hotel! And the breakfast, the best we had in the entire trip! Absolutely love the full Scottish breakfast :)

Day 1 

Old Man of Storr

This is a very popular walk with stunning views! We had a foggy morning and only managed to go up midway until it suddenly started pouring! We had waterproof jackets on but left our waterproof pants in the car. We were getting wet leg down and the younger one was freezing hence we needed to return to the car. And when we reached the bottom gate, the clouds were clearing and the sun was up! Arghh! :(

There are 2 route you can take, the longer easier path or the shorter tougher path. Naturally we went for the longer one. It can get pretty crowded:

 

Fairy pools 

After lunch, we went to another very popular walk which we really enjoyed as well. If you follow the river and the small waterfalls, you can go really deep into the mountains. We stopped where the track gets a bit rough but we did see experienced hikers with professional gears returning from the mountains.

 

Day 2  

Quiraing

One tip about driving to Quiraing from Portree is to take the western route (dark blue on the below Google map screenshot) when/if possible as it's an easier drive, the road is not as narrow. Going early helps as well because it can get busy from 10:00 am onwards

 

 

 

 

 

 

Try avoiding the eastern route especially when you are leaving the Quiraing car park and head back to Portree, that road is next to a slope and it will be a real bottle neck if there is a caravan, it can end up pretty messy/troublesome. We were driving along this road on the below screenshot after our hike and an oncoming caravan grazed against our car's driver's side rear fender. Fortunately the damage was minimal and everyone was safe. Just be careful as the roads can be pretty narrow!

 

 

 

The walk is pretty similar to the Old Man of Storr. The steps are well kept and not too difficult to walk on. We were blessed with a very beautiful sunny morning where the photos were just absolute out of this world!

 

If you have the time and energy, you can actually walk quite far. We've seen people walking all the way until the cliffs. We were already pretty high up and it started snowing :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fairy Glen

There's nothing much to see in this site, the hills are special but not amazing. The circular stones are man-made and is very small compared to what you can see on Google map reviews:

It was a pretty long drive back. We stop by and entered Eilean Donan castle which was quite an experience. Then we headed for Inverness which we wished we stayed a night rather driving pass this beautiful city. Things felt pretty rushed and we skipped a lot of attractions in between like the Loch Ness Centre and most of Inverness