touring scotland

Many visitors begin their tour of Scotland with a stay here, preferring to start out fresh after a long transatlantic flight into Glasgow Airport or a drive up from England. Increasingly, they are discovering how convenient the city of Glasgow is as a base for touring. Here are some of the reasons why.

Romantic and world famous Loch Lomond is about 30 minutes by car via the Erskine Bridge , with the beautiful Trossachs not much further. Ayrshire and Burns Country is a must for first-time visitors to Scotland. From the hotel, it's less than an hour's drive to the Burns' Cottage at Alloway, near Ayr.

Tannahill's Cottage, Queens Street , Paisley is the thatched home of poet Robert Tannahill (1774-1810), a contemporary of Burns who co-founded the world's first Burns Club. Mary Campbell, immortalised by Burns as 'my Highland Lassie O', actually lived in Ayrshire but died and was buried in Greenock. Indeed, the Burns Trail runs throughout Inverclyde, which lies between Johnstone and the Clyde Coast.

Just over half an hour south via the M8/A78, Caledonian MacBrayne provide regular ferry services at Gourock and Wemyss Bay across the Firth of Clyde - to all of the Western Isles and to Dunoon, where the Highlands begin. A little further south, meet the regular ferry to the enchanted Isle of Arran.

Nearby, the village of Elderslie is best known as the birthplace of Sir William Wallace, Scotland 's great patriot, Immortalised in the Oscar-winning film 'Braveheart', who won many battles against the English in the 13th century before eventually being betrayed and executed.