r/Glasgow Tools

Don't be afraid to go explore the city, there are a lot of great areas all with their own charm and character. I don't know them all that well, but the ones I do know. Some people may argue with the demarkation of areas, but there are too many really so I have made some generalisations!

* The West End is where the University of Glasgow is as well as various museums and Kelvingrove park. The Kelvin river winds through the west end and you can walk/cycle along it all the way to the suburbs north-west of Glasgow. Around Byres road is very trendy and lively area with students mixing with an older crowd. Plenty of bars and restaurants, but some quite upmarket. Check out Ashton Lane for some drinks; The Grosvenor cafe is a bar built inside an old cinema, so has an amazing interior. Vodka Wodka, Brel and Jinty McGinty's all have decent beer gardens. At the top end of Byres road near the Botanic Gardens is the Oran Mor, an old church-turned-pub. It's one of thee few bars open til 3am in the west end, so you'll no doubt find yourself here after you're kicked out of the bars on Ashton Lane anyway! Partick is at the bottom end of byres road headed west on Dubmarton road, and has a bit more of a working class Glasgow vibe compared to Byres road and Finnieston. If you like Vietnamese food I'd recommend Bahn Mi and Tea, it's top notch. If you head east at the bottom of Byres road you'll walk past the beautiful Kelvingrove museum (free to visit) and find yourself in Finnieston. It is very much now an extension of the west end 'vibe', with various other nice bars and restaurants. Just south of Finnieston is the SEC and Hydro, Glasgows main exhibition centre. One of the few rooftop bars in Glasgow is at the Radison RED hotel, and worth checking out to have a drink and watch the sun go down over the Clyde (the main river in Glasgow).
* The city centre, or "town" is pretty easy to navigate, with most of the shops and 'malls' (we call them 'shopping centres') around Buchanan street and Sauchiehall (pronounced suckie-holl) street. Buchanan Galleries is the main 'mall', and Princes Square is really nice too, with various botique and more upmarket stores.Sauchiehall street also has a lot of bars and clubs (I'm probably too old now to give much guidance there though!) Argyle street also has a decent number of shops. The north end is home to our other two unvirsities; Glasgow Caledonian University ("Glasgow Cali" or "GCU) and Strathclyde University ("Strathy").
* Merchant city is a nice little bubble of upmarket bars and restaurants as you head east from the city centre. Would recommend checking out the Old Fruitmarket (a converted, indoor fruitmarket with the original cobble floor and multiple bars) for some drinks or dinner.
* The east end of the city has the Cathedral and Necropolis, which is worth a walk around. South of that is the Tennents brewery (AKA the brewer of, dare I say, our national beer?), and the smaller Drygate brewery (worth a visit). Keep going south from there and you'll find Glasgow Green (a huge green space/park by the Clyde) and a German style brewery (WEST). I don't know Dennistoun that well personally, but I have heard it's become quite trendy as a more affordable part of the city to live in.
* South of the river you have Govan, Ibrox and Kinning Park, which are stops on the subway but there's not a lot to do there. If you're into drinking then they're good stops on a subcrawl (a pub crawl based around 16 stops on the subway loop). The Glasgow Science Centre is also next to Govan. I'd warn you to avoid these areas on days Rangers (football team) is playing a game at Ibrox Studium, because it is wildly busy and pretty intimidating. Further south from the city centre you have Govanhill, and Shawlands, situated on either sides of Queens Park. Arguably my favourite park in Glasgow since it's huge and has a lot of variety in terrain, from big lawns to hidden meadows amongst the trees. In summer they put on movies and events in the old Bandstand. Govanhill has a strange mix of residents, between young people and a large immigrant population. As a result you get some great foreign food places and coffee shops. Shawlands is a very trendy neighbourhood, arguably the southside rival to the West End for bars, cafes and restuarants. Real good mix of folk and a nice sense of community. West of this you have Pollock Park, another great getaway from the city bustle and home to the famous Burrel Collection. Pollock County Park usually has highlands cows if you're interested in hairy horny things.

This obviously covers a good chunk of the city, but definitely take some time to get out of the city too. The Greater Glasgow area is basically the last big populated are before the highlands. A short train or bus from the city will take you to Milngavie, where you can walk up to Mugdock country park, or Balloch, where you can take in our beautiful Loch Lomond. If you're into hiking there's plenty to be done, and a lot of it is accesible by public transport if you don't have a car.

Anyway, best of luck on the move, we're looking forward to having you! Feel free to ping me a PM or reply to this if you have more questions on anything :)