The Merchant City pretty much covers everything from George Square to High St, and is one of my…read morefavourite parts of Glasgow. Classed as a residential area, you'll also find all sorts of businesses: from the City Chambers, GOMA, bars, cafes and restaurants. Not to mention music venues like The Fruitmarket and City Halls. The buildings are beautiful - you'll find quite a few of them poem to the public during Doors Open Day each September - look out for St Andrews in the Square. One of the focal points is Merchant Square - a converted market with an awesome internal roofed courtyard, which is surrounded by bars, restaurant, and is home to a weekly craft and design fair. The Merchant city festival runs for around 10 days every July, and is well worth a wander round. All in all, one of the friendliest and most vibrant places to be.

My first ever visit to Merchant City was pretty underwhelming - I'm going to say that during the…read moreday in the middle of the week, this area can seem a bit dull. At night is when it really comes alive and there's lots going on! You have the obvious drawcard of Merchant Square but personally, I don't love the offerings. Other streets of Merchant City have great bars and restaurants, and a few favourites for me are Guy's Restaurant, Wilson Street Pantry for brunch, Spitfire Espresso for a great cake/meeting/working spot and Blackfriars for a pint. New additions like BrewDog and Hutchesons are just wonderful, and really add something special to this great part of Glasgow. Parking can be a pain so I recommend parking at King St car park which is a great excuse to pop into the 13th Note/Mono for a pre-post soft drink. There's also a fabulous walking tour/art trail you can do if you pick up a leaflet at GOMA which shows off some of the amazing art in this area.

It's a tired cliche in Scotland to harp on about the stunning countryside "on our doorstep" that we…read morepay little attention to, but a trip on The West Highland Line proves that even if Scotland is a country filled with bitter, self pitying drunkards, it's an exceptionally good looking one. This rail line is considered amongst the most scenic in the world, and takes you through Loch Lomond, various mountain ranges, past Oban then onto Fort William. The scenery really is beyond belief at some points, with notable money shots being the Loch Lomond section which is viewed from halfway up a mountain (or a big hill, I'm not sure), and towards the end of the line when the train crosses the Glenfinnan Viaduct, a magnet for tourists as it was used in the Harry Potter films. There is one slight downside. Despite the summer months being packed with bumbag wearing tourists, Scotrail use an older, slower, and sometimes quite uncomfortable train for this service. It's either down to bad business sense or deliberate usage of a slower train for lovers of the rugged terrain, but it grates that they don't even bother with the buffet car. It's not too huge a deal though, and shouldn't detract from what's always a jaw dropping journey.

The Greenside Reservoir or "the Greenie" as it is known as by locals, is a reservoir tucked away in…read morethe Kilpatrick Hills. I know of it because I grew up in Duntocher, a village around a half hour walk away from the reservoir. The walk up offers stunning views of Glasgow and beyond, however the silence makes you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. Be warned; during the summer holidays local toerags swarm to the Greenie like moths to a flame so keep this in mind if you don't want your picnic ruined by pink sunburned teenagers jumping into the water.

The Greenside Reservoir is a scenic space of water. Perched on the Old Kilpatrick Hills, it…read moreprovides a great view of Glasgow and beyond. Sadly, it is not the idyllic retreat you may imagine as it is a meeting place for local neds.

This is a small mall containing jewellery, and only jewellery. Host to over 30 jewellery shops, if…read moreArgyll Arcade doesn't have it, then you are to fussy and need to get a grip of your life. Pushy, obsessive girlfriends drag sweating, shifty-eyed boyfriends around here and coo in an innocent-but-underlyingly-persuasive manner at gigantic engagement rings. You can find everything in here, from traditional gold and antiques, to modern gems by contemporary designers. The walls and ceiling sparkle with the reflected light of a million facets - most people can only afford to browse. Wandering around here is an enjoyable way to spend half an hour. Deciding what you would buy if you found £10,000 or even £100,000 just lying in the street (Ha!). One end of the arcade emerges on Buchanan Street, the other on Argyll Street, so it is a nice alternative link between the two streets, especially if it is raining.

Walking through here is like walking back in time. It's bring, airy & full of beautiful jewellery…read moreshops. Upstairs (there is a lift on the Buchanan St side) there are offices & even more exclusive shops. Today the top floors were opened for an exhibition which was wonderful & they even opened up the roof so we could wander out & enjoy the panoramic views of Glasgow.

I'm a fan of the Botanics, and when I saw Electric Gardens announced I knew I just had to grab some…read moretickets. The early bird price was really reasonable too, at £8 per adult (full price is £10 per adult). First point to note is that you need to enter from Queen Margaret Drive, opposite the old BBC Building. There could be better signage about this around the top of Byres Road as we really didn't know where to enter from (the info is on the website but I hadn't looked as I assumed the entrance was at the Byres Rd junction). We were booked for 7pm but it didn't actually seem to matter about a start time as it's a walk-at-your-own-pace kind of thing rather than it including performances (like Electric Glen at Rouken Glen). You can wander through Kibble Palace as well as follow the path through the Botanics. It was mostly well sign-posted so you didn't need to worry too much about the fact it was really dark, and spotted around were staff members in case you had any questions. The toilets are also open, and you can pop to Java at the Police Box to grab a coffee/hot drink or something to eat beforehand. The actual display itself was really lovely and quite tranquil - gorgeous lighting on different parts of the Botanics that maybe you'd never noticed before. There was accompanying music and in parts it was perfectly matched to the lights. Part-way through there was performers with fire which was interesting and loads of people stopped to watch (partly because you couldn't actually get past them). I enjoyed this part but thought it took a little way from the actual electric gardens themselves. We'd gone as a really large group (I think there was nearly 20 of us) and while we lost each other along the way, it made for a really fun outing. I'd actually consider going back again as it runs to the 15th of Feb, and I found it a really enjoyable Friday night.

On Friday evening I got to hang out in the park in the dark with some of the lovely Yelp Glasgow…read moreHotties. Don't be confused we we're regressing back to our youth and hanging around the park in the dark drinking Hooch & 20/20, I realise you will only get this reference if you were in School in the 1990's in Scotland...anyway I digress. We were not hanging about for no reason, we were in fact on a night out to the Botanic Gardens to enjoy the Electric Gardens which is part of the West End Festival program of activities in the city. When we arrived we were greeted with atmospheric music and found the gardens was awash with colour and twinkly lights....anyone who knows me knows I am a complete sucker for some fairy lights so I was a bit like a kid in a candy shop. As we wandered round the gardens we found some lovely areas including a giant disco ball, a little fairy light walk way (my personal favourite), a giant ice lolly, some seriously freaky floating dresses and the old subway station which you look down into was full of dry ice and 'scare the bejesus out of you' music...not my favourite bit...eeek! While the rest of the Yelp crew headed off the to pub for a warming beverage Mr G and myself headed to Pommes Frites for some post wander chips and then home. I had a lovely time and felt it was good value for money.

Every city has their main hub. Where all the shopping takes place, the bars and restaurants. You…read morecould take the train right into the city. From the station, the city center area is right there. Buchanan street is lined up with loads of shops, malls and restaurants. It's a good strip with amazing architecture. You mainly have all the chains stores that you see often. HM, Zara, Boots, Urban Outfitters and so on. There's also House of Fraser which is somewhat similar to Nordstrom. A few floors of shopping with the main floor for cosmetics and a small section with the designer shops. Small clusters of malls hidden behind the building. The storefronts were all decorated for the holidays which made it more festive. There was also an arcade where jewelry stores were. Along the main strip which is pretty wide, you have street performers. No cars are allowed which was great. Loads of restaurants lined the area which there's also some that's inside the shopping mall. It's mainly like a shopping district.

Buchanan Street is one of the main streets in Glasgow; it is a fully pedestrianised area of the…read morecity centre which features shops and restaurants as well as the Buchanan Street Galleries Shopping Centre and a subway station. More notable retailers along the street include a large Frasers department store, Apple, John Lewis, Nespresso and Urban Outfitters. It was home to the city's Hard Rock Cafe until it closed in 2024. The street always feels pretty and lively to walk along; there always seems to be something going on. I do think calling it one of the best shopping streets in the world is a bit of a stretch as it does seem to be lacking compared to many European counterparts, but in Scotland? It could just earn that title. I prefer the modern charm of Buchanan Street compared to alternatives elsewhere, such as in Edinburgh. 4*

Hurrah for the return of the Kelvingrove Bandstand. I'm not going to lie - I barely knew it existed…read moreuntil it got refurbished and reopened. It's really great to see this kind of thing being preserved though as I think it could be really amazing. Could be really amazing, that is. I visited recently for the Magners Summers Sessions (unfortunately Glasgow's summer was long over by August). There was large walls set up around the Bandstand which I thought was a bit of a shame - I'm pretty sure all the gigs sold out really quickly so would it really be so bad for people walking by to have a wee gander? Once inside, there was allocated bays to sit in rather than seats which was quite good if you were there early, but too bad if you were late as I saw a lot of people struggling to find somewhere to sit. There were food stalls and staff selling coupons for booze, neither of which I partook in. The band (Teenage Fanclub) were great and it was nice to have a wee seat to watch a band for a change. That is, until the people in front of us stood up. Thankfully we came to a friendly arrangement of synchronised seating/standing so we could all see which I thought was quite funny. On a cold night (and probably a warm one) you'd definitely want to take something to sit on as the cold concrete really starts to get uncomfortable - I had a winter coat on and was still chittering! The big reason for the 3 stars is the lack of toilets for an event this size. The bandstand holds 2500 people. There was two toilet blocks to the left of the stage, one with three ladies toilets (yes, THREE) and I'm not sure how many the other had, but it didn't look a whole lot bigger. What do you get when you mix 2500 people with lots of Magners? Lots of trips to the loo! To me that is just madness expecting people to queue for 20-30 minutes. I get that it's a small space, but they definitely should have planned that aspect better.

I love having the bandstand on my doorstep! I've been to a number of events here throughout the…read moresummer and love that this recently refurbished space is put to good use. You can see the stage well from any of the seats given they are built in to the slope and having the park in the background makes for a lovely backdrop. Parts of the West End festival utilised the bandstand, from the samba bands in the Parade to some of the colourful performances at the Mela. On Wednesday's during the summer (June and July I think) the bandstand was open for kids between 10 am and 3pm, with different activities and a few performances and it was free! Plus kids can burn off lots of energy running up and down the steps, who knew that could be so much fun? And the toilets in Kelvingrove Park are adjacent to the bandstand too. One of the main events at the bandstand are the Magners Summer Sessions in August (see seperate review), in my opinion these make great use of the space and I would love to see other organised events at the bandstand such as theatre performances or more music gigs. I guess Glasgow just needs some better weather to fully enjoy and open air stage!

Cool street entertainers are much less common in Glasgow than they are in many other big European…read morecities. I personally think they add something to the atmosphere and general hustle & bustle of the tourist areas that we all often find ourselves in when abroad. For that reason I am in favour of stuff like the levitating man and I like to always stop for a second or two and look both at him and the bemused expressions of people watching him.

It's a little hard to review the performance of a person who is essentially standing still on…read moreBuchanan Street (not still enough to count as a statute) but I'm going to give it a try. I went for 5 stars as I do always smile as I walk past, and honestly - this job must require a strong will to stand there for most of the day while people poke and prod you. I remember the first time I saw a levitating man (never seen a lady, yet) I was captivated. "But how?!" my brain screamed. I knew there was an answer, and so with some furious googling I managed to unlock the secrets. Now I know the secret, I like to chortle as I go past at people's confused expressions. Levitating man - kudos to you!

For me, the Kelvin Walkway is the highlight of the West End and one of the main reasons I love…read moreliving here. It's just a wonderful corridor of greenery to wander through and transport yourself away from traffic noise and pollution. Mind you, it wasn't always like this - in Victorian times and before the Kelvin was very much a working river and was extremely polluted, and it's only really in the latter years of the 20th Century that it was properly cleaned up and transformed into a walking route. The Kelvin is Glasgow's 'other' river and I recommend the book of the same name by Alex Matheson if you want to know more about the history of the river. The walkway is great for accessing the Botanic Gardens or Kelvingrove Park, and a pleasant walk into town is to take the walkway round the back of the Museum & Art Gallery then cut through Kelvingrove Park and along Clairmont Gardens and Woodside Place, which brings you out nicely at Charing Cross without encountering much traffic. I live within a mile of its downstream efflux into the Clyde, and I just adore the fact that I could step out of my front door and end up in Fort William by following the Kelvin Walkway to Milngavie and then joining the West Highland Way. How does Bilbo's song go? The Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can, Pursuing it with eager feet, Until it joins some larger way, Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say. Definitely on my bucket list - I may not make it as far as Fort William but Milngavie station is a definite possibility!

A simply gorgeous part of Glasgow to explore - I only knew of a small part of this walkway until…read moreSara T took us on a west end wander further north from Inn Deep up to Queen Margaret Drive. What a delight the walkway is - leafy, lush and somewhat like a rainforest. You'd never knew you were in the middle of a city when you're wandering along. There's some delights to discover along the way, including the mills and at the right time of year, loads of wild garlic. If you've never been before, it's a must for any Glasgow resident for a lovely weekend wander.