Glasgow Family Trip: 6 Amazing Places You Shouldn’t Miss
Planning a family trip but don’t know where to go? Consider Glasgow! The second most important city in Scotland has a lot to offer. Its attractions reveal a rich cultural heritage, vibrant events, magnificent nature, and dizzying entertainment.
Indeed, Glasgow is full of amazing places and it would be a great idea to go there with your family. An equally perfect idea would be to rent a car for your trip. With four wheels at your fingertips, you’ll have a lot more enjoyable experiences and memories. Explore the city’s highlights, and after that, hop in the car and head out in search of secret spots outside the city. The car makes it easy and fast.
If you are looking forward to an exciting family road trip in Glasgow, we are ready to help you organize it. First of all, visit Rental24.co.uk to book a spacious 7-passenger vehicle, and secondly, find the top places to visit in and around the city in the following list.
Glasgow Science Center
The Glasgow Science Center provides four floors of exciting interactive exhibits in a modern glass and aluminum building on the banks of the River Clyde. Things located inside can hardly be called exhibits. Rather, these are working interactive devices and experiments that clearly demonstrate the laws of physics, chemistry, human, and animal biology.
The center reveals almost all aspects of science from optical illusions to computer technology in a popular science form. Near the science center, under a glittering egg-shaped shell, you’ll find an IMAX theater and a 127-meter-high wing-shaped tower that can rotate around its base. So, you and your children will have a great time in this place.
Opening hours: Monday-Sunday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Tickets: adults – £10.50, children 5-16 – £8.50
Riverside Museum
The huge futuristic building on the banks of the River Clyde features an extensive collection of vehicles ranging from bicycles and motorcycles to trams and steam locomotives. In total, the transport museum offers more than 3 thousand exhibits.
In addition to vehicles, the museum has replicas of 19th and 20th century Glasgow streets with 2-story trams that you can climb onto. At the pier next to the museum, you may see the sailing ship Glenlee as well. The sailing ship is open to visitors and makes it possible to get acquainted with the conditions of life on the ship. You’ll be able to see the captain’s and sailors’ cabins, and the holds where they transported tobacco and sugar.
Opening hours: Monday-Sunday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Tickets: free of charge
Isle of Arran
Located an hour’s drive southwest of Glasgow, the Isle of Arran is a popular outdoor destination. This small but very beautiful emerald island has everything for a great time: Brodick castle with a beautiful park, a distillery, a brewery, and picturesque seaside villages and beaches. And if you want to catch a variety of landscapes and coastal views, climb the 874-meters-high mountain Goat Fell.
The deserted north of the island with heather, hills, and mountains belongs to the highlands, while the southern part with fertile lands and villages is a plateau. Therefore, people often refer to the Isle of Arran as Scotland in miniature. The island ferry leaves the port every hour, making Arran a perfect day trip from Glasgow.
Opening hours: ferry departs every hour 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Tickets: £30.20 per car for a round trip
Glasgow University
Do you want to instill in your children a love of learning? Visit the beautiful grounds of Glasgow University with them. Dark towers with conical roofs, arched stained-glass windows, and the university’s gothic central tower dominate Glasgow. Appeared at the end of the 19th century, this masterpiece of neo-Gothic architecture looks more like a luxurious palace.
The silence and tranquility of the university courtyard with its echoing corridors and covered arcade, as it were, takes you to the medieval past or to a scene from a movie. Also, the central building of the university houses one of the oldest museums in Scotland – the Hunterian.
Opening hours: Monday-Sunday 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Tickets: free of charge
Queen’s Park
Founded in 1857, Queens Park epitomizes Scottish nature. It was named after Queen Mary Stuart and represents the diversity of English beauty and luxury. Due to its large size and similar structure, many people compare the park to Kelvingrove.
The main highlight of Queen’s Park is a large lake surrounded by amazing trees and flowers. It’s full of water birds that you and your children can feed.
Another great activity available in the park is cruising on the lake and exploring nearby attractions. Queen’s Park has everything for a good pastime – cafes, restaurants, playgrounds for sports and picnics. Therefore, you shouldn’t miss this wonderful place on your next Glasgow family trip.
Opening hours: Monday-Sunday 24 hours
Tickets: free of charge
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
It’s never too late to introduce your kids to art. Therefore, be sure to add the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to your travel list. The building was originally built of red sandstone in the Spanish Baroque style in 1901 for the Glasgow World’s Fair. Now, it’s the most popular museum in Scotland and one of the most visited cultural spots in the UK.
The collection of the museum and art gallery includes a wide variety of exhibits from paintings by French impressionists and Dutch masters to knightly armor and dinosaur skeletons. Among the museum exhibits are paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Jacob van Ruisdael, Botticelli, Titian, Giovanni Bellini, Degas, Monet, Picasso, Dali, and Van Gogh.
Right behind the Kelvingrove Museum, you will find Kelvingrove Park, which is a very nice place for outdoor relaxation. In addition, the University of Glasgow is within a 10-15-minute walk from the park. You can visit both places in one trip.
Opening hours: Monday – Thursday, and Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Friday and Sunday 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Tickets: free of charge
In summary, Glasgow is an excellent family travel destination. You and your children will have a great time in museums, science centers, parks, and other wonderful places in the city. So, start planning your trip and take advantage of our list of attractions.
