Glasgow City
Car Rental in Glasgow, Scotland
If you’re planning a holiday to the south of Scotland and would like the freedom of visiting popular tourist sites at your own pace, pickup a deal on car hire in Glasgow and start touring.
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If Glasgow rings any musical bells, it is because of its association with a 1980 song hinting that this Scottish city, otherwise a hard-edged town of left-wing workers, is the place to be heard and seen to advance one’s musical career.
More than just the most populous city in Scotland and one of the most visited in the British Isles, Glasgow is still the thumping hub of musicians, both upcoming and established, foreign and homegrown.
This distinction is recognised by the UNESCO initiative of honouring Creative Cities, Glasgow being the “City of Music,” an inscription awarded in 2008.
This means that at any point of your visit, there are likely to be more than 100 music events lined up per week, an odd mix of Celtic beats, classical opera, pop, rock and grunge.
Touring Glasgow and surrounds by car
Glasgow’s compact city center, aptly named City Centre, is largely pedestrianised and laid out in grid pattern, making it easier to cover by car.
Argyle and Sauchiehall Streets which bisect the City Centre east to west, are lined with Edwardian and Victorian buildings that also make convenient landmarks.
A drive along Buchanan Street, which intersects the two other streets on a north to south orientation, gets you to the main shopping hub of the city.
As befitting the city centre, the concentration of museums, art galleries and theatres can be found here, a short walk from each other.
For a look at Glasgow’s medieval heritage, drive east to Merchant City, once home to the Tobacco Lords who amassed vast wealth in the 18th century.
This medieval core, which eventually fell out of favour among residents because of the soot that covered much of its structures, is dotted with ornate 18th century mansions that spoke of the growing wealth that industrialisation brought to Glasgow.
A five-minute drive to the east of Merchant City will get you to the commercial and business district that grew around Blythswood Hill, one of the many hills you can drive to view the city from a whole different perspective.
If you’re planning to explore further afield, you may want to consider a one way rental car that you can simply drop off at any airport or depot where your hire car company operates.
This gives you the freedom to not have to return the car to your original pickup location.
Head for a Jaunt to West End
Outside the City Centre lies West End, a plain moniker for a district otherwise characterised as bohemian, artsy and quaint.
Thanks to the neo-Gothic University of Glasgow and the numerous eclectic shops, edgy bars and funky restaurants that line the cobbled backstreet Ashton Lane, the avenues here are leafy and the architecture lovely.
Within the vicinity is the imposing Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum which houses an immense collection of medieval weapons, armours, paintings and sculptures that range from Italian Renaissance to French Impressionist to modern Scottish in a Victorian red-sandstone building.
The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, maintained by the University of Glasgow and the oldest in Scotland, is home to an intriguing Anatomy Museum, an offshoot of the founder’s brother’s profession as a surgeon.
Before you drop off your car, take a short stop at the Riverside Museum, just 7 miles east of the Glasgow Airport, for a look at Glasgow’s maritime and industrial history, a legacy that it builds on even as it transforms itself from bulky and grubby, to edgy and sleek.
