Last week, I went on a little stay-cation in my own city of Glasgow. I was very kindly invited by the lovely people at CitizenM Glasgow to spend a night at their hotel, so it provided the perfect opportunity to spend 24hrs playing tourist in my home-town. As some of you may know, I’m moving to London next month so it was so lovely to be able to spend some time doing my favourite things in Glasgow before I leave.
I also thought putting together a little “how to spend 24hrs in Glasgow” post could be quite useful for anyone who is planning to visit the city. I’m going to be showing you what I got up to, but also give some suggestions for other things to do as well!
I checked into our hotel room at the CitizenM Glasgow at around half past 2. Check in opens from 2pm and it is a very simple process! There are self check-in desks at reception, meaning that queues are much shorter to get your keys. Our room was on the 6th floor, with a nice view of the Theatre Royal below us.
The CitizenM hotel is very modern – the rooms all feature rather high-tech controls and changing colour lights to suit different ‘moods’. For example, putting on the ‘movie’ mood via the iPad controller dimmed the lights and lowered the blinds making the room much more ambient. It is rather fun to play about with!
The rooms are quite petite, but they are more than ample for a city break. The bed is actually really big and very comfy, which is the biggest prerequisite in a hotel for me. Our customer service experience was great as well – we called up to get some extra pillows for the bed and within 2 minutes there was someone at our door with huge, fluffy pillows.
After checking into the hotel and leaving our bags, we headed out for a Sunday roast at the Alston Bar & Beef. It’s a lovely little restaurant hidden under Central Station, with a great selection of gins and meats. We (of course) went for the 3 course Sunday roast menu and had some delicious roast beef with all the trimmings, almond & sea salt brownies and some great gin cocktails.
If you are looking to go out in the city centre for dinner, I’d really recommend giving this place a try. The interiors are dreamy (HELLO marble tables) and the food is great too. Other solid dinner recommendations are Paesano (amazing & budget friendly pizza), Bread Meats Bread (the best burger in the city), the Spanish Butcher (a bit more fancy – authentic, high quality Spanish meats) and Cafe Andaluz (my fave place for Spanish tapas!).
After dinner, we stocked up on some snacks for the hotel room and a bottle of prosecco. Then we headed back to the CitizenM Glasgow to watch a movie and have a rather cosy night! The hotel has a large library of films to watch (for free!) and most of them are new releases. For a gal who likes to stay in like me, this was absolute heaven!
The next day, we woke up feeling refreshed (those beds are so comfy!) and headed downstairs for breakfast. I apologise that the picture I took of my breakfast isn’t the artiest image I’ve ever taken, but it really was delicious! There is a coffee bar where you can get any type of coffee you like and then a hot buffet bar as well as a continental buffet bar. So if you want a full Scottish breakfast (like I did) or a coffee and a croissant, you’re covered.
After breakfast, we packed up our bags and checked out. Again, this is a very simple process as it is all done through the self-service desks. All you have to do is tap your room key on a pad and you’re all done!
We decided to head into Glasgow’s West End after leaving the hotel. I guess you could call it a more ‘touristy’ area of Glasgow, as it has the Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow University and Botanic Gardens over there. But personally, I think Glasgow is a city where you go to live like a local; you eat, drink, shop and go out to experience the city. Edinburgh is where you go if you want that ‘tourist’ experience!
We went to one of my favourite cafes in the west-end, Delizique, for some coffee and cake. It also has a sister cafe next door called Cafezique which does some amazing brunch, so I’d recommend giving that a try too! The Hillhead & Partick areas of the West-End have plenty of nice cafes, shops and restaurants to wander around so it’s a good place to spend an afternoon.
Afterwards, we wandered down to the lovely Blooms florist which is just a short walk away from Delizique on Dumbarton Road. It’s a very pretty little shop with lots of trinkets and miniature cacti to peruse as well as the cut flowers. In the end, I went for some bright pink hydrangeas which they wrapped up in brown paper. I think they make a nice change from peonies at this time of the year!
So that concludes my little guide to what I did during 24hrs in Glasgow and my review of the CitizenM Glasgow hotel! I really would recommend the CitizenM for a city break stay as it is so convenient and rather good value for money as well. We really enjoyed our stay there and are now eyeing up a visit to the New York branch at some point!
It was lovely to have some time to spend wandering around my own city too. I wanted to add that if you are ever visiting Glasgow and want some advice on food, what to do or anything like that, don’t hesitate to ask me anything over on Twitter (link here!). I’m quite chatty over there and am happy to answer any questions!
