The best places to visit in Scotland

When it comes to travel-bragging, Scotland has it all: outstanding castles, clan history and just-caught crustaceans; misty mountains, moorland and an almost make-believe atlas of islands; brain-hurting whisky, bronze beaches and waggly bums under kilts.

Before travelling though, the hardest part is finding answers to the most commonly asked questions: what are the best places to visit in Scotland? where are the most beautiful places in Scotland? What extraordinary sights shouldn’t be missed? And where are the most memorable places to stay? To help you get to grips with the spirit of this wild, wonderful and, often, wet country, here’s our pick of the best places to visit in Scotland.

When is the best month to visit Scotland?

Scotland is beautiful at all times during the year, but we recommend visiting between May and September for the sunniest and warmest weather. You'll also get the most daylight during these months - perfect for exploring. However, if you're interested in seeing the dreamy, snow-capped mountains, then a winter trip is for you.

These are the best places to visit in Scotland

1. Edinburgh

This heart-thumping capital was built out of fire and stone: around the geological drama of panoramic Arthur’s Seat and the volcanic plug of Castle Rock, where the mightiest fortification in Britain looms like a medieval fantasy. Between the two runs the fabulous-but-frenzied Royal Mile, a raked boulevard of lopsided tollbooths, wizard hat spires, quality knitwear shops, pavement artists and hidden corners that’ll have you ferreting from townhouse museum to historic pub. At all times, there’s a sense of theatre.

This sets the scene for Edinburgh’s Old Town, but beyond its cobblestoned wynds you could easily spend up to a week plotting trips to its terrific neighbourhoods: the love of good food, drink, and culture shines out strongest in the New Town, West End, Stockbridge, Bruntsfield, Morningside and Leith. Elsewhere, museums are rarely as uplifting as the National Museum of Scotland or Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art,  and there is a greatest hits of unforgettable places to stay. Two highlights are refreshed classic The Balmoral, or burlesque-meets-rockstar hotel House of Gods.

2. Glasgow

There used to be a slightly off-putting industrial swagger to Scotland’s largest city, but it’s now the country’s walloping cultural heart and its creative side transcends its reputation for hard drinking, rain and sectarianism — nowadays, you’re more likely to experience Michelin-star cuisine in the West End, a Zaha Hadid-designed museum, or master works from the likes of Rembrandt and Van Gogh at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Perhaps though, it’s the day-go orange traffic cone that’s repeatedly placed on the Duke of Wellington statue outside the Gallery of Modern Art that best sums up the city; Glasgow is funny, friendly and nothing without its people.

Everyone should visit the Glasgow-meets-Gotham hilltop Necropolis and mosh at a gig at the Barrowland Ballroom — hands-down the country’s best live music venue — while there’s no better place to go gourmet than in Finnieston (rejoice while eating at The Gannet or, UNALOME by Graeme Cheevers). For a showstopper of a hotel, the address you’re after is Kimpton Blythswood Square, now how to a game-changing rooftop spa.

3. Fife

Packed with coastal treasures, castles and creel pot fishermen, yet ignored by most tourists (with the exception of holy grail-chasing golfers en route to St Andrews), this former Pictish kingdom pulls off one of the greatest tricks in the country. There are no myth-making lochs or mist-wrapped glens, yet the peninsula’s coastal paths and pastel-coloured harbour towns leave as much of an impression as anywhere.

Highlights abound, but favourites include: Dunfermline Abbey and Palace, to see the ancient resting place of Scotland’s kings and queen; the terrific time-warp villages of the East Neuk, including Elie, Crail and Anstruther; and St Andrews, the high altar of championship golf, where the soft thwack of dimpled balls can be best heard from the fairway-view rooms of Rusacks St Andrews. It’s worth the trip for the food alone too: particularly at beloved restaurant with rooms The Peat Inn.

4. Borders Abbey Towns

Preposterously beautiful, this is where Sir Walter Scott — Scotland’s man of letters and author of Rob Roy and Ivanhoe — waxed lyrical. From west to east, it’s worth coming for the country’s grandest estate (Floors Castle, near Kelso); the most suspenseful Neo-medieval home (Abbotsford House, where Scott quilled his most famous works); and a succession of handsome, if near-derelict, stone abbeys that run from Melrose to Dryburgh — here the dead are never far from the living. In particular, Jedburgh’s bone-relic masterpiece is where the Romanesque runs riot.

There is quiet ambition here, especially at SCHLOSS Roxburghe, the Borders’ flagship country house hotel with perfume-scented new spa, but drill down and it’s clear this is a swathe of Scotland that’s waiting to be rediscovered all over again. Summing it all up is The Great Tapestry of Scotland, the brainchild of Edinburgh-based author Alexander McCall Smith and a masterpiece of artistry in Galashiels that weaves together the country’s 420-million year history, from the prehistoric to the devolved Scottish Parliament.

5. Glen Coe

Rain or shine, the slow tick of tourists along the deer-stalked A82 road is evidence that this steep-sided valley, with mountains brimming with lost valleys and stories of Scottish clans, will never fall out of popularity. And it is not just the box-office movies shot here (Harry Potter, Skyfall, Braveheart, Highlander) that encourage impulses of adventure. It is also the craggy-faced Munros (hills over 3,000ft), of which there are more than a score, and the adjoining valleys — few come close to Glen Etive for centrefold beauty. For a hotel of some stature, Glencoe House Hotel is wrapped up in period treasures, while The Pierhouse in nearby Port Appin is perfection; the most joyous moment being the menu of shellfish wizardry.

6. Braemar & the Cairngorms

A village of steadings, Braemar is the gateway to both Cairngorms National Park and the Caledonian pine estate and castle of Balmoral, the Scottish residence of the Royals since it was snapped up by Prince Albert for Queen Victoria in 1852. There’s a nature is king vibe throughout — days are spent in muddy boots on hiking trails, or wader-deep in the salmon-stocked River Dee — but that’s not to say the area doesn’t keep everyone happy. There’s Braemar Castle for history; nearby Glenshee Snowsports Centre for winter pursuits; Mar Lodge Estate for red deer, red squirrels and golden eagle sightings; September’s The Braemar Gathering for kilted men tossing cabers; and The Fife Arms for unflappable service and understated luxury. Clever Swiss art dealers Ivan and Manuela Wirth clocked that the former coaching inn could be a real asset and now they’ve turned it into a Brigadoon fantasy of modern art, Victoriana and country sports lifestyle. There’s no other hotel in Scotland with a Picasso hung next to the fireplace, that’s for sure.

7. Loch Ness

The original Highland must-do, where tourists cruise under bruise-purple skies to catch a glimpse of the water’s mythic long-necked cryptid Nessie, Loch Ness remains a place of good-natured, family-friendly fun. Days are changing though, and while a boat trip from contrived monster HQ Drumnadrochit and tumble through time at toothy Urquhart Castle on the loch’s banks are prerequisites, extra dimensions are now being added.

Tackle the Loch Ness 360° Trail, an 80-mile activity trail for hikers, trail runners and riders made up of two separate trails, or venture west into elemental Glens Affric, Cannich and Moriston, where the story of rewilding (where ecological restoration marries conservation) is at its most remarkable. In 2023, look out for the world’s first rewilding centre on eco-charity Trees for Life’s Dundreggan Estate. The area makes for several scenic stays, too: consider one of Eagle Brae’s ten luxury log cabins above Carnoch, or Foyers Lodge, a Victorian-era retreat on Loch Ness’ eastern shores.

8. Northwest Highlands

Rippling mountains and moors, lochs that’ll have you believing in fairies and monsters, and a geological timeline older than all life itself are just a handful of lures that define a visit to the areas of Wester Ross and Sutherland. This is the Highlands of the imagination and you quickly get a taste for life in coastal towns like tiny Torridon, Kinlochewe and Ullapool. For beaches, put Clachtoll and Achmelvich at the top of your list, while for sumptuous stays it’s The Torridon, with a spine-straightening view of Beinn Alligin and the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve from its whisky bar, or Shieldaig Lodge, a spruced-up grouse shooting estate with 26,000-acres to yomp across. The rush around the ludicrously-popular North Coast 500 circuit bypasses many of the finest nooks in this part of Scotland — one such triumph is the Wee Mad Road, a stretch of hairpin-bend heaven between Lochinver and Kylesku.

9. Isle of Skye

Skye’s blessing is also its curse. Its Mordor-like mountains, dragon-scale pinnacles and Jurassic-era landslips — chiefly, the Cuillins, the Old Man of Storr and the Quiraing — are now Instagram stars thanks to sheer good looks, Hollywood movies and a Harry Styles’ pop video. That makes it insanely popular, but there are still plenty of low-key destinations where you can escape the phone-touting crowds. The day-long hike to Sgùrr na Strì delivers on the promise of the most spectacular sea-to-sky viewpoint in Britain, while the Elgol and Sleat peninsulas to the southwest are pared-back compared to Portree and Staffin. Hotel-wise, the best place to be is either Kinloch Lodge, for belt-loosening cuisine and sing-worthy service, or Flodigarry Hotel, an off-compass outpost with a fancy-pants design bar and suites that wouldn’t look out of place in the Maldives.

10. South Harris

Much as on a Pacific Ocean atoll, you start to notice how the combination of fudgy sand, sea mist and sun on this Outer Hebridean island is utterly hypnotic. Luskentyre Sands and those scalloped along the western coast of this so-called island (it’s attached to North Harris by a spit of land) instil a sense of life worth living away from the rest of the world and, should the weather hold, this is Scotland worth the T-shirt tan.

Beyond the machair, Harris is imbued with craftsmanship and community and that’s best discovered on a visit to a Harris Tweed weaver or wool fabric showroom in Tarbert, or indeed at the Isle of Harris Distillery, where sugar kelp and botanicals marry to create a gin that turns steel-grey water into something extraordinary. There is one road around the island and if anywhere was made for a camper van trip it’s the Outer Hebrides — continue south via the Uists through the croft-dotted landscape of naked hills and empty beaches to Barra and Vatersay. Oh, what a privilege.

11. Orkney

Orkney is a North Sea archipelago with a story that no one fully understands. It showcases a different strata of history at every turn, from the Mesolithic and Neolithic to the Pictish and Viking, and it’s hard to imagine anywhere on Earth with more archaeological treasures in such a small area — hardly a week goes by when a tomb, cairn, or artefact isn’t unearthed from its soil or along a beach. There are 70 islands in total, but for those short on time Mainland and Hoy are the main draws, with the Unesco-worthy sights of Skara Brae, the Ring of Brodgar and St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall the best-preserved storehouses of Orcadian history.

12. Islay

Did someone mention whisky? Life might not always have been easy on this Southern Hebridean island, but islanders have certainly begun to reap the rewards. Currently, there are nine single malt distilleries on Islay (soon to be 10 with Port Ellen) and, from old-timers Lagavulin and Laphroaig in the south to jazzed-up Caol Ila and newcomer Ardnahoe overlooking island neighbour Jura, it’s unashamedly a whisky drinker’s kind of place.

But while it provides a haven for barley growers and peat smokers (tobacco is the main flavour profile of many of the Islay malts), the island is changing focus to cater for all. Many distilleries now operate family-friendly tours and cafes, the Atlantic beaches dazzle and trains of seabirds and dolphins linger around the coast. For a slice of self-contained bliss, The Machrie is marooned on The Big Strand beach and is as close as Islay gets to Hebridean seventh heaven.