Scotland the Best

by Peter Irvine

This guide will help you experience the very best of Scotland. Whether visiting on pleasure or business, why settle for second-rate when you can be guided to so much that is outstanding? Here are thousands of recommendations that include the very finest of places to stay and eat (whatever your budget), beaches and hill walks, bakers, haunted sites, places to take the kids, and more. This edition of Scotland the Best ?now expanded, updated, and revised?is the finest ever. Peter Irvine has reassessed every recommendation to determine whether it’s still worthy of inclusion and added new gems to all categories.

Genres: Travel, Scotland, Reference

360 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 1998

Reviews

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

All ‘best of’ guides are subjective to a large extent and this isn’t any different. I live in Scotland and am well travelled in my own country but I really enjoyed this guide. There are two large sections on Edinburgh and Glasgow. The latter I know best because I live here. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t agree on the best restaurants, galleries or walks, or even that the guide is already out of date. It’s a good starting point for any traveller coming to the city. The regional section covers the main tourist centres. I particularly enjoyed the best outdoor and best historical places sections and I have a new list of places to visit. There is also a comprehensive guide to ‘the best’ walks. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone visiting Scotland. I notice there is a 2019 update on its way too.

With thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for a free review copy.

[SueLucie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve visited Scotland only intermittently since my family lived there a couple of decades ago so my knowledge of ‘must-see’ places is way out of date and, as a result, some of the descriptions here were almost unrecognisable to me - St Andrews as an example would appear to be very different these days, Edinburgh too. So this guide is perfect for someone like me. I think it perhaps caters for people who do already know Scotland at least a little rather than complete strangers - it is light-hearted in tone and that is one of its major attractions but I imagine some of its wry observations would be lost on first-time visitors.

I like the way it is organised, area by area to some extent, but also into categories countrywide. There are categories like best spas, real ale pubs, fish & chip shops, for example. The ones I was particularly taken with, though, are those for narrower interests - the best wild swimming holes, the important literary places, great garden centres being just a few. The author doesn’t claim to be presenting a comprehensive guide to absolutely every little place in Scotland, but to be pointing out the best places in his opinion, and he has visited and compared most of them. All very subjective, of course, but if you get the immediate impression that you would get on with the author in person (as I did), then there is a good chance that you’ll like his recommendations.

I was skimming through an e-book version which didn’t feature the accompanying maps but I can only assume the experience would be greatly enhanced by viewing it via the new app on a phone or tablet. Next time I visit Scotland I’ll be sure to download that.

With thanks to Collins Reference via NetGalley for the opportunity to download an ARC.

[Ed Tait · Rating 5 out of 5]

The BEST guidebook for Scotland. Braw. Live the dream.

[Laura Duffy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is perfect book for tourists and natives alike and is filled with a wealth of information about things that are not to be missed in Scotland, along with interesting facts and guidance, this is a book not to miss!