WITH MORE THAN 700 to choose from, it’s almost a criminal act to visit Glasgow without sampling its pubs. And as the U.K.’s music capital and Britain’s only UNESCO City of Music, the options for after-work entertainment are staggering.
Glasgow’s nightlife pulses throughout its grid of city center streets, blending eastward into the Merchant City neighborhood. For early evening drinks with colleagues choose The Salon, the smartly serene lounge above the lobby of Blythswood Square Hotel. The Restaurant at Blythswood Square is a good place to wind up the day’s business, with discrete private booths and a menu based on fresh local ingredients. Only a short walk from Royal Glasgow Concert Hall, it’s also a good choice if evening plans include the theater. In the next block, try one of Glasgow’s best seafood restaurants, Two Fat Ladies, known for straightforward treatment of fresh Scottish seafood and Highland game.
Pubs often serve traditional foods to fortify “punters” as they sample local ales. One of Glasgow’s favorites, Blackfriars in Merchant City, features cider-steamed mussels, steak and ale pie and beer-battered haddock with hand-cut chips. The Horseshoe Bar on Drury Street, whose Edwardian interior has barely changed since its 1884 opening, claims the U.K.’s longest bar, at 100 feet. Glasgow’s most famous malt whiskey pub, The Pot Still on Hope Street, opened in 1867 and serves more than 300 varieties.
A prolonged pub crawl doesn’t mean missing Glasgow’s other after-hours specialty: its music scene. Mix pub vibe, a wide choice of whiskeys and craft beers and live Scottish music at The Ben Nevis on Argyle Street. The laidback pub Admiral Bar on Waterloo offers club nights in its basement. Scotia Bar — Glasgow’s oldest pub, dating from 1792 — remains one of the best live venues for folk music.
The various rooms at The Garage, on Sauchiehall Street, host live bands and dance parties, and the tonier Shimmy Club on Royal Exchange Square plays electro and house. Many of Glasgow’s LGBTQ clubs and bars are in Merchant City: The Polo Lounge on Wilson Street has a good dance floor, although Bennets on Glassford Street is the best known. The Waterloo on Argyle Street is a gay pub.
Between pubs there’s a handy place for shopping. Open until 7 p.m. (8 p.m. on Thursday), House of Fraser on Buchanan Street is where to find a Harris Tweed cap, a Lyle & Scott golf sweater and other Scottish brands.
Read This Next
Airport Update: Miami International Airport
May 2017
May 1, 2017All Reads on This Topic
Read Them All

Introducing
FX Excursions
FX Excursions offers the chance for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in destinations around the world.
#globility
Insta FeedDaily
Sep 26, 2023Perelman Performing Arts Center Opens in New York
The Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC), the cultural cornerstone and final public element of the World Trade Center site, opened this September. The new performing arts center in Lower Manhattan provides a dynamic home for the arts, serving audiences and creators through flexible venues enabling the facility to embrace wide-ranging artistic programs.
Daily
Sep 26, 20234 Sweet Spots for Vintage Clothing Lovers
Whether you call secondhand fashion treasure troves “thrift stores,” “fripperies,” “charity shops,” “vintage boutiques” or something else, shifting the paradigm from “old clothes” to “new finds,” you may find the best, most conversation-starting souvenirs inside these shops and neighborhoods located in the world’s most fashionable cities and a few unexpected places.
eFlyer Reviews
Sep 26, 2023Viking Polaris Canadian Discovery Review
While the 372-passenger Viking Polaris expedition ship, launched in September 2022, falls midway in size between Viking Cruises’ intimate river cruise ships and large-scale ocean ships, it is operated with the same attention to detail and personalized service.
Sponsored Content
The Ultimate Itinerary in The Islands of Tahiti
The Islands of Tahiti are among the most beautiful and sought-after vacation destinations in the world. The endless images of overwater bungalows with Bora Bora’s majestic peak towering over waters of every shade of blue have an intrinsic pull. But with 118 islands and atolls to explore, there is so much more to this spectacular region of the Pacific.
eFlyer News
Sep 26, 2023New Four Seasons Property to Come to Dominican Republic in 2026
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts partners with Cisneros Real Estate to construct a new Four Seasons property in the Dominican Republic. The Four Seasons Resort and Residences Dominican Republic at Tropicalia is slated to open in 2026.
Explore the Beauty of North America by Rail in 2024
Daily
Sep 26, 2023Romance in Nanuku Resort Fiji
eFlyer Deals
Sep 26, 2023eFlyer Lead
Sep 26, 2023Which European Countries Plan to Impose Tourism and Flight Taxes?
On Sept. 25, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the prime minister of Iceland, revealed plans to add a tax on travelers visiting the country. The goal of the tax is to help offset the impact of tourism on the environment.
Sponsored Content
Exclusive Savings: Cruise Along the Danube River with Global Traveler
Exclusive Sailing with Global Traveler
September 2023
Sep 26, 2023Cruise Lines Set an Example with More Female Captains at the Helm
© FRASER YACHTS
ShareThis