City Guides

Inverness

The Market bar ‘Regarded by some as the stinky jewel of Inverness, The Market bar is always my first port of call for a pre-gig snifter. It’s a cool and alternative venue, offering something different to the mainstream. I love playing to the Market…

Travel around Edinburgh

Buses Edinburgh offers an extensive bus service and every stop has a full timetable and schedule. The number 22 is a favourite for its quick, direct route down to the bar and cafe-lined shores of Leith. Also, the numbers 12, 26 and 31 will take you…

Dundee

Campbell Town Pub ‘I’d recommend that people start in The Campbell Town pub’, says guitarist Pete Reilley. ‘Aye, start in the Campbell Town’, they all chip in. It seems to be a popular choice. And if it’s popular with The View, then it’s popular with…

Aberdeen

Carmine's Restaurant ‘Located in the heart of Aberdeen, Carmine's is a truly unique wee restaurant. Open for a few hours over lunch and again at dinner (last orders are usually taken around 7.30pm), this tiny restaurant serves excellent pasta and…

Sweet treats

It nearly caused the untimely end of Augustus Gloop ‘the greedy great big nincompoop’ in Roald Dahl’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and it’s the downfall of many a good-intentioned diet. We are of course talking about chocolate. There’s…

Stirling

Le Weekend festival ‘This is probably one of the most important events in Stirling’s arts calendar for me - and I’m not just saying that because I work on it! Le Weekend is a music festival that aims to challenge musical boundaries and was effectively…

Cheap dates

Whisper sweet nothings No matter how hardened the heart, there are few that won’t be melted by some tender Scottish poetry. At the Scottish Poetry Library, you can while away a few hours, reading to one another. Perhaps some Carol Ann Duffy could set…

Polish Cultural Festival

We all like to think we’re a bit cultured and sometimes wistfully view life as an exercise in collecting wisdom. But being able to say ‘hello’ in more than three languages and knowing your way around a subtitled film isn’t quite going to win you any…

Hinterland - The best new Scottish bands at Hinterland

Come On Gang! ‘Indie power-trio from Edinburgh, whose drummer Sarah Tanat-Jones provides surprisingly folksy vocals. www.myspace.com/comeongangmusic Copy Haho Louche young indie-rockers from Stonehaven (just outside Aberdeen) in the Sonic…

Franz Ferdinand Recommend

The Doublet Bob Hardy: ‘This is what a real pub should be like, with lots of wee nooks you can sit in to hide away and while away the hours.’ 74 Park Road, Glasgow (C1), 0141 334 1982, Tue–Sat 11am–midnight, Sun 12.30pm–11pm, Mon 11am–11pm.

Free Glasgow: A One-Day Stand

Although not generally looked upon as matching Edinburgh in terms of scenery or the finer arts, Glasgow is a youthful and vibrant city whose local music, clubs and pubbing scene is as vibrant as any outside London – if not more so, when you take into…

Biffy Clyro: 'Mon the Biffy

Ben from Biffy Clyro takes us round Glasgow and explains the influence the city and his suburban hometown, Kilmarnock, had on the band’s music.

One day itinerary: A One Day Stand

It's one of Britain's most expensive cities and to hard-up new arrivals, Edinburgh could seem impossible to enjoy without a six-figure bank balance. But we say, why buy a cow when you can get the milk for free? Scotland’s capital positively heaves with…

Aberdeen

Scotland’s third largest city is both a thriving, youthful university town and a prosperous, grown-up centre thanks to the North Sea oil industry. The people here are by nature industrious, proud and uncompromising. Inevitably, their conversation…

Stirling

The Settle Inn The Settle Inn is a quaint little pub tucked away on the back streets of Stirling. Its location looks as if it would be a place best suited to a quiet drink but don't be fooled, good banter is guaranteed, and the weekly quiz draws quite…

Dundee

Speed Dating at The Old Bank Bar Do you want to guarantee yourself another present under the Christmas tree? Speed dating can help. You have four minutes to talk to that prospective stalker, sorry partner, before moving on to the next. And it’s worth…

Celebrity Stalker

The Queen The Sovereign Head of State has a plush pad smack in the middle of Edinburgh: Holyrood Palace. It’s morbidly fascinating to observe the hooplah that surrounds Her Majesty’s visitations. Light relief comes in the form of hubby Prince Philip.

Inverness

Leakey’s bookshop Leaky’s is a quirky old bookshop, housed in an ex-church piled floor to ceiling with literature. There is a fire burning hearth in the centre with logs piled all around and a black spiral staircase leading to an overhanging level.

Paddy's Market: The End of an Era?

It’s pretty far from being the most glamorous viewpoint from which to see Glasgow, but for anyone who wishes to view the city in all its bare-bones and often raw glory, Paddy’s Market is worth taking a walk on the wild side for. Set on Shipbank Lane…

Shops: £20 outfit

Edinburgh is a hot bed of little boutiques selling one-off items. They are also often referred to as charity shops and on the £20 outfit challenge they become my best friend, as we bond over woollen knits and dainty brooches. ‘We’ve just had a delivery…

Food: Currying flavour

When the late foreign secretary Robin Cook called the chicken tikka masala ‘Britain’s true national dish’, it was the moment the curry arrived. Until then seen as an ethnic food which had been brought over by Indian immigrants during the 1960s, its…

Food: Something Smells Fishy

There’s a distinct muskiness in the air. It’s the kind of smell that old men often get blamed for. Or for which dogs receive pitying stares. Sweaty, smoky and sharp, the smell of Arbroath smokie envelops the farmers’ market. Iain Spink, the stall owner…

Food: Hitlist

Susie’s Diner It’s got a bit of a ‘school dinner’ canteen appearance, but don’t despair: the grub here will be familiar only if you went to the sort of school that served up home-made vegetarian delights with a hearty selection of hot dishes and fresh…

Free Wi-Fi in Glasgow

The Bank Cafe Bar • 443 Clarkston Road, 0141 637 8461 www.maclay.com, Sun–Thu 11am–11pm, Fri & Sat 11am–midnight. The Arches • 253 Argyle Street, 0141 565 1000, www.thearches.co.uk, cafe/bar open Mon–Sat 11am–midnight, Sun noon-–midnight.