Scotland Travel in 2024: THINGS TO KNOW!

are you traveling to Scotland in 2024 and are you curious about all the new things that Scotland will have to offer this year then continue watching because I'm going to be covering all the new places that are coming to Edinburgh and beyond all of the cool historical anniversaries even places that have sadly closed down also some info on what weather to expect so yeah why don't we all sit down and talk about that for a bit my name is cat AKA kakibot I make videos about Edinburgh and Scotland and sometimes even and Beyond and today I am bringing you what I just promised a little update on Scotland in 2024 now I thought I would start by sharing three of my ins and three of my outs for traveling to Scotland in 2024 first my ins number one definitely taking full advantage of public transport I know this sounds like a very generic tip but here in Edinburgh the tram system especially which you know when I say system I mean just one line the tram L especially has kind of finished its first second phase last summer I believe and since then the difference in which areas of Edinburgh you can explore has absolutely changed uh especially for me I do live on the tram line so for me having the opportunity to travel to leth especially uh has been a real game changer my second in is buying souvenirs from independent creators and shops now this might sound obvious but some sometimes in edra especially it's very hard to tell um we are being very overpowered by well let's just say shops that tend to be owned by the same people they tend to sell the same stuff but if you know where to look Edinburgh has so many great Little Indie shops um not just the obvious Scottish design exchange on George Street even though I think that one is the best and also you can buy my stuff there but there's many others for example on Victoria Street just next to the UN unbelievably overcrowded and I think overhyped Harry Potter shop you will find The Red Door Gallery uh I am not selling there so I genuinely just really like that shop you will find many gifts there for anyone in your life um so I think that is a big in for 2024 and another inn Which is less of a tip for you but just kind of an observation where local tourism is moving is that things are moving more and more online I think that last Fringe Festival has been extremely online Centric when it comes to dealing with tickets and such and you will find this trend affecting lot of other attractions as well also payments are now overwhelmingly just based on you know contactless card payments and even with your phone uh which is something that you now can do on buses unfortunately not quite in the trams on the tram you still have to buy your ticket outside of the tram but you can still do it contactless now my three outs for traveling to Scotland and I guess living in Scotland in 2024 first one being not using it and hence losing it which we are seeing all the time and again you're going to see that in this video later on we have lost so many great local small Indie businesses and it's so sad and honestly sometimes it is not the people's fault like these tend to be businesses that are super full super busy and you would look at them and think wow that is a successful business and it's sometimes hard to tell especially nowadays when all the energy costs are so high and the rent is going up it's hard but I still think if you have a favorite place try to keep this in mind I myself am very guilty of this that like I have a favorite place and I go there maybe like twice a year because I just you know sometimes I just don't make it a priority and um yeah I think it it would be good to be more mindful of this because um in Edinburgh the proverbial small business meat grinder is very Relentless we are losing small Indie shops and coffee shops shops and restaurants left and right so in 2024 just be on it if you have a favorite please go there throw your money at them my next out is focusing on tourist hotspots only now you can apply this to the whole of Scotland you can apply this to just Edinburgh obviously in Edinburgh especially during the sort of High Times of uh tourist season so especially summer and Christmas you will see that some of the areas are almost impossible to get through it can be quite upsetting if you don't like crowds and I'm not saying this should be a trend or not a trend just because of my own Comfort I am saying it also because once again there are many wonderful businesses in the other areas of both Edinburgh and Scotland that you might not prioritize this channel has many guides to edinburgh's less known neighborhoods and also videos about other cities for example at this point you can find many videos about Glasgow or dandi and there will be more coming in 2024 yay uh which takes me to my last out which is forgetting Glasgow exists I think that it's easy to say like okay with like Sterling or S Andrews or even dandi that can be a Daye trip but Glasgow is like a full-blown amazing City when I first moved here 12 years ago Glasgow was a lot cooler than Edinburgh Glasgow has so many great little nuks and crannies such wonderful museums you wouldn't believe it um so many great coffee shops and bakeries and eateries I think that the community Spirit there is much stronger than it is in Edinburgh so perhaps if you're visiting Edinburgh and it's not your first time try to prioritize going to Glasgow as well the connection between the two is extremely easy like it literally takes 40 minutes to get from edinb to Glasgow and myself even myself I I judge myself that I don't go there more often so yeah in 2024 put that on your list your bucket list if you don't go to Glasgow so I am judging you now a couple of anniversaries what a nice thing to mention in 2024 is going to be 750 years since the birth of Robert de Bruce uh a great Fighter for Scottish independence and you can probably imagine this means that this year we should be expecting lot of events exhibitions and people's celebrations uh on this theme I think especially in sterling sterling is going to be a busy one this year because they are also celebrating their own little anniversary which is the 900 years since being named uh a royal bur I hope I pronounce it right it's kind of weird because like when you go like Edinburgh it's you're used to it but then when it's like Royal B then you kind of like not sure if you if you should go and like borrow or Burg or just like the same as in Ur well anyway you can tell me down below if uh I just totally mangled it and we also have a little baby anniversary which is the kpes in faler they have been first introduced to the skyline of that area in 2014 so they are going to be celebrating their 10y year birthday yay now okay so as you can imagine Scotland being just its own country has a lot of events going on and I should probably mention some of them because if you're watching this and um you know maybe you are still in the initial uh part of plan in your trip maybe there are some events that you don't know about or maybe you're just not sure when exactly they're happening I however cannot be covering all of them I think that would just like take over this whole video so I just made a little list of um I'm not going to say my favorites but just kind of like things that felt logical to prioritize however I'm also going to leave a link into dublo with kind of a more detailed list of events that are on in Scotland in 2024 um however for this I'm going to I'm going to get my my computer because otherwise I would never remember so if you're watching this and you're somehow planning like a very last minute trip uh you probably know by now that it's going to be the burns night tun on the 25th of January so for that I think that if you're watching this literally kind of around the weekend that this video is coming out I think this might be the perfect time to look into booking a Burns night dinner with you know some sort of nice like poetry being recited and all of that um there are many nice restaurants around town that do throw like a official celebration I think I checked about 5 days ago and um I haven't seen any tickets quite on yet but surely it must be it must be starting to happen very soon around the last two weeks in January we have a great Celtic celebration which is the Celtic connections over in Glasgow so um that kind of goes from the end of January into start of February if you're into that part of Scottish culture don't miss out later in spring on the 10th and 11th of May we have the music and Culture Festival the hidden door Festival uh they are celebrating their 10y year anniversary now so they are promising this to be very special later in June between 20th and 23rd we have the Royal Highland show I've never been but maybe this year will be my first maybe I'm going to apply for like a little press pass to see the coups and donkeys and chickens I know the queen used to really like the cows not to make things political uh the Royal Highland show feels a bit Tory to me but um also it has animals so um I'm torn if you're interested in observing the Highland Games you know where the the big strong men are throwing balls and logs around then the season for Highland Games really is kind of all throughout um the whole of Summer including May and September uh again a cool thing for me to maybe finally go see for the first time ever this year so if you'd like me to make a video about that let me know in the comment section and of course in the summer we have the festival season which kind of I would say starts kind of June is and goes all all the way into August most importantly we have The Fringe which this year is happening between August 2nd and 26th which to me feels like slightly earlier than usual if you can't make it to fr don't forget that usually the week before Fringe officially starts you also get like the sort of like the little Street Food Festival in um the same area is a George Square I think so yeah and that tends to be basically the same street food as you then later get during Fringe in that part of Fringe so um yeah you're not going to miss out completely you also have the Edinburgh International Festival for the more like serious culture um you also have the Book Festival even earlier than that um just so I'm not completely Edinburough Centric all the time uh between June 7th and 23rd you have the Glasgow International Festival uh which is also very culture Centric and uh takes takes place all over the city in multiple venues so kind of similarly to the Edinburgh one but probably less busy so maybe a fun alternative to go with my previous Pro tip about not forgetting about Glasgow don't do it I was also curious about what musical acts are coming over in uh 2024 uh I guess most importantly for many people not necessarily me but like no shade Taylor Swift I think that if you don't have tickets for Taylor Swift by now you're probably not going to get them so you know just this is just a little like PSA that this is happening I think similarly last year we had hairy styles in town and it was pretty wild like I don't think I've ever experienced the city just like dress up in so many feather boas and pink hats and it was in a way kind of fun although they have left quite a lot of litter behind so if you're a Swifty please clean up after yourself thank you we will also have DOA cat uh The 1975 and also apparently Nickelback and the Royal National Scottish Orchestra just like last year they are doing the uh video game Symphony I think that's kind of vaguely what they call it um at Usher Hall I think that on May 31st it's at Usher hall and then on June 1st it's in Glasgow so you again have these two dates two options um it was so good it was like the best event I've attended last year um the conductor was also a composer of multiple game scores including like World of Warcraft and you can tell how she's she's just so excited to share them with you of course Scotland also has many many like pop cultural conventions you know cons uh we have the Edinburgh one there's also a big one in glasow and also I believe that this year will be the first year that the board game convention will be moving down to Eden Brown outside of Fringe there will be the the usual sort of series of touring companies bringing in musicals and um some less musical theater Place into Edinburgh um I think that we also have Hamilton coming into town think that's similarly to Taylor Swift if you don't have your tickets for Hamilton uh you will just not go see Hamilton I'm sorry not in Edinburgh maybe like next year in a different city I've also looked into some exhibitions that are coming to the museums and galleries around Scotland uh specifically in Edinburgh we are getting the return of the game on exhibition so not to give this video a bit of a theme but you know I do like video games and this one is great for actually uh having the opportunity to play some of the old vintage games um you know in how they were first built it's really fun but it's also like very informative it's one of those shows that you can enjoy on your own but also you know to bring your kids to I think um I believe they are also planning an exhibition of this is a bit of a Vibe change but they are also planning an exhibition on Scotland and the Cold War um also up north in dandi the dundi DNA um I'm very excited to see that they have two exhibitions that I'm definitely going to see both starting I believe around May um first one is about like City photography and the other one is about kimono so if you don't know the VNA in dandi has been designed by kokuma who is quite the famous Japanese architect and I'm kind of thinking maybe there's a connection between these two exhibitions and him or just the sort of like friendship that has sprung over this collaboration of uh Japan and Japanese artist uh and Scotland and D dvna now to be fully British uh I will talk about weather for a bit okay so um obviously predictions of weather are hardly even you know you can't even trust them when you look at the weather forecast for like you know two days down uh let alone the whole year but you know there are General kind of Trends and expectations that might very well fulfill themselves so let's talk about those uh first one being the El noo is apparently bringing kind of a less predictability into European sort of winter time but you know I would say that Scotland is already not predictable so that doesn't really change anything for anyone if you're coming to Edinburgh in winter and spring you should really be expecting everything every kind of weather another thing I've read is that apparently the meteor men are saying that this will be a record-breaking summer once again similarly to I would say the last two summers um honestly I can't find them on that because being here for 10 plus years I have definitely seen the Scottish Summers getting more and more warm not you know not necessarily in a bad way like I know that overall it means the planet is on fire but um in Scotland unlike in England uh sometimes having like a like a spell of hot weather um we tend to our hot summers tend to be around like 30° Max while down in England it can go to like 36 or even 40 you know especially in the big cities so I would not want to be there but um sometimes when you go on like a little day trip especially if you leave the cities the hot weather can actually be kind of nice I probably shouldn't be saying that but yeah I think I think that personally I don't have a problem trusting the meteor Boys on on that and the last thing is um so you probably noticed that 2023 was very rich on Aurora Borealis you could see it from PTO Bello Beach or even like down dollar like I had neighbors seeing it from their Windows people are just seeing Northern Lights left and right I have not seen them therefore the information that there are supposed to be even more of these like solar storms bringing Aurora to Scotland and just kind of lot of Europe uh is good news to me even though there's like a part of me that's obsessed with like post-apocalyptic movies that things like H like solar flare sounds a lot less appealing than um Aurora Boral is scen from Arthur seat like I feel like you can't have one without the other at least from what I understand so I'm like a little bit worried but I'm hoping that at the very least even if like all of our internet gets uh erased by a solar flare at least I'm going to get to see one of Nature's visual Miracles okay now let's talk about some of the places that are opening in 2024 all across Scotland and when I say all across Scotland I have a couple of places in Scotland and then it's mostly Edinburgh I'm sorry I am a bit Edinburgh Centric because this is where I live and um I kind of have like the best stream of information from Edinburgh but I'm also I'm also guessing that despite me telling you you're probably still going to spend the most time in Edinburgh so hopefully you don't mind too much okay so around Scotland we have the Perth Museum which is reopening this year um it looks beautiful it looks like a a really beautiful building with um some unique artifacts in it I'm really looking forward to it opening I think that's going to be the point when I go over and make like a a video about spending 24-hour in Perth it's Perth is definitely one of those cities in Scotland that I think a lot of people just don't don't think about much don't consider visiting and I can't judge if that's fair or not because I think I've been there once maybe like to stop in like a Tesco and that was it but now they're going to have a cool new Museum and I'm really looking forward to visiting similarly to that we have the Scottish crannog Center which a crog is apparently like this housebuilt on water which was one of like the traditional sort of abodes in um ancient Scotland and um I'm really curious to see that this museum has already been opened previously but then it burned down so basically they have been rebuilding it and it's supposed to reopen in 2024 uh I think that sounds really unique really fun so you know look at up kind of close to Edinburgh but not within it is going to be the Lost Shore surfing Resort Adventure Center um this is supposed to be I believe like one of the largest places of of such type definitely in Europe if not like in in the west I am not a surfer but it's definitely like an interesting thing to bring people in for also I think somewhere around ocean terminal we are supposed to get a place called uh Edinburgh level X I think this is going to be like a like a family adventure Funtime Center um clearly uh an effort to get more people down into Le again now that the tramps are running other places is opening up in Edinburgh so something that I noticed very recently the elephant house which has been claiming to be the birthplace of you know boy wizard um is coming back not in the same location as it was before which was kind of close to the Frankenstein Pub but um now they moved to Victoria Street which you know again some people see that as a very boy wizard desk area because it kind of looks like a Dion alley um um yeah so it's going to be there very close to that souvenir shop that I mentioned earlier but hey at least it is still a local business um I'm rooting for them they had to close because of a huge fire which probably sucked a lot so I'm looking forward to them reopening and you know having a new coffee shop fun also on Victoria Street but also on Castle Street there's going to be two new branches of a place called noops or knobs uh it is a place that I noticed down in London it's like a hot chocolate cafe and um I know that it's a chain it's not like a small Indie local place but personally I'm quite excited for them coming because I am a bit of a chocolate ner like I do like my little sort of like single origin sort of taste comparison opportunity um so I'm really looking forward to them opening I think that's going to be a nice alternative to always just having coffee or tea also in New Town there's going to be a new Spanish butcher opening um so I'm I'm curious about that again that sounds like something that lot of locals will be excited for um we do have some quite exciting butcher shops around town that that seems like the one kind of small shop type that hasn't quite started fully dying off yet so um it's nice to see something that's more International speaking of Spanish if you know the little like tapas bar pigs on Royal they will be opening a new store too I cannot remember where exactly that's going to be but I'm going to try and pop it down here a new coffee shop which is not moving here from thankfully not from London but just from St Andrews uh in s Entre they have this nice little very Japanese style coffee shop it's called Kino if you know if if you've been to Japan you know that Kini is how they call their convenience shops but um this coffee shop is not themed like a Japanese convenience shop it is just kind of like very clean and Desy and they do seem to have nice food available and I always wanted to go there in s Andrews and I never managed uh I guess that you just you know if if you're like a lower or middle class person you just can't get into these fancy coffee shops in San Andrews over all the Posh kids studying history of art so I'm actually really really psyched that they are bringing one to Edinburgh where I imagine that Edinburgh University students are also going to be hogging it for themselves but at least over here I can fight them with my uh wider time availability among the non-edible places we are also getting that huge unic low on Princess Street now you know obviously that now is an international chain but one thing I will say is that Unico is very good at selling affordable kind of functional clothing especially clothing that's either very good for the summer you know it has like UV protection and is very sort of sweat Wicked and in Winter they have so many great like sort of thermal layers so I think that in a place like Edinburgh where it might be quite challenging to pack for your Scottish trip like it it truly sometimes you just don't know what to expect I truly think that having a Uno in Edinburgh is going to be a game changer I think that's going to be really helpful to all of us you know be it ones who live here but especially the ones who are visiting and also on leth walk I believe that there's a new camera shop opening instead of the Costa that was kind of towards the top of leth walk we are now getting a wax um I'm not quite sure if wax is Scottish but they've had a big sort of showroom down in leth in one of the warehouses for the longest time and that I think is not the most accessible place and again I think that if you're traveling and you're a photographer it happens so often like one of your cables stops working or like you just quickly need like a good SD card or something and these days we don't really have many like electronic stores where you could just pop in and get something so having like a physical camera shop relatively close to the city center might become very handy to many of you and also like not to make it an afterthought but now that I've said so many things about anra let me just say that Glasgow is getting two new venues by six by Niko but neither of them is like the regular six by Niko tasting restaurant experience I believe one of them is supposed to be like a play on a chippy and the other one is supposed to be a cocktail bar so I'm quite curious about that because I do believe six by Nico is originally from Glasgow so that's where they are kind of um focusing their creative efforts maybe if those are successful they will bring them to Eden as well and to slowly finish this video um I also wanted to talk about places that have closed in 2023 so places that you might have visited in your previous visits to Scotland and um you will likely be sad to hear that they're not around anymore a lot of these are places that I've covered in my videos a lot of them are places that have been so well beloved you know they had such a great sort of following and they were always full and I guess that I can only blame this on just how expensive things are right now you know the the supply chain and the energy costs and the rent so just recently Leed Cafe the great crepe place on Morrison Street Morrison Road Morrison Street uh has closed down they have for many years been one of like the most popular best rated cafes in Edinburgh um it it has been such a sweet little place um the owners were really like very much into this project and they were almost always around and they remembered your face it was just a really nice like local place to grab a lunch or breakfast and I am going to miss them dearly Chums that was such a great like Scottish Bakery down found in Le it was the whole look was their branding was like amazing but I think that uh their sort of rental agreement ran out and uh they might find a new place maybe down the line they haven't found any yet not that I know of but I I really want them to come back it was so cool and again a place that I would recommend to so many people Blue Bear Cafe down kind of in like Canon Mills there was more of like a local favorite I think that not many of you you probably visited but I have many friends who really liked it that's not going to be a branch of luxford burgers who I've heard are very good so you know at least there's that at least it's being replaced by another sort of a local Legend Gordon Ramsey's Street Pizza which in my opinion opened in like the weirdest location and um I didn't care for it so you know that's fine Bandits down in Le I think similarly have opened around uh sort of lockdown time s um when the rent was really affordable down there now that the trams are down there I think that people are trying to sell uh those spaces for much more money but Bandits have now moved into Edinburgh Street food so we haven't lost them completely uh nice times Bakery a place where we got our wedding cake from our closing their sort of like Cafe also on Morrison Street um very much like in our neck of the woods so absolutely heartbreaking this was a place that made one of my favorite cups of coffee in the whole city um they will still be baking for other cafes so um for example love crumbs uh take their cakes from them so if you lik the bakes from uh nice times Bakery you will still be able to get that from multiple places they will still do like a wholesale operation Kilted Donuts the Stockbridge branch has closed down which is kind of a bummer but I have seen them kind of asking around on their socials if uh people want them to come back um I think that they are actually more looking at coming back down to leave again now the tramps are going down so maybe it would be a more viable place for them to reopen uh otherwise they still have their branch on grass Market stack and still uh also if you remember mentioned them in one of my videos that was like a like a scotch Pancake Place uh it was really fun I really liked it it was a really nice place to grab lunch or brunch um they have not closed down completely they used to be kind of across the street um from Primark on Rose Street but they have now moved to one of like the other side streets um in New Town so they are still around I am guessing the venue is a bit smaller because this one was very large again it always seemed really busy so I'm surprised that they closed down but I'm sure it has been a very uh Savvy economical move to just find a different location it's still kind of bagely in the same area so I imagine that works the L fine restaurant down kind of in like New Haven that was very popular like people would say that's like the best fish and chips in town I have not actually managed to try it which you know I am very I'm very embarrassed by that I really should have and now I will never get to so once again you know if someone is recommending you something don't just think to yourself I'm just going to do it on my next visit just try to try to pack as many things into one visit as possible because places here just close so fast okay don't forget that on this channel I continuously make videos about newly opened places in Edinburgh usually this is very food Centric but I would say that's only because that's the sort of establishment that we get the most of when it comes to like newly opened places here in Edinburgh and around um I think that with those videos it makes sense for me to focus on Edinburgh but obviously when these new museums open up around Scotland I'm going to go there and document it for you and make it even easier for you to decide if that's somewhere that You' like to visit while you know you're on your scottage vacation uh but yeah when it comes to newly opened places in Edinburgh especially food but also shops and other venues and attractions I tend to make one video every two or 3 months about those I go there I try it all I see it all my own taste buds and eye bulbs eyeballs that's the word in English anyway uh thank you so much for joining me don't forget that I now have a patreon so if you like videos like this if you appreciate the effort that goes into them you can always send me a little tip through patreon you can also become one of the sort of higher tier patrons and get access to extra videos because at this point I will soon have three new videos there and there should be at least one every month coming towards that tier so for for about $6 a month you can get a free video if you don't have enough of my face you can also visit me on Instagram under Kaki bot for my illustrations and Kaki blog for my photos of Edinburgh and Scotland and Beyond it's kind of it's more travel uh focused okay that is truly it for me hopefully you enjoyed this hopefully you found it useful and I shall see you [Music] soon [Music] oh

Channel: Kakibot's Guidebook

Views: 50,055

Keywords: scotland travel guide, scotland, scotland travel, scotland 2024, edinburgh in 2024, edinburgh 2024, edinburgh fringe 2024, scotland events 2024, edinburgh local, edinburgh local guide, expat in scotland, visiting scotland, visiting scotland for the first time, visiting scotland in 2024, new attractions in scotland, best places to visit in scotland, best places to visit in edinburgh, honest guide, ecosse, escocia, skotsko, scottish culture, best of edinburgh, best of scotland

Id: -SI5jawgiSc

Length: 32min 36sec (1956 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 05 2024