How to Travel to Scotland on a Budget
Edinburgh Castle on the Royal Mile in Scotland
Those castle tours, rolling hills, and Scottish cities aren’t out of reach! Here’s how to travel to Scotland on budget, and make that trip happen.
I love to travel, but I’m also frugal.
I want my money to go as far as possible without missing out on anything during my trips.
One of the first international trips that my husband and I took when we got married was an 11 day trip to Scotland and England.
We scrimped, we pinched, and we compared prices on everything from hotel rooms to tour packages.
I’m happy to say that we didn’t just stick our budget—we came in UNDER budget!
Here’s how to travel to Scotland cheap without sacrificing too much.
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Updated 7/2022 | Written 3/2014
Is Scotland Expensive to Visit?
First of all, let’s clarify something: any international travel is a luxury.
My husband and I at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh
European travel is even more of a luxury as the cost of living, tour prices, and hotels are much greater than, say, southeast Asia.
So, going into this article, I’m well aware that sharing tips for a “cheap” visit to Scotland is going to mean different things to different people.
It’s important to note that we didn’t go ultra-low budget on this trip.
We ate out daily at fast casual restaurants and local pubs.
We stayed in mid-range hotels.
We rented a car.
We split our time between Edinburgh and rural areas.
We took tours.
This means that if you wanted to save even MORE money than we did, you could still do more to reduce your budget:
You could stay in hostels. [Find great deals on hostels here!]
You could concentrate your time in city centers so you can walk or use public transportation, thereby eliminating the need for a rental car and gas fill-ups.
You could only do self-guided tours.
You could only eat food that you’ve prepared from grocery stores.
In theory, you could bring the cost of your trip down to just plane tickets, your accommodations, and your food if you were committed to do free activities once you were on the ground in Scotland.
I think that’s probably too extreme for most people, but know that it is an option!
>> Explore our full 11 day Scotland and London itinerary! <<
A Sample Trip to Scotland on a Budget
With that being said, we budgeted $4500 for our 11 day trip to Scotland and England.
This budget included:
round trip airfare for 2 adults,
9 nights in hotels,
one way tickets on the sleeper train to Scotland,
gas for a week,
multiple entrance fees at historic sites,
food for 2 people for the duration of the trip, and
some souvenir money.
As mentioned before, we came in UNDER budget, with our final money spent around $3500.
Here’s how we did it—and how you can do it, too.
How to Travel to Scotland on a Budget
1) We went in the off season.
Our trip dates were November 11- November 23. Let me tell you--this is NOT the normal tourist season in the UK.
Anytime between early November and late February (excluding right around Christmas) is considered the off-season in Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, and Northern Ireland.
Showing our Clemson University pride in the Trossachs!
Prepare to be cold.
Prepare for it to rain.
Prepare for the sun to go down at 4:30 in the afternoon.
Prepare for some attractions to be undergoing renovations or be closed for the season.
Despite these issues, it's a wonderful time to visit!
We made sure that all of our must-see attractions were open during our dates.
There were a few places that I would have liked to have seen (Glamis Castle, for one) that was closed for the winter.
I can't be too sad about this missed opportunities because we saw so many OTHER cool things.
I really didn't feel as if our trip lacked anything because of the seasonal considerations.
Listening to the audio tour on our solitary walk through Doune Castle
Plus, we were often the only people in the exhibit, castle, or tour, so we felt as if we were getting a private showing for the price of a regular ticket.
When we went to Rosslyn Chapel, we arrived right at opening, and the only other people on the property were the employees and restoration workers.
Because of the lack of tourists, our guide hung around with us for a hour and a half to talk about the structure, land, and history--which was much better than the 30ish minute tour that we should have gotten for the standard price!
The same thing happened at Doune Castle.
We had complete reign of the castle, which was partially creepy, but mostly so, so cool.
Everything was cheaper at that time: the train tickets, the plane tickets, the hotel rooms.
If you can swing a trip in Scotland from November to March, do it!
2) Plan ahead for your time in the cities.
Edinburgh, like London, is expensive, and you can quickly blow your budget if you decide to show up and wing your time there.
During our time in Edinburgh, we carefully laid out our time so that we were maximizing our touring while staying budget conscious.
Our first tactic was to book everything ahead of time. You can often get a discount on entrance tickets simply by purchasing through a site’s webpage instead of in person.
Plus, you can check availability for your preferred day and make sure your day will run as planned.
Our second tactic was sticking to free or low cost self-guided tours, which allowed us to experience the city without dipping too far into our wallets.
In places like Edinburgh, it is often much more cost effective for your party to share a self-guided smartphone audio tour than it is to hire a guide or join a pre-arranged tour.
3) Explore outside of the cities.
Edinburgh and Glasgow are beautiful--and should not be missed on any Scottish trip--but, if at all possible, venture out of the major cities and get into the Scottish countryside.
Not only is it breathtakingly beautiful, you'll be able to make your important travel dollars go further.
You’ll find that everything from accommodations to meals are less expensive in less visited places like Melrose, Stirling, and Dunblane than in Edinburgh.
Melrose Abbey and the surrounding countryside
In Melrose, for example, you’ll find the amazing Melrose Abbey ruins. The entrance fee here is only £3.50 per person.
Compare that to visiting Holyroodhouse on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, where adult tickets start around £17.50 each in the off season.
If you’re comparing accommodations in the major cities vs. the more rural areas, the savings is evident there as well.
Our small, but conveniently located Travelodge in Edinburgh ran right at £100 per night, while our much bigger and nicer room at the historic Dunblane Hydro Hotel in Dunblane (near Stirling) was around £80 per night.
4) Go for mid-range accommodations.
As we’re not ultra low budget travelers, we like a little bit of comfort. However, we’re definitely not ones to splash out on 5-star hotels most of the time.
Instead, we look for unique hotels in the 3 and 4 star range that are outside of the usual tourist path.
For example, we stayed at a refurbished sanatorium in a little village outside Stirling called the Dunblane Hydro Hotel.
My husband in front of the Dunblane Hydro Hotel
It was once a place for those suffering from tuberculosis to come rest and recuperate in the Victorian period.
We loved having such a historic place for our home base!
You could also consider staying at a Landmark Trust site (which includes cottages, estates, and actual palaces)--some of the properties start at just 12 or 13 pounds per person per night.
If you prefer to stay at a chain for consistency, Travelodge hotels can be found throughout the UK. We’ve stayed at several over the years, and the hotels are consistent in their level of cleanliness, service, and affordability.
The Travelodge hotels don’t come with a lot of frills, but they are great for the traveler looking to save money on safe, comfortable, and basic accommodation.
Other chains that we’ve had consistent success with are Ibis and Holiday Inn Express. Like the Travelodge, both of these chains have small but modern rooms, and are relatively affordable even in city centers.
5) We booked through American websites.
This doesn't hold true for all vacations, but since the dollar was so much weaker than the pound when we went, we booked through American sites.
In other words, on the actual British site, a hotel room might cost one hundred pounds.
The same hotel on Booking.com cost us one hundred dollars, which was a huge savings over the course of two weeks (at the time, it was almost $50 difference per night!).
Your mileage may vary on this trick especially since the pound and dollar exchange rate is constantly in flux.
Still, it doesn’t hurt to compare the Scottish hotel cost directly with any potential savings by booking through a U.S. based site.
6) We only ate one big meal a day.
No, we didn't starve!
We found that eating smaller for breakfast and dinner was a cost effective way to shrink our food budget.
While we love trying local food, we’re not ones to splash out on Michelin-star meals, so this approach wasn’t hard for us.
We still managed to try plenty of local treats and dishes without spending too much of our budget on food.
Breakfast tips
Having some tea with breakfast in Edinburgh
We ate breakfast at our hotel every day that was an option.
Doing so helped us stretch our food budget even further since that meal was already paid for through our room cost.
On the days that we didn’t have free breakfast as an option, we picked up some breakfast bars, yogurts, or pastries while we were out sightseeing.
If you need to grab something quickly for breakfast that isn’t too expensive, try Marks and Spencer, a UK grocery store chain that has great grab-and-go options.
Pret a Manger is another of my favorite low cost breakfast places, and you can find this chain in cities all over Scotland and England.
Lunch/dinner tips
We'd then choose to eat a big lunch typically, though there were a few times when we went light on both breakfast and lunch to splurge on a big dinner.
For our big meal, we would split something in a little pub or have a couple of appetizers and salads.
Honestly, if you’re on a budget but want a decent amount of food, getting 2 or 3 appetizers to share and a house salad each is the best way to go!
You’ll have more food than you can usually eat for less than the cost of 2 entrees.
Approaching our overall food budget this way allowed us plenty of room for snacks, so we got to sample many fun Scottish treats along the way like the popular Irn Bru drink and delicious local pastries.
We also saved money while still staying full and happy.
7) Fly economy.
Economy class stinks--I can't lie--but for only $717 a ticket (round-trip), I can deal with a few hours of discomfort.
Since we flew in the off season, our plane wasn’t full in either direction, so we were able to stretch out a little even in economy.
Look for red eye flights, which are usually cheaper than daytime flights.
Post-Covid, the entire airline industry is all sorts of crazy, but I imagine that will calm down relatively soon.
In any case, you should still be able to find low cost flights from the States to Scotland during that off-season.
If you fly through New York to Edinburgh, you can find really inexpensive flights (less than $600 in the off-season!).
I found a flight for $572 on Trip.com on that route in mid-November 2022, which is the same time of the year that we took our Scotland and England trip.
Book as far ahead as is feasible for the widest variety of deals and departure dates.
8) Don’t check any bags.
The airline can't lose your luggage if you don't give it to them, right?!
They also can't charge you for having oversized bags, either, when you’re being extremely particular about what you’re packing in a carry-on size piece of luggage.
>> See how to pack for a two week trip using only a carry on <<
We also love this approach to luggage as it allows us greater ease in our day to day travels once we’re on the ground.
Having 2 carry-on suitcases and 2 small backpacks mean that changing hotels, getting on a train, and maneuvering through each destination is a breeze.
9) We were willing to try new things.
We combined a hotel and transportation one night by traveling on the sleeper train to Scotland.
If you consider that hotel and a regular train ticket cost more than a sleeper ticket, then you’re definitely coming out ahead, budget-wise.
Plus, it's totally cool to say that we've stayed in a sleeper train!
The quarters were tight, but they made up for the lack of space in awesomeness.
We also did something on that trip that I've never done before--completely change our plans at the last minute because of a personal recommendation.
Landon and I had planned to go skeet shooting and picnicking at Aviemore, about 2 hours' drive from our hotel, when a super friendly hotel staff member suggested that we drive to the nearby Trossachs instead.
On a whim, we decided to listen to his suggestion, and ended up having a great time.
It didn't cost anything other than our gas in our rental car!
>> We also applied many of these tactics on our 10 day road trip in Ireland! <<
Have you visited Scotland? Do you have any other tips on how to travel to Scotland on a budget?
