How To Travel Scotland

You want Scotland to be your next travel home, or maybe this is the first part of your nomadic life. Well luckily for you this article will help you build a base in Scotland so you can see more of the country, than most of the locals.

In this article, I will teach you, how to choose the perfect location as a start point. Also choose well-suited jobs that fit along with the travel lifestyle, Common places of interest and how to find hidden gems. This comes from someone that has not only lived and worked in Scotland but has started their own travel life in Scotland.

Living & Traveling Scotland

Scotland is very beautiful but can be extremely different depending on the location. You can go from large cities to open mountainous areas in less than an hour.

But before you pack your bag and head off to Scotland you need to make sure you have the correct visa to work and live in the country. You can do this by getting a UK Visa. The best way to do this is via gov.uk, You will also need to apply for a national insurance number, you can find this on the same website.

But if you’re like me and already live within the UK (me being from England) no visa or restrictions apply. I would also like to take a second to say, if you are thinking about doing this and you’re also from the UK, you will be shocked at how different Scotland can be, so don’t look at this as “not really travelling”.

Finding the perfect location to start travel life in Scotland

As I said in the intro, Scotland isn’t just one kind of location, so picking the perfect location to start travel life isn’t the easiest part.

When you pick your first location try and stay open to areas but more pick the style of living you would prefer (Middle of nowhere to city living, see below). Just remember this is just your 1st base and isn’t set in stone, your travelling. Some of you, might not even be thinking about staying in one location for a long enough time to call it a base. This is mainly for you guys that need to make money to keep travelling, having a base will help with an income.

I hope after you read this part of the article you will have a rough idea of where you want your 1st base, but some of you might want actually want to see parts of Scotland before you settle, but this will help give you places that you can put on your Scotland travel itinerary.

Matching the Job to perfect location to start travel life in Scotland

Finding the perfect location to start a travel life is just the beginning of your new life. You need to match that location with a job, for guys that want to travel long term and you know, survive. Ok, this isn’t for the digital travel people. This is for you.

I will give you the best options for long term travellers, I will match them to the locations above to give you the best start possible. Giving you the best advice on how to find the job, the average pay and how to give you the best chance of getting the job.

Seasonal Work

Seasonal work is the perfect work for all travellers as one its easy to find when it is on because unlike the muggles that don’t travel they can’t pack up their lives to find a job for the summer and different job for the winter periods. So there is normally a nice amount of work too.
This is perfect for that all or nothing saving travel lifestyle (see From Living Paycheck to Paycheck to Becoming A Full-Time Traveler For the technique)

Scotish Summer Seasonal Jobs
May-Oct

Summer in Scotland isn’t like the south of France but there is a massive difference between the summer period and the winter period and the Scottish know how to use this time wisely. They do this by normally travelling up north, seeing the beauty that Scotland has to offer. This can be trips to Skye or climbing the many Monroes.

Jobs: Farms, Hostels, pubs, restaurants, cafes & festivals

Scotish Winter Seasonal Jobs
Nov-April

Unlike the Summer in Scotland, the winter can be very harsh, Ice & Snow can be very common in the parts of Scotland. Other parts can be just wet. So finding good winter jobs is mainly based on location. The location is Ski towns. But Christmas is another great reason to get seasonal jobs, meaning shopping and winter markets.

Jobs: Supermarket, Festivals, Ski Resorts, Ski towns, Pantomine support

How to get a good seasonal work for your location

Remote places Seasonal Work In Scotland

If you are planning on living in some of the more remote parts of Scotland, seasonal work is your best friend. This is because everyone is heading up north for the summer, Meaning whenever there is an increase of people there is an increase of jobs. This is also true for all the Winter towns which are perfect for the winter getaway.

Summer Seasonal Work Remote Places – Search up the West Highland way, West Coast 500 or The Isle of Skye or Farms in Fife

Winter Seasonal Work Remote Places – Glencoe, Glenshee Ski Centre, Cairngorms, Lecht Ski Centre & Nevis

City Seasonal Work (Both Seasons) – Lookup Festivals locations, Christmas markets and events taking place

How to get Seasonal Work in Scotland

Remote– The best way to work in remote places is to be very open to the job role you are willing to take, but as a perk, remote places are more likely to take people with less experience and have live-in positions.
Apply for many jobs, lower-end jobs as kitchen hands and hostel assistants and bartenders & cafe workers are easy to come by. Applying for management or Ski instructors may be harder to get due to limited positions to fill. Go online and apply from April for summer and September/ October for Winter work.

City – Finding City seasonal work might be a bit harder to find as there is less of it and more competition, but saying this there are easy ways to get more work. one is to sign up with agencies and look on Facebook, Join job groups for that area.

Other than Seasonal Work

Maybe you want something a little more than just a season in one location or maybe you’re looking at some easy to find work in Scotland. This work is perfect all year round and can be done with near to none or no experience.

These are some of the most needed jobs in Scotland at the current time of writing, but I can’t see this changing anytime soon.

Hospitality

This is one of the best and easiest jobs to find as a traveller as the hours are very bad normally, late nights, early morning, late notice on shifts and the pay is minimal… Well maybe I haven’t sold this too well to you but Hospitailliy and retail can be a very rewarding job where, if you play your cards right you can meet other travellers, get a lot of hours and have a great laugh every shift, and tips can be a little bonus

Pay: Min Wage upwards (£8.91 at the time of writing, Oct 2021 ) tips can be an extra 50p -£1 an hour

Locations: Mainly Cities but most places have a pub

How to get the job: I personally find hospitality one of the easiest jobs to walk into but this comes with experience and the knowledge of what I’m about to share with you.
Apply online: (indeed) This is for guys with cracking CV’s, to make a good CV for hospitality mention how good you are with customers, reviews you get for businesses and your organisation skills.
CV Dropping: Walk into pubs, restaurants and bars in black shirt shoes and trousers, print out a bunch of CV’s and put them in cheap coloured plastic folders (From the supermarket) and hand them to every place you go past. Most won’t read the CV if you walk in with energy asking “Is there any jobs going?” and “Can I leave this with the manager?” you get a job with one trip out to the city.
Agency: Sign up with an Agency, which google search for Agency + Place + Hosptiatly you’re sorted.

Retail

Just like the hospitality above, the hours can be hard, but not as hard. Normally you won’t work past 8 pm (early morning super markets can be common with click and collect). This work might be a little harder to come by but a lot more stable with regular hours.

Pay: Min Wage upwards (£8.91 at the time of writing, Oct 2021 )but normally more aimed at the £10 mark

Locations: Everywhere has shops

How to get the job: Getting a job in retail can be a little more difficult but more about getting the timing right, applying at the right time when they are looking at setting up the interviews. You can’t tell when this is going to happen so apply to a lot of places.
Apply online: (indeed or go to their own website) Applying for Retail can be time-consuming, as normally they want you to apply to their website and its can take time going from one website to another and writing out the same thing. But this is great as most people get bored after

Factory work

Do you like doing the same thing continual for 8 hours a day? No, well I’m not going to lie most factory workers don’t either but it pays the bills.

Pay: Min Wage upwards (£8.91 at the time of writing, Oct 2021 )but normally more aimed at the £9 mark

Locations: On the outskirts of towns (industrial estates)

How to get the job: It can be so hard for factories to get work they normally hire through agencies, starting in an Agency is the best bet
Agency: Sign up with an Agency, with a google search for Agency + “Place” + Factory you’re sorted.

Care Workers

Care workers are normally needed as they have some of the most hated job factors this is driving and caring for other humans.

Pay: Min Wage upwards (£8.91 at the time of writing, Oct 2021 )but normally more aimed at the £9 mark

Locations: Everywhere

How to get the job: This is a very common job to find online if you drive, non-driving jobs are a lot harder to find.

Online: Applying online is a good bet with care work, it is found everywhere

Agencies: Sign up with an Agency, with a google search for Agency + “Place” + care, you’re sorted.

The Boring stuff you need to Know to start travel life in Scotland

There is more to travelling Scotland than finding the perfect location and a job to survive, you need also need to know the day to day running of life in Scotland. So I’ll talk you through a couple of basic things so you don’t look weird or spend too much of your hard earn money doing stuff the hard way.

Telephones

If you are coming from outside the UK and you plan on staying a while then scrap your foreign sim card and get a new one for your unlocked phone. If your phone isn’t unlocked there is places that can do it for you if you trust them? or get a new phone. Buying a new phone (not under any contract) should be unlocked to use for all networks.

The list of providers below are my personal choice, I would personally get a sim only package which can be 12-month contracts or getting a sim card and buying credit in a supermarket.

• EE
• 02
• Tesco
• Three
• Vodafone

Drinking

I learnt quickly that Scottish people can drink (Not all, but a lot of people). But there are a couple of things you should know about Scotland drinking before you decide to get drunk there.

Buckfast AKA Bucky is ever mentioned just leave, this is a toxic wine kind of drink, very easy to get drunk on.

Dragon Soup isn’t food its an alcohol mixed with an energy drink, which some use for predrinks (drinks before going out for drinks)

You can’t buy Alcohol between 10 pm-10 am so stock up.

As a rule, don’t try and outdrink a Scot, they don’t brag about how much they drink. They prove it. Be safe and drink responsibly

Banks

The choice of banks is a lot easier to choose from with the fact it’s the time of internet banking. But saying this, if you want a job you need to have a bank account. There are many online banks, Wise, Monzo and Revolut which may cover all your needs but if your looking for a local bank here are a few that I would pick;

• Bank of Scotland
• Natwest
• Royal Bank of Scotland
• Lloyds Banking Group
• Barclays
• HSBC

A thing to learn quickly is where the free to withdraw money machines are. If you are using a bank above it “should” be free to withdraw money from an ATM, but not all ATM’s. You can normally find free ones inside and outside any banks and outside supermarkets and petrol stations. You don’t have to find your bank account ATM for it to be free.
The paid machines you normally find in little shops, they will state it too.
Some shops do cashback too. (where they add the money you want to take out on your bill and give you cash)

A basic rundown of shops

Supermarkets– have a massive range of items, they really try and cover all your daily needs. The basic ones have Just food, but most have clothes, home supplies, sim cards, gift cards, household items, car items, pet food. They have a lot of stuff. These Supermarkets will have the same in nearly every shop, well apart from Aldi & Lidi with their middle of store will sell the most random stuff you can think of and they change every week.

This is my personal thoughts on the shops;

• Tesco- is the most reliable to have what you are looking for
• Asda- Good for vegan and Vegetarians
• Adli – Cheap
• Lidi – Cheap
• Sainsburys – May have a Argos inside (which does a lot of household and toys)
• Morisons – The cafe and bakery is good.

Other shops- These are other shops I think it’s important to mention as you might be looking for something.

• BBQ – Hardware shop
• Poundland- snacks and cheap stufff
• Primark- Cheap clothes
• B&M / Home Bargins – Cheap dried food and home stuff

Driving and roads

I will give a very basic rundown on cars and roads as the Gov.uk website covers it in detail.

All cars need to be taxed, MOT and insurance to drive. You will also need a driving licence. Make sure your driving license is ok to be used on UK roads before driving.

In the Uk we drive on the Left, roundabouts can be common and the speed limits are in Miles per hour.

Some of the roads in Scotland can be small and narrow especially up north so be careful

National insurance and taxes

Like before I won’t go into many details about taxes as they can be found on the Gov.uk website.

But a basic rundown of taxes is Income tax comes out of your wages, so does National Insurance but make sure you apply for your national insurance number online as you get into the country.

There are other taxes like ones on items you buy in shops but that is included in the price you don’t go to the counter then find out the tax like in America and Canada

Public Transport and other transport

I’m going to say this first public transport can be very expensive in parts of Scotland, but it’s worth looking at all modes of transports before booking and lookup many routes.

IE Edinburgh to London can be as much as £80 but getting a coach from Edinburgh to Manchester then Manchester to London via coach can be as little as £20.

To save money have a look around at railcards (discounted cards for age groups and families), flying can be cheaper than you think especially if you planning on travelling around Europe.

My basic rundown to save money on public transport

• Buses for city or town travel
• Trains for close towns
• Coaches for across country
• Airplanes for leaving the country.

Inspiration to see more of scotland

You are now ready to see what Scotland has to offer but you still don’t know where you want to travel and see when you are there? Well, don’t worry I have that covered too.

I have spent 6 months in Scotland travelling at the time of writing this (will be much longer than 6 months when I leave) I have already seen some amazing hidden gems of Scotland. You can see this in my article Some Must-See Hidden Gems Of Scotland but if your looking for more than just the best cafes and walks and want to see some of the best towns and cities that ive seen then check out this playlist

Hope you found this article helpful, Have fun Exploring Scotland, I’ll see you Sooooon!